A NEW Nintendo DS Flash Cart Has Arrived // Parallel Review

[@KopAce]

In my opinion, The biggest missed oportunity is the lack of an IR sensor for compatibility with the Pokewalker for the Pokemon games that use it.

[@noyukikun]

you can use a dono cart that has an ir sensor if your using twilight menu btw the one exercise game that has a pedometer has ir on the cart so you can use that for your ir

[@Mabayu]

True, wish a flashcart would come out to actually have IR, although I have modded 3ds, so I have not much use for it. I only play White 2 and HGSS really, so I just permanently leave White 2 in and use HGSS as a rom and the White 2 copy allows me to use the IR on my JP rom (I own the actual cartridge). JP copies of the games usually are cheaper long term which is why I get them (for old console at least).

[@EneRec]

And the bluetooth capabilities of the keyboard game

[@Zacvh]

Idk I feel like if you’re already shelling out extra money for a pokewalker it’s not unthinkable that you’re gonna get the original game too and then the manufacturer adding that to every flash cart would just raise the price for no reason

[@Mabayu]

@@Zacvh30-50$ vs 100+$. Idk one is fair, one is more of a stretch lol. Accessing old media is more expensive. The pokewalker alone costs just as much as the game did on release, and now those games cost 2-3x as much in comparison. Unless ur talking about a Japanese copy of the game, ur argument really doesnt make much sense.

[@TheGershon]

I don't think everyone realizes how big of a deal using less power is. For whatever reason, pretty much every other flashcart saps a notable amount of power compared to normal carts. It's a big enough deal that Luma3DS added a feature to disable power to the cart slot so you can save battery while you're not using it. I just wonder why EZFlash went with the additional cost of the FPGA when they could have an objectively superior product than R4 at a price that they can't beat, then put out the FPGA version as the premium option. Side-mounting the microSD card is a nice touch too.

[@mmpsp693]

On this, FPGA are not really known for the power efficiency, so who knows the impact in battery life?

[@lxs077]

Gba carts are the worse

[@berserker9689]

I saw a Reddit post where someone’s R4 clone melted inside the cartridge slot so it is an actual problem to fix

[@StepCrow]

I’m buying it solely for this purpose. Currently, using an r4 gold cart reduces my battery life from 20 hours to 4 hours. If I can improve my battery life by even 2 hours I’ll be happy. Will likely make a Reddit post or something once I find out.

[@Jackpkmn]

The reason it contains an FPGA is because they all do. The biggest advancement is the use of an FPGA with feature sets that let it use external memory that can be updated later. The early ones had OTP on board memory that lacked the flexibility to deal with the DSi updating mechanism. Most of the R4s and thier clones used the cheapest possible chips as well, cutting features like power saving to save a few cents on each chip which is why the R4 in this video has a glop top chip. This is what seperated things like the Acekard and the M3, they used nicer FPGAs that enabled things like flashing firmware offline with the M3i Zero.

[@wolfyx15_2]

You had me at the fact it works with ANY ds line from the OG DS to 3DS and its from a company who i've already gotten a flashcart from and is pretty reliable

[@RumblePirate]

So did the cheaper r4 Gold

[@d0lph1n0lympics]

@@wolfyx15_2 the funny thing is that in fact it does not work and the dev team completely abandoned it.

[@r4microds]

Pretty sure I've booted my old TTDS on my 3DS og. Can't remember if it was a firmware extension that made it show up.. was years ago and I've been out of the scene for a while

[@kurocxl5497]

😂🤡

[@mrkrabsx8669]

3:49 "a feature that can be used to help hack 3DS consoles" I think "help" is a huge understatement - NTR boot - quick backup your critical files - flash luma to FIRM0 - Done. (New record : 20 seconds) Also, it's mainly used to repair bricked 3DSes, 99% of people go through the traditional way to mod their consoles

[@seimeianri]

the best part seems to be inserting the sd card from the side

[@MachoNachoProductions]

Actually, that's a fantastic point! The SD card could more easily pop out of the R4 accidentally. I should of mentioned that as a Pro 😅

[@georgeedwards5451]

@@MachoNachoProductionsit’s “should’ve” or “should have”. “Should of” doesn’t mean anything

[@billymerritt420]

@@georgeedwards5451 Sir, the grammar police do not exist. Please cease and desist.

[@araeden]

Their ds carts used to have that before too. My Ez-Flash Vi has a side-loader slot. It doesn't work on a 3DS any more unfortunately.

[@thedeadpoolwhochuckles.6852]

​@@georgeedwards5451I bet you're the kind of guy that eats crackers in the shower.

[@ajmoo]

Duuuuude the product swoopy shot at 1:09 is GREAT. Pleeeeease do a behind the scenes on how you shot that! I love these practical tricks you do in your videos.

[@ff1077]

Seems pretty easy to identify how he does it. Record a video of the item on loop when it spins on a motorized lazy susan/turntable on a green screen background with a little bit of post processing for video speed shifts and animating the card insertion into the DS. If you notice, both are at a forward facing angle that show one side primarily and it usually doesn't go over two of the sides and has a definite bottom to it. Likely also keeping the camera back a bit to zoom in and help get a couple of the angles out of the view as well for the effect. All possible to be done in Davinci Resolve.

