DS2x86 0.5 Alpha for Supercard DSTwo

[Buleste]

Just to let those of you know who have the Supercard DSTwo for the DS, the latest version 0.5a of this DOS emulator has just been released and Frontier works!!!! Well almost. It plays the into animation and then crashes when you try to select where to start from but it is a major leap forward. If you want to find out more about this project then go to http://dsx86.patrickaalto.com/

[Harrison]

Interesting news. If they can get DOS emulation running then it will allow a huge number of games to run. Is there anyone working on a DOSBox port for the card? Or maybe if this emulation is successful then someone will.

I'm currently using a AceKart 2i at the moment with my DS, but it is tempting to get a Supercard DSTwo for the emulators. Are there any new carts in development? Or is this going to remain the best for some time to come?

[burns flipper]

It's the one with the CPU on the card, so I guess it will be the best one for quite a while.

[Harrison]

I'm just wondering if a DSTHREE is in development. I did see the other day a new firmware release was out for the DSTWO, so it's good to see it still being actively developed.

How easy is firmware updates on that card?

[Demon Cleaner]

I never updated mine so far. When I bought it (christmas), I put 15 games to it for my girlfriend, and she still plays the same ones, mainly 2-3 different ones. I only played Zoo Keeper so far on it for 30 minutes, that was the only thing. At least every game we tested worked fine. I think that emulators and updates are less important for me, because anyway I won't almost use it at all.

[Harrison]

I'm surprised you haven't tried any of the RPGs on the DS yet DC.

[Demon Cleaner]

I don't know, I really don't have the time. If I'm playing at home, I'm playing with my PS3 or 360, because I still have to play a lot of stuff, I'm trailing behind a lot. At work I play on my laptop, mainly PC games that I can't play on console. Perhaps I should try one day an RPG on the DS, but like I told you already once before, I also have many unplayed RPGs on the PSP, which I think are even more interesting than the ones on the DS.

[Buleste]

There is DSx86 which emulates 086 to 286 CPU's for the DS that plays a lot of games but now with the Cyclo iEvolution there is also DSx86 DSi which is basically the same but uses the DSi CPU and the extra memory so is slightly faster.

Updating the SCDS2 firmware is easy. It's a case of drag the file onto your card and your card will update when you plug it in to the DS/DSi. I've had no problems with the latest update although there are a few people that have although that is probably due to a User IQ error.

I don't think there's a SCDS3 in development yet as I think the SuperCard team are waiting to see if a) the DSi mode is possible on the SCDS2 and b) if it's practical on the SCDS2 (at the moment DSi mode only allows Homebrew to run faster as there is no way of ripping full DSi only games yet) and c) what happens with the 3DS. Also I think that cramming the CPU and RAM into the SCDS2 without being able to add any cooling was pushing the technology to it's limit.

Back to the original post. I'm in contact with Paulo who is making DS2x86 sending him debug logs and he is confident that he'll be able to get frontier running even better in the next version. Now to start on the debug codes for First Encounters.

[Harrison]

It will be interesting to see if any cards do get released specifically for the 3DS.. But cracking DSi games seems to be quite hard as it is, so I expect it will be some time.

[Buleste]

There shouldn't be any released specifically for the 3DS for a while as the 3DS has yet to be hacked but even then as 3DS games can be up to 8 GBits then you would need a worldwide reduction in the cost of Micro SD cards.

I'm sure that there will be many cards that will be aimed at the 3DS market even though the chances are they will still only be able to play just DS games so they'll be compatible with all DS's anyway so it'll just be a marketing scam.

[Harrison]

What is the likelihood of games actually being 8Gbits (1GB) though? Due to rom/ram prices I doubt it would be that cost effective to release games on carts that big.

Regarding DSi games. What actually qualifies as a DSi only game? A little confusing considering all the current games I've ever tried have run perfectly well... Is there a list somewhere?

[Buleste]

There are about 9+ DSi only games and different ROM sites have different ways of listing them. Some include DSi enhanced games with DSi only games but the real problem is there is no actual way of properly ripping DSi only games anyway as from what I can tell most DS/DSi ROMs are ripped using a Slot-2 device and as the Slot-2 is only found on DS/DSl's then the ROMs are ripped in DS mode and so do not include the complete DSi mode code. It's all very strange and complicated to me but this is what I've read elsewhere.

[Harrison]

All very strange to me also. But if the number of games effected is really as low as 9+ then I can see why they are not actively spending a lot of time trying to achieve it. Little real point.