#114694 - AuraofMana - Wed Jan 10, 2007 5:26 am
Hi! I am new to the forum and just recently bought a NDS Lite (well my cousin gave it to me for Winter Holidays, but that's not important XD )
Anyway, I am aware that being a new person in a forum posting a complete noob questions about how to play homebrew games (rom) is going to get frowned on, but I didn't just randomly charge in here and ask so I don't have to do any work on my own.
I visited several sites about hacking.. err modding the NDS and I didn't understand it 100%.
The basic idea I got out of it is that I need to purchase both a PassMe card (which fits into the NDS game slot) and a Flash cart that will fit into the GBA slot.
The PassMe would change the NDS boot sequence, telling it to boot the games from the GBA port instead. The Flash cart, on the other hand, is served as a memory card for roms basically.
The thing I don't really get is how to do this whole thing and is that all the required materials I need to purchase (and of course, where is the best place to purchase, what brand, cost, etc.).
And several articles mentioned the danger of destroying the NDS if something goes wrong with the process or a harmful rom (virus basically) is downloaded onto the NDS.
And if possible, I would like to invest money into purchasing a MP3 and Video Player for the NDS (depending on price obviously). And if someone has a trustworthy NDS rom site that has a decent amount of stuff, it would be great =P
So I would love it very much if someone can kindly explain this thing to me here in this thread (or on AIM, which will be a lot easier on my part, probably requiring more typing from you XD ). I hope I don't get flamed that much for this ><
#114700 - HyperHacker - Wed Jan 10, 2007 6:10 am
PassMe is out of date, nowadays you'd want to use a NoPass type device, which is an actual DS card just like Nintendo's that simply loads and runs programs from whatever device is in the GBA slot. Some of them have built-in flash memory or SD card slots, so no GBA slot device is necessary, but these have poor homebrew support.
The risk of malware is pretty low on Lite since they have a better firmware chip which protects all but the user-settings area from being erased, whereas the older original models protected only a small portion; it's enough for a recovery routine but unfortunately Nintendo didn't put one in, FlashMe has one though.
Moonshell is an awesome media player; it's free and open source and supports tons of music formats (MP3, OGG, MIDI, SPC, NSF, etc), movies, text and images, and can launch other homebrew apps. It's got a ton of features, pretty much the only thing it lacks is being able to multitask.
As for device, it depends mostly on what you want. The cheapest is still probably GBA Media Player and a NoPass device (they're all about the same), but this has its drawbacks; Compact Flash support only (though work is being done on SD support), big device sticking out of the slot, no compatibility with >256K GBA apps, and no onboard memory. More expensive devices like Supercard and M3 offer more features and smaller size. The 32MB onboard RAM is a nice feature as it provides GBA compatibility, and some homebrew uses it too, particularly emulators and DSLinux.
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I'm a PSP hacker now, but I still <3 DS.
#114839 - AuraofMana - Thu Jan 11, 2007 12:44 am
Aww I see, thanks for the info.
I asked a friend of my cousin who owns a DS and he told me that he found a good deal online. I was wondering if this is indeed a good deal (with the correct stuff) and whether the site is trustworthy or not on selling?
Here's the site:
[URL removed by MOD - Read the rules]
And... wait so I need a Flash drive (I will probably end up getting one that doesn't stick out) and a NoPass cart. Do I need to purchase any additional equipments to play Movies and MP3s?
From my reading of the reply, I assume MoonShell is an application/program that I can download into my PC then to my DS and just run to play videos and MP3s.
I found this thing that is a "M3 along with NoPass" for like 20 bucks, which is pretty cheap IMO.
[URL removed by MOD - Read the rules]
It sounds like a Flash Cart with NoPass in one... but then again I could be wrong =(
And last off, how much would all these combined cost?
Thanks in advance! ^^
#114845 - josath - Thu Jan 11, 2007 1:46 am
| AuraofMana wrote: |
I found this thing that is a "M3 along with NoPass" for like 20 bucks, which is pretty cheap IMO.
[URL removed by MOD - Read the rules]
It sounds like a Flash Cart with NoPass in one... but then again I could be wrong =(
And last off, how much would all these combined cost?
Thanks in advance! ^^ |
Looks like $45 to me, not $20. yes, it is nopass + media reader. It takes MicroSD cards (the tiny ones)
#114847 - AuraofMana - Thu Jan 11, 2007 1:59 am
I am too excited about playing free NDS games so I am kind of blind -.-
What is MicroSD cards?
I need to like stalk one of you on AIM and ask questions XD
#114851 - Lynx - Thu Jan 11, 2007 3:49 am
Or use google.. you'll be amazed with the information you can find there.
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NDS Homebrew Roms & Reviews
#114860 - geminiwave - Thu Jan 11, 2007 4:18 am
you know what memory cards are for cameras right?
MicroSD is just a REALLY REALLY tiny memory card. they max out at 2gb right now but just get a 1gb card. they're fairly affordable and honestly I hold QUITE a few games on mine no problem.
when I bought my set, the m3lite was quite expensive. the entire thing togeather was about $90 for everything one would need to use a flash card system.
If money isn't a big deal there are really easy all-in-one setups that look just like normal DS cards and have EVERYTHING inside of them. the drawback I believe is that they are not compatible with the GBA.
#114893 - MaHe - Thu Jan 11, 2007 10:41 am
| geminiwave wrote: |
| If money isn't a big deal there are really easy all-in-one setups that look just like normal DS cards and have EVERYTHING inside of them. the drawback I believe is that they are not compatible with the GBA. |
Actually, the cheapest solution at the moment is based on SLOT-1. R4DS costs only 40$ and is already supported by homebrew.
Of course, it doesn't have the flash memory built-in, but it's still fairly easy to use.
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[ Crimson and Black Nintendo DS Lite | CycloDS Evolution | EZ-Flash 3-in-1 | 1 GB Transcend microSD ]
#114997 - AuraofMana - Fri Jan 12, 2007 2:20 am
Interested in getting just a NoPass + M3 (and DL Moonshell like Haxor said). Searched around but Google gave me pages of informations on them instead of product selling. If anyone got a good bundle pack or just good deals feel free to post it here to let me know =)
As for the size, how many games would I be able to hold in 1G? I never really seen the size of NDS games as playing with the NDS emulator on the PC is quite.... distasteful without much functions of the touch screen.
I will probably end up with a 2G, but someone told me to get this bundle pack I posted earlier:
[URL removed by MOD - Read the rules]
telling me that a NoPass (it looks like a NDS Passcard, IDK if that is the same as a NoPass card, someone please confirm this for me =P) and M3 is indeed included along with the rest, and the M3 has 4Gb. For a reasonable prize of 98 dollars, it is worth it, but I want more than 1 opinion =P
And another person told me to do this... which I still don't get:
[URL removed by MOD - Read the rules]
as a passcard as explained by josath.
Then this thing:
[URL removed by MOD - Read the rules]
As a storage I assume.. which doesn't seem like it has a lot from the descriptions... And another factor of this combo is how do I get stuff from PC to DS?
Any help on this would be awesome XD
Thanks in advance ^^