#151873 - Echoer - Thu Mar 06, 2008 7:06 am
(This is kinda a writing experiment thing for me. Practicing my writing and improving it is something I've been meaning to do for awhile. So, criticism is welcome and encouraged.)
Unlike most people, I didn't buy M3 Real online. I maneged to find a store that operated in my city, so I was able to bus it downtown and buy it with cash. He didn't have his own store, not outside the Internet anyway. He ran his business in a furniture shop. I payed cash and headed on a bus back home. Eager to try it out, I took out my DS and opened the box. Inside was:
- A T-Flash microSD card reader.
- A rumble pack for the DS Lite. To small to fit a Phat.
- A small plastic case with room for a microSD and a DS game.
- Inside that plastic case was the M3 Real.
It didn't, however, come with the system files that I was expecting. Not a big deal really, but that kind of thing should be standard. It should also be noted that I got the cheap bundle, and you can buy ones that come with a RAM pack, a rumble pack, and, apparently, a CD. Unpacking video of the RAM + rumble pack here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXB-hutIsoE
When I got home, I downloaded the system files and put them on my microSD, and put the microSD into the M3 when my heart sank: It was spring loaded. I had already herd the the stories and anyone who has a first-gen R4 knows what that means: one day, be it tomorrow or in 6 months, that thing is gonna stop catching the SD card, and you will be left with two options: tape it up, or open up the card and preform some surgery. Mine lasted a measly week and a half before the spring failed, and it was Youtube to the rescue again for some info on how to open it up and get rid of that spring. That is the first reason why I would not recommend the M3 Real to people: opening things up and messing with the hardware is something that I think most people what to avoid. And, from what I've herd, its bound to happen to you eventually.
My second complaint is with the menu. It isn't terrible, but could have been so much better. It has seven icons: NDS, GBA, MyCard, Boot, Media, PDA, and Setting. I'll explain these one by one.
NDS: Puts you at /nds on your card, so you can run "back-ups".
GBA: Puts you at /gba on your card, so you can run "back-ups" assuming you have the GBA adaptor pack thing that comes with one of the bundles, I believe. I don't have that, so I couldn't test it.
MyCard: A file browser, to launch homebrew.
Boot: Allows you boot off of a slot-2 device.
Media: A custom MoonShell. Plays music and movies.
PDA: A pretty mediocre PDA application. You get nine options, some kinda good, others pretty bad:
-NDS Game: returns you to the main menu.
-Setting: Enter your address, the time, the date, your user name, a timeout to turn off the screens and a timeout to turn off the DS itself.
-Password: Lets you set a password. I spent a few unsuccessful minutes trying to get it to prompt me for the one I set, so this PDA app probably isn't the safest place for your sooper sekrit plans.
-Time: The current time, timer, calender, a coutdown thing, and a World Clock.
-Phone: Address book. Could be useful.
-Note: A drawing pad. The worst of all of them due to poor touch recognition.
-Units: Unit converter, pretty good one to. Converts all types of Length, Area, "Cubage", Weight and Temperature.
-Calculator: Basic calculator. Does division, multiplication, addition, and subtraction.
-Memo: Type stuff and save it with this.
Setting: A kind of broken setting screen with the following options:
-BootIcon: You can only select no. Useless.
-Skin : Change the skin, or theme.
-ShortCut: if MainMenu is selected, will put you in the main menu at bootup. If NDSGame is chosen, it will skip the main menu and act as if you chose the NDS option from the main menu.
-System: The language.
And now it's time to get into what I think matters most to people around here: Homebrew. The M3 supports on-the-fly DLDI patching, so patching files on your computer is not necessary. All the homebrew I've tested worked without problem, so there isn't much else to say here. As far as I can tell, homebrew support is what people have come to expect: 100%.
Before wrapping this up, I have one more complaint, and that is a lack of documentation. In the /SYSTEM folder, there is a file called boot.ini. It contains two lines:
[BootType - G6DS/PASSCARD/GBA]=g6ds
[DirectRun]=
Putting the path to a .nds file in DirectRun will launch that file and skip the menu. Naturally, I thought I would just point it to DSOrginze and my software woes would be over. Unfortunately, it treated it as a plain ol' rom and the usual "DLDI Compatible" screen never came up. Meaning it didn't load. I'm still working on solving this problem. The lack of any documentation describing in detail many of the features like the one above is disappointing.
