dreary79
09-21-2005, 09:36 AM
Review of M3 Perfect Compact Flash with Passkey
I received my M3 on September 20th from Divieno.com
I am using a Kingston 2GB 50x Elite Pro Compact Flash with a SanDisk 2.0 Reader.
Hardware:
The M3 is built very well. The passkey is also, but I won't be using it since I have Flashme installed. GBA roms and NDS roms both run no problem with Flashme. GBA roms play with both screens lit up... weird... so unless they patch this, your not going to get as good of battery life playing GBA games.
EDIT: Hold select when turning on the NDS. It will go to the NDS menu and select "Start GBA Game". Now only one screen will be lit up.
PC Software:
M3 Game Manager V1.3 Special
The software installed very easy. This software Unzips Zipped GBA Roms and copies them onto the flashdrive. It patches GBA Roms so that when you press A+B+L+R simultaneously you go into a menu where you can do an Instant Save, Load Save, Restart Rom, or go to the Main Menu. Patches NDS games and makes them load super fast.
First I had to make sure that the directory named “gamesave” and all the files in it were copied to the root directory of the CF card. I found that out from the help document, thing is, the software program should have copied it over for me. Pretty easy though.
With GBA you don't have to use the game manager software. If you want the save state type feature your going to have to patch your gba games and go though the software. By the way, some games wouldn't play or crashed after patching them, I guess they are going to have to do a software update sometime.
EDIT/UPDATE: With the 10-14-05 firmware E08 update it it possible to have 200 gba and 200 nds game saves. GBA saves and NDS saves are now in separate folders.
GBA Movie Convert 2.2
This software converts Dvd's, Video Files, Music, and Pictures into files playable on the M3. The software is very easy to use and I don't have a whole lot to say about it. It does what it does and pretty fast too. My only complaint is that when you convert video at 360x240 it only showed 240x160 of the video on my computer screen; kind of odd.
Playing Video
After converting video I was surprised that they didn't run in DS mode.. you have to hit 'start' to go into GBA mode and then play the video. Seems there is going to have to be a firmware update or Movie Convert software update.
The quality of the video and audio is pretty good... depending on the quality of course. It seems to have better quality and convert faster than the MP2.
EDIT/UPDATE: I uninstalled all of my old movie converting software and installed verion 1.60 off of the gbalpha website and videos play great in NDS mode! =)
Playing Audio
Original File: 192kbps = 5.46MB
M3 File: Highest Setting = 5.05MB
I like the sound of a 192kbps mp3 file and I don't mind the 5.46MB it takes. The M3 file wasn't even close to the same quality. I wasn't very impressed at all and I don't want to convert mp3's to another format anyhow. This software isn't going to make for your new mp3 player.
Moonshell
On M3 website you can also download a NDS program called moonshell. The video quality after conversion still needs a little work, but what really makes this software shine is that it had MP3 playback. I tried a number of different mp3's and they all worked great! Sound isn't perfect, but with headphones I could take this places. It actually has really good bass with my Boss Titanium headphones. =)
Viewing Pictures
They don't look too pretty after converting them. Moonshell can load my 4.1MP jpegs with no problem. Moonshell does need more features for jpegs. But so much of this stuff is very new.
GBA Games:
All my games worked perfect at 100% speed! All my games saved perfect! I don't know if all games work... but all that I tried work great.
Some of the patched roms did not work, but since patching is a bonus option its not a huge deal.
When you save a game, the save is stored into the M3 memory. When you start a different game that memory is written over with the game save of the new game. You therefor lose your first games save. Don't freak out, there is a solution, you can backup your save file. I wish that this was automatic, but its not. So, after playing a game just remember to backup the save file. Then when you go back to play that game again it will ask you to load your backup. All of this is done inside the M3 Games Menu; it's super easy.
NDS Games:
Saving works the same with NDS games as they do with GBA games. I never had a problem backing up game saves. The patching software came out late =( so I had to start testing games with NDS Patcher. It was very nice playing DS roms! NDS Patcher patched games take a little while to load, but nothing too bad. Using M3's patching software the games load super fast, in just a few seconds, even the large ones. Not all games work with M3's patcher yet... Meteos did, but Canvas Curse did not. I don't know if it's a bad rom, but my guess is it just didn't patch right.
EDIT/UPDATE: M3 keeps up on updating their software. Kirby now works and well as many others that did not before. Updates are coming out about every week or two.
Emulation & Homebrewed Games:
Hexen DS – Runs
DS Heretic – Runs
scummvmds – Runs
PocketNES – Runs
By the way when I say it runs, I'm not saying the emulation is perfect. I'm saying it's running like it was programed to. I didn't try saving on any of them.
EDIT/UPDATE: For some reason Homebrewed game change compatability with firmware updates. Some games get broken then fixed.
M3 on GBA SP:
GBA games run fine so do the movies! =) If you don't have a DS, the M3 is still a great product for GBA owners.
Final Thoughts
The fact is... taking a product out of a box and then having to patch it to make it run right is a little bit of a problem. But all in all the M3 is a good product. It still needs some improvements, but even with its current flaws I'm enjoying it a ton.
