M3 Real first impressions

Perseid · February 08, 2008, 01:59:18 PM

Well, this was supposed to be the ultimate, never-need-to-buy-a-flash-cart-again cart. It's not really, but it is pretty cool.

The packaging was bizarre. The DS cart and GBA pack were nicely inset into their plastic bubbles, but the rumble pack was just loose in the box rattling around and there was no spot for it in the plastic tray. What's up with that? The cartridge itself feels light and flimsy. It has a spring loaded slot that feels even weaker than the R4's and I just feel like it's eventually going to snap and launch my microSD into lower earth orbit. Despite what you may read it comes with no CD or instructions. Just the cartridges. You have to download the firmware and put it on the microSD to make it do anything, so if you don't have internet access no M3 for you. I couldn't even find the firmware on the official site. I had to google and find this: http://www.handheldsources.com/M3DS/Download_M3DSR.html

The menu itself is pretty nice. You can actually choose your games on the touch screen. It's also relatively fast at reading icons and whatnot. NDS game support is what you'd expect. I didn't try the dreaded Castlevania, but I do hear it works fine even on slow cards. I'll probably test this later and edit my post.

The GBA support is really the only reason to buy this. The EZ-5 expansion is SO slow to copy games to. Up to 2 minutes no joke. This thing is more like 15 seconds. It also saves your GBA save back when you turn the system on, whereas on the EZ-5 if you forget to copy your save before you copy a new game you're SOL.

I didn't try the rumble pack. It's not really important to me. I bet it rumbles just fine.

The PDA part is pretty useless. It's basically a homebrew app the M3 guys wrote and it's agonizingly slow. Just download DSOrganize. Also, while the cart itself says to copy the PDA files to the directory PDA it is wrong. It really needs to be in the directory PDADS. Did they test this thing?

I haven't used any homebrew yet but it says it needs to be in the root of the card. I don't think I like that. Why can't I just put it where I want?

So, in short, I'm probably going to like it, mostly for the GBA awesomeness, but it's unlikely to replace any of my current cards, so now I have 4.

If anyone wants me to test anything specific let me know.

EDIT 1: Oh, wow. Bad. The screw on the GBA cart was sticking out and almost snapped the little plastic strip on the DS when I took it out. Beware of that. Yikes.

EDIT 2: You can copy your R4 saves and rename to .0. No need to convert or use their app for it.

EDIT 3: Castlevania Portrait of Ruin seems to work fine - pausing, saving, etc. No crashes. Dawn of Sorrow, though, has slowdown during the intro even on a 2GB Kingston made in Japan.

dantheman · February 08, 2008, 06:10:20 PM

Have you tried loading games into the PSRAM of the 3in1 rather than using NOR mode? Much quicker to copy that way, though you're then limited to 16 MB games since that's all the RAM the 3in1 has.

About the homebrew in root thing, I'm not sure if ALL homebrew must be on the root of the card or if it's only the ones you want to get DLDI patched automatically. Would you be willing to test that out?

Perseid · February 09, 2008, 07:55:05 AM

Hmm. The homebrew in root thing seems to be wrong or maybe outdated. I copied phidas.nds into a directory called DS APPS and it worked and loaded and saved.

dantheman · February 09, 2008, 08:30:11 PM

Good to know, thanks for the tests.

Musulsa · February 12, 2008, 06:20:48 PM

I just got an M3 DS Real to accompany my 3 Supercards (CF, SD, mini-SD). It's great so far but I have one small problem. Since this is my first flash reader that isn't a Supercard, all my save files are in the SC .sav format. Can someone point me to a way I could convert these files into the M3 .0 format?

Many thanks in advance.

dantheman · February 12, 2008, 06:38:16 PM

Look for the Shuneyweb online converter. It should be able to convert all your saves for you.

Musulsa · February 12, 2008, 08:31:55 PM

Thanks dan!

Perseid · February 13, 2008, 12:14:56 AM

Well, I just had the cart completely corrupt my microSD and everything on it trying to load a GBA game. I'm not sure I can recommend it now. I'm not even sure i'm going to keep it now.

EDIT: Actually, the card doesn't work at all any more.

WTF

Can microSD cards just spontaneously die? The M3, two card readers and the Wii can't read the card. It's as if it's not there. I'm not sure if I can blame the M3 for it or not.

Musulsa · February 13, 2008, 12:48:12 PM

Quote from: dantheman on February 12, 2008, 06:38:16 PM
Look for the Shuneyweb online converter. It should be able to convert all your saves for you.

Doing a google search for "Shuneyweb" and "Shuney Web" did not turn anything up? Any suggestions or a link?

kkan · February 13, 2008, 02:30:26 PM

Quote from: Musulsa on February 13, 2008, 12:48:12 PM
Quote from: dantheman on February 12, 2008, 06:38:16 PM
Look for the Shuneyweb online converter. It should be able to convert all your saves for you.
Doing a google search for "Shuneyweb" and "Shuney Web" did not turn anything up? Any suggestions or a link?

SEARCH HARDER

or look here

dantheman · February 13, 2008, 04:58:25 PM

I misspelled it by mistake. It's "Shunyweb" you're looking for. My fingers just hit the E key too soon and then didn't stop to correct the mistake. Sorry for the confusion.

kkan · February 13, 2008, 06:17:24 PM

Quote from: dantheman on February 13, 2008, 04:58:25 PM
I misspelled it by mistake. It's "Shunyweb" you're looking for. My fingers just hit the E key too soon and then didn't stop to correct the mistake. Sorry for the confusion.

ah dan you must mean the ancient art of TYPONESE or the more common known internet way of the crouching tiger hidden FUXOR UP!

voldo · April 12, 2008, 12:27:10 PM

did you test the finalfantasy cronicles is it the mogles shows up

Perseid · April 12, 2008, 12:38:17 PM

Crystal Chronicles works fine. No moogles.

voldo · April 12, 2008, 06:20:07 PM

no mogles with out a patch?