100% n00b needing 100% help

[PsychoKiller]

I've looked on the forum. I've looked on Google and on the many webpages Google has pointed me to. And now, God willing, I will get my assistance.

I've done homebrew on some systems, but never on the DS, and so I am here to ask you all today - what in the world should I get? I'm gonna list a few of the things I want to be able to do, and hopefully a few of you here will hear my plea and guide me.

Hopefully.

Alright - here's what I want to be able to do.

- run emulators for older stuff - NES, SNES (for the few games that are compatible), etc. The most perfect thing in the world would be to emulate NES, SNES, Genesis, and GB/C.

- run all kinds of homebrew stuff for DS and for GBA

- backup my DS games so I don't have to haul all the carts everywhere

- ideally, backup GBA games as well

Now, I don't honestly know what's possible and what's not, but I figured this was going to be the quickest way to get some answers. Thanks in advance to all of you who come to my aid!

[DanTheManMS]

The main question is whether you will get a slot-1 device or slot-2 device. Hopefully my post here will help you decide.


- run emulators for older stuff - NES, SNES (for the few games that are compatible), etc. The most perfect thing in the world would be to emulate NES, SNES, Genesis, and GB/C.
NES - NES DS runs on all devices now with the addition of DLDI support. Most games compatible.
SNES - the best emulator here is SNEmulDS, which runs on all devices due to DLDI support. Many games compatible, but not all.
Genesis - games up to 3 MB will work on all devices using jEnesisDS or PicoDriveDS. A slot-2 device using PicoDriveDS is needed for games larger than 3 MB. I don't know about the compatibility.
GB/GBC - Check out Lameboy, which runs many games at full speed with sound on all devices due to DLDI support. There's also Goomba Color, which is a GBC emulator for the GBA, so it will only run on slot-2 devices.


- run all kinds of homebrew stuff for DS and for GBA
DS homebrew works about the same on both types of devices. GBA binaries can only be run from slot-2.


- backup my DS games so I don't have to haul all the carts everywhere
Only possible on old CF-based devices that aren't recommended due to their bulkiness. Also probably not allowed to discusson on these forums.


- ideally, backup GBA games as well
Only possible using an old GBA or GBA SP and a linker cable. Again, probably not discussable here.

A popular option is to get a slot-1 device for ease of use and support for most DS homebrew, plus the slot-2 EZ-V 3in1 expansion pack, which gives you GBA compatibility for a cheap price.

The cheapest standalone slot-2 device with GBA support would be a Supercard, which is about $50 but has RAM that is slightly too slow, so some games will slow down or not boot at all. The M3 Perfect has excellent GBA compatibility due to having faster RAM but costs about $80 plus the price of the media card. This is why the 3in1 expansion pack is a popular option - it has 32 MB of NOR flash that's fast enough to run GBA games without slowdown for only about $20.

You can only hold 1 GBA game on the 3in1 at a time, but you can have as many *.gba files on the slot-1 microSD card as you want. You then use software on the DS itself to flash the game to the 3in1.

Popular slot-1 devices include the R4, M3 Simply, and Supercard DS, though the CycloDS Evolution looks like it's gaining support. I believe the unofficial software that lets you use the 3in1 on other slot-1 devices works best with the R4 and M3 Simply however.

[PsychoKiller]

Thanks! Should have realized I couldn't mention backups - my bad. Seems like more trouble than it's worth either way.

As for the emulators - awesome! Glad to hear there's some compatibility out there for some of the best systems history has seen... I'm looking at you, Super Nintendo.

Again - thanks for your advice! I'll keep it in mind!

[DanTheManMS]

If you're interested in SNES, then check out some of the pages on the PHWiki:
http://wiki.pocketheaven.com/SNEmulDS
http://wiki.pocketheaven.com/SNEmulDS_Compatibility_List

The compatibility list isn't very extensive, but it should give you an idea of some of the games that work and don't work. Also see http://wiki.pocketheaven.com/SNES_games_with_special_chips for a list of games that absolutely will not work at all.

The other two SNES emulators for the DS are SNES DS and SnezziDS. Of these two, SnezziDS is the best but only runs on slot-2 devices (though I've heard it can run from the 3in1 expansion pack). SNES DS works somewhat, but the best method of using it requires files that the creator no longer hosts on the main site because he added DLDI support, which actually made compatibility worse.

The PHwiki also has pages for those two emulators if you're interested.