Basically... should I get a GP2X or a Nintendo DS? I'm looking for opinions on either system.

NDS. It's got Mario.

GP2X can emulate Mario.

That's illegal!

NDS has supercard! Supercard wins, plus I don't buy games.

GP2x is Linux based, free homebrew and free games.

Also, you can help with porting allegro over to NDS with me and MattyMat.

Is NDS homebrew capable?

Here is some sites to get you in the 411.

click1
click2
click3
click4

NDS for teh win!

GP2X. It's actually designed to do homebrew, and it has a better processor. While the DS is cheaper, after you buy the system and a supercard, it's almost the same price.

Hmmm, the libnds looks pretty complete. I think it comes down too, does the gp2x have built in 3d hardware or will 3d gfx have to be done in software? For this reason I'd choose the nds to homebrew on.

Get the GP2X if you want to play around, but get a DS if you want to play games.

I agree with Sirocco. I am considering buying a GP2X to mess around, but if you want games, NDS is your best bet.

I had no idea the NDS was hacked up that much already. I think I'll go ahead and grab a NDS. Where do I get a supercard though?

The GP2X looks nice, but it doesn't have hardware 2d, and it doesn't have a FPU, so everything feasibly done has to be done in floating point. Not to mention the DS is cooler.

Now.. will the DS play movies and such?

You can get a SuperCard from here: http://www.realhotstuff.com/

That's where I got mine.

There's supposed to be a movie player for the DS, but I've never used it. I heard M3 carts have it built in.

Here is a guide on how to use moonshell to view videos. You'll need to convert your movies with dpg tools. But here, check it out: clicky.

Juvinious: I myself was considering posting Allegro to the DS, but am glad to hear that progress has already started. Please, feel free to contact me if any more assistance is desired. I am not overly familiar with the code of the Allegro library, and have only done a few projects on the DS, but I have plenty of free time on my hands with nothing but programming to occupy my time.

PaLib rules all. DSLua is ok too.

Alright, so which smart card should I get? Can any of you homebrewers for DS recommend a nice one? I'd like to work on Allegro/DS, maybe mess around with it some, try out moonshell, etc.

Get a PSP with an old firmware.

It will act as a :

SNES, NES, Genesis, N64, etc emulator.
PS1 emulator ! (new)
Homebrew launcher
Video viewer
Mp3 player
Web browser

So if you plan to use it for retrogaming (with games you own of course) it's a jewel.
The actual PSP games are mostly crap tough.

Other than the PS1, the DS already emulates all and more systems mentioned, has a web browser, an mp3 player, and video player. As for a homebrew launcher, I would recommend a SuperCard of the MiniSD variety for a regular DS or the SuperCard Lite for the DS Lite. I would recommend buying the one containing RAM rather than a rumble feature, as the extra RAM comes in very handy when running applications (ie, not games) such as web browsers, Linux, etc. As for a passcard, I advise PassCard 3, as it is, other than the sticker, the exact same thing as a SuperKey for a bit lower of a price.

This assortment of products will work perfectly without any bugs or issues present in other arrangements (the M3 passcard has issues with not waking up from sleep mode upon reopening of the DS and the MMX doesn't support GBFS, to name a few) and will not stick out of the DS, as the SuperCard SD and SuperCard CF do, for a rather low price (I paid about $60 from WINSUNX however, they have a weird payment system) however, will require you to use both the DS and GBA slots of the DS in order to run anything. I am unfamiliar with DS slot only hardware, such as the new DS-Xtreme or the new SuperCard DS(ONE), so I can't be of much assistance in telling you how well they work; however, I can say that anything I have heard about slot 1 only options other than those two have not been all that positive, ranging from slow transfer speed to poor build (too thick or thin).

I hope that was enough information to aid in some form of informed decision.

I like the GP2X. It operates with normal AA batteries and normal SD cards.
And the coolest thing: it runs Linux and it has USB LAN, so you can ping it, telnet into it (bash console), install a Samba or Web server on it, etc.

