M3 DS Real

M3 DS Simply Review 

  

Introduction & Packaging 

Box Contents:

• M3 DS Simply card (white or dark grey casing)
• Micro-SD USB Adapter
• Game Card Carrying Case
• Wrist Strap
• Software Mini-CD

The M3 DS Simply is made by the same creators of M3 Perfect, basically the team one of the leading manufacturers. 

The M3 DS Simply comes in a package made out of cardboard, it has the symbol of the M3 in it, and shows in transparency the actual M3 DS Simply, and the Micro SD/TF Usb Reader that are inside the box. The back of the box shows all the features that the M3 DS Simply has. 

• Same Size as an original cart
• Build in PassMe
• Using Micro SD/TransFlash as external storage
• Boot clean dumps
• Super simple to use, drag and drop to the Micro SD/TF
• No drivers necessary
• Standard FAT system support
• Support different speed of Micro SD/TF
• Upgradable firmware
• Touch screen control & robust skinning support
• No need battery, back up the save file into the Micro SD/TF card directly
• Auto detect the save type & automatically creates save
• Homebrew support, IO Lib released
• Direct watch movies, listen to Mp3 & read on the DS using the MoonShell
• Supports Wi-Fi, DS Rumble Pack & DS Browser.

Sounds good enough, lets see if the M3 Simply does all that and maybe more ?

How are M3 DS Simply & R4DS different?

In all relativity, they are the same, identical flash card with subtle differences. First, both the M3DSS and R4DS are manufactured at the same lab. The first issue models of each card can be modified with a soldering tool to convert from one brand to the other. A recent redesign upon both brands ensured this would no longer continue. Each team shares all findings and discoveries with one another, although R4DS uploads their updates a few days sooner tham M3DSS does. The updates have been identical in every attribute. The GUI, icon settings, etc. are exactly the same. The only difference, besides the default skin, is the M3DSS logo screen displays, “M3DSS (Region) Version”, while R4DS shows, “(Region) Version.” Each product can use the same custom skins that you see around here at GBATemp and abroad. At this point at time, they are essentially the same product. Just the label, a small difference of time for updates, board chipset placement and the GUI’s logo message are all that seperate the two.

Hardware 

   

The M3 DS Simply is the perfect fit for the Nintendo DS & Nintendo DS Lite, just like the official DS Cards it has the best possible plastic, and has no type of creaking’s or anything like it. The Micro SD/TF slot is on the top of the M3, and NO! The Micro SD/TF wont fall off, cause its so perfectly tied up, that only comes out and in, if you want to. This in fact is one of the best features of the M3 Simply, so now, you don’t need to take your flashcard out anymore to put more games, music, or homebrews. 

 

Software & Menu

  

The CD comes with both English and Chinese v1.00 of the M3 Simply firmware, Save converter (M3, SC, G6), Trimmer and the Shell Folder for MoonShell. To update the firmware you just need to copy and paste the files that come in the update .rar to the root of your micro SD/TF. 

The Gaming takes us to select the games, its sorta like MoonShell, where you can choose the folders, but on the bottom screen you can see the icon of the game, etc. On the Multimedia, it accesses MoonShell, so thats it.. Slot-2 option takes you to whatever is on the Slot-2.

Setting up the M3DSS

Setup could not be any simpler (no pun!). First, go to the website and download the full installation package. Yes, avoid the out of date mini-CD. It’s worth mentioning that you don’t actually install anything. Next, you drop a pair of files and folders into the root. Then, simply drag and drop your uncompressed ROMs, homebrew, MP3s, text, etc. into the root of the flash memory. Yes, you backup hoarders will have to unzip your ROMs before placing them in. Finally, pop it into your M3DSS, load it within your DS and you’re off! It couldn’t be any easier.

GUI (OS)

The GUI is quite easy to figure out. Upon booting, you’re presented with 3 selections: Game, Multimedia and Boot Slot-2. You’ll see the System version and your DS’s internal clock at the bottom. Unlike some flash cards, you won’t have to worry about setting the memory speed. In addition, you can use custom skins that will enhance each screen per your choice. Skinning is much more simple (there’s that word again) to develop than it was on M3 Perfect/Professional. It’s quite a cherished attribute to personalize your GUI to however you see fit. The only negative here is that while you can use the touch screen throughout, you’ll find that using the control pad and buttons is more suitable. Let’s explore each menu option individually.

