I've read up all the tutorials here, and I think I've learned more from all you helpful folks than I have anywhere else. I see that M3 has received a lot of praise and even online they look good. Mind you, I still have a few questions... I'm looking to play both GBA and NDS using MicroSD on my DS Lite (as well as emulate NES, SNES and Genesis if possible). So, my understanding is that I'll be needing a boot chip (Passcard3 or M3 DS Simply) for my DS slot, and a storage cart for my GBA slot: hands down, no matter what combination, this seems to be an M3 Lite Perfect. The tutorial by XBusterZ mentions a setup where I can get the M3 DS Simply AND the M3 Lite Perfect. Isn't this a bit of a waste, given that both will have MicroSD and the Passcard3 + M3 Lite Perfect can both boot DS games? Why would I want to use an M3 DS Simply and an M3 Lite Perfect? Which combination has the best UI? Passcard3 + M3 Lite Perfect or M3 DS Simply + M3 Lite Perfect? What about other DS boot cards, will they work with the M3 Lite Perfect? I'm a little hazy on the interaction between the DS & GBA components involved still. One of the things the tutorials here mentioned is that you have to patch NDS ROMs before you upload them to your micro SD? Is this still required in current versions, or have things with M3 progressed to the point where my NDS ROMs will work no matter what state they're in? This is probably the biggest thing holding me back right now as I'm certain if I get a M3 Lite Perfect and a Passcard3, I'll be off to the races. Despite that, I still want to get the best looking and most simple to use combination possible.
i think they are. ... nes works fine, snes is buggy, don't know about genesis... yes correct. well... -double storage, 1 microsd in each slot (believe me, it IS ~quite~ convenient to have) ->although... being a minimalist myself at times, it does feel rather frivolous... but still nice. they are dedicated to their jobs. -ds browser is available, that's worth the extra moolah$ -passcard3 costs about 20$, the m3 ds simply can usually be found for 45$, for 25$ more than the passcard3, you get wifi internet and an extra slot to possibly double games/media. or so thats my understanding/method... ->you also have the option of getting the r4 which would usually be 5$ less than the simply for the same abilities. the simply, less buttons. straight-forward. the lite has extra stuff you probably won't use. yes they will work with m3lp. the passme's just say "let this guy(mlp in this case) through to the ds components(touch screen, two screens, x, y); i don't care that he's from GBA!!! do it!!!". for m3lp [and all other slot-2], yes. it's nothing really. you can try it right now if you want. get a rom, and then download the game manager from m3. read the tut and patch, you'll see [in doing so] that it is pretty straight-forward. the only annoyance is some compatibility issues (tick an option here and there =P, easy). what races? yeah, they are smexy.
Cost isn't so much a concern for me, I just want to get the nicest looking, most full featured and convenient setup. So, if I get the M3DSS and the M3LP, the functionality breakdown goes something like this: o M3DSS Alone - Play DS o M3LP Alone - Play GBA o M3DSS + M3LP - Boot M3DSS & play DS or GBA from M3LP What do you mean by "I get the DS browser" and "wifi internet". Are DS games booted from storage on slot2 unable to access certain DS hardware? I'm stuck getting the M3LP because I want to play GBA. It's too bad there isn't a slot2 cart that acts as a dummy/buffer/redirect and allows a slot1 cart to pass GBA games through to it. It would cost a fair bit less that way and you'd be able to unify the UI on the slot1 cart instead of having the two separate carts UIs. Either way, the "deluxe" setup sounds like it will work better for me as I own two DSses (one for myself and one for the miss). If I do this, I can separate the two and play DS only + GBA only.
what is meant by the ds browser/wifi is that first you need a slot-1 based card (ie DS simply) but in order for it to load the ds browser, it needs a memory expansion which would be the slot-2 card. Im not good at explaining this, but thats the general idea, the ds browser requires more RAM, which is provided by the slot-2 device.
I think that helps me out a fair bit though. It just needs some extra memory for *whatever*. So, the question now is: how to get the best deal on these two. Good enough so I can afford two MicroSDs to use in 'em
Oh yes! Save game support. How does that work? For both GBA and DS... I hear it can be a bit flakey at times. Is there anyone who can further help me on that? I'd like to be able to save games of any type that I play. So whether I'm using an NDS-NES/SNES emulator, or playing GBA/DS games natively... What are the limitations?
ds browser: ok, with a slot-1 device you boot the browser rom which has been patched, in conjunction with a slot-2 device capable of gba(as in, it has 32MB of ram). the patch pretty much says that the slot-2's ram has he same signature as the official ram expansion pack. something to load gba off of slot-1(also acts as official ram expansion pack and rumble?)? what do you mean by best deal? all i know is that a m3lp should burn you by something like 75$ and m3dss should be 'round 45$. newegg sells nice 1GB a-data microsd for... well, i got mine for ~11$+s&h. prces may be lower/higher now. saves [ds/gba] work excellently. no problems yet. (saves on simply take 512KB; m3lp ds: 257KB, m3lp gba: 1024KB or 129KB using save converter thing) only limit is space nes/snes iono... i play megaman, they just have passwords ^_^;
