Flashcart Knowledge

Nintendo DS storage devices are some of the devices used to store a licensed developer's work-in-progress images, homebrew video games, or downloaded commercial games, since the Nintendo DS is not sold with a rewritable storage medium. (Licensed developers can use the blue Intelligent Systems Nitro Emulator box to flash cards). These devices are commonly known as "flashcarts" or "flashcards". There are two main classes of flashcarts: older devices that fit in SLOT-2 (the Game Boy Advance Game Pak slot) and newer devices that fit in SLOT-1 (the DS Game Card slot). SLOT-2, or 1st generation, devices have historically been cheaper due to economies of scale inherited from their use with Game Boy Advance homebrew but require a booting tool in SLOT-1 in order to use the touch screen and other DS features. Devices that only use SLOT-1, or 2nd generation, do not work with GBA homebrew, but as of 2007, they are becoming easier to use and less expensive, rivaling many SLOT-2 devices in price which may have been cheaper.
First generation devices include GBA flash cartridges, GBAMP CF, SuperCard, and M3. Second generation devices include R4 Revolution, CycloDS, G6 Real, and DS-X. The storage device either contains flash memory or a slot for a memory card to store homebrew. Storage devices with a memory card slot usually have more storage capacity than flash memory devices. Although flash memory capacity is usually measured in megabits (Mb), memory card capacity is usually measured in megabytes (MB), where 8 Mb is 1 MB.
Different brands of storage device differ in their support for homebrew, support for DS and Game Boy Advance ROMs, special features, such as playing media files, physical size and cost. Strictly speaking, a storage device is not necessary for DS with FlashMe installed because homebrew can be sent to the DS using WMB. However, this is not a very portable method because the DS needs to be within range of a suitable Wi-Fi card.

Acekard 2
The Acekard 2 earned the Golden Award on Gbatemp.net[1] and 90% on ds-scene.net.[2] 100% game compatibility, skinnable, download-play support, micro SD/SDHC memory card support, very swift loading, and Action-Replay cheat support are some of its features. Users reported freezing problems with the first batch of cards, but the Acekard 2.1 revision released in December 2008 addressed these issues. These newer cards show 2.1 on their sticker and can be identifiable by their lack of a microchip bulge underneath the sticker.
The official Acekard Team has not updated their firmware since mid-2010[3]—in addition to the official firmware, a Closed-Source firmware is also under active development, called AKAIO.[4] It is currently at version 1.8.6, with support for the EZ-Flash V 3-in-1 and 3-in-1+ Expansion Packs. Acekard usrs can also download latest AK-AIO 1.8.6 from akaio.net.[5]
With the release of the Nintendo DSi, the Acekard team became the first team to release a card compatible with it: the Acekard 2i. Other than its support for the DSi, it is identical to the Acekard 2. When Nintendo released the newest iteration of the DSi firmware (1.4.1U in the United States),[6] the Acekard 2i was the Second manufacturer to release a patch to make the card compatible.[7]
The Acekard 2i can be used on a 3DS in DS Mode, a patch was released that fix the compatibility issue

DSTT & DSTTi
DSTT is a very popular card compatible with SDHC cards. Recently, the DSTT has fallen to the same problem as the R4: clones have found their way into the market. Many manufacturers are making cards that imitate the package and look of the DSTT. Some clones change the name (e.g. DSTT-ADV or CN-DSTT) but most label their product as DSTT even if they are not affiliated by real DSTT Team. There is now a lot of information on DSTT official website to identify fakes and clones and even a guide to telling if a DSTT is real or fake.[10]
The DSTT and DSTTi are versatile beyond simply playing homebrew and ROM software though; one of the most useful features being that they incorporate cheat support in a variety of games.[11]
The DSTTi has been tested and reported to work with the DSi XL console released in March 2010 but not the newest 3DS console.[12]
DSTT and DSTTi TTMenu Kernel updated its official kernel DSTT TTMenu V1.18 on Dec 15th, 2010. A Closed-Source firmware is also under active development, called YSMenu. It is programmed by Yasu Software with latest YSMenu V6.58 on Apr 30th, 2011.[13]

EZFlash V
The EZFlash V uses MicroSD cards for storage. One of the advantages promoted for the EZFlash V is its hybrid mode, which allows for speedy performance and lessened lag, even when using slower memory cards. The newer EZFlash V Plus supports Micro SD cards over 2GB while the original model does not. The EZFlash Vi is an upgraded version of the EZFlash V Plus, made for the Nintendo DSi. Also available is the 3in1 Expansion Pack which supports rumble, cache, and GBA ROM. The newer EZFlash Vi card is also shown to work with the new Nintendo 3DS console.

