Hacking CycloDS iEvolution or Acekard 2i?

[RoMee]

is the build quality any better?

Yes I think it is, I got mine when it first came out and it's still working wonderfully.

The acekard has one of the worst build quality of any cart, most acekard needs the paper trick or your DS won't detect it
but the newest version of the acekard seems to be better.
I haven't had issues with it yet, but it's still new so time will tell if it'll need the paper trick

I'm not saying the Acekard is a bad flash cart, I often recommend it to noobs and people on a budget who just wants to play DS games, but is it better than the DSTWO?
Answer is no.

 

[exangel]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all the replies. I think everyone made a valid points for both flashcarts. I ended up choosing the Acekard because I am not planning on buying a dsi or 3ds until we get a price cut on the former or the 2nd gen is released on the latter.

In the meantime, I just wanted to enjoy nds and gba games and wanted the best experience - I did hear the emulation did have some issues I didn't want to deal with. Additionally, the review of the dstwo on GBA temp didn't compel me towards the cart.

And yes, I figured that if I do buy a DSi or a 3DS in the future, the cost of a new flashcart is relatively cheap to the cost of the console so that's not a big issue for me either.

Thanks again for everyone's feedback. This is a great community!

My 2 cents:

I collect flashcarts, and I was actually one of the people that bought iPlayer (before SC DS2 was released) just so I could play GBA emulated on my DSi XL. When I later got a DS2, it was also because of its ability to be updated in DSi systems even if the DSi system firmware update was already installed. I have had a couple Acekards this whole time, and I truly prefer to play GBA games on my DS Lite with 3-in-1, simply because it isn't emulated and performance is as if it were from retail carts (and the added bonus that the cart does not stick out of the DS Lite case like retail carts do).
I did set up my DS2 once to have all the emulator plugins and added several solid collections for the different platforms I like, but it is no exaggeration to say that it was an ordeal to have everything set up so that I could use all of the features on the DS2 compared to the Acekard 2i with a 3-in-1. Though Acekard does not offer near as much fluff, I ultimately decided that the DS2 is my backup cart and not the AK2i's.

Spoiler

I did follow guides, I did get the DS2 working, but if anyone disagrees that it's an ordeal to set up a DS2 with all the bells and whistles compared to setting up an AK2i & a 3-in-1, they are just flat out lying. For many, the time investment is worth it, I loved my DS2 most specifically for homebrew when I had it setup with iMenu. But I can't find if iMenu is still available because spinal code's site is down and he had asked that it not be mirrored.
The RTS and other realtime features are definitely nice, and if I was preparing for a very long trip I really might like to utilize the in-game text viewer for formatted FAQ/Walkthroughs.
But my whole point is that for ~90% of my handheld gameplay I prefer AK2i and I think it's simply rude to call anyone foolish for preferring AK2i to the DS2, futureproof or not.

 

[Decooter]

Im not sure what everyone is talking about, in terms of setting the DS2 up being a hassle?

The beginners guide on these very forums has all the links you'd ever need.

I downloaded 1 rar file I found from the beginners guide, which came with an updated skin/theme/layout thing plus a bunch of commonly used plugins (GBA, GBC, SNES emulators, and iplayer). I dragged and dropped everything from the rar into my SD card and put it in my SCDS2 and was good to go. It was literally as easy as installing the lastest AKAIO version. There was almost no messing around at all. The rar was even nice enough to include the best version of the emulator (v1.21) as well as the gamecompatibility.txt or whatever it was called to make the games run smoothly.

It was the easiest thing in the world.


TC, since you aren't planning on moving to the 3DS or DSi any time soon, I think you made the right choice though. AC2i are definitely great flashcards, and the 3-in-1 works better than SCDS2 emulation, and AKAIO is very integrated with it, so it's easy to use.

I think it's not really debatable that the DSTWO is the better flashcard when you consider everything it has vs Acekard 2i, normally. However with your intended use, your choice is just as good.

 

[exangel]

The beginners guide on these very forums has all the links you'd ever need.

I downloaded 1 rar file I found from the beginners guide, which came with an updated skin/theme/layout thing plus a bunch of commonly used plugins (GBA, GBC, SNES emulators, and iplayer). I dragged and dropped everything from the rar into my SD card and put it in my SCDS2 and was good to go. It was literally as easy as installing the lastest AKAIO version. There was almost no messing around at all. The rar was even nice enough to include the best version of the emulator (v1.21) as well as the gamecompatibility.txt or whatever it was called to make the games run smoothly.

It was the easiest thing in the world.

Please link the guide you describe, as the one in the GBATemp Supercard Forum's DSTwo Beginner's Guide sticky doesn't have "everything all in one RAR"..

 

[Decooter]

The beginners guide on these very forums has all the links you'd ever need.

I downloaded 1 rar file I found from the beginners guide, which came with an updated skin/theme/layout thing plus a bunch of commonly used plugins (GBA, GBC, SNES emulators, and iplayer). I dragged and dropped everything from the rar into my SD card and put it in my SCDS2 and was good to go. It was literally as easy as installing the lastest AKAIO version. There was almost no messing around at all. The rar was even nice enough to include the best version of the emulator (v1.21) as well as the gamecompatibility.txt or whatever it was called to make the games run smoothly.

It was the easiest thing in the world.

Please link the guide you describe, as the one in the GBATemp Supercard Forum's DSTwo Beginner's Guide sticky doesn't have "everything all in one RAR"..

My apologies, it wasn't from the beginners guide, that only has EOS link. But It has a section that talks about different themes and links to another thread for 'imenu' which had this link in it: http://filetrip.net/g35131378-iMenu-set-up...-beta-v3-1.html

So I guess you need 3 links for DSTWO: The EOS link (its the OS supercard uses, like AKAIO for Acekard), imenu (a really nice theme/layout) and the link I posted above, which then puts everything basic you need on imenu for you.

