I *may* be considering to buy a (new, not used) DS Lite soon. I just have a few questions. 1. I am aware that I need to buy an R4/M3 card. Do these have built-in menus to let you choose between games if you have more than one on the card? 2. Are there incompatibility issues with running homebrew/DS pirated games on new DS's? ie. Firmware security patches to prevent homebrew/piracy? 3. How good is the homebrew/emulation scene for the DS? I am a PSP hacking vet, so I know my way around. Thanks. EDIT: Oops, just read Mr_hanky's guide, and discovered that M3 cards do have multiple game support and a menu. EDIT 2: Am I to understand that M3 cards are basically adapters for micro-SD cards, which can house a GUI and NDS roms?
yes, they are micro SD adapters that house a GUI and NDS roms. As far as I know, no updates have been made to the DS to prevent M3/R4 from running (or at least no successful updates). But both R4 and M3 can run multimedia, and homebrew. However M3 DS Real seems to have two advantages. One is the support for Micro SDHC cards (this means that it can go above 4gb cards) and the other is Sakura (a new amazing firmware for Japan M3 DS Real users which has been hacked into english for US/UK/EU users). Personally I think that M3 DS Real (not Simply or Lite) is the one to get, as long as you are willing to shell out the extra couple bucks that wouldn't have to be paid with R4 (only a four or five USD difference).
Exactly. It works just like a normal NDS cartridge meaning that the NDS does not realize that it can run 3rd-party homebrew and commercial roms.
Are there any game slowdowns for any reason? I'm waiting until after E3 to get one, though, for obvious reasons, so I guess that will give me more time to research it on my own.
As far as I'm aware if you get the m3 ds real, you won't have to worry about any slowdown issues or anything like that. I've gone from an m3 lite perfect/m3 ds simply combo (for gba game support as well as ds) to an m3 ds real with gba expansion. Sakura firmware is well worth the extra space on the card, and I've never had any problems with any roms slowing.
Okay, thank you very much. One last set of questions: Does the M3 DS Real come preloaded PassMe software? Does the PassMe work on the latest revision of DS Lite? Thanks again.
Hi leadbaron welcome to the ds hacking scene =D I would Get this m3 real r4 is no good -_- also m3 real supports sdhc i use a 4gb and i have over 50games on it and still have tons of room on it http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.14165 its 44$ and it comes with the gba expansion pack and rumble pack and 2 translucent replacement shels for the gba/ram expansion once you get the card its plug an play basically yes it has passme preinstalled so all you do is drag and drop NDS games into a folder names NDS on you memory stick and gba games into a folder named GBA homebrew you can put where ever i keep it on the root of my memory stick it helps the autopatch work better on the m3 real **note some homebrew requires manual patching to work on with your card i dont use alot of emus on my nds i use my psp for that =p but they have gba snes nes i dont remember the others it has ive been to busy with my psp the m3 real has its own gui i see you have read my hankys guide its great the only problem i have with my m3 real is sometimes the pins dont line up completely in the ds wich cause freezing and the card not being read this is common with all cards to fix i just used some tape and out it on the picture side of the m3 real to get it to go closer to the pins and hold better thats basically all you need to know have fun =D *note if you trim ds roms you lose the download play ability so i dont recommend it if you need a place to dl nds roms goole dash roms its great it has everything and they stay current with new nds releases
Thank you, i really didn't need such a long post, I researched almost all of what you told me. But thanks for confirming it! And thanks for explaining it comes preloaded with PassMe, I was curious about that and couldn't find it. I guess its off to Zellers this week.