EDGE DS
The EDGE DS card is the same size as a regular Nintendo DS Lite cartridge. It has been likened to the R4 card (R4v2/R4v3/R4v5), DSTT card, and SuperCard DSONE. The EDGE is a budget-priced no frills variation of the more full-featured CycloDS, using basically the same system.[15] It also comes in somewhat distinct packaging in the form of a triangular swivel-pack.[16] The EDGE DS card ceased production in October 2009[17] and has since been replaced by the iEDGE DS.

iEDGE DS
The iEDGE DS was released on 9 January 2010 as a replacement to the original EDGE DS card.[18] Its structure and packaging is virtually identical to that of the EDGE DS due to the original card being commercially successful. It functions with the Nintendo DSi, DSi XL as well. It does not work on the DSi LL.
The original EDGE DS did not have any clones made by rival factories, but the iEDGE DS has at least one well known clone card that has been circulating on the market.[19] The outside packaging of the genuine card is copied closely, making distinguishing between the two somewhat difficult without testing them using a computer.[20] However, there are still noticeable differences when compared side by side.

M3 Real
The M3 Real (also known as the M3DS Real) is a mainstream slot-1 flashcard manufactured and designed by the M3 Team. It is most notable for its Sakura firmware, created by Moonlight from code that would eventually be released as Moonshell 2. Yester this, the M3 Team's own firmware—dubbed Touchpod—was used with the cart, though this received mixed reviews due to its rather slow and clunky interface. Today, both Sakura and Touchpod come bundled with the firmware, with the card allowing you to choose which firmware you want to use upon first boot.
The M3 Real has many features now expected from most carts, including automatic DLDI patching, SDHC compatibilty, cheat/Action Replay system, slow motion, and soft reset. Sakura includes a built-in media player, built around Moonshell code, featuring support for playing various formats directly from the shell, including DPG and DSM video, AAC, MP3, OGG, MOD, and many others. It also supports the display of TXT files and several image types, such as JPG, BMP, GIF, and PNG. Another interesting feature of Sakura is the Save Restore function. This allows the user to restore whose save from various backups, which are created each time the game is run.
Received with the M3 Real are two GBA expansion cartridges: a Rumble Pack and a GBA memory cart. The Rumble Pack works with DS game backups and any supporting homebrew games. When activated, it vibrates, though there have been many complaints about users that it is too noisy and inconsistent. The memory cart allows the M3 Real to boot and play GBA games through the software directly, and allows the user to use GBA real-time save and cheat features. The memory cart can also be used as external RAM for hardware intensive applications (such as DSLinux) or emulators (like SNEmulDS).
As of Sakura v1.40 and Touchpod v4.3i, the M3 Real supports in-game real-time saving.[23] This makes it one of the few carts that support this feature.
There are quite a few skins available for the Sakura firmware, though not nearly as many as other popular carts. This is mainly due to the complexity of the skinning system, though the skins produced are generally of high-quality, due to the flexibility of the image format of the components (PNG files with alpha—most carts use BMP or GIF images).

M3i Zero
The M3i Zero is an updated M3 Real card designed for compatibility with the Nintendo DSi. It was released in July 2009.[24] There is no GBA compatibility with the M3i Zero running on the Nintendo DSi because it does not have a GBA expansion slot. However, the M3i Zero will run GBA games on DSs/DS Lites that have a GBA expansion cart.
As advertised on the official website "From Zero to infinity", the M3i Zero is the first card to use specialist hardware to upgrade its firmware, coming with a firmware cable.[25] thus allowing it to bypass Nintendo's DSi update system.

SuperCard DSONE
The SuperCard DSONE is a slot-1 solution that uses MicroSD cards for storage. It is made by the SuperCard Team.
The earlier version of SuperCard DSONE demands a very high-speed microSD to fully utilize its gameplay function. With the newer SDHC compatible models, games are playable with slower SD cards, nullifying the most significant problem with the original. The latest firmware includes several functions, like Real-Time saving, Real-Time cheats, and Real-Time game guides. The Supercard DSONE also exists in a version compatible with the recently released Nintendo DSi which is called the DSONEi. DSONEi comes with a firmware writer for future firmware update in case Nintendo releases DSi firmware update to block flash carts. DSTWO, a successor to DSONE/DSONEi which has built-in GBA/SNES Emulator, has been announced and is now for sale.