[@AceOfSpadeCGI]

@@ff1077 Why act as a VFX bro when you can't even notice it's not compositing but full 3D render.

[@Screwy]

Very glad to see a new flashcart given R4 manufacturers' horrible practices, and the Acekard and DSTWO lines being long dead

[@exalented]

It's just another clone

[@klotz__]

Those Xxx in one carts on Aliexpress actually are relabeled acekards preloaded with roms

[@Screwy]

@@exalented Oh I'm not denying that, but at least it's from a company I actually trust to some degree. I do hope they at least justify its existence more though, the potential with a FPGA is immense but it has nothing up its sleeve so far.

[@TheTekknician]

DSTwo rocks, still have one (DSTwo+ I think), it's perfect in use especially with the cheats :)

[@ToyKeeper]

I miss the dstwo. I had one briefly to set it up before giving it as a gift, and it was awesome. But when I went back to buy one for myself, it was long gone.

[@wa27]

1:09 this effect shot is baller

[@TheGentleCreepers]

yeah, Tito's product shots like this never cease to amaze me. I wanna know how he shoots it, it's itching my brain!!! 😅

[@sanictvfjr1130]

​@@TheGentleCreepersLooks too good. Probs a 3D model??

[@yumry]

I think it’d probably be too much work to do a 3d model, especially when showing stuff like the OG xbox with its motherboard exposed (lots of tiny details). I would have to guess it’s stop motion using a mount placed behind the object in question, plus some clever camera angles and editing? 🤔

[@sanictvfjr1130]

@@yumry thatd be crazy

[@MarbleThumbs]

​@yumry I suspect this is it, you can tell by how erratically the digital clock 'ticks' for a second or two. Maybe a green screen for keying out background and dropping in black space, then tinting the green reflections red to fit the lighting of regular shots.

[@jacobsnow8486]

Should likely do an update video on the EZFlash Parallel. It appears that they are no longer updating the firmware, and there have been multiple instances of them getting bricked. I made the mistake of purchasing one, only to have a myriad of problems or the cart suddenly not working/corrupting SD cards/etc, only to find upon troubleshooting that it is apparently considered by the community to be one of the biggest rip-offs ever, as many (most?) seem to just brick themselves eventually.

[@DaltonGoesSlow]

This. So many KZbinrs shilled this thing and it's been a big burn. Performance is garbage, support has ended, this thing barely functions.

[@budgetcoinhunter]

The fact it has NTRBoot built in, and explicitly no timebomb from the start makes it a better starter card than playing the R4 lottery. I could easily use something like this as a universal 3DS modding tool along with a properly set-up SD card.

[@wexenhex]

there isnt really a lottery with the R4 cards if you know what to look for, you just have to make sure to get the ones that say "dual core" on the front and youre good

[@c0wg0d]

What is NTRBoot?

[@qwertzy121212]

​@@c0wg0dused for installing Homebrew on 3DS

[@hiijustin1905]

​@@c0wg0dimagine bootmii for wii, but for ds

[@gustavovm491]

​@@c0wg0dan exploit to slip in cfw

[@alexgonzales89]

Dude thanks a lot for covering this I've actually been looking for opinions of this flash cart for a minute cause I been thinking to get one myself!

[@ErikSchuessler]

The biggest pro is that you don't need to go down the Ali Express lottery of getting an R4 card that actually works. I've gotten 2 different R4 cards that don't even function and there are so many listings that don't even send you the product that is being described. I'll be buying this, definitely.

[@HUYI1]

Same boat here, was duped by the sea of junk R4s dual cores, this will be a nice replacement

[@MrMoron-qn5rx]

plus, he did say that nowadays the r4 cares USUALLY dont come with a time bomb... me and lady luck are not on speaking terms right now, im eating the premium company safety tax. better then finding out in a year my 3 cent card spontaneously combusted.

[@kaydog890]

I've just deleted the AliExpress app. It's always had a fake sht, but recently I've been ordering say 5, receiving 3. I open packages while filming for proof, that has still been denied in claims. Ali pretty much always used to side with the buyer, now, it's the complete opposite. I'll pay the couple bucks more to buy off Amazon, or eBay, and let someone else deal with the AliExpress / import part. Anything with slightly more buyer protection.

[@megacherv]

This is wild to see in 2024, the 13th year of Luigi. My DS Lite is still equipped with a CycloDS Evo with an EZ Flash IV Slot-2 expansion (the real best setup of the day, R4s be damned), so seeing EZ Flash making something new for the DS Slot-1 is really cool

[@00Resev]

I used the same setup on my DS Lite. I remember the R4 was not well regarded back then, and the CycloDS was considered the best. I made a very nice skin for it, simple, but very attractive, with Nintendo gamepad animated icons drawn pixel by pixel, and a bezel for GBA. Now, the thing is, i just bought a DSi XL, as my eyes are not what they used to be, but the regular CycloDS does not work with it (only the iEVO), hence why i'm watching this video on this new EZ. If that FPGA could be programmed to run GBA natively...oh wow. Let us hope.

