DS homebrew

[timmeh87]

back in the day i was following the DS homebrew scene, but i guess i kinda lost interest. last i heard passme was just going into its first production line...

the other day my g/f's brother asked her to hook him up with some homebrew on his psp (hes 28 btw ), and she did so, and thought it was pretty cool. i mentioned that the DS arguably had a better homebrew scene than the PSP (note: i dont actually wish to argue this with anyone), and she is now quite interested in getting some HB running on her ds.

so i did a bit of research, read the wikipedia article, but its all pretty overwhelming. it seems that theres 100 different ways to get your code running on the DS, and im not really clear on the advantages and disadvantages of all of them.

we both want some homebrew on our DSes, and we both wish to spend as little money as possible

before i start asking my questions, let me tell you that my DS has firmware version 1 (got it on opening day), and hers is a brand new DSlite.

so:

flashme - do i want to flash my DS? what problems with homebrew would i run into if i didnt? what problems with real games would i run into if i do?
can serena flash her DSlite? do you need different firmware for different versions of DS?

wifime - can you run an emulator off wifime? i guess not, because where does the rom come from?? (assumung no gba flash). in general is wifime a good final solution, or just a way to get flashme going?

passme - easy to build myself? im taking a course on PLCs and shizz, and i have access to all that fancy JTAG programmer software/equipment as well as book explaining how to do it. so thats not a problem. is it better to just shell out the $24 to buy one? whats the difference between passme and passme2? what exactly does it do anyways? tells the nds to start executing code from the start of the gba cart or something? make sense get one for both of us and just flashme?

nopass - once again, can i build one myself? and what does it do exactly? is it just a passme with the game built in? it only costs like $5 more than a passme...

ppflash - if i would be installing the firmware right away anyway, is it worth being cheap and not buying a passme/nopass, and instead doing the job myself? a little soldering dosent scare me. does it work on DSlite? does it work with flashme?

gba flash cart - i guess i will eventually need to get one of these if i am serious about homebrew. where can you get them cheap? which ones work/which ones suck?

winDS - does this exist anymore? it looked like it was going to be pretty neat.

any other neat things my attention should be drawn to? is there any place with a bunch of tutorials on this stuff?

quick recap of what i want to know: whats the cheapest and 'best' way to get homebrew on both an old DS and a new DSlite

[vskid]

I was wondering the same. My friend might be selling his DS lite for about $110, and I want to use it mostly for homebrew because I am too poor for a lot of "official" games. I just need to know how little I would have to shell out for the additional supplies. I would like to do it a way that doesn't modify the DS and uses a GBA movie player (I don't have one right now) so that I can use it for movies and music, too.

[vb_master]

flashme - do i want to flash my DS? what problems with homebrew would i run into if i didnt? what problems with real games would i run into if i do?
can serena flash her DSlite? do you need different firmware for different versions of DS?
Yes, you can just use the latest FlashME on any DS, you can play regular carts fine. Make sure you use a well insulated toothpick though.

wifime - can you run an emulator off wifime? i guess not, because where does the rom come from?? (assumung no gba flash). in general is wifime a good final solution, or just a way to get flashme going?
You can't do this on DSLite.

passme - easy to build myself? im taking a course on PLCs and shizz, and i have access to all that fancy JTAG programmer software/equipment as well as book explaining how to do it. so thats not a problem. is it better to just shell out the $24 to buy one? whats the difference between passme and passme2? what exactly does it do anyways? tells
the nds to start executing code from the start of the gba cart or something? make sense get one for both of us and just flashme?
You need a PassMe 2 for DSLite. You can build this yourself.

nopass - once again, can i build one myself? and what does it do exactly? is it just a passme with the game built in? it only costs like $5 more than a passme...
Can't build this one yourself, just buy one (like a Datel Max Media Launcher).

ppflash - if i would be installing the firmware right away anyway, is it worth being cheap and not buying a passme/nopass, and instead doing the job myself? a little soldering dosent scare me. does it work on DSlite? does it work with flashme?
You can't PPFlash FlashME AFAIK, only real firmwares (plus this if for original DS, I don't think there is one for Lite yet, besides you can swap the firmware chips to recover).

gba flash cart - i guess i will eventually need to get one of these if i am serious about homebrew. where can you get them cheap? which ones work/which ones suck?
Get a SuperCard SD since it has battery backed SRAM.

winDS - does this exist anymore? it looked like it was going to be pretty neat.
DSLinux is better, and LiraNuna moved to PSP scene.

any other neat things my attention should be drawn to? is there any place with a bunch of tutorials on this stuff?
There is a VNC like program, but it sucks. Turn to ndshb.com, and dsdev.org forums.

quick recap of what i want to know: whats the cheapest and 'best' way to get homebrew on both an old DS and a new DSlite
Datel Max Media Launcher and a SuperCard SD (or a GBA MP v2 with hacked firmware if you want really cheap but no backups [THAT YOU MADE YOURSELF!!!]).