I ended up with a Black DS Lite, so I was hoping for a black (not white) SuperCard. Do they make them?

[edit]
Nevermind, I see that they do.

My Supercard is blue

I still want a GP2x when I have the spare cash. the cpus are mucho faster (200Mhz instead of 16Mhz) and the screen is 320x240 which is much more Allegro friendly.

I'll probably get a 2nd DS first tho, for linky-uppy fun.

I ordered a SuperCard DS One today. It'll do everything I want

And if I have to, I can get a SuperCard SD Lite, and use the DS One as a pass key.

I don't believe you even need to do any flashing if you get a DS One.

I'm confused! I've read a number of different tutorials and sources, each suggesting a number of different Homebrew solutions. I have a black DS lite, and would like to be able to download/run homebrew games on it, and possibly even develop some games for it. Is there a way I can do this without having to flash the firmware?

If so, what peripherals will I need to buy? If not: are there any companies that will flash my DS for me?

You don't need to flash your DS if you keep your passkey in the top slot. Flashing has these advantages

• You do not need a passkey to run homebrew DS software from a GBA cart (e.g. Supercard, M3, F2A etc)

• You can run unsigned software via WiFi

• You fix the bug in the firmware which potentially allows malicious (but somehow signed, which admittedly isn't likely) software to wreck the bios so badly you would need at least a soldering iron to fix it.

• You [optionally] lose the epilepsy warning at start up.

There are no companies I know of which offer flashing, but anyone with the kit will do it for free (or a beer) if you can go to meet them. There are threads devoted to this on at least 2 of the forums.

My passkey (a Passme v.1) is now redundant but only works with early DS-Heavy unless I flash the Passme to a v.2 (that's another story, and a special cable).

There are 3 basic types of DS kit

• Traditional GBA cartridges, which need either a special writer or a GBA plugged into your PC in order to write to them, but work exactly like a commercial GBA ROM when reading. You need a passkey (or to flash your DS) to run DS software off these.

• A new-style GBA cartridge, which have (usually 32MB) RAM and a slot for SD/CF/mini-SD. These need slight modifications to software to handle the transfer from the SD card into RAM. This also needs a passkey or flashed DS.

• A brand-new-style DS cartridge, which does not need a passkey. These do not have a SD/CF slot so software must be transferred via WiFi from your PC

I chose the 2nd option, because it was slightly cheaper than the 3rd, and will also work in a GBA.

How so? I've been eyeballing WINSUNX to buy some DS development stuff for a while now. I'm interested in how the transaction went through and your experience buying from them.

I ordered a GP2X 3 days ago, still waiting for it to arrive

My reasons to buy a GP2X instead of DS

• Open source, no need to "hack", flash, iron it to do homebrew stuff

• Its faster

• It doesn't come with Mario, I'm sick of him

• I like to be different, everyone I know either has a PSP, GBA or DS

• It uses "normal" memorycards, no need to buy yet another card that only works with one specific hardware/brand

• I can play Mario (if I want to). I bet there is a DS-emu on the way for the GP2X

</end rant>

Losing the epilepsy warning: priceless.

That really annoys me. Every time I fire up ye olde Wii I see the warning, and then the inevitable cascade of obscenity erupts from my lips as I curse Nintendo for cowtowing to the entitlement generation who demand a warning label on every single piece of equipment, no matter how mundane, they might lay their hands on. That warning needs a user-accessible disable flag.

If you somehow fail to realize that TVs and displays can potentially trigger epileptic seizures, you sure as hell will figure it out when your kid drops his/her controller and starts flopping around like a fish.

I'll be able to give a little more information (such as, if I paid more than I recall) once I get home as I won't tie up the phone line while on the Internet, I will be able to tolerate the Internet, and I will have a few records only available on hard copy, but my experience with buying from them was excellent, if abnormal. They have a complete description of the purchase process on their site, which seemed a bit odd to me (having to email them with desired products, twice, I think) all worked out well and shipping was extremely fast. My order arrived in three days which is quite a good time considering the company is based in China, as can be discovered reading e-mails from them.

