Blaze Nintendo DSi game selector improves cart management, uglies up your handheld
Have a habit of losing those DSi carts on the bus, in between the couch cushions or in other darker, more taboo locales? Fret not, as the carefree crew over at Blaze has your best interests in mind. Hailed as the first 3-in-1 game selector for Nintendo's DSi, this mildly unsightly attachment simply plugs into your game port and then houses a trio of your favorite titles. Once you've got it mounted, just flip the switch to change the title, though we'd suggest powering your DSi down before doing so. It's available now to solve a problem you probably only think you have for £14.99 ($24).























Now your friends can see what games you have and ask to borrow them!
This game selector comes out at a very very bad timing when everyone is moving toward downloadable games. It takes extra bulk and electronics just to store and select only 3 game cards!
For $24, we can get a 8GB and 4GB SD card for game storage. I only see Nintendo still feel risky to sell prominent games via their Wii or DSware channels. Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and now Apple have high quality downloadable games such as Games on Demand, Battlefield 1943, Monkey Island and more. Apple's iPhone now has GPS navigation download that is more than 1.4 GB directly on a portable device.
Is three slots enough for all the Pokemon games?
Hmm. A little bulky but not a half-bad idea. I am intrigued.
it's called a flash card. get one and you can put as many games as your micro sd card can hold. and it doesn't add any bulk.
Actually its called a "Flash Cart", short for flash cartridge.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_DS_accessories#Flash_Cartridges
"flashcard" is generally an acceptable term for slot-1 flashcarts
It's called "OH IM SO RITE AND HERE"S A WIKIPEDIA LINK THAT I DIDN"T READ THAT SHOWS THAT I"M WRONG"
Its called highy illegal piracy & you should not do it .
btw .
Pyshacal games should stills exist for smaller games that doesnt exceed 256MB .
Its one reason i find the PSPGo a joke .
An average game download apparently 512MB for many people including myself thats is not really practical with slow internet connection .
Take my connection for example its basically the slowest broadband possible plus theres only a 6GB monthly limit before the speed cut down to near dialup speed (which isnt fun when reached).
So a 512MB game not only take forever its also takes up a fair bit of the monthly bandwith allowance .
While i believe that digital distrubution is the future but currently at the moment is still far from replacing retail games .
Hmm this or an acekard.... I'll take the acekard.
Exactly. Used DS games are so cheap, why go on shitty sites that are shady and have a nightmare registration process, when you can just buy massive amounts of used DS games and an Acekard, and have a LEGAL way to carry all your games with you easily? I did this with GBA, DS and PSP. I'll NEVER EVER go back to bringing all my games with me, or just settling for one.
A-K-A-I-O
fyi, it's still illegal to posess cart backups even if you own the games (in the US)
Regardless of its legality, the convenience of flast carts like the AceKard should send a message to Nintendo. We don't want to have to carry around carts, just let us buy the game and store it on our DS indefinitely!
I'm a huge fan of Steam for PC games, and I have to say, it's incredibly convenient to just download the games I've bought rather than trying to find discs that can get scratched, lost, and broken. The DSi already has a pretty nice online store, they just need to put full games up there instead of mini games. I'd go for something like that.
Carts make sense in the PSP where the games are really large, but in the DS where they are 32-128mb, it is absolutely pointless. Put 8gb of internal storage in there and let us download games to it over wifi. Keep the cardslot if you must, but it really isn't necessary.
good luck getting any sort of decent hardware from nintendo.
note the paltry 512MB of internal storage on their 250USD home console.
DS games sizes are actually getting larger. Grand Theft Auto China Town for example is 128 Mega Byte. An 8 GB card can hold around 60 DS games at 128 MB each. We've seen people download a lot of Apps on iPhone and iPhone can display 11 pages with 10 pages of downloaded Apps from App store with 16 apps per page in total of 160 apps.
I'm actually looking at buying an acekard (or any ds flash cart for that matter) Does anybody know which I should get and if there is support for other emulators? (NES, SNES, GBA)
AceKard 2i. works with all models and DSi FW 1.4. just make shure you download the AKAIO firmware instead of the one that AK has because it has better support. i got mine at http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.18728
It's still my "great gaming device".
Or you can get a R4 and have 100 DS games on one cartridge...
Bah. I don't understand why the R4 is so popular. The CycloDS Evolution trounces it in every respect, and has great firmware support to boot.
They need to get on the ball for a proper fix for M&L:Bowser's.
A wonderfully designed accessory that wraps the DSi in aesthetic beauty!
They have had these cartridge "multiplexers" for decades now. You could even get one for your TI-99/4A that holds 3 carts. THAT was ugly. This one's a bit more streamlined.
There was a similar device for the GBA SP. It attached to the bottom of the GBA SP. And worked well.... For 4 days, than it stopped working. So I returned it.
get a R4 and be done with it all!
So much flash cart ownership for all the wrong reasons amongst you techies upsets me.
Appropriate avatar
I wonder how it'd fare with multiple flash carts.
at least it seems reasonably priced to sell.
actually, "flash card" is generally an acceptable term for slot-1 flash carts
I had a similar unit for the GBA SP that allowed one to switch between three carts.
It was also bulky and dumb compared to the alternatives, but it does allow the law abiding to carry multiple games.
So, you GO, Amish kid.
"Once you've got it mounted, just flip the switch to change the title, though we'd suggest powering your DSi down before doing so."
There's a possibility that you may not need to power off the DSi. The DSi supports hot swapping.
Or use a Supercard.
a Flash kart? they are wonderful i have an acekard 2i
Um, doesn't that cover up the camera?
my thoughts exactly. Made for DSi my ass.
If Cooking Mama was in the kitchen chopping away at onions and you instantly switch the cartridge, will she be racing against Mario in a Go-Kart?
of course
No, instead, she might just chop up Mario.
Is it just me or does anyone notice that is a DS lite and not a DSi in the picture?
This proves that this product is another failure. For DS Lite owners, a lot of them use Flash Cards like microSD for Acekard, R4, EZ Lite, etc.
DSi owners can't benefit from this device either, because those who accidentally upgraded the firmware to void all flash cards can't enjoy the camera when the Cart changer is blocking the view!
EPIC FAILED!
For the record, r4 doesn't really exist anymore. They market all kinds of clones (some of which work quite well), but it's not the original company, and they quit releasing firmware updates more than a year ago. I reccommend the m3 series, myself, which can be purchased cheaply at dealextream... do beware of the clones though; they're out there for pretty much every brand and really suck.
Anyone notice that it's a DS lite, and not a DSi?
this is worse than the iTwinge. Is this "horrible add-on" day?
But wait...I thought that's what the SD card was for...