SuperCard Guide: Getting started and more!

[paki]

there's no speed difference compared to using the superkey and flashing.. in fact theres hardly a difference at all - except you can have your DS slot free for a game you own

yes, flashing your DS lite does "protect' you from malware, since you can re-flash it to fix it. With the original firmware.. you can't re-flash it.. once its gone its gone (though some people have been able to recover it using a 2nd ds). Its still true that it happens.. but if you know where you're getting your files from and its a trusted source, you should be OK. A good way to protect yourself is download DSLazy, and use the crashme scanner on any ROMs you download to ensure theres no malware hidden in them

[gcmonkey]

there's no speed difference compared to using the superkey and flashing.. in fact theres hardly a difference at all - except you can have your DS slot free for a game you own

yes, flashing your DS lite does "protect' you from malware, since you can re-flash it to fix it. With the original firmware.. you can't re-flash it.. once its gone its gone (though some people have been able to recover it using a 2nd ds). Its still true that it happens.. but if you know where you're getting your files from and its a trusted source, you should be OK. A good way to protect yourself is download DSLazy, and use the crashme scanner on any ROMs you download to ensure theres no malware hidden in them

What prevents you from flashing the original firmware if malware attacks it? Or should I say what does the flashed firmware have to allows this? Do most people flash their firmware?

I get my games from the newsgroups. If DSLAZY is reliable in finding malware, ill try it. What a reliable link to download DSLAZY ? I did a google, but found alot of different sites with it.

[paki]

this one's good: http://l33t.spod.org/ratx/DS/dslazy/

the thing about the modified firmware is that you can restore it or reflash it at any time if anything goes wrong. With the original nintendo DS firmware.. you're not allowed to touch it.. you have no access to it.. so if its bricked its bricked What prevents you from reflashing it? well.. you can't boot it up at all. I *believe* the alternate firmware, if you hold down a certain button combination when you turn on your DS, will start the restore process. I could be wrong.. but I know for a fact that there is a restore option built into the Flashme firmware.

A lot of people flash their DS if they have friends who also want to buy flash carts and want to save the $20-30 on the Superkey/Passcard. I personally didn't flash mine until recently, only because a friend of mine wanted to buy my Passcard and paid me more than what I paid for it . Flashing takes like 5 seconds literally.. when I first did it I thought to myself "thats it?"

[gcmonkey]

this one's good: http://l33t.spod.org/ratx/DS/dslazy/

the thing about the modified firmware is that you can restore it or reflash it at any time if anything goes wrong. With the original nintendo DS firmware.. you're not allowed to touch it.. you have no access to it.. so if its bricked its bricked What prevents you from reflashing it? well.. you can't boot it up at all. I *believe* the alternate firmware, if you hold down a certain button combination when you turn on your DS, will start the restore process. I could be wrong.. but I know for a fact that there is a restore option built into the Flashme firmware.

A lot of people flash their DS if they have friends who also want to buy flash carts and want to save the $20-30 on the Superkey/Passcard. I personally didn't flash mine until recently, only because a friend of mine wanted to buy my Passcard and paid me more than what I paid for it . Flashing takes like 5 seconds literally.. when I first did it I thought to myself "thats it?"

Thanks for the info. Can you flash the original firmware back if you have to send the unit in for warranty? The Youtube video about flashing warns about frying your DS. Thats scary :O Im going to do some more research on this flashing firmware, maybe theres a good guide to prevent things like that. If you know of any, please post. Thanks again for the replys.

[paki]

you can't revert back to the original firmware on the DS Lite. You can on the original DS's though. If you install flashme_stealth (normally included in the package, separate file).. its *almost* impossible to tell you have replacement firmware because it still has the health screen. Flashme (non stealth) removes the health screen. both boot directly to the Supercard/M3 if its plugged in.. but if its not.. it acts normal

[tester800]

If you install flashme_stealth (normally included in the package, separate file).. its *almost* impossible to tell you have replacement firmware because it still has the health screen. Flashme (non stealth) removes the health screen. both boot directly to the Supercard/M3 if its plugged in.. but if its not.. it acts normal

I've seen both flashme stealth + a normal NDSLite and there were a little difference so that the flashme version have a health screen with a little bit of fading in and the normal firmware doesn't have this fading.

[gcmonkey]

I have 2 more questions

Some of the videos Ive seen about the Supercard Lite, they say it doesnt fit perferctly flush with the bottom of the DSL. Has this been corrected in newer versions?

Last, do I have to worry about what speed MicroSD card I get?

[tester800]

Some of the videos Ive seen about the Supercard Lite, they say it doesnt fit perferctly flush with the bottom of the DSL. Has this been corrected in newer versions?

Take a look in the last posts of http://forums.maxconsole.net/showthread.php?t=30854 there i've added some pictures...

Last, do I have to worry about what speed MicroSD card I get?