In short, everything went fine and I was able to get the cheapest price from them (I spent quite a long time running through every site I could find that sold SuperCards and Passkeys), if you want any further information, just ask.

Ah yes. I never realized there was such a convoluted process just to get some money to them. Not only to I dislike ordering stuff online, I really dislike using paypal to do it. It also looks like shipping is pretty steep (if you don't order many things at once). I have heard from many people who ordered from winsunx with no problems, however. Hm. I guess it's all up to how much I really want one of these things to tinker around with (both passcard and sd/cf gba slot cart).

Wait a minute... You mean to tell me that... that's not normal to do?

Well, you could always use another site to purchase them off of. If I recall, the final prices were all about $1 to $20 apart from each other with shipping factored in; however, I don't recall the names of any other sites off hand so you will have to look around a bit.

Wow, sounds like lots of people have either a ds or a gp.

Who will be first to throw down in the A.cc hand-held hack?

As soon as we can get a port of allegro working with devkitpro and libnds, I've got the framework added in a separate repository, just need to write the NDS specific drivers.

So I'm the only one with a PSP ?

Ennnnnt... try again. If you read the GPx2 emulation FAQ stuff, they said an NDS emulator was impossible, due to architectures differing that much, lack of screen space, lack of touch screen, and a few other issues. That's the main reason I got a DS instead (not to mention the ability to purchase most things for it locally with my employee discount to save some $$).

Paypal is one of my preferred methods. I'd much rather pay through paypal than by giving my credit card information to some random site. If it's a larger site that I know more about and trust more (like newegg, etc), I'm fine with giving my CC however.

You're not alone there. I have one too.

This is true. With stuff like this - I'd rather walk into a brick and mortar store, honestly. I should have rephrased what I originally intended: I don't like putting credit card numbers or bank account numbers into any website, period. I need to get me one of those new (old?) fandangled card services where your carrier generates a one time use number that is magically linked to your account but doesn't work after the fact of the transaction. Something like that.

I'll still probably end up buying some stuff from good old Winsunx.

[Edit]
I forgot to ask this question, specifically: for those of you who are using Passcards and some GBA Slot to hold the media that you're actually running: what kind of software are you using to put the media onto the cart? Is it proprietary software, or anything that will transfer data onto the memory card that slides into the cart? I'm wary of first party software that does the actual data writing. I have a program like this for my EZFA (GBA flash cart) and it's not the best piece of software out there, unfortunately. It is also impossible to find, and thankfully I've made backups of it all over the place.

In the case of a supercard, the cart has a slot for you to slide in a memory stick like SD/miniSD/MicroSD(depending on the card). So no cart flashing required... you just need to take your memory stick and dump roms on it. The only software you would probably need is that to convert the roms themselves. In the case of a Supercard one, you don't need to convert the roms as they are fully supported without modification, unless you want to have reset and other advanced features.

The cards just have to be FAT16 formatted, which is standard for all memory cards, cameras etc. up to 1 or 2GB

I've found the Supercard useless for playing rom dumps of either GBA or NDS, even with the supplied (and a different) patching program. I only finally confirmed my hardware was working when I found a torrent of a 'specially cracked for supercard' game.

You sure you have had your firmware up-to-date? Also do you have an authentic supercard? There seems to be a ton of fakes floating around these days, which will definitely have problems with rom dumps.
I've yet to have any problem with any rom dumps playing on my SuperCard Lite, except the opera browser which is only because it requires a memory expansion pack which is supposed to go into the gba slot. And I can say that I've tried nearly every rom floating out around on the net.

