Over the weekend I experimented with three different homebrew cards for the DS. The three cards were the Acekard 2, the R4 and the DSTT. All of the cards work the same way. There is a base card that fits into the DS which has a slot for a Micro SD card. All of the cards purport to handle Micro SD HC (high capacity), but in reality the Acekard 2 had issues with that, and I didn't run that experiment on the rest because the HC card was nuked after that.
Installation is pretty straightforward. You download the latest boot files from the card's manufacturer, copy them onto the Micro SD card in the root directory. Then you copy your home brew files onto it. You then eject the Micro SD card, insert it in the homebrew card, and insert that in the DS. Then you boot up the DS. The Acekard 2 looks just like a regular game and boots the same way. The R4 and DSTT just boot to their menu unconditionally.
The menu system provided by the manufacturer then allows you to pick the home brew you want to run. In terms of UI the Acekard 2 had the best UI, followed by the DSTT and finally the R4. All of the interfaces were usable.
Once you select a home brew to run the card then loads it up and you see the application. Both the R4 and the Acekard 2 have a 'conversion' process which is done once. It's not very long, but there is a delay. You are asked not to power off the unit during this process, and I can tell you from first hand experience that this is good advice. In the case of the Acekard 2 I believe an error in following that instruction cost me the card. Literally. The Acekard 2 will no longer run anything because we errantly stopped the conversion process mid-stream. The DSTT is notable in that it doesn't have this conversion process and it runs the applications very quickly.
The AceKard 2 and the DSTT both support skinning which gives you a way to choose your background, colors, etc. for the menu system. The AceKard 2 looks better by default. The DSTT's choice of skins is limited, but what is there is pretty nice.
To sum up;
I definitely recommend the DSTT. It's well priced, reliable and easy to use.
Posted by jherr at June 2, 2008 08:49 AMThanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
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