Having another go at trying some DS flashcarts (actually following a guide for advice this time) and hopefully I can get one that works reliably, unlike the one I currently have. I ordered four different kinds since they're so cheap, to try and raise the odds that at least one turns out to be good.
I wanna play with MoonShell and DSOrganize again and maybe play around with writing a program or two. But I need a flashcart that I don't have to insert a few times in order to do that.
First flashcart arrived (the DSOne SDHC) and it boots more reliably than the one I was using before, but I did get shipped a cart that fails the self-test. But apparently that just means I have to use an alternate menu instead of the one specifically for that flashcart.
I probably should've just ordered multiple DSOnes instead of going for multiple different flashcart models since then I'd have a chance at getting to use a fancier menu, but all I really wanted was the ability to launch homebrew programs and licensed games like my old SuperCard SD used to.
So this is probably fine? I'll have extras for multiplayer or whatever when those arrive.
I went and got two more DSOnes and one of the extra ones is also defective, but the other one isn't. The cool savestate feature does seem to actually work, though that's definitely not something I need for Animal Crossing: Wild World.
So here's all of the GBA and DS flashcarts I now have, where the SuperCards double as DS flashcarts with the right DS firmware but I never bothered to install it on the DS I use now.
I bundled up all the ones I'm not using so I won't end up losing them in case I need them or anything.
It used to be really cool to have a GBA flashcart act as a DS one because then I could easily save and load DS game saves (since the SD card was in a device in a separate slot from the game) but I can just use a 3DS for that nowadays.
@NovaSquirrel given the issues that existed back then with clones of flashcarts where the firmware file on the website mentioned by the box, I'd say it was wise to order different models to increase the chances you'd have at least one that works as intended.
If you ever want to use it for tiles and sprite edition, let me know :-)
@PypeBros I also saw that some flashcarts didn't really fit into consoles as well as they should, or have really flimsy plastic, and I thought getting different models would help with those issues.
It'd be fun to try your editors! I'd probably do any serious development on a computer, but it's still cool to have an opportunity to try something I would've loved to have as a kid.
@NovaSquirrel oh, and ... yeah, there's a concept of right-click while holding L and touching screen with the stylus about everywhere in the soft. Touch a sprite with the stylus will load it into the edition grid, L-touch the same sprite will store edition grid contents back at that place.
Same with the grid itself: touch = paint, L-touch = pick current color...
@PypeBros These tools seem like they're very compact and full of features, maybe to the point of feeling a little bit cramped or unintuitive, though it's tricky to do something about that with this sort of screen resolution. I do appreciate the manual that you can access whenever to find out how to do stuff, and I'd rather have all the features than have a simplified tool. I liked the "scan" button in the sprite editor; that's not something I've really seen in pixel art programs.
@NovaSquirrel Yes, I perfectly see what you mean. feedback from other users were very scarce during development of these tools so they're mostly doing what fits me, although I try to maintain some cross-tools convention such as "X = cut, Y = copy, B = cancel" etc.
@NovaSquirrel I remember trying to use Tiled for another project and then never using it again, sticking for my own #LevelEditorForDS because Tiled missed the 'push tile to the other layer' or copy-like-you-were-a-CPC that I'm over-using when doing level design with LEDS ^^"
@PypeBros I made my own level editor for PC that was a clone of Lunar Magic and use it for most projects, since it fits the kind of compression I like to use better and I just prefer levels modeled as objects I can drag around and resize.
I feel like it would help a lot to have buttons that bring up menus (especially on the animation editor, which needs more explanation than sprite editors do), where you'd have more room to make it clear what each option does or avoid needing button combos so you can fit more options on-screen, but that has to be weighed against how much it would slow down a user who knows what they're doing. You could have quick shortcuts with small icons alongside a button that brings up a menu that's less compact, though.
I don't mind if you write about my feedback like that, and I don't need any graphics converted.
@NovaSquirrel yep. That kind of edition makes perfect sense if you're after a Mario-esque kind of level design.
(And on SNES, you'd better have efficient level compression). So far my engine does not even try to compress levels. And I tend to break the 16x16 more often than not in the maps I create ^^"
@PypeBros I think when you have several megabytes of space to work with, level compression is less urgent, but still nice to have and fun to set up.
I used to do really small NES games though with space for like 32KB or 16KB of code, and in that case compression was a huge deal. I still want to do 32KB Game Boy games...
@NovaSquirrel the supercart SD was the shit back in the day, it was upgraded from an ok GBA cart to a great DS cart. I don't remember if I even tried any of the DS slot ones after cart encryption was cracked.
@starsider It was really cool to be able to play DS and GBA games from the same flashcart, and I liked being able to backup and restore DS saves, which let me do a lot of savegame editing stuff.
Of course nowadays I can do savegame stuff with a 3DS instead, and I have a modern GBA flashcart.
@asie I do appreciate that the guide I was looking at at least warned me about that. I guess I kinda skipped over the part where it had more features than other flashcarts though (or is supposed to, when not defective).
Shopping on AliExpress is funny because I'll buy things like cheap DS flashcarts, but I'll also see things like $30 4TB SSDs and laugh because I'm not willing to trust that. I guess it depends on if the thing I'm buying is something I actually do need to be able to trust or not. (Though when it comes to storage and keeping files safe, I shouldn't trust any single storage device and make sure everything is in multiple places)
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