Sorry if this is a dumb question, I just get so confused with all these different pieces of equipment needed to make ScummVM DS to work...
I happen to own a GBA Movie Player CF v2. No NDS yet, but I have been thinking of buying one second hand for playing Scumm games with. It seems like I in addition would need some pass-thingy to make things work. I found something called Passcard V3 (looks like this) at a Finnish webshop. I would prefer to be able to buy the stuff I need from Finland - not too confident with buying stuff from unknown places on the 'Net. I also want to avoid extra shipping costs. Have I understood correctly that I just have to buy one of those (and of course a NDS) to make ScummVM DS work? I tried downloading the latest version and patching it with that DLDI thingy, which seemed to work.
Thanks for your attention, and thanks in advance for your help
Yes, you will need the Passcard 3, unless you can find someone else with one who is willing to install Flashme on your DS. Once this is done you can run without the Passcard.
I have no idea where I could get Flashme from, so I guess I'll get a Passcard 3 if it's easy to make it work. I suppose I just have to plug it someplace in the DS and then plug in the Movie Player with the .nds file. I have never seen a NDS, but I also suppose that there are two slots in it - one where I put the Passcard and one where I put the Movie player. Maybe something like this? Correct me if I'm wrong. It would be great if it was this simple anyhow
What does one by the way normally have in the upper slot where the Passcard comes?
I have no idea where I could get Flashme from, so I guess I'll get a Passcard 3 if it's easy to make it work. I suppose I just have to plug it someplace in the DS and then plug in the Movie Player with the .nds file. I have never seen a NDS, but I also suppose that there are two slots in it - one where I put the Passcard and one where I put the Movie player. Maybe something like this? Correct me if I'm wrong. It would be great if it was this simple anyhow
What does one by the way normally have in the upper slot where the Passcard comes?
It's pretty simple, you only need a passme cart once, then you flash the DS, then you dont need it anymore. So do a search online, people are often willing to lend you their passme if you pay postage both ways. Others are willing to flash your DS for you, but this involves a lot of trust! Anyway once you have the DS flashed everything (incl running scummvm) is really pretty simple. nothing goes in slot 1 unless you have a slot 1 flashcart. i have a slot 2 supercard SD and it works almost perfectly for everything i have tried. good luck, stop thinking about it and buy a DS!!
The reason I haven't replied until now is that I already had ordered an NDS and a Passcard, and wanted to wait until I had got both and tried ScummVM DS out. Now I finally have them both
On to the bad news: It didn't work
You start the Passcard the same way you start a regular NDS game. However, when you have seen the welcome screen, both screens just go black. I googled a little and found others having the same problem. Seems like the Passcard V3 isn't compatible with the GBA Movie Player
Could you look at this page (only in Finnish, sorry, but I hope you recognize the products) and see if anything listed there could be the solution? The R4 Revolution or the M3 DS Simply maybe?
I'm sure there's some instructions included, or maybe there used to be and now they're missing.
As I recall, it goes like this:
- Put the ndsmp.gba file on your CF card using your PC
- Put the CF into your GBAMP, and the GBAMP in your DS.
- Boot your Movie Player in GBA mode, by clicking the bottom button on the DS firmware's menu.
- Select 'game' from the GBAMP's menu
- Select the ndsmp.gba file
- Follow the instructions to flash your firmware.
It takes only a few seconds to flash, but be careful not to turn off your DS until it's done, or you could fry the GBAMP.
After doing this, put one of the ScummVM .nds files on your CF, renamed to _BOOT_MP.nds. Insert your PassCard 3 and turn on. You should go straight into ScummVM.
Your flashing advice worked. However, this didn't help. Or so it seemed - I found the solution!
I formatted the CF with FAT instead of FAT32, and now ScummVM DS is up and running! I tried Monkey Island 2, and it works just perfectly
Thank you for helping me out, and now that it works and I have seen it IRL, I also want to thank you for developing Scumm VM DS. It surely is great, and most certainly worth the ~85 € I spent on the NDS + Passcard. If I ever get a PayPal account working I surely will donate to both you and the ScummVM project. There aren't words for how grateful I am, so I won't try to make up any. I'll just thank you one more time
Now when I looked at the readme and the website, I noticed that the thing about flashing GBAMP actually was mentioned under the topic "Instructions for specific card readers". Sorry I didn't see it before, but I guess I just didn't recognize the GBAMP word, and thus I just thought this topic had nothing to do with me and ignored it after reading through the page the first time. Apparently Murphy struck in once again. Thanks for your time anyhow