Ask lots of questions!
I received my M3 on September 20th from Divieno.com
I am using a Kingston 2GB 50x Elite Pro Compact Flash with a SanDisk 2.0 Reader.
Hardware:
The M3 is built very well. The passkey is also, but I won't be using it since I have Flashme installed. GBA roms and NDS roms both run no problem with Flashme. GBA roms play with both screens lit up... weird... so unless they patch this, your not going to get as good of battery life playing GBA games.
EDIT: Hold select when turning on the NDS. It will go to the NDS menu and select "Start GBA Game". Now only one screen will be lit up.
PC Software:
M3 Game Manager V1.3 Special
The software installed very easy. This software Unzips Zipped GBA Roms and copies them onto the flashdrive. It patches GBA Roms so that when you press A+B+L+R simultaneously you go into a menu where you can do an Instant Save, Load Save, Restart Rom, or go to the Main Menu. Patches NDS games and makes them load super fast.
First I had to make sure that the directory named “gamesave” and all the files in it were copied to the root directory of the CF card. I found that out from the help document, thing is, the software program should have copied it over for me. Pretty easy though.
With GBA you don't have to use the game manager software. If you want the save state type feature your going to have to patch your gba games and go though the software. By the way, some games wouldn't play or crashed after patching them, I guess they are going to have to do a software update sometime.
EDIT/UPDATE: With the 10-14-05 firmware E08 update it it possible to have 200 gba and 200 nds game saves. GBA saves and NDS saves are now in separate folders.
GBA Movie Convert 2.2
This software converts Dvd's, Video Files, Music, and Pictures into files playable on the M3. The software is very easy to use and I don't have a whole lot to say about it. It does what it does and pretty fast too. My only complaint is that when you convert video at 360x240 it only showed 240x160 of the video on my computer screen; kind of odd.
Playing Video
After converting video I was surprised that they didn't run in DS mode.. you have to hit 'start' to go into GBA mode and then play the video. Seems there is going to have to be a firmware update or Movie Convert software update.
The quality of the video and audio is pretty good... depending on the quality of course. It seems to have better quality and convert faster than the MP2.
EDIT/UPDATE: I uninstalled all of my old movie converting software and installed verion 1.60 off of the gbalpha website and videos play great in NDS mode! =)
Playing Audio
Original File: 192kbps = 5.46MB
M3 File: Highest Setting = 5.05MB
I like the sound of a 192kbps mp3 file and I don't mind the 5.46MB it takes. The M3 file wasn't even close to the same quality. I wasn't very impressed at all and I don't want to convert mp3's to another format anyhow. This software isn't going to make for your new mp3 player.
Moonshell
On M3 website you can also download a NDS program called moonshell. The video quality after conversion still needs a little work, but what really makes this software shine is that it had MP3 playback. I tried a number of different mp3's and they all worked great! Sound isn't perfect, but with headphones I could take this places. It actually has really good bass with my Boss Titanium headphones. =)
Viewing Pictures
They don't look too pretty after converting them. Moonshell can load my 4.1MP jpegs with no problem. Moonshell does need more features for jpegs. But so much of this stuff is very new.
GBA Games:
All my games worked perfect at 100% speed! All my games saved perfect! I don't know if all games work... but all that I tried work great.
Some of the patched roms did not work, but since patching is a bonus option its not a huge deal.
When you save a game, the save is stored into the M3 memory. When you start a different game that memory is written over with the game save of the new game. You therefor lose your first games save. Don't freak out, there is a solution, you can backup your save file. I wish that this was automatic, but its not. So, after playing a game just remember to backup the save file. Then when you go back to play that game again it will ask you to load your backup. All of this is done inside the M3 Games Menu; it's super easy.
NDS Games:
Saving works the same with NDS games as they do with GBA games. I never had a problem backing up game saves. The patching software came out late =( so I had to start testing games with NDS Patcher. It was very nice playing DS roms! NDS Patcher patched games take a little while to load, but nothing too bad. Using M3's patching software the games load super fast, in just a few seconds, even the large ones. Not all games work with M3's patcher yet... Meteos did, but Canvas Curse did not. I don't know if it's a bad rom, but my guess is it just didn't patch right.
EDIT/UPDATE: M3 keeps up on updating their software. Kirby now works and well as many others that did not before. Updates are coming out about every week or two.
Emulation & Homebrewed Games:
Hexen DS – Runs
DS Heretic – Runs
scummvmds – Runs
PocketNES – Runs
By the way when I say it runs, I'm not saying the emulation is perfect. I'm saying it's running like it was programed to. I didn't try saving on any of them.
EDIT/UPDATE: For some reason Homebrewed game change compatability with firmware updates. Some games get broken then fixed.
M3 on GBA SP:
GBA games run fine so do the movies! =) If you don't have a DS, the M3 is still a great product for GBA owners.
Final Thoughts
The fact is... taking a product out of a box and then having to patch it to make it run right is a little bit of a problem. But all in all the M3 is a good product. It still needs some improvements, but even with its current flaws I'm enjoying it a ton.
Ask lots of questions!