[@megacherv]

@@00Resev oh yeah, that was my thought actually, because the SuperCardDSTWO had a chip inside it that let you run GBA games from Slot-1 and it was real novel then. I can see the same happening here

[@ice9dragon]

The 13th year of Luigi 😂 thanks for that, I'm gonna have to write that down somewhere lol

[@TimeLemur6]

Hell, I still use mine in my 3DS XL.

[@AzraelNewtype0079]

Ha, same. It regularly refuses to make proper contact when inserting though, so I'm sort of considering grabbing one of these just for a slightly nicer case. Also my mom's DS Lite apparently has one of the ancient actual R4s from before the time bomb clone wars started that could probably use an update too.

[@dwightdixon8508]

key word here is options which only aids us consumers so thumbs up IMO

[@_WiZ420]

I’m extremely surprised you didn’t notice that the sd card slot is in an objectively better position. That’s honestly the only reason I want it… outside of that chip, that is

[@csolisr]

Is it because it's harder to accidentally eject the microSD when ejecting the cart itself, right?

[@_WiZ420]

@@csolisr That’s pretty much it in all honesty lol but all of the differences are about that few in between

[@arial012]

@@_WiZ420 most of the best flash carts, like mine, now doesnt have a spring mech on the sd slot, so that isnt an issue at all

[@_WiZ420]

@@arial012 Fair point. I suppose I'd rather him mention that alongside the initial statement too

[@daakrolb]

Ahhh you’re my new favorite guy!! You mention Hotel Dusk AND said it’s your favorite?? Mine too!!!! Seriously, criminally under appreciated.

[@benamisai-kham5892]

I bought it in a bargain bin at Kmart and it was probably one of the best games I ever picked up at random. Absolute hidden gem.

[@daakrolb]

@@benamisai-kham5892 Outstanding!! I will ALWAYS keep my copy & cherish it.... I bought the sequel also. Imported from Europe. Also good.

[@MisterCasket]

I loved it back then, but I do remember getting stuck somewhere. I had to find something in a garden? I checked every pixel but found nothing. It's been YEARS though, I still have it so might play it again on the 3ds.

[@fiffy6572]

note that 8:53 those deals are only for new accounts generally they cost around 8-10 bucks

[@Electric_Doodie]

3-4 bucks, heck maybe 5 or so with shipping. I know, because I just bought a Ace3DSPlus Clone a while ago.

[@Snablarns]

My DSOne cart was $4 including VAT and shipping, and I've been an AliExpress customer for years.

[@Jasontyo]

3 days after I pull out my DSs this drops. You did it again.

[@kirill.sedunov]

4 months in with this cart, and I can say for sure - don't buy it. The bug with the power strobe is still not fixed, some games do not work, and you're definitely better with an R4 knockoff cart.

[@koffi_duck]

god bless

[@Jason75913]

Thanks, man.

[@alpha210]

I think one of the biggest improvement they could add is having a mode that, when activated, makes the console recognize the flashcard as a real card, this is for example really useful for the pokebank

[@devan_danger]

Tito listened! He found a new stock jazz track! Ok. All jokes aside i wish ez flash spent some extra time improving the junior software so that it could play Crystal version without crashing

[@rcarlom42]

mine always drains the coin battery which is weird since I dont often use games that use rtc.

[@HighPower64]

There is a rom patch to fix this

[@AngelCopout]

I remember my first encounter with the R4. I was in maybe my 2nd year of Highschool and I snagged a coral pink DS off someone for 20$. I bought one of the early R4s and man that's how I experienced Ace Attorney and Tsukihime for the first time amongst other games.

[@Phoenix_1991]

Ace Attorney on the DS back in the day.... What days those were. You were probably like me, fully absorbed in that game. Sometimes you forget it was just a funny detective/lawyer game because at a certain point all the characters just felt so 'real' with real problems. Love those games.

[@yowamushi6666]

tsukihime has a ds version? that's awesome

[@AngelCopout]

@@yowamushi6666 It doesn't. On the R4 you could run a piece of homebrew called VNDS. It let you play some visual novels.

[@NottJoeyOfficial]

Oh my God, someone ported Tsukihime to the DS? That's funny, I know of the the GBA port but I didn't know it was also on DS.

[@Missingthe10mm]

Bro I literally snagged a 3ds for $40 recently and don't regret it. I never really owned a ds in general but still played em at friends houses. So it's a bit nostalgic owning it. Modding it is probably the best part since really does help not playing the r4 lottery.

[@_asher]

No mention of the sleep mode bug, its listed on their site with the firmwares too. If you simply close the lid while a game is on the power/screens/audio will all start to strobe ☹️

[@Jack-nj9pi]

Ooooof that is a big thing not to mention

[@eschatonik]

@@Jack-nj9pi 100%. I bought one based on this video and was very disappointed. Hope they address in a firmware update as promised.

[@dire_bedlam]

Still not addressed FYI for anyone considering it. It's a real bummer.

