The Future of Flashcarts: Can it only get better from here?

The DS:

I think the DS is in its most developed stages as it’s almost two years old now and every nook and cranny has been examined and tweaked as the DS Lite is proof of. The graphics just keep getting better and better with the DS and games like Mario Basketball 3 on 3 prove that.

I think the problem with the DS and “big releases” is that the power of the DS is there but the developers aren’t. It seems most developers want to continue the old days of the GBA where three or four guys worked on a title which today is just not possible. You need a full team of developers to make a good DS/PSP game and the good games stand out pushing the systems to their limits. I think the DS has a long life ahead of it now that it has shed its ugly original rushed “Phat” look.

Nopass devices:

Nopass devices themselves have come a long ways since the Superpass and the other huge RSA encryption breaking systems of the past. I don’t think there is any more room for improvement with the Nopass devices now as they are the same size as a DS game and give you all the features of a regular game cart including sleep mode!

Some newer models are including onboard memory for saves but I don’t think all models will try to adopt that feature. Products SuperKey and PassCard3 are the same exact PCB now even though they are from different companies which shows the developers are working together to come up with solutions on the cheap.

The Flashcart:

The flashcart has basically stayed the same in the sense of functionality while the size has grown significantly smaller. The SuperCard Lite is a great visual as to how small flashcarts have become in the past year alone! Remember the old SuperCard compact flash!?

I think the future of flashcarts is no longer tied to GBA functionality as gamers now want perfect DS reproduction first. I think the next breed of flashcarts will be DS based devices like the Ultra/Ninja Pass and will hold many more games then their current couterparts. Right now the Ultra/Ninja Pass looks like a DS game and has 64MB of onboard memory for games. The positives are that it functions as a Passme device and doesn’t require the GBA slot to operate. This DS slot ability will help to improve the DS battery life because currently all flashcarts drain the DS’s battery hours faster then normal.

NinjaDS also has a product coming out which uses the DS slot in the same way as the Ultra/Ninja Pass products but does it using flash memory. The problem is that is sticks out just like the original Passme devices so that you can insert the flash media.

The Flashcart's future:

Imagine a type of device just like the Ultra/Ninja Pass with 512MB or 1GB of memory?! This is where the future of flashcarts is going today and will be within the next year or so. I suspect that these first devices are test products in a sense as they have the idea but the functionality just isn’t there as all the reviews have been saying. I think once they refine the technology and are able to incorporate higher amounts of memory they will replace the current flashcarts altogether.

But there are some negatives with this new solution as GBA would no longer work as the flashcart would now be utilizing the DS game slot. Gamers would also have to keep a GBA flashcart on hand to continue playing those games but I suspect a GBA emulator could be created on the homebrew front filling that need.

I think the SuperCard Lite is the last of a dieing breed of flashcarts as the move from GBA to DS slots occurs. We might see one more revision of the current set of flashcarts after the initial set of DS Lite based products but I think this will end as soon as technology in the DS slot solutions increase.

I suspect that the SuperCard developers have probably started working on these new solutions or are at least looking at what the competition has to offer and scoping out their next battleground.


I wrote this little article while emailing a friend and decided to post it to see if others agree with my thoughts or have any to add of their own. I am open to all ideas and am eager to hear others thoughts on where the flashcart is and is going.

FifthE1ement

Wow, after posting this thread I found exactly what I had predicted would be coming!

A DS cart sized solution named DSLink that uses microSD media! Below are some screens of the product and the menu system.

The developer said that the Castlevania intro has no slowdown at all using KingMAX card! This is truly the future of flashcarts!

FifthE1ement

Well everything you said makes sense. A logical step for those that want GBA support when using a new DS slot cart would be a nopass style cart that slots in the GBA port and then runs the GBA game from the DS cart memory.

You could even add rumble features to the GBA "nopass" to make it double purpose.

Bump for more opinions!

FifthE1ement

Originally Posted by FifthE1ement

I suspect that the SuperCard developers have probably started working on these new solutions or are at least looking at what the competition has to offer and scoping out their next battleground.

Nice read. It's funny how your profecy has come true in just a few hours.
And what a great new.

The mini article came from an email I had sent to a friend on 8/4. I had just happened to post it that night after I told another forum member about the article in another thread. Yeah, its weird as hell but great in a sense also! This means the timeline has just shot up!

FifthE1ement

Pretty interesting indeed and I like where the flashcarts are headed. The only problem I have with your article is that you either: a) forgot how to count or b) you start your counting of the DS age way before it was even released. Last I checked it hadn't even made the 2 year mark, it was released Nov. 2004. Other than that it's a good article.

It launched on November 21, 2004 in the USA and on December 2, 2004 in Japan.

I'm sorry, its almost two years old now, and thanks for pointing that out so I can make a correction.

FifthE1ement

Good article, I agree with everything said as it pretty much sums up where things are going to be heading.

In addition to the NinjaPass, UltraFlash Pass, NinjaDS and DS Link is the newly announced DS Xtreme. I think this Slot 1 loading card, marks a new era in the DS Flash Card scene, 512 MB Onboard memory WITHOUT a flashed DS (DS Link reguires a flashed DS inorder to work), thus not having to patch Roms is a milestone in the NDS Development Scene. The DS Xtreme is just the beginning of the Future of Flash Cards to come...