R4i Gold
The R4i Gold is one of the more popular of the R4 cards. It is compatible with the DS, DSi, and the DSi XL. The R4i Gold is usually packaged in a distinctive gold box while the chip itself features gold color components which easily differentiate it from the original red R4i and original green R4 DS chips.
The R4i Gold proved popular in America and Europe in late 2009 and early 2010 due to its excellent game compatibility, and early support for the new DSi v1.4 firmware meaning there was no need for the end user to manually update the card's own firmware.[36] R4i Gold team split into R4ids.cn and R4ids.com at the early 2010. r4ids.cn has the official support from Yellow Wood Goblin, meaning R4i Gold cn can also run Wood Firmware. R4ids.com is also seeking more cooperation from AKAIO kernel.[37]
The R4i Gold was also the very first ds flash card that added support for DS homebrew games and applications for the new Nintendo 3DS system. Allowing 3DS owners to store and load DS homebrew games and applications on the Nintendo 3DS. It does only work in DS mode on the Nintendo 3DS, but work is underway to make it a full fledged 3DS card, allowing the future 3DS homebrew games and applications to be developed and released.

SuperCard DSTWO
The SuperCard DSTWO was revealed on November 20, 2009. The official list of features include real-time functions (saving and cheats), multiple save files, bypass piracy block without patches, microSDHC support, multiple languages (English, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Traditional Chinese), a built-in GBA/SNES emulator, four levels of slow motion, a file management system (rename, copy, etc.), and iReader which supports displaying BMP, JPEG, JPG, PNG, TIF, GIF, TXT, and PDF files, as well as support for several PC video formats including DivX/Xvid. It is capable of performing functions not found in a standard slot-1 flashcard, such as GBA emulation, since the card boasts 32 MB of built-in RAM and an extra coprocessor. Because of this, the built-in CPUs on the card end up draining the battery significantly at startup of the cart, but it's not a big complaint among owners and the Supercard Team. The cart features rewritable firmware like the DSONEi. This cartridge will also include an in-game hex-editing cheat code maker, activated with the press of buttons. Since the DSTWO is the first of its kind.[22] The DSTWO also supports EZ Flash 3in1 expansion and the SuperCard expansion brands. SuperCard Team release the SDK for the DSTWO flashcart to homebrew developers only via by contacting them thru email. SC Team goal for the release of the SDK was to hope small developers would release power programs and help with debugging of the EOS, GBA, SNES system on the flashcart. Currently The DSTWO is compatible with the DS, DSL, and DSi up to the latest 1.4.1/1.4.2 Firmware. Nintendo has released 1.4.1 for NA,EU,JPN and 1.4.2 in China to block the current flashcarts. In less than 24 hours after the release of these updates, the Supercard Team released a bypass patch for the DSTWO to be able to run on the latest DSi firmware once again.
Supercard Team are extremely confident that their cart will work on the Nintendo 3DS—in DS mode, that is. They believe that even though the 3DS will feature new anti-piracy protection mechanisms, the possibilities offered by the SCDSTWO's embedded CPU will allow them to find a workaround quickly, just like they did for the recent DSi 1.4.1–1.4.2 CHN fix. The Supercard team has opened a special secret forum for everyone that has been granted permission to get the SCDSTWO SDK (Software Development Kit). This will allow developers to help each other out with the SDK and hopefully allow us to see awesome homebrew in the future. Renowned homebrew and emulator developer alekmaul has recently received the SDK along with a free flashcart sample, and he started porting his Dingoo emulators to the Supercard DSTWO. First of which, an Atari 7800 emulator.[38]
In a recent interview with GBAtemp.net, the Supercard Team Marking Leader Romman discussed possible new features and updates for the DSTWO. The DSTWO's embedded CPU allows for the same video playback capabilities as the iPlayer: DivX, WMV, and other formats, all being played back natively on the Nintendo DS. The Supercard Team are also promising new updates to GBA emulator and SNES emulator, offering better ROM compatibility and better emulation software.[39]
Alekmaul has just released his MAME EMU for the DS2. The emulator supports the MAME 0.37b5 ROM set. Based on the included documentation this is a port of his Dingoo MAME4ALL build, which leaves open the possibility for future Dingoo EMU ports to the SCDSTWO.[40]

EX4i
The EX4i flashcart was created by the R4Li team, and is competitor to the now famous SuperCard DSTWO. It is also DSi compatible under the 1.4 in all regions of the firmware, but not on 1.4.1 and 1.4.2 China. The EX4i is a slot-1 card with similar functions to the DSTWO. Like the DSTWO, its features are GBA emulation, an enhanced movie player, and music support. The EX4i OS is basically a replica of the R4 menu system.It can load GBA ROMs through an in-built emulator.

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