[@jackscalfani555]

Don't bother buying the EZ Flash Parallel. It has already been abandoned by the developers and it has a serious bug where sleep mode is broken and you can't close the DS lid. The EZ Flash Parallel was hyped up by the big KZbinrs and it has been quickly forgotten ever since.

[@jackscalfani555]

Of course Tito will not acknowledge the sleep issue because he got paid to do a positive review for them.

[@Ghaleonh41]

Good timing, as I can't find my DS nor its flash cart, so I'll have to get a new set. Thanks for posting this! Cheers!

[@BigJoker]

As long as there's not some time bomb in this one that forces me to back date my ds/3ds just for it to work, I'll buy one! The R4 SDHC I have requires me to do that every so often. Messes up the date a bit. Edit: I'm glad you mentioned that it does not have that!

[@Monsuco]

You can usually find aftermarket kernels that do away with the time bomb.

[@kaydog890]

That's a myth. They never had a "Timebomb". I'm certain you've never actually ordered / owned it, you just regurgitate what you've read in yt comments. Considering you wouldn't spend all of $4 on an R4, I doubt you'll spend $25 on this. Povo

[@gustavovm491]

​@@kaydog890time bombed kernels were quite real for a while among r4 clones. Many threads were dedicated to that topic. But who am I to contradict your claim, you seem to know better than the whole gbatemp forum.

[@martinmatin6275]

​@@gustavovm491ysmenu

[@ekinkalpakli8508]

I just played through hotel dusk just because you mentioned it. I have never heard of it before and wenig into it blindly. I am so happy that I got to experience such beautiful media just because of you.

[@LightningTwo]

A feature that I would like to see is the ability to trade Pokémon between gen 4 and gen 5 games. This uses DS Download Play on the gen 4 side, which cannot read the save file on the R4. This is a similar problem between gen 3 and gen 4 (GBA - DS), which was solved with the Omega DE. Hopefully they can solve this here as well.

[@mariorivera7969]

I did not know that was a thing. The main reason for me wanting to get these carts is because I like it when they function as their og counterparts. I’ve got my stuff in order because I’ve played since I was a kid but other people don’t have hundreds to drop on a couple of purchases

[@Janni9009]

Sadly this won't be the case with the EZP, it would need to load the header and save into an "offline" accessible memory, which it just doesn't have. Currently your only option is writing the save to a real cart. In the future potentially the upcoming dspico may be able to hard-emulate a cart, or nds-bootstrap may be able to patch download play to fake it.

[@north_by_midwest]

You can just use a save editor like pkmn-chest to move pokemon across generations. It's not ideal but it works well enough.

[@grayismysuperpower]

Tell me what steps to take and I can test. I have the EZ-Flash Parallel and a legit copy of Pokemon Sapphire and multiple DS Lites.

[@mariorivera7969]

@@grayismysuperpower that’s a transfer between gen 3 and gen 4. The thing that the first comment is on is about gen 4 and gen 5. And for that it seems that the gen 4 game needs to be real while the the gen 5 game can be flash cart or real

[@panickynarwhal6729]

I'm definitely going to be doing this on my DS.

[@TanukiCris]

I really do wonder what reason one would buy an Ez-Flash as opposed to an R4? R4 is cheaper and easily accessible and if ya have a 3ds then you can use twlight menu. If it had any notable features to take advantage of the fpga chip, then one could argue it could be considered

[@sprucius]

Nope. R4 Wood just excellent quality for your money

[@evdestroy5304]

R4s are pretty shit as far as build quality goes, and a lot of them also have time bombs

[@sprucius]

@@evdestroy5304 maybe your r4 are shit ones? Because mine (r4isdhc.hk) is awesome. Doesn't have time bomb, runs on Wood firmware, supports SDHC cards (I use 32gb), and runs every game that I have (about 25gb)

[@diegotszx6693]

​@@evdestroy5304you can remove the time bomb if you want

[@HUYI1]

​@@evdestroy5304not only that the dual core one I purchased failed to work so this will be a reasonable placement, just want to know if they ship to Europe, uk

[@ABArsenal]

bruh you look 25, how old are you really. you said you were in college for the ds lite release. i must have taken a wrong turn somewhere cause i turn 31 this year and i look 20 years older than you

[@AzuriteGaming]

He doesn't look 25 bro what you on

[@PlastiForge]

@@AzuriteGamingwell he doesn’t quite look 36 either.

[@jackscalfani555]

Don't bother buying the EZ Flash Parallel. It has already been abandoned by the developers and it has a serious bug where sleep mode is broken and you can't close the DS lid. The EZ Flash Parallel was hyped up by the big KZbinrs and it has been quickly forgotten ever since.

[@bruhtholemew]

I know you have good intentions, but you deserve your account getting flagged for spam.

[@jackscalfani555]

@@bruhtholemew I’m trying to stop people from wasting their hard earned money and buying a dud. It’s shameful that none of these KZbinrs have not done an update video on the EZ Flash Parallel and warn their viewers not to buy it. It’s shameful.

[@jevonp]

@@bruhtholemewpeople are literally reporting exactly what he said though

[@UnderTheSkin13]

Hell yeah. The Wood Kernel was such a lifesaver back in the day. Their timely updates on AP meant patching was usually unnecessary. People who wanted to play Chinatown Wars know.

