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[mavis]

But yes, I am looking for the Lite because of the better display.
By the way how is the new screen?
Is it just brighter or does it actually  look more colorfull, less reflective and with a better definition ?

I would appreciate any info on the subject.

That's a question I can answer very easily: the new screens are GREAT!

The resolution is the same (same number of pixels), but they are MUCH brighter, colors are far more vibrant, the contrast seems to be much better, and they are less reflective (less glare) ... Actually, some games/animations (I noticed it in Fifa Street 2) look a little "worse," in that it is now much easier to notice aliasing and stuff, I guess because of the improved brightness and contrast - but that's probably just something that I notice because I'm used to gaming on a PC with a high-end video card (1280x1024, 6xAA and 16xAF at all times) - not on consoles. Anyway, yeah - the screens are absolutely gorgeous. Black is BLACK, colors are so much more vibrant and noticable - even in games that I play on a regular basis, I'm noticing all kinds of new stuff - the screens alone justify the purchase, IMHO.

By the way , I am wondering, where are you from ?
Because everybody knows that you live in Tokyo, but from what you write you don't sound Japanese!
I am just curious that's all

I'm from Seattle, more or less (grew up in Phoenix but escaped to Seattle as soon as I could!) ...

[q_armando]

Thanks again for all the infos!!!

[mavis]

OK, guys - kind of a big update here:

FlashMe v6 WORKS!!!!!![/color]

It's actually easier to flash the Lite, there is no longer any kind of sticker or cover over the SL1 access point - just pop the battery cover off and there it is!

I've lost the backlight adjustment capability, now it functions like the original DS (of course) - a simple on/off toggle. But the backlight seems to have 'remembered' its last setting from the Lite - I set it to the second highest setting, and now when I toggle it on/off it seems to be the same brightness as it was before - so that's good news, I guess. The other thing that isn't working too well is standby mode - even with an NDS cart in the slot, I can't seem to resume from standby on certain games - FIFA Street 2, for example, remains in standby mode until I open the Lite, at which time it simply powers off. I mean, I can see the power indicator flashing (so I know it's in standby mode) but when I open the Lite, it's dead. So, I'll do a little more testing (other ROMs, I'll try timing it, etc) and post back later.

Just wanted to let you guys know - all's well!!

[bitblt]

Just wanted to let you guys know - all's well!!

Good to know mavis!  Very interesting about standby mode, and also the brightness trick.  I guess FlashMe v7 will be the cure all?

[mavis]

Just wanted to let you guys know - all's well!!

Good to know mavis!  Very interesting about standby mode, and also the brightness trick.  I guess FlashMe v7 will be the cure all?

Odd, the standby thing is working normally now!  :?:

I hope I can figure out why it doesn't work some of the time, at least so I'll know what NOT to do in the future ...

[Nyutan]

Great now i can give my mom the go ahead to buy her own NDS. But she wanted to know about the DS Lite and Flashing. Thanks for the update Mavis!

[NT]

What I'd like to know is if it works with wifime.  That's how I flashed my current DS.

[Koji]

What I'd like to know is if it works with wifime.  That's how I flashed my current DS.

It won't. Wifime took advantage of a hole in the firmware. The firmware is updated and doesn't have the hole in it for wifime to work from.

[bitblt]

Yes, but after the DS firmware is updated with FlashMe, doesn't the hole exist then?

[sneef]

but NTolerance was talking about using wifime as a method of installing flashme.

[bitblt]

:oops:

[Nyutan]

Talk about defeating the Purpose.

[Blight]

OK, guys - kind of a big update here:
The other thing that isn't working too well is standby mode - even with an NDS cart in the slot, I can't seem to resume from standby on certain games - FIFA Street 2, for example, remains in standby mode until I open the Lite, at which time it simply powers off. I mean, I can see the power indicator flashing (so I know it's in standby mode) but when I open the Lite, it's dead. So, I'll do a little more testing (other ROMs, I'll try timing it, etc) and post back later.
Just wanted to let you guys know - all's well!!

AHA! this happens on the original ds too.
I was experimenting with ways to still have sleep mode without having a superpass in the ds slot.
I came up with going in the SC menu pulling out the superpass putting in the original game and start a game.
if you close the lid the thing will go in sleep mode. but when you open it up again it powers off.
so it is a possibility that the DS slot is behaving different from the original DS.

and BTW, this seems to point out that nintendo indeed isn't very fussed about the piracy, not wanting to spend money on making hardware-based copy protection.

[DisasteR]

So the NDS firmware works on the NDSL...

Wonder if the lite firmware will work on a normal DS then?

Being able to dim the already dim ds screen (in comparison to the lite) may be useful to someone out there

[mavis]

hmm ... odd.

Today I was looking at the GBA slot cover on the Lite, and noticed something strange. When I bought the Lite I saw that there were actual contacts on the slot cover, just like a real GBA cart would have - but, I kind of disregarded them - I figured they were just cosmetic or something. Today, however, I looked closer and saw that there are traces running from the contacts, to a small "compartment" which is completely hidden by the plastic casing. It's hard to explain, and I'll try to take a good picture when I get home, but - yeah. Kind of strange. I won't be able to take it apart because it uses some kind of three-pronged screw, but more on that later ...

I'm wondering if the slot cover is somehow an actual, functioning piece of hardware ... ? Perhaps it contains a RAM module or something? I remember reading in the DS Lite manual (posted some time ago on kotaku.com) that 'when playing DS games, you should always leave the GBA slot cover in place' ... I had assumed that this advice was simply intended to help people keep their GBA slots free of dust and/or other debris, or that it was simply a cosmetic thing (the Lite does look much nicer with the cover on! hehe) ... But now I wonder if future releases (like the Opera browser) which utilize a GBA cart RAM expansion will not require one with the Lite, because the slot cover already contains extra RAM?

Anyway I've talked about this with daveychan (another board member who got a Lite on launch day) and he's actually got one of those three-pronged screwdrivers - if he's able to take the cover apart without damaging it, maybe he'll upload some pics so you guys can see what we're talking about. Also, this makes me wonder if the firmware really IS compatible between the old DS and the Lite - I wonder if I've lost some functionality (besides the backlight adjustment) by flashing to v6?

More to come ...