DS Card Reader Help

Tim20 · Post by **Tim20** » Wed Jan 11, 2012 4:14 pm

Hello everyone

I bought my very first DS console today (DS Lite) from eBay as there are loads of great games on it that I'm itching to play.

I also want to get ScummVM working on it (like I've done with my PSP), but I'm confused about this 'unofficial card reader' I need.

Where's the best place to get it? How much are they usually? And what do I need to be careful of?

Thanks

Tim20 · Post by **Tim20** » Thu Jan 12, 2012 1:46 pm

No one...?

md5 · Post by **md5** » Thu Jan 12, 2012 3:13 pm

There are plenty of places where you can find the information you need:

- The ScummVM DS page in our wiki
- The ScummVM DS page for the port
- The DLDI wiki

Note that the DS has restrictions on hardware compared to a PSP, so a lot of games won't work because of memory or screen resolution requirements.

Also, ScummVM should work out of the box in modern card readers without a DLDI driver patch.

Tim20 · Post by **Tim20** » Thu Jan 12, 2012 6:50 pm

Thanks for the response.

I should have said before that I have already read the ScummVM DS page... Your other links don't help me, I'm afraid.

From what I understand - according to the ScummVM DS page - the R4DS and the M3DS Real seem to be the best card readers for the job; the rest require a bit more work. So it's one of those two I'm interested in...

So where is the best place to get one of those card readers? Their websites don't seem to offer them from what I can see, apparently some of them knocking around on the net are fakes, and amazon and eBay don't seem to have any...

EDIT: Would this do the trick perhaps: http://www.r4icard-ds.co.uk/m3-real-ds- ... 7e010b809c

Buleste · Post by **Buleste** » Mon Jan 16, 2012 7:52 pm

Amazon and ebay don't have any flashcarts on as they are illegal in many countries (U.K. included)as they allow you to play pirated copies of DS games.

The information on the ScummVMDS page is outdated as most new carts DLDI auto-patching so there is no need to mess with that.

Personally from that website I would recommend this cart over the M3 http://www.r4icard-ds.co.uk/r4i-gold-3ds-c-915_906.html but make sure that you get a R4i Gold cart that has www.rids.cn on the front. However you need to remember that that site is based in Hong Kong and will take between two weeks to a month for your cart to get to you if you are based in the U.K. (which I assume you are as you are looking at buying from a .co.uk site).

If you want the same cart quicker but for a little more money go to the following website as they are based in the Channel Islands where it is still legal to sell flashcarts http://www.xpertron.co.uk/advanced_sear ... r4i%20gold

Tim20 · Post by **Tim20** » Tue Jan 17, 2012 12:13 pm

Thanks for the reply (and the links).

I had no idea that R4icard-ds.co.uk were based in Hong Kong... Thanks for letting me know!

So what exactly is the difference between the R4i Gold and the M3? Is it just that DLDI thingy already installed on the R4i card?

Thanks again!

Buleste · Post by **Buleste** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 9:50 am

I don't have any experience with an M3 but it is an old style cart and it's kernel isn't as up to date as Wood is on the www.r4ids.cn cart which means that if you want to play DS ROMs you may have difficulty getting the newer ones to run.

From what I've read the M3 is also Auto DLDI patching so both carts are the same on that point.

I find that the Wood kernel used by the r4i Gold www.r4ids.cn cart is very flexible and easy to understand.

There are many other flashcarts out there but for a beginner such as yourself I would say the best low price cart you can get is the R4i Gold www.r4ids.cn cart (as I've said before if you do buy an R4i Gold cart make sure that it is manufactured by www.r4ids.cn as there are many companies who make carts called R4i Gold and a lot of them are very poorly supported).

Tim20 · Post by **Tim20** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 2:17 pm

Okay, thanks!

Do you reckon the ones you linked to before - specifically http://www.xpertron.co.uk/_p651.html - are official ones? I mean, it has the web address on...

Buleste · Post by **Buleste** » Sat Jan 21, 2012 10:05 am

Those that we have both linked to are the best R4i Gold carts to buy (made by www.r4ids.cn) as they have the best kernel and support out of all of the different R4i Gold carts on the market.

http://www.xpertron.co.uk/_p651.html

If you are going to play ScummVM I would recommend you get a 8GB Class 4 MicroSDHC card. I personally would get one from a different site as most of the time the MicroSDHC cards that are in the bundles on flashcart sites are cheap, nasty and slow. You can sometimes get a good deal on Amazon.

Tim20 · Post by **Tim20** » Sat Jan 21, 2012 11:18 am

Okay. And one last question (hopefully): would these 8GB Class 4 MicroSDHC cards be okay?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?LH_BIN ... p=15&_sc=1

Buleste · Post by **Buleste** » Tue Jan 24, 2012 12:09 pm

I would say do not bother with any of the unbranded ones. Get either a Sandisk or Transcend and if you can find one made in Japan then that's even better (where SDHC cards are made does seem to affect performance.

Tim20 · Post by **Tim20** » Tue Jan 24, 2012 12:33 pm

Okay. Thanks!