July 25th, 2024
The other day, I was thinking about DS flashcarts. I remembered this Guinness World Records book from 2010 that had a really small section about the R4 Revolution card and how the Japanese courts deemed them illegal to sell in the country in 2009. I read that as a kid and wondered what was so illegal about the cartridge. I didn't realize at the time that having ROMs of games you don't own was illegal at all.
I used to own a Supercard DSTWO back in 2013 or 2014. At the time, it was considered the best flashcart you could ever get with high compatibility and its own CPU on board allowing for better performance on special apps and emulators. It was cool and I played the hell out of it. So much so that the cart barely works anymore. They're no longer produced and the carts go for a lot of money now, but the bonuses are pretty useless these days.
I remember that DS flashcarts are so cheap now. I looked out for one and came out with this cheap $1 one. It's a Sky3DS+ clone, as they all are these days. It works pretty good and there's no timebomb aswell. I haven't had a single issue with it yet.
I could've used TWLMenu++ on a 3DS or DSi, but I really don't like TWLMenu++. I feel like it bloats itself with too many useless things. There's the intro, quick menu, and a ROM list, then there's emulators? I know you can disable all of that, but it's a little too much... It's supposed to a nds-bootstrap frontend, can't it just be that?
The fight between Nintendo and flashcarts is a little funny to look through. There's many articles from the time about stores in Japan selling the R4, reports that 70% of the DS userbase in South Korea had an R4, and the amount of fake R4 flashcarts in the market soon after. Even Yahoo Auctions warned about legal liability selling R4s before completely banning them after the court decision. There were a couple of arrests that stemmed from Yahoo Auction listings too. It's crazy.
The funniest part about it, is that there were flashcart vending machines in Japan. Well after the ruling, this one company still tried selling cards out in the streets of Japan until 2010 where it seems like they finally shut down.
These days, Nintendo doesn't really care and I don't think they have since DS games stopped being produced. Yahoo Auctions seems to have lifted the ban on R4s, with a few original R4 cards being sold this year. I usually look up Magicon on Yahoo Auctions just to see if anyone uploaded interesting backup copiers.
I love Yahoo Auctions. I'm looking for an artist to draw me and Yahoo Auctions getting married.
I bought this metallic blue DSi from Yahoo Auctions. It was only around $3 and was untested junk. That coupled with the fact that it was shipped without a battery probably put everyone off. I was the only bidder. The thing didn't look like it had any damage and the water-damage stickers weren't worn, so I went for it. Maybe it could've been a big win?
It arrived a week after shipment and it was indeed good looking. There's some discoloration when lit and there's a bit of a bend on the shell, but again, 300 yen. I put in my old DSi's battery and turned it on. The DSi logo appeared and the default line of apps loaded up.
Unfortunately, here's where the problem began. The launcher would not start up any applications whatsoever, it would bring up the "An error has occurred." screen, which can't be good. Launching the camera from the shortcut and using the touch calibration shortcut did it too. I initally thought the system memory was going bad, but that was quickly deswayed when I launched a legitimate gamecard and it also brought up the error!
I looked it up online and the problem stemmed from the WLAN card possibly being shot. It sounds odd at first, but the WLAN chip is an important part on every DS system, storing user information and touch calibration data on it. My best theory is that the DSi tries to toggle one of the many WLAN cards on the chip, but it fails to make a connection, so it just explodes. According to DSibrew, the system tries to read the NVRAM before boot and will hang if it cannot access it, so a complete replacement is neccessary.
I never opened up a DS before, so this was a very scary task. The rubber feet hiding some screws were already removed, so someone must've tried repairing it themselves. It was really easy taking the console out though. I initally reseated the module and the antenna, which still didn't work. I instead opted for swapping this module out for the one in my old one. After powering it on and launching an application, there was no longer an error!
This DSi is a pretty color. It's not Japan-exclusive at all, it's just what was avaliable for only 300 yen. I haven't used my DSi in about a decade and I forgot how thin this handheld is, even the DS Lite is noticably thicker! The DSi is a rather fragile unit and being the thinnest DS system probably didn't help. Oh well. I'm not a little kid anymore, so I'm not going to be dropping this every day like I did with my other DSi.
Just to be completely sure, I tested my old DSi with the other module and the DSi refuses to launch anything with it. It does have Unlaunch installed so I can avoid using the regular launcher. There's 1 configuration for an AOSS access point on the module. Later down the line, I will buy a new WLAN card for it though. It's my old childhood one, I can't let it be for parts like that! I need to fill up one Pictochat room!
I won this sick Sony LAM-Z03 from Yahoo Auctions. It was listed as junk since the left speaker didn't work and the CD drive was a bit faulty. I put a bid of $40 for it and won it for only around $7. It's one of the MD machines I constantly looked out for before getting my FH-MD11.