All speed versions of memory cards would work great with a SCLite due its great bandwith. I've tested it with a normal Sandisk 1GB microSD and the Castlevania intro plays fine even on that 'slow'-card.
But otherwise if you want to transfer often stuff to your card ... it would be worth to consider about a highspeed card (like UltraII from Sandisk) because its write speeds are approx. 10MB/sec and in contrast to this: 1GB microSD Sandsik = 4.5MB/sec // 256MB microSD Sandsik = 2.0MB/sec.

[semprini]

Hi all. Fifth, this is a great guide, thanks.

I'm hopinh someone on here may be able to help me with a problem though.

I'm getting white screens on almost all my roms, and black screens on just a couple. I haven't got any to work yet.

I bought a SuperCard Lite (micro sd) which came with a PassKey 3.

I ran the tests by holding L+R, it went through and gave ok results:
saver ok, rumble data ok, flash id ok, flash ok, sd/mmc ok, not find test file (is this important?)

I copied the latest firmware (1.63) on to my micro sd card and put that in to my supercard in the DS. It said current and new version were both 1.63, so I didn't bother updating.

I installed the supercard for micro sd 2.56 software and converted a load of roms.

I copied those converted files on to the micro sd card, and started up the DS.

After the health warning screen, it loads straight in to the supercard screen.
There are four tabs at the top, all in japanese text.
At the bottom it says Path:/
The first page lists all the roms I copied over as 'gamename.nds.dsq'.

When I click A to pick one of those games, it says loading... then quickly goes to two blank white screens. I have to switch the DS off to do anything.

The guide mentions these 'white screens of death' and to try converting but with less options ticked. I tried several different roms, taking all tick boxes off and still get the same problem.

Has anyone got any ideas please?
I've tried downloading a few different sets of roms, from different places in case the first batch were all corrupt. But 99% of the roms just white screen, and just two so far go to a black screen :-(

[FifthE1ement]

First you don't have a SuperCard Lite, you have a SuperCard Rumble Lite which is completely different then the regular version. You are using the wrong version of the patcher program as you need to be using the Rumble series patcher which can be found below:

http://eng.supercard.cn/soft_scrumble.htm

This should fix all of your problems and you should be up and running again!

Enjoy,

FifthE1ement

[semprini]

Man, I can't believe it was that simple. I feel very stupid for clicking on the Supercard Lite software when you're quite right, it clearly says Rumble on the front. Obviously I was too eager to get everything running and assumed I would have had the Supercard Lite as expected :-)

Tried a few and they are all working now!

Thanks for your help and quick response Fifth, much appreciatted.

[gcmonkey]

Ok, I know I saw this in either a guide or a thread on this site. Im thinking about saving some money and getting a 512MB MircoSD card. I can get one for $10 after MIR vs buying a 1GB for around $30. I saw a table somewhere that listed Game sizes and how many could fit on a 256MB, 512MB, and 1GB card.

Anyone seen this also and know where its located? While it would be nice to have 1GB worth of games on a card, chances are I may never need that many games at once. I know that the Supercard supports playing movies, but battery life would probably be bad for it, plus I have a Creative Zen Vision M for that and MP3s.

[semprini]

The downloaded ROMs all seem to work fine, which is great.
But I thought i'd try to backup some save games from my current DS games. Does anyone know if the REIN R17 software work with the SuperCard Rumble Lite?

I followed your guide Fifth, and uploaded the REIN .nds file on to my SD card along with some games. I boot up with the PassKey in also in the DS, and it loads up to the usual SuperCard menu. I take out the PassKey and put in a DS game and select REIN from the list, it says loading... and gives me a white screen again.

As the REIN nds file doesn't have to be converted, it can't be anything to do with the wrong SuperCard software this time. Any ideas?

[semprini]

I saw a table somewhere that listed Game sizes and how many could fit on a 256MB, 512MB, and 1GB card.

Anyone seen this also and know where its located?

Haven't seen a list myself, but I think it varies a lot depending on the games you convert.
For example, i've just converted 7 games and they total up to just under 200MB.
Mario 64 files are 16MB
New Super Mario files are 32MB
Meteos files are 64MB
etc..
That's with the default save files of 256KB - as i've not used this much yet I don't know if save files increase much in size as you use them.

So it seems hard to put a number on how many games you can fit.

[tester800]

I saw a table somewhere that listed Game sizes and how many could fit on a 256MB, 512MB, and 1GB card.

Anyone seen this also and know where its located?

This list in 5th's guide on page 19 >> http://forums.maxconsole.net/attachm...achmentid=7987 <<

..but as someone said it above the amount of games that will fit on a card are very variable, because the game size goes from 8MB up to 128MB!
As comparison ... i have on my 1GB microSD the followed amount of games: 31xnds,16xGBA,6xGBC (so there are included Resident Evil = 125MB and a few games with less then 8MB like Sudoku, Jigsaw Puzzles and the rest is filed with some mid.size games)