Game
Game will obviously take you to the file list. You can see all ROMs and Homebrew by default. You can also sort your file listing with the Select Button to show text (as of System 1.02) as well as to show all files and folders. The bottom screen shows the game’s icon and title box, just like it would using the built-in DS Menu. Every file has its own icon, whether it is a ROM, MP3, etc. You can adjust the DS Lite’s brightness level by use of the touch screen or the L Button. Soft Reset is another option added recently and can be selected by the touch screen or the R Button. To run anything, highlight the file and press A or the lower touch screen. It will create a 512 kilobyte saver file, if one wasn’t already present. Also, the saver type is automatically detected, making it easy for any user rather than some of M3′s competitors. For text files, it also can create a saver file in order to remember bookmarks. The only bad mark here is for those who are fans of NDS-GBA Linkage, you better own the original cartridge or an older GBA flash card that provides single-boot functionality. Otherwise, you’ll have to use your Slot-2′s again for that.

Multimedia
Multimedia is Moonshell. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, this is the best homebrew application for viewing movies and listening to music. Unlike the M3 Perfect/Professional models, there are no original movie and music players or picture viewer. If you never owned an older M3, then let me save you the trouble of asking: They sucked! For convenience, the Moonshell package is included in the system download. The best part for those not concerned with Moonshell, is that you don’t have to drop the folder onto the memory at all. However, if you want the eBook function, then dig into the default folders for the necessary files. It’s all moot to me, as I own an iPod Nano for movies and music. Moonlight still deserves every bit of credit for all flash cards placing “movies and music” on their boxes.

Boot Slot-2
It’s not rocket science here, kids. If you still have a slot-2 flash card, such as M3 Perfect, Supercard, Ewin2, EZ-Flash IV, etc., then you can boot it just like a Passcard 3. Truthfully, it boots more devices than my own Passcard 3.

Game Compatibility 

The M3 boasts clean dump support with no need for patching though they do provide a rom trimming utility for saving you some space it is not needed. Here are the results: 
The M3 boasts clean dump support with no need for patching though they do provide a rom trimming utility for saving you some space it is not needed. Here are the results: 

PLAYED FINE 
Animal Crossing Wild World (USA) 
Castlevania: Dawn Of Sorrow (EUR) – No Slowdown on Intro movie 
Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam (USA) 
Rafa Nadal Tennis (EUR) 
Nintendo DS Browser (EUR) Patched for SuperCard 
Hiite Utaeu DS Guitar M-06 (JPN) 
EyeShield 21 (JPN) 
Final Fantasy III (USA) 
Jump Ultimate Stars 
Elite Beat Agents (USA) 
Fifa 2007 (EUR) 
Kirby PaintBrush (EUR) 
Pokemon Pearl (JAP) 
Jump Super Stars (JAP) 

All this worked without any patching or anything, basically I drag and dropped the Clean Dumps to the microSD card. 

 

The patching utility is as simple as it comes and is only used for trimming the roms to save room. Open your rom with the patcher, choose where you want to output the trimmed rom to and click start. Not much more to say on this, it works well but of course some games do not support trimming. 

M3DSS could very well be the only flash card capable of running any commercial software at the time of this writting. Now, they can finally call it “perfect” for once.

ROM Compatibility:

• 4 Game Fun Pack – Monopoly + Yahtzee + Boggle + Battleship
  - PASS: Plays and saves fine.
• Animal Crossing – Wild World
  - PASS: Plays and saves fine.
• Asphalt Urban GT 2
  - PASS: Plays and saves fine.
• Big Brain Academy
  - PASS: Plays and saves fine.
• Castlevania – Dawn of Sorrow
  - PASS: Plays and saves fine.
• Castlevania – Portrait of Ruin
  - PROBLEMS: You must own one of the above mentioned memory brands, or the game will freeze.
• Club House Games
  - PASS: Plays and saves fine.
• Dead ‘n’ Serious
  - PASS: Plays and saves fine.
• Diddy Kong Racing
  - PASS: Plays and saves fine.
• Elite Beat Agents
  - PASS: Plays and saves fine.
• Final Fantasy III
  - PASS: Plays and saves fine.
• Fullmetal Alchemist – Dual Sympathy
  - PASS: Plays and saves fine.
• Hotel Dusk – Room 215
  - PASS: Plays and saves fine.
• Inuyasha – Secret of the Divine Jewel
  - PASS: Plays and saves fine.
• Kirby – Canvas Curse
  - PASS: Plays and saves fine.
• Kirby – Squeak Squad
  - PASS: Plays and saves fine.
• Mario Hoops 3 on 3
  - PASS: Plays and saves fine.
• Mario Kart DS
  - PASS: Plays and saves fine.
• Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2 – March of the Minis
  - PASS: Plays and saves fine.
• Meteos
  - PASS: Plays and saves fine.
• Metroid Prime Hunters
  - PASS: Plays and saves fine.
• Metroid Prime Pinball
  - PASS: Plays and saves fine.
• New Super Mario Bros.
  - PASS: Plays and saves fine.
• Nintendo DS Browser
  - PASS: Plays and saves fine in conjunction with Nintendo’s RAM Pack. The M3 and Supercard patched ROM also works.
• Nintendogs – Chihuahua & Friends
  - PASS: Plays and saves fine.
• Phoenix Wright – Ace Attorney
  - PASS: Plays and saves fine.
• Resident Evil – Deadly Silence
  - PASS: Plays and saves fine.
• Super Mario 64 DS
  - PROBLEMS: Original U.S.A. dump fails, but v01 plays and saves fine.
• Tomb Raider – Legend
  - PASS: Plays and saves fine.
• Ultimate Spider-Man
  - PASS: Plays and saves fine.
• Yoshi’s Island DS
  - PASS: Plays and saves fine.

Download Play / Single-cart Multiplayer:
Due to not having two DS units available to me, I am unable to personally test Download Play. There are reports that Nintendo-published titles are shown to have issues with Download Play, while third party published games seemingly work. Thankfully, all Wi-Fi Connection titles will play online. Since they seem to have single player compatibility on lock, perhaps they will shift their focus towards improving Download Play. It’s worth noting that all slot-1 flash cards presently have issues with this function.

Battery Life Results:
I could not notice any battery hits as significant as they were back on the older slot-2 flash cards and nopass combos. With running a single device, you can be assured of similar battery life as you would real game cards. There aren’t any battery hogs these days, so depsite which brand you choose, your play sessions won’t be cut prematurly by seeing your battery light turn red much sooner.

Save games 

The M3 DS Simply when prompted to enter a game, if it doesn‘t  detect any save file, it ask to create one, play the game without saving, or ignore. All needed to do, is say you want it to create a save, and then when you enter the game after turning the DS off, it will automatically load the save. 

 

The save converting software is equally as simple as the trimming software. Open your save file, choose the destination name and click to let the software do the rest for you. You can then transfer your save across with your game. This is a nice feature wich adds a guarantee that your save games are going to work. 

Homebrew Compatibility 

  

 

Bearing in mind that we need to wait for the developers to update thier software with DLDI support, I tried out some of the homebrew available: 

DSOrganize 2.4 – Works, Patched with DLDI 
beup Live 0.3 – Works without avatars and emoticons 
Comic Book DS – Doesn’t Work 
MoonShell – Works 

Additional Features

While I’ve pretty much covered every base about the product, there are two additional downloads that you can acquire. First, we have the ROM Trimmer. I think that is self-explanatory. Second, there is the Save Transformer. This handy tool will take your older M3, G6, Ewin2, Supercard, Acekard, DSLink or EZ-Flash IV saves and transform them into M3DSS. There has only been one small issue with the Save Transformer. A friend of mine, Spikey, transfered his Elite Beat Agents save. The game saves “replays” of past games. While the save progress was intact, those replays would not work. So, there might be a few more games out there that won’t work with it, but the vast majority will indeed convert.

 

Conclusion 

PERFECT, ok ok, MORE THAN PERFECT. The M3 Simply does all the stuff it says it does. All the games work fine, easy to manage Saves, don’t need to worry with set up saves, or patch games, nice GUI that can be skinnable, etc. 

PROS 

+ 100% rom compatability 
+ Excellent build quality. Card fits flush in the DS and slides in and out as if a commercial card 
+ No patching required, just drag and drop to play 100% of games 
+ No Slowdowns in game 
+ No Slowdowns in game 
+ GUI that lets you choose Three options, Games, MoonShell or Access Slot-2

 

CONS 

- The Menu GUI, and the MoonShell Skins are totally different, it should come with Similar Skins 
- Micro SD/TF slot is a little awkward to remove the SD 
- There aren’t many Homebrews that lets the use of M3 Simply for now, but them M3 Team has released the IO Lib, so it could go better in the future