[@loloioi]

You ABSOLUTELY need to test whether if the games can connect to the Wii. Like for example, most R4 cards don't allow games like Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum from connecting to Pokemon Battle Revolution on the Wii. I will only get this if it can connect.

[@yeolemillinial8295]

i got a cyclo DSI, since that quickly lost support back in the day i hope this has DSI support

[@WhatAboutZoidberg]

CycloDS still had the best menu. Sad that they shut down cus they were great.

[@yeolemillinial8295]

@@WhatAboutZoidberg DSI one never got updated past release, once a firmware update hit if you were in DSI mode it locked the cart, you could still use it in DS mode but one mistake would lock it.

[@megacherv]

​@@WhatAboutZoidbergcycloDS best card on the market

[@JimmyRaptis]

@@WhatAboutZoidberg still have my in my ds lite. Switched to a superCard DSTwo for the dsiXL.

[@lever1209]

the fact they violated the gpl is a major dealbreaker for me as a software engineer, there are some lines you just dont cross and that was one of them

[@superjuddy]

👎

[@EricEngel]

I like that the SD card is side loaded. I always worry it will fall out of the top loaded cards, even if it's never happened to me (yet).

[@Rayzajw]

It's happened to me 😂😂😂 the but yeah lucky I was at home

[@bland9876]

Why are you afraid of the SD card falling out but you're not afraid of the game card itself falling out?

[@EricEngel]

@@bland9876 Because the DS locks it in place?

[@bland9876]

@@EricEngel but don't SD card slots lock the SD card in place? That's why you have to push them in before they come back out.

[@zachtwilightwindwaker596]

I doubt it's going to fall out.

[@MeltraNS]

So I guess we won't have to worry about time bombs with the ezflash?

[@Anthony-qt8wv]

I heard it doesn't allow you to close the lid and allow the DS to go into sleep mode. I am not sure if they have fixed this in an update but that would be something to look for.

[@Yeshuah6]

I dont see any need to get this thing myself since i use twilight menu on my 3ds but it looks like this has a lot of potential.

[@hamsterwolf]

One use case is that twilight menu loads kinda slow so game swapping might actually be much faster with a flash cart. That's one of the things that kept my 3ds from replacing my ds. I'm a bit spoiled when it comes to load times on handhelds. But I do get free is free.

[@Dad_Shoes]

I like using my R4 to backup and restore GBA saves using a special custom ROM. I can't do that on a 3DS.

[@joshbolen6515]

If I'm being honest, I didn't even realize this was a thing. I've had my 3DS foe years and never even thought about a cart. If I am being even more honest, I just bought one of these. With your code it is $31 after shipping for anyone that's curious. Thanks for the cool video, Tito!

[@PipBoy3k]

The only thing I care about with DS flash is how well they'll run B/W and B2/W2. The main utility for me is save transfers but that generation of games I've never been able to get running.

[@BRAMCRACK3R]

Does it work with local wireless multiplayer games? Like if you and a buddy both had Parallel's and wanted to play Metroid Prime Hunters together?

[@hyxlo_]

It is a very important disclaimer that sleep mode doesn't seem to work on devices prior to the 3ds. I think this card is better than a r4 in a few ways but that bug alone is enough of a reason to just get an r4 (I think a few r4s have the same issue but it's not common). Also it seems EZflash has known about this bug for months and none of the updates since then have done anything to fix it. I really hope EZflash open sources the kernel soon so somebody else can fix it.

[@BigJoker]

I'm curious to see what the fpga ends up being used for. Could be some cool stuff!

[@Sb129]

I seem to remember flash carts of the time also including more RAM and even one added extra processing, I think anyways. Lol It has been a while. There was the R4 (Revolution 4 DS), the Cyclo, the M3 and some no name clones. Later there was the DS TWO and some other one I can't remember. I remember using DSLinux and DSOrganize to browse the internet as well as chat on IRC. In the early days you needed to patch stuff (DLDI). what a time. It is so simple now by the looks of it.

[@ThunderTHR]

To this day I have never tried out any iteration of the R4, when I was growing up the DS Flashcart I had as a kid was the "DSTT". (It was never confirmed on what the TT stood for, the most common belief is that it stood for 'TopToy', the possible manufacturer (?) of said carts), and it was AMAZING. It had an incredibly simple menu that just showed you everything you needed, the roms and apps all in one place, and accessing cheats was also incredibly easy. Me being a kid, I found that particularly very handy. I even remember using it to load a homebrew application that someone made that turned the DS into a sort of 'iPod' (it even mimicked the touch wheel and the iPod menu) for listening to .mp3s. Was pretty nifty. Its nice to see that EZ Flash have picked up the WOOD Kernel to make a suitable, likely more reliable replacement for all those R4 carts. Might have to pick up another DS soon and go for one of these Parallel carts.

[@MrGarryGrey]

Or you could buy a DSi (I love my XL) and softmod it, getting same functionality without having to use flash cart at all. Probably not much more expensive than DS + this flash cart. It's cool looking though, I'm assuming you can install Twilight Menu on this cart as well, just like on R4 ones (or potentially in the future).