Still, downloading and extracting 3 simple links is HARDLY a hassle.

 

[exangel]

My apologies....
Still, downloading and extracting 3 simple links is HARDLY a hassle.

Thank you for the link. This seems to be much less an ordeal than it used to be.
However, [DSTwo] will still not replace the retail-like gameplay experience of GBA via 3-in-1 for me. I'd rather play GBA on my little DSLite screen than emulate on my XL. Your mileage may vary; what some people are picky about, others don't bat an eye at.

 

[Decooter]

My apologies....
Still, downloading and extracting 3 simple links is HARDLY a hassle.

Thank you for the link. This seems to be much less an ordeal than it used to be.
However, [DSTwo] will still not replace the retail-like gameplay experience of GBA via 3-in-1 for me. I'd rather play GBA on my little DSLite screen than emulate on my XL. Your mileage may vary; what some people are picky about, others don't bat an eye at.

I agree with this, exact translation is better than good emulation.

 

[RoMee]

My apologies....
Still, downloading and extracting 3 simple links is HARDLY a hassle.

Thank you for the link. This seems to be much less an ordeal than it used to be.
However, [DSTwo] will still not replace the retail-like gameplay experience of GBA via 3-in-1 for me. I'd rather play GBA on my little DSLite screen than emulate on my XL. Your mileage may vary; what some people are picky about, others don't bat an eye at.

You are assuming everyone is like you and only use DS lite

There's plenty of people who only have a DSi, and there's also plenty of people who only have 3DS
For these people the only way to play GBA is with a a DSTWO

and there is always something that is better, the 3in1 is better than the DSTWO GBA but why stop there when an actual GBA game cartridge is better than the 3in1.

The DSTWO's GBA is not perfect, it never claimed to be perfect, so if you go into it thinking it is, than you're just a damn fool.
all these extra features is just "extras". The dstwo's main features are it's perfect games compatibility and super fast updates..
Last I check the Acekard doesn't even work on nintendo's new firmware.

 

[exangel]

My apologies....
Still, downloading and extracting 3 simple links is HARDLY a hassle.

Thank you for the link. This seems to be much less an ordeal than it used to be.
However, [DSTwo] will still not replace the retail-like gameplay experience of GBA via 3-in-1 for me. I'd rather play GBA on my little DSLite screen than emulate on my XL. Your mileage may vary; what some people are picky about, others don't bat an eye at.

You are assuming everyone is like you and only use DS lite

There's plenty of people who only have a DSi, and there's also plenty of people who only have 3DS
For these people the only way to play GBA is with a a DSTWO

and there is always something that is better, the 3in1 is better than the DSTWO GBA but why stop there when an actual GBA game cartridge is better than the 3in1.

I'm not speaking for others, I am speaking only for myself. Don't turn this into an argument that it isn't.
And the OP don't have a DSi or XL anyhow.


edit: response to YOUR edit: emphasis on the "Don't turn this into an argument that it isn't." I'm not a DSTwo hater or an AK2i superfan, I only said what I preferred for myself even though I own both.
I'm not going to like something less or more because of your statements and I only gave my input because I'm entitled to a different opinion and I meant it to be helpful to the OP in case his preference on what his money was useful for is more like mine than everyone else.

 

[lionking]

Just out of curiosity, how is the SNES emulation on the DSTWO?

 

[anaxs]

i'de go with the ak2i hands down. I got it very close to when it released and it hasn't let me down until this very day, and plus, AKAIO is an awesome firmare. Frequent updates should make all games work on it, and it's great for anything.

 

[Hyro-Sama]

GET A DSTWO. It is the greatest flashcart known to man.

 

[Decooter]

Just out of curiosity, how is the SNES emulation on the DSTWO?

Eh, it's decent. Most games work decently (Super Metroid, Mario World, etc), assuming you're using CATSFC or whatever it's called (the heavily updated emulator) but some games hardly work at all, especially the special cartridge games (like Super Mario RPG)

It's still nice to have though.

Like I said before, DSTWO is definitely the better card, there's really no way to argue against that unless you never plan on using anything other than DSphat/DSL and don't care about SNES games. But, I've owned both Acekard 2i + 3-in-1 AND DSTWO and there are definite pros and cons to each one. In your case (planning on sticking with the DSL for the foreseeable future) the Acekard choice was a very good choice.

Just because someone's probably curious about the pros and cons list (Just related to the GBA part of each solution):

Acekard 2i + 3-in-1:

PROS:
Perfect Translation and compatibility (it's as if you were playing a retail GBA game.)
Uses less battery (after you flash a rom to NOR memory, you can turn off your DS, and start it again, select play GBA game, and you're in GBA mode which uses a lot less battery)
Can take the 3-in-1 out of your NDS and put it in to a GBA and still play the game you loaded, provided you flashed the rom to NOR memory


CONS:
Not compatible with any NDS model after DSL
No cheats unless you use an actual cheat device in a GBA (action replay GBA, Gameshark, etc) I may be incorrect about this, but I'm fairly sure this statement is true.
No save states, have to use the save function in the game, just like retail games.


Supercard DSTWO

PROS:
Compatible with every type of NDS and 3DS, on every firmware version
Cheats can be loaded in the emulator, and turned on and off without restarting the game.
Save states are available, and saving in game works as well\

CONS:
Emulation instead of perfect translation, which causes a few games to run slower, and sound to sometimes be less than perfect. It's emulation, not gonna be perfect.
Uses more battery due to the extra processor used to emulate.

This is of course only considering the pros and cons of the GBA part of each solution, not everything each flash card has to offer.