#292: bleach ds not working...

[totokan]

I have a first run Silver DS without flashme.
I am using GST patcher 3.1 and the rom # 292.
I have a MK1 and a neoflash 1024Mbit flashcart. It will not boot the game. Why should I pay so much money and not get support? why do the newer patchers not work with my product? You people abandon support for older, working products and make a new one that's almost the same, but can read MMC/SD cards, why? Because you don't care about the end-user, you just care about the money. It cost me $250, I should get life-time support, not abandoned.

[totokan]

Also, it takes a long time to flash to the cart. It used to be much faster.
EDIT: sorry for double-post, hit instead of modify..

[bruceg]

First off, the moderators and testers here aren't paid; we're just volunteers and mostly users ourselves trying to provide feedback to improve the products.

As for products getting upgraded and support for older ones diminishing, that happens quite frequently in a lot of other sectors as well (your computer hardware and OS, for example).  Also, since you have a first-generation product, with inherent hardware limitations, it will be more likely that a successor product will materialize, sooner rather than later, to address the shortcomings of the initial design.  The fact that the newer patchers don't work on your mk1 is probably due to the entirely different (and improved) way that saves are designed to function on the mk2/mk3 hardware. 

Now, for your question...

I have a neomax (magic key 3) unit, but for magic key 1, you are limited to using gst-patcher 3.1 (where the rom support is more limited relative to the latest patcher).

So a new rom such as #292 wouldn't necessarily work at all....

While your magic key 1 may have limited functionality, having a 1024 Mb Neoflash cart (which is still very expensive to buy) will definitely be useful, as it works well with the latest mk2/mk3/ & mk3 2006, if you should ever decide to upgrade.  Or you can switch to another competing product line entirely, although I believe there are certain limitations inherent in each.

BruceG

[kunnalkainth]

I have a Neo Max Kit 512M rom flash + 128M ZIP RAM with MK3. Is there any way of playing Bleach DS on it by either running it off my 1GB SD card or on the gba flash card? Is there a DS rom compresser out there cause Bleach DS is 128MB. Also, i tried running it off the SD card and all i get is a white screen. Can somebody please help me!

[totokan]

See, the thing is I'm paying for this product. I've had it for less then one year, and support is almost none. If I buy a new computer part (which i frequently do), it becomes old quick, but I still get support for it, even 3-5 years after the fact. I do understand the 'volunteer' thing, but the people who make it aren't 'volunteers', they're charging me for it. So I should still be able to get help with the "It takes 30-40 minutes to flash a 512Mbit game" problem which wasn't the case before.

[bruceg]

You still get support here for older products from the volunteers (cory the moderator will answer basically anything that gets posted if he sees it).  I paid for my neomax also, but decided to help out the other users in the forums by sharing what I know....

Your issue sounds like it's caused by limitations with the gst-patcher (apparently GST is not updating the patcher for mk1 anymore, so people who want the latest patchers/menu are migrating to mk2/mk3 -- just like you wouldn't stay with a pentium 1/2/3 forever because of it's obvious limitations, even if you did get lifetime support.  Fortunately, the next generation mk2/3 are a lot cheaper than the previous one, as is usually the case.

I would agree product turnover is fast with Neoflash, but again I think it's that way because the mk1 was the first generation, and competitors are trying to come out with something better as quickly as they can - the whole ds scene is in a constant state of flux.

My neo-max is currently limited as well (it doesn't support 1 Gig games presently), and I don't have a 1 Gig flashcart, so I know I will need to upgrade.  No one knows how long mk2/mk3 is going to be around also, assuming it's hardware limitations.

It's the usual issue of buying something right away to enjoy the benefits immediately versus waiting for the next generation since that will likely be cheaper and better.

BruceG

[totokan]

Well, I finally caved in and bought a MK2. As far as I can tell, the MK2 and MK3 are the same except 3 comes with a sd card, right?

[bruceg]

mk3 has the internal flash memory to run roms at full speed & high compatibility.  mk2 doesn't have that internal flash memory, so you need to either flash to the cart, or play directly from the SD card (least desirable option now because of long loading times and LOW compatibility).  Note with all these options, there are still NUMEROUS bugs, as the menu is still being developed (I'm hoping they fix at least a majority of them and eventually improve the SD card situation - we don't know if/when the SD card issues will ever be 100% resolved). 

In short, mk2/mk3 currently can's run all the roms out there now, in case you're wondering.  But I assume you have a store return policy if you're not satisfied.

I wrote a whole guide on mk2/mk3, so people could be cognizant of all the information out there (INCLUDING the current limitations), before making a decision about whether to buy it.

http://www.neoflash.com/forum/index.php/topic,1529.msg7919.html#msg7919

BruceG