PassMe2 and Super Card Review

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Created on Wednesday, 04 January 2012 21:46

Last Updated on Wednesday, 11 September 2013 02:40

Written by Lynx

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Well, this is a first look/use of the Super Card to play homebrew .nds files using the PassMe2 (Which requires SRAM to work) with the Super Card.

So, I open the box take out the Super Card, Pop the Super Card into the DS (Damn.. that's a tight fit!) remove my Compact Flash card from my GBA Movie Player, pop it into the Super Card... Turn on the DS in GBA Mode and guess what I see...

Not FAT Format
Please turn off GBA


Hmm.. Not FAT? That's wierd. So I check the CF format.. and sure enough.. it's FAT32.. Wow.. Super Card can't handle FAT32? Where have they been? Even the GBA Movie Player supports FAT32..

Ok.. so let me borrow the CF card from my digital camera.. Yup.. it's FAT... so the first thing I do is go the supercard.cn to download the latest "kernel" for the Super Card, V1.52. I copy the bin file to the CF card, pop it into the Super Card (Still inserted into the DS, which is kinda nice.. but I still fear damage to the pins with no protection around the CF card).. Let's update the "kernel" and see if the curren version supports FAT32..

Restart the DS in GBA Mode.. select the cf_152.bin file and watch it count xxx/654k and it reboots.. That was fast.. Ok.. let's try the FAT32 CF card again..

FIRMWARE NOTE: From Anti-M$ posted on dslinux.org forums:

I figured out that I had version 1.44 of the Supercard firmware, and couldn't upgrade directly from 1.44 to 1.53. I had to first install 1.52. Once I figured that out, the rest went fine. Thanks, guys.


Boo hooo.. Same message... Ok.. just for the sake of writing this info up, I'll stick with the FAT CF card and wonder what the hell the Super Card people could be thinking for not supporting FAT32..

So, on to using the PassMe2 with the Super Card.

So, I copy the following files onto the CF card:

passme2buttonwait.gba - To write SRAM data
Drummers.ds.gba
Drummers.nds
flashme.nds

Ok.. here we go..

First, start the DS in GBA mode and run the passme2buttonwait.gba file.

You should see the list of game codes to choose from. In this case, I am using the Metroid Prime Demo version of PassMe2.. So, I am going to press the D-Pad RIGHT a few times to scroll through a page at a time and select AMFE. You would pick the game code that is written on the front of your DS game cart

So, we press the A button and we receive the "SRAM Written" message.. Now, while the DS is still turned on, pop in your PassMe2 with your DS cart inserted and turn off, and then back on, the DS quickly.

Bickety Bam.. it launches in NDS mode.
NOTE: what I have found, if you do not turn off/and back on your DS quick enough, it looses the SRAM data.. you MUST run the passme2buttonwait.gba again to reload the SRAM Data.

Ok.. so we are in NDS mode.. now what? Well, let's first start with flashme.nds so that we don't have to worry about the PassMe2 or SRAM data ever again! Yippee!

More info on FlashMe

Ok.. but what about the other .nds files? Let's check them out.. Here are the results of the few homebrew .nds files I tested, using the PassMe2 and SRAM data:

drummers.nds = two white screens
drummers.ds.gba = reboots into GBA mode :(
dummers.ds.gba renamed to .ds.nds = Launches fine.. :( So, none of the standard (or OLD) .nds files work.. They need to have the header prepended, but still need to be called .nds otherwise it reboots into GBA mode.. but, all in all.. it does work with PassMe2.

So, why does the FlashMe.nds file work, but the Drummer.nds file not? Well, the current version of DevkitARM now builds the .nds file in a format that doesn't require the ndsmall.bin to be prepended.

So, I'm going back to the GBA MP.. Holy crap.. it's even harder to remove! Good thing you can remove the CF without removing the Super Card or your fingers would be hurting all the time! :)

Summery

If you don't plan on installing FlashMe, this is not really a good way to run .nds homebrew. It's down right rediculous! Every time you want to run a NDS game/app, you have to boot into GBA Mode, write the SRAM, pop in the PassMe2, restart the DS real quick, and play your .ds.gba file renamed to .nds.

I have heard that you can put the SRAM data file onto the CF card, so I will investigate that, and update this info later.

Overall

Super Card work with PassMe2? YES! It does work!

But.. it sucks. Though, it is now the cheapest way to run .nds homebrew on the DS.. You can pick one of these up for around $30 + $15 shipping for a total price of $45 in your hand.