The system looks pretty and modern! The unit has a glossy white finish with a metallic ring near the front. It's about as big as a Wii with the stand. The display shines a pretty blue, but the viewing angle is very small, making it appear faded or invisible when looking from the side. The CD drive doesn't have any issues and the MD drive records stuff just fine.
The speakers have seen better days. The front of both speakers are yellowed, but the covers hide that a good bit. The left speaker works fine and actually sounds pretty good. The right speaker could probably work fine, but it's a victim of poor cable quality. The Sony LAM-series speakers are notorious for having poorly sustainable cable. The left speaker that hooks directly to the system is good enough to not wear out, but the other speaker uses a 3.5mm mono speaker cable that is absolutely god awful. The speaker wire was crumbling in the photos, and crumbled more during shipment. It's most likely easy to replace and there's also an earphone out port, so not all is lost.
One of the major reasons why I wanted to buy this was for the NetMD function, which lets you upload music from your PC to your discs. It's my first deck with this highly coveted feature!
These days, people use web-minidisc to upload music to compatible NetMD devices. It requires a Chromium browser, like Google Chrome or Edge, but I don't want to use a whole different browser for one web app, so I use electronwmd. You drag-and-drop music to the window and it'll record after confirming some settings. It's too easy and it's faster than normal recording.
The Panasonic SJ-MJ15 supports MDLP. The play LED glows red or green depending on the type of MDLP used.
This deck also supports recording MDLP tracks. With an 80 minute disc, it's possible to record up to 320 minutes of audio when using the maximum MDLP setting. It functions like recording settings on a VHS tape, where it sacrifices quality for runtime. While my portable player does support this feature, my FH-MD11 does not, so I'm not interested in using it.
I bought an Xbox One from YAJ just cause. It was only $30 and is the original model. This is the most recent console purchase I've made from YAJ. First thing I thought of when taking it out was how HUGE it is. The VCR comments from 12 years ago were really onto something.
The Xbox One released in Japan on September 2014. It's safe to say this is a launch console.
Despite not coming with the power supply, it came with the box, documentation, and even the Halo redemption code. Before the system arrived, I found an OEM power supply at Goodwill, so we're good on that front.
After a pretty long setup process, the update took over 40 minutes, I was at the home screen with zero games to my name. I downloaded Fortnite as a test, a whole 80GB game which took 30 minutes to download. This system comes with a 500GB hard drive, which isn't a whole lot.
Fortnite ran pretty comfortably. It wasn't always 60FPS, of course, but it was still above 30FPS and that's good enough for me. Even in Battle Royale, the game doesn't chug at all. Reload is almost always 60FPS, which is cool. The games running better on decade old hardware than my own stupid PC. I hate this PC.
Clip cut to conserve on space. The duration is pretty long (up to 10 minutes) but the quality is meh.
I bought We Love Katamari REROLL + Royal Reverie a third time on this console and it ran beautifully! Absolutely superb! While it doesn't run at a constant 60FPS, it still runs above 30! I can finally stop playing my Switch...
Also I love the implementation of captures. It sucks that there isn't a specific capture button, you'll have to open the Xbox menu and then press a key to make a recording/screenshot, but sharing them is so easy in a post-Twitter integration world. They immediately upload to the Xbox network and you can save them to your phone without needing to take out the hard drive or turning on a stupid hotspot. It's awesome. I love Xbox.
Of course, it's a little weird to be buying last-gen hardware when we're so close to seeing them be dropped by game developers. We're already 4 years into this generation but it feels like nothing spectacular has happened. Games are still being released on both new and old gen hardware and companies are saying we're halfway through the new gen?
A new part has arrived for the SEGA NAOMI. I bought the SCSI cable for the GD-ROM drive, which was a part that did not come with the set I bought. It arrived with an additional DIMM power cable that I didn't need.
The cable connects the drive to the DIMM board.
After starting up the NAOMI, the system went into a memory check before finally loading the game onto the board. The drive was making familar GD-ROM drive noises while the game was being loaded. After a good minute, the board restarted and faded into the game...
Unfortunately, since I'm missing a part, that gets interrupted with an error! Pretty much all games check for an I/O board before getting into the game. While we can't play the game yet, it's good that we saw this error. This is the game telling us there's no I/O board, not the BIOS.
The service menu shows a new option to load the game's service menu. As of now, this is the only part of the game that we can access without an I/O board.
In the game's service menu, there's options to change certain aspects of the game, like making it harder to win against a CPU and such. Outside of that, it's mostly for bookkeeping, like how long people usually play for and high scores per character on that cabinet.
Now, we just need a JVS I/O board. I'm considering a MP07-IONA. People like to use Capcom or the Sega boards, but I think those are for people who have actual cabinets. I'd be lucky if I could buy any sort of cabinet in my lifetime.