Overall, you're better off spending a few extra bucks and getting a CycloDS Evolution, if not only to avoid that god damned spring loaded microSD slot.
Unlike most people, I didn't buy M3 Real online. I maneged to find a store that operated in my city, so I was able to bus it downtown and buy it with cash. He didn't have his own store, not outside the Internet anyway. He ran his business in a furniture shop. I payed cash and headed on a bus back home. Eager to try it out, I took out my DS and opened the box. Inside was:
- A T-Flash microSD card reader.
- A rumble pack for the DS Lite. To small to fit a Phat.
- A small plastic case with room for a microSD and a DS game.
- Inside that plastic case was the M3 Real.
It didn't, however, come with the system files that I was expecting. Not a big deal really, but that kind of thing should be standard. It should also be noted that I got the cheap bundle, and you can buy ones that come with a RAM pack, a rumble pack, and, apparently, a CD. Unpacking video of the RAM + rumble pack here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXB-hutIsoE
When I got home, I downloaded the system files and put them on my microSD, and put the microSD into the M3 when my heart sank: It was spring loaded. I had already herd the the stories and anyone who has a first-gen R4 knows what that means: one day, be it tomorrow or in 6 months, that thing is gonna stop catching the SD card, and you will be left with two options: tape it up, or open up the card and preform some surgery. Mine lasted a measly week and a half before the spring failed, and it was Youtube to the rescue again for some info on how to open it up and get rid of that spring. That is the first reason why I would not recommend the M3 Real to people: opening things up and messing with the hardware is something that I think most people what to avoid. And, from what I've herd, its bound to happen to you eventually.
My second complaint is with the menu. It isn't terrible, but could have been so much better. It has seven icons: NDS, GBA, MyCard, Boot, Media, PDA, and Setting. I'll explain these one by one.
NDS: Puts you at /nds on your card, so you can run "back-ups".
GBA: Puts you at /gba on your card, so you can run "back-ups" assuming you have the GBA adaptor pack thing that comes with one of the bundles, I believe. I don't have that, so I couldn't test it.
MyCard: A file browser, to launch homebrew.
Boot: Allows you boot off of a slot-2 device.
Media: A custom MoonShell. Plays music and movies.
PDA: A pretty mediocre PDA application. You get nine options, some kinda good, others pretty bad:
-NDS Game: returns you to the main menu.
-Setting: Enter your address, the time, the date, your user name, a timeout to turn off the screens and a timeout to turn off the DS itself.
-Password: Lets you set a password. I spent a few unsuccessful minutes trying to get it to prompt me for the one I set, so this PDA app probably isn't the safest place for your sooper sekrit plans.
-Time: The current time, timer, calender, a coutdown thing, and a World Clock.
-Phone: Address book. Could be useful.
-Note: A drawing pad. The worst of all of them due to poor touch recognition.
-Units: Unit converter, pretty good one to. Converts all types of Length, Area, "Cubage", Weight and Temperature.
-Calculator: Basic calculator. Does division, multiplication, addition, and subtraction.
-Memo: Type stuff and save it with this.
Setting: A kind of broken setting screen with the following options:
-BootIcon: You can only select no. Useless.
-Skin : Change the skin, or theme.
-ShortCut: if MainMenu is selected, will put you in the main menu at bootup. If NDSGame is chosen, it will skip the main menu and act as if you chose the NDS option from the main menu.
-System: The language.
And now it's time to get into what I think matters most to people around here: Homebrew. The M3 supports on-the-fly DLDI patching, so patching files on your computer is not necessary. All the homebrew I've tested worked without problem, so there isn't much else to say here. As far as I can tell, homebrew support is what people have come to expect: 100%.
Before wrapping this up, I have one more complaint, and that is a lack of documentation. In the /SYSTEM folder, there is a file called boot.ini. It contains two lines:
[BootType - G6DS/PASSCARD/GBA]=g6ds
[DirectRun]=
Putting the path to a .nds file in DirectRun will launch that file and skip the menu. Naturally, I thought I would just point it to DSOrginze and my software woes would be over. Unfortunately, it treated it as a plain ol' rom and the usual "DLDI Compatible" screen never came up. Meaning it didn't load. I'm still working on solving this problem. The lack of any documentation describing in detail many of the features like the one above is disappointing.
Overall, you're better off spending a few extra bucks and getting a CycloDS Evolution, if not only to avoid that god damned spring loaded microSD slot.