[@MrCamel-mb3nd]

thats why I don't see a reason having this card. softmod console and forget about anything

[@toshineon]

I hope this can, or will later be able to, connect to Pokémon Battle Revolution. The only flashcart I have that can do this without the DS locking up on a white screen is the original R4. Granted, I use Wood on it, maybe the original kernel couldn't, I can't remember. But this has been an issue on almost all DS carts.

[@trexslapfight]

You had me at Saxophone.

[@rubencastro2247]

Tito i really dig the music your channel has.

[@MachoNachoProductions]

Thank you!

[@numberoneappgames]

Knowing EZ, they definitely put in the work to make it better. I hope that they add to the software later with emulators. I hope they release a 3DS version.

[@bland9876]

Why do you need a 3DS version when that system already has and SD card slot built into it?

[@indatubesurfer]

This is a 3ds version. That’s how ez flash markets it

[@GigaWhatt0]

Narrator: They did not.

[@harrykaant]

Great review and amazing production!

[@CodeAsm]

But werent earlier R4 cards using a FPGA aswell? Altho you cannot identify the blob, wouldnt they just buy the fpga/cpld ic from the manufacturer without the package? I sure have a M3 and older R4 card that have an fpga inside. newer gen fpga's tho, might very well indeed be less powerhungry.

[@Electric_Doodie]

Yes, even the clones with the blob, might be using old / cheap ass FPGA or alternatives there, that are just hidden. It's basically the brain that makes it work communicating with the DS etc, so it's nothing .. new. So it's just a mark up price thing. But aside from that, the card has a lot of issues, even 5 months later (still sleep mode issues), slow games, etc.

[@CodeAsm]

@@Electric_Doodie after a bit of googling, might be an actel proasic3 (now microsemi/microchip?). But cant find if you can buy them bare die. Maybe in large quantities in other documents noted.

[@TheRestartPoint]

Im happy with my R4 so far but if this made possible something new like easy modless TV-out (even if it required some additional hardware) i'd be interested.

[@posey999pikachu9]

R4 time bombs can be dismissed on all versions if you just choose to install the latest firmware or install a different firmware like TM++.

[@brauliogarcia1836]

great video Tito. this is the only channel that is talking about this card. something curious is that many weeks ago I saw this card on aliexpress and on the EZ official page this card wasn't mentioned, so I thought it was a scam. after watching this video I ordered mine to see how it works.

[@mactep1]

My only guess is that the FPGA is for adding 3ds game compatibility down the line, but in a way that doesn't make them potentially legally liable.

[@pomettini]

I don't think it would be technically possible I'm afraid, the port is the same as 3DS cartridges but the data bus is completely different :(

[@SuJuMcKronklin]

maybe it could be used for adding GB/GBC emulation?

[@BladeEXE67]

probably unneccesary, while I have never seen a 3ds specific flash cart, you can just mod the entire system. though a flash cart would make things easier.

[@BladeEXE67]

@@SuJuMcKronklin an r4 can do that as well, and the 3ds can play virtual console games already.

[@meatbleed]

The FPGA is used to emulate the DS games

[@Christian-ex8hy]

Great video as everytime. I really like the jazz background music. Good choice!

[@Bane_Amesta]

I feel they should have waited before launching this flashcard, at least using that chip and give it unique stuff to make it more special... I still have my R4 and use it regularly, so not for me, unless mine brokes or something. It looks super nice tho

[@grayismysuperpower]

yes they should have done more basic testing too. It's buggy and from what I've seen does not even work on DSi consoles!

[@dreamcast2k1]

Hopefully when or if they make a version 2 in the far future they have the ir port because everyone is gonna love that especially since the sd card port is on the side it makes room for that

[@fiffy6572]

considering an aliexpress card generally cost around 8-15€ 25€ for a good quality and future proof with margin of updates and new features is a great deal!

[@Electric_Doodie]

Not even close, a working Ace3DSPlus Clone (works on all consoles, uses basically the same Kernel as EZ Flash, since EZ is building on the same Open source Wood Kernel that they use) is like 5€ max, unless you buy a expensive one because you didn't looked right, I know it because I bought it a while ago for like 4,32€.

[@TheMagpyeTrader]

If it uses the Wood kernel does it do the Wii-to-DS link feature used by the Pokemon series correctly? A lot of R4s and their clones don't support it. Speaking of, a fantastic future use of the FPGA would be to emulate a DS/DSi card 1 for 1. Pokemon Black(2) and White(2) linking to Bank, that would be neat.

[@emmettturner9452]

I honestly don’t know why everyone bought R4 back in the day. It was usually the inferior option but it was the one everyone knew about. I had DS-X, M3DS real, Max Media Dock with Max Overload, AceKard 2i, DSTTi, some R4 Gold made for DSi/3DS, Gateway 3DS, and more over the years. One thing I always wanted was a single-card mode compatible with DS Download Play bonuses and such. Is that what “Native NTR” does?

