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CycloDS Evolution Review

CycloDS Evolution Review



This device comes in a nice little metal can. I was surprised to see the CycloDS guys went one step farther than everyone else and actually had the CycloDS Evolution screened onto the USB MicroSD reader/writer. This is the first time I have seen this. Nice touch, as long as it didn't increase the price any. ;) Now, besides the fact that the metal can could be handy for storing change, it's a little bigger than I would expect. Being that I sold homebrew devices for a while, I realized the benefit of having small packaging so more fit on a shelf and enough protection for the contents. With a metal can, you have plenty of protection. The foam padding is also more than adequate. So, no worries your new CycloDS Evolution will be damaged in shipping unless it is driven over. But, at the same time, using a metal tin, they could have reduced the size a little bit.

Anyway, let's take a look. I popped the card into the DS, it launched with a nice little boot screen and I selected my language.



Then, I was greeted with a "MicroSD card not found! Please turn off the NDS and insert a MicroSD card into the CycloDS Evolution". Well, that's an honest request. So I pop a MicroSD card in and try again.



The first thing I notice is the MicroSD card sticks out. Not far, but enough to be annoying. I get a fairly simple menu. Games/Homebrew, Media, and Settings/Misc. I also noticed that I was using version 1.2 of the on-board OS. Let's check out the homebrew compatibility. Some are DLDI patched for another device, some are not DLDI patched at all. When I click on Games/Homebrew, I get a directory listing. I hope one of the features they plan on adding (or already have with updated firmware) is the ability to jump down the directory listing using left/right. If you have a long list, you are forced to scroll through the entire thing.

Let's get started.

By hitting X on the homebrew list, you can change how it displays the list. Nice touch. I started off with Colors.nds. This would allow me to test reading/writing to the FAT system. It launched fine.. I drew a quick picture and it saved and loaded fine. I even restarted the DS and ran it again to make sure I could still load the drawing. No problems at all. So I continued down the list that was already loaded onto the card. Ahh.. DSLinux.nds.. I have no idea what version number it is, but I know it uses DLDI.. It started without any problems and I was even able to create a test directory under the /media folder.. So far, I'm actually impressed.. lets take a look at the list:

Colors.nds - No problems
DSAllStars.nds - No problems
DSLinux.nds - No problems
DStroy.nds - No problems
dsvideo-1.01.nds - DLDI Error.. though, it's because I didn't put the .dldi file into the video folder.. so this is still OK
lmp-ng.nds - No problems, played .mp3s fine
Moonshell.nds - No problems
TetrisDS Official Demo - No problems
wifi_lib_test.nds - No problems
Worldofsand-0.1.nds - No problems

Wow.. I think this is one of the first times I have actually just popped in a MicroSD card that wasn't prepatched or even prepared for a device and everything worked fine. Kudos to the CycloDS team for creating a homebrew friendly device! Now, when I select the media icon from the main menu, it launches DS Organize? Wait a second. That's kind of weird, as DS Organize was named bootme.nds for my Datel Games N Music card. Let me rename it and try again. Hmm.. it still launches DS Organize.. one last test.. Let's remove DSOrganize from the card. It still launches DS Organize.. That's not cool. That means DS Organize is in the firmware. DragonMinded has explicitly requested that commercial products not use his code.

CORRECTION: DS Organize IS NOT in the firmware. What I didn't realize is that the latest version of DS Organize is "borrowing" the moonshl name. It appears the CycloDS just launches the moonshell.nds in the moonshl folder. DragonMinded is now providing this directory and name with the download. So, I just grabbed everything in the .zip file and tossed it onto my MicroSD card during testing, without realizing I was also copying the "fake" moonshell.nds file at the same time. So, the CycloDS does use a custom MoonShell by default. My apologies to the CycloDS team. Thanks Tom, for taking the time to contact me.

So, overall, I am very impressed with the card. It worked out of the box, didn't need anything special, like a file system on the MicroSD card, and everything I tried worked without a problem.

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