Well, many of my problems were caused by my Trust 12-in-1 card reader, which silently corrupts files. I turned on 'Disable delayed writes', used 'Eject' and 'Safely Remove Drive', waited 5 minutes etc. in 98SE, XPsp0 and XPsp2. I even bought a new SD card, and tried formatting the old one (in 98SE for definitive FAT16) but that just wrecked it. I should try everything again with a different brand of card drive before I declare anything else as not working, I suppose I have a SmartPhone which can serve this purpose.

I think my Supercard is authentic, because the game I did eventually get working is 32MB, which needs complete compatability with a real SC because of how it bank-switches the top 16MB (The M3 is considered superior by some in this respect).

Another device worth mentioning is the GBA movie player. This is similar to a SC/M3 but with much less RAM (I think 4MB) and an MPEG decoder chip. This may appeal if you want to watch movies too, without re-encoding to something the DS can handle in software. I would consider this to be a luxury extra, rather than a serious homebrew kit, but it can be used.

Once your DS is flashed, you don't need any extra hardware at all to run as a wireless client. This limits you to the 4MB of internal RAM, which is just enough for a small Allegro game, by my calculations.

Ugh, why do these things have to be so pricey? $290 = failure.

Bzzzzzt!

The SuperCard DS One has a MicroSD slot. It's the DS-X that doesn't. Though the DS-X has its own benefits (built in USB port, two "cpu"s, one little thing to handle the usb and something else, while a non-locked FPGA handles the card's OS, and can be used to do other things, ie: the company claims it can be programmed to emulate the DS's Arm9 and run at 233MHz).

Sorry, what costs 290$? I believe my DS Lite was all of 150 cad maybe. And even then, I didn't pay for it.

The GP2X. The DS is $230 US here.

Sucks to be you doesn't it

gp2x is no more than $219 for the latest 266Mhz Mk2 version from this UK supplier and that includes shipping to outside Europe.

Incidentally this is where I got my SuperCard. Quick Delivery A++++++++ good ebayer, would recommend

140 GBP ~ 1900 SEK.
220 USD ~ 1500 SEK.

I call fucking shenanigans. It would actually be cheaper if I lived outside Europe.

Append: Even their order-summary-shipping-calculator thing agrees with this assessment. If I'm in Sweden, I get to pay 1803:- for one. If I'm in the US, the cost only comes to 1547:-.

Check out this video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=drE5B_mxPos

Now are you finally starting to get it?

it's easy my friend:

if you are a regular videogame player, choose a NDS or a PSP
but if you are videogames adict AND a DEVELOPER, then choose the GP2X

the GP2X is not closed software like the PSP, and much more powerfull than the
NDS

"An elegant console, for a more civilized age"

It may have a better CPU, but the NDS is more portable, cooler looking, and has dual (with touch) screens. Plus it has wifi. All good points, at least for me.

I've just started the second CD of Final Fantasy VII in the train today, when going to work.
And that is something priceless than neither the GP2X or the NDS can afford

BTW, how is the SNES, NeoGeo and N64 performing on the DS ? An "overclocked" (via software) PSP at 333Mhz has already some trouble with the emulation speed, so how does a 66Mhz perform ?

66Mhz? A DS is 16Mhz (by 2 cpu) This can be overclocked to 32Mhz with a wee blob o' solder. I would not expect to emulate anything more than an Atari 2600 or Vic 20 with this.

A gp2x has 2x 200, 240, or 266Mhz cpus. AFAIK, the SNES emulation is near perfect (and has been since the 1 cpu 120Mhz gp32) but the newer platforms would present more of a challenge. The 2nd cpu probably helps a lot for emulating sound chips etc.

From Wikipedia. It is basically a weak N64 (Nintendo keeps handheld gaming one generation behind home consoles). I would say it could emulate NES and Master System games without problem.

It will also handle some SNES games I hear. I wonder if a emulator coded and optimized for the DS instead of the GBA hardware would fare better?

I have also played Metal Slug (which is a NeoGeo game) on the GP2X, and didn't notice any major differences in framerate from the arcade. It was quite enjoyable.

Can the DS run some older Mame roms?