[@DragRedSim]

Nope; it’s “native NTRBoot”, which is an exploit for hacking 3DS systems being built in to the card (as opposed to having to add the tools manually), to the best of my knowledge.

[@TheCynicalJedi]

AceKard 2i was my pick of the bunch back in the day, still working now too Native NTR is referring to the NTRBoot Exploit that can be used to hack 3DS systems for installation of Custom Firmware that allows you to run homebrew etc As far as I understand it, and I could be wrong, it essentially just means the cartridge is able to run NDS games on an unmodified 3DS system (As the NTRBoot exploit is done by launching a .nds file)

[@letsgocnote85]

Appreciate this breakdown! I'm new to the retro scene and didn't know about these cards. I gifted my "New" 3DS and DS Lite to my kids. They'll be stoked that I can get them a whole bunch of games quicker and cheaper.

[@Punmaster9001]

I am commenting at 7 minutes into the video, chomping at the bit to see if this is something I should get. My R4 is great, but if this has good potential I'm all in! Comments after I'm done watching the video: Well, even if R4 devices are super cheap now, and I do own a very old one, that cost about $100 at the time (woof) I think the potential of this is worth the purchase. Also there's a shipping charge, so closer to $30 I'm always glad when Tito has something new to show us for Nintendo products that undermines their ridiculous anti-sharing of roms.

[@KnightOfKnights]

Oh man. My M3 Perfect card had realtime saves. That was a really neat feature!

[@adonian]

When you said FPGA, my interest went through the roof... .My R4 died a long time ago, this looks like it has potential with an fpga.

[@bland9876]

Can we get a video on what the best flash art is fir everu system and why? Specifically i want a Gameboy/color, GBA, and DS flash carts.

[@guardianali]

- Never buy anything because of "new things MAY come" statements. They usually never do. Just like you should never buy a game thats buggy cause the reviewer said "but im sure theyu will fix it". Until it actually is, then assume it wont be.

[@geebon132]

Pretty awesome! I like the transparent look. I still have a Gateway blue card and still works great.

[@Richie33.]

RIP THE LEGEND CREATOR GENIUS DRAGON BALL AKIRA TORIYAMA AND CHRONO TRIGGER DRAGON QUEST FLY TO THE HEAVEN 🙏🇵🇭❤️✌️

[@johnbillings5260]

I'm glad to see they are still in the game after all of these years. I knew some of the team during the EZ3/EZ4 era and they were some nice people.

[@d0lph1n0lympics]

Do not buy this product it doesn’t support sleep and is buggy as hell and the dev team has no transparency with the public at all and it’s essentially useless

[@jsaulsa1114]

Can confirm. used this thing only once on my 2ds xl and when i tried again the damn firmware was corrupted :(

[@jackscalfani555]

Don't bother buying the EZ Flash Parallel. It has already been abandoned by the developers and it has a serious bug where sleep mode is broken and you can't close the DS lid. The EZ Flash Parallel was hyped up by the big KZbinrs and it has been quickly forgotten ever since.

[@d0lph1n0lympics]

Yea it’s seriously so bad. I used to love this KZbin channel but him promoting this garbage left a bad taste in my mouth.

[@israel9350]

Already ordered mine. I’ll give a reply review once I get it.

[@notorious_yip]

I bought this card. I used it for about 30 minutes, and realized what a mistake this purchase was. The sleep bug makes this card completely useless to me. I reverted back to my old ACE3DSx almost immediately. I will never trust KZbin reviews anymore.

[@marianocinquegrani7595]

What does that bug do? Probably would be easily fixed with next firmware update...

[@jackscalfani555]

@@marianocinquegrani7595 The EZ Flash team has already abandoned this product and it has a major bug where it does NOT support sleep mode and will cause your DS to power strobe if you try to let it sleep with this flash cart.

[@BottomOfTheDumpsterFire]

Kinda wild how flash cards now still have less features than my CycloDS from back in the day.

[@ToyKeeper]

5:58 "G L P"? I've been doing free software my entire life and I don't think I've ever heard the GPL called that before. It stands for the "GNU Public License", and it's a major part of why free software still exists instead of devolving into a proprietary hellscape.

[@caste215]

He clearly misspoke as the screen say GPL while he's speaking AND says exactly that, that it stands for General Public License (GPL).

[@ToyKeeper]

@@caste215Yeah, just a speak-o, like a typo. Also, I had a very "Berenstein Bears" moment there, since I've been using the license for 30 years and just now realized the "G" is for "General", not "GNU". I had assumed it's like GNU, where the "G" means "GNU".

[@jarelvt5015]

Considering how much I spent on my Acekard 2i way back when, and can't get any new firmware or support for it, $25 is definitely compelling

[@GaetanLavigne443]

unnecessary.. imo.. but ok

[@GriffithFromBerk]

But it’s cool tho 😭 I love stuff like this honestly. You could really just get a DSi and an SD card, but the best thing about console modding/gaming communities are things like this

[@JeanRodo]

just like you

[@braketsu]

⁠@@JeanRodowhy’d you take that so personally lmao

[@Supersonic1014]

​@@GriffithFromBerkI mean, at that point you could go a step further, homebrew the DSi and just get twilight menu. Put all your roms on the SD card, put it in the DSi, and there you go, no need for any kind of physical flashcarts. Plus it's more reliable since there's no risk of you losing the flashcart or the flashcart breaking.