[Harshboy]

Ok, to answer your questions:

Install Flashme V7
No clue on Wifime
For the passme forget it and install flashme (as stated above)
Nopass is the same, get flashme
No clue bout ppflash
Get a Supercard Lite. They have a nice deal on pdapuffin.com It's 100 bucks for the Supercard lite Rumble model, passkey, and a 1 GB microSD card. Amazing deal
WinDS does exist, i just downloaded it from DC Emu. Its cool


a supercard lite and Supercard mini SD for regular DS's are your best bet. for now, i'd stay away from those Slot 1 solutions.


Flashme V7 works on both the original DS's and the DS Lite, with full support

[vb_master]

For the passme forget it and install flashme (as stated above)
Nopass is the same, get flashme

You need a PassMe to install FlashMe. Your logic is invalid and thus you fail.

[Harshboy]

if you get the supercardlite combo you get one with it I based my answers off of that

[Kyosho]

I'd personally suggest you get an M3.

[vb_master]

I'd personally suggest you get an M3.

The M3's are total crap. You know M3's don't even play half of the homebrew right. All the firmware updates are complete garbage.

Stick with the best, get a SuperCard.

[ShockSlayer]

I have a supercard sd up fo sale, could someone get that topic link in the trading post?

[timmeh87]

thanks for the info guys

im thinking ill get a passkey (or equivalent) and a GBA movie player from dspassme.com. i alreaady have a spare CF card and the GBA movie player is only $25. bonus!

so is there anything i should know about the gba movie player before i do this? does it just work like a normal flash cart?

[timmeh87]

bump

i dont want to pay for something that wont work. im waiting on some confirmation here.

[vb_master]

bump

i dont want to pay for something that wont work. im waiting on some confirmation here.

You need to flash the GBA MP with Chism's hack. If you plan to use the GBA MP with a Lite, you MUST get a NoPass (use Datel Max Media Loader).

[timmeh87]

the gba movie player is only for me, serena is shelling out for a fancy supercard lite. dosent want anything to stick out. . oh well its only $54.

im getting a passkey because thats all they offer. it looks like the only difference is about $20.

the passkey will work in a dslite right? thats what i was led to believe...

edit: some of these EZ flash devices say they arent compatable with "GBA roms over 32Mb". why is that? does the supercard lite have that problem? does the GBAMP have that problem?

also - i just noticed that you said the GBAMP dosent to nds backups (why?). hm. maybe ill upgrade to a supercard SD. (does that do backups?)

[vb_master]

the gba movie player is only for me, serena is shelling out for a fancy supercard lite. dosent want anything to stick out. . oh well its only $54.

im getting a passkey because thats all they offer. it looks like the only difference is about $20.

the passkey will work in a dslite right? thats what i was led to believe...

edit: some of these EZ flash devices say they arent compatable with "GBA roms over 32Mb". why is that? does the supercard lite have that problem? does the GBAMP have that problem?

Is the PassKey a NoPass? The GBA MP does not have any SRAM, you MUST use a NoPass to use a GBA MP on a Lite!

[timmeh87]

it is indeed a nopass device. dont worry though. gbamp is not going to get used on the lite.

if you read what i added to the previous post, im doubting if i should get one at all.

also - i just noticed that you said the GBAMP dosent to nds backups (why?). hm. maybe ill upgrade to a supercard SD. (does that do backups?)

why does the lite need things with sram and the hevy dosent? is this related to why thigns can/cant do backups?

------------------------------------

oook. i just spent some time at the dslinux wiki, and i think im starting to get it...

GBAMP has no ram or sram
most other adapters have 32Mb and some sram

passkey2 requires some sram, cannot work with GBAMP

GBA roms need to be loaded into ram, therefore most other adapters can do max 32Mb, GBAMP can do none, and in fact can only load anything under 4Mb since it has to use the internal DS memory. it also cannot save anything that needs sram for the save (basically everything)

conclusions:

supercard can do everything
GBAMP sucks.

well. i think i have cleared that up.