[@stephenshelottiii3272]

@@Supersonic1014 yes, but you loose the GBA cart slot. You are correct though.

[@baconberries8097]

I had no idea that they drew so much power! I thought my DS battery was getting old. I mean, it is old, but that it had deteriorated.

[@lospolloshermanoslph]

don't buy this trash the only good thing about this is the shell, litteraly any 3$ flashcart is better than this sh*t

[@bj_u-f]

It's great to see a decent manufacturer doing these flashcarts. My number one request would be a working Wii conectivity, there are some old cards with this feature but the only thing you can get right now are those crappy Ace3DS clones with timebombs and weird bugs on the kernel (like white screens on game boot). NTRBoot, Wood kernel and lower power consumption are really nice to begin with, but I hope they go the extra mile to pack more software and hardware features. It would be the one to rule them all.

[@Narque]

well thanks for the scam macho... wont be trusting your reviews anymore. grabbed one of these and they are terrible slow down in most games the read speed of this cart is so slow that a cheap $5 clone card performs better than this does . so dont waste your money guys

[@PinkFreakCrystal]

Have you tested to see if Parallel is able to have Pokemon DS games connect to wii games like Battle Revolution or My Pokemon Ranch? That's the main reason I would be getting any sort of R4 replacement if it has compatibility with the wii.

[@Mehtalik]

Seems like a pretty meh flashcart. Full of what ifs and not a single selling point why should I rush to get it. R4s have their flaws, but they do the exactly same thing for much cheaper. But personally I'd recommend sticking to DSi with unlaunch and TwilightMenu. You get absolutely no excessive power drain because there is literally no flash cart, you get to unlock DSi's full CPU capability for games that experience slow-down on regular DS' and you get a native resolution screen, so it's better than 3DS.

[@CompletelyAverageGameplay]

Agreed. I have an R4 just for pulling Pokemon save data off the GBA carts using my DS lite, but I would use a hacked dsi xl for anything else...

[@professormarill3251]

combining the flashcart and a ds tv out to play ds, gameboy advance, gameboy, snes, nes, and more on a tv seems like it would be awesome

[@bitdevice]

I had DS-Xtreme, the first slot 1 flash cart released. No SD card only built-in memory and price was over $100. It wasn't supported for long but I only have good memories of the DS.

[@SamPearman]

I have two of these, one of each model. They were so good, with FPGA and all, and ugh R4 is trash. There was someone who ordered a DS-X online recently and got it working on a 3DS, but even using his code I can't get either of mine to load properly. I'm guessing he was only on firmware v1.

[@DeAthWaGer]

not to mention the system's battery would last almost as long as if an original cart were inserted. Also love the cart's LEDs, which aren't terrible on the battery if left on super low. I love my R4 for the most part, but dear lord it drains energy like a firehose.

[@Evercade_Effect]

Thanks for covering this as I'm interested in getting a DS and it's good to know what options are out there.

[@MrTmb64]

I was in the market for a ds flashcart, since r4 cards are hard to come by in my country, this is pretty cool to see

[@Hamburgerdad]

Contrary to your con, I feel like this is a fair price point for the US market. I have an Acekard clone that I got from Amazon and that was $30 shipped. What I appreciated about that option was receiving the cart within 2 days and customer support if it didn't work. Yes, I paid a premium for that but it felt worth it. If my cart wasn't working I would definitely pick this up.

[@That_0ne_Dev]

I have the EZ Flash Omega so its good to see they doing one for DS now

[@namesurname4666]

i remember an issue where download play would crash with wood kernel, i wonder if it's fixed today, anyway nice editing, feels great to watch

[@KennytheHedgehog619]

I was waiting all day yesterday for a new video!

[@wilfredobracero4226]

Didn't DSTwo have a FPGA chip? I remember long time ago it was something they advertise being different from other flashcart.

[@sburk.87]

You're one of the best KZbinr in my opinion. 🎉🎉🎉

[@FrikZz0r]

Lovely vid Tito, thanks for the review.

[@returningwhisper]

Love your videos, Tito. Always look forward to these reviews!

[@EmilyCorradino]

Id love to see it be able to boot into dsi mode for dsi enhanced games and dsi shop games. I love my hacked dsi, but its not nearly as smooth of an experience as just having a game card with roms on it. Also, the lack of IR is pretty sad. It would be cool to have a card that can "replace" the normal game cards. As it stands, it still hasn't 100% replaced those expensive pokemon games.

[@The2xWhiskey]

Wow, great tidbit about the older RSI4's having a built in timebomb. I had one way back and had wondered why it stopped working. Thanks!

[@AwesomeGames56]

I’m sorry, as far as I’m aware the R4 carts don’t have a timebomb. The firmware requires updates and do have dates coded into it to that don’t allow users to play games until they update but not one that forces you to buy a whole new card. I’ve had my R4i-SDHC for quite a while and it still works fine.