DSTT Cart Review
Is it going to beat the R4 and Cyclo?

This weekend when I walked into my gaming mall where where the average legality of business is questionable, I found a new box about the size of an R4DS box but slightly different at a few stores. After some enquiry I discovered this is the DS TT, a new Slot 1 Cart for the Nintendo DS and DS Lite handheld consoles.

For ages there have been carts that let you play roms and homebrew on DS one way or another. For quite some time now the market is dominated by Slot 1 carts, small game cartridge-like devices that let you put in a memory card and boot software on the DS. These Slot 1 carts consist of one easy card that goes in the normal game slot, slot 1, unlike older solutions that use the GBA port (slot 2) or even both. These carts are generally no bigger than normal game carts including the memory card used. Some have built in flash memory but are less popular.

By far the two most popular carts at the moment are the CycloDS Evolution and the R4DS (Revolution for DS). The CycloDS is not available to me where I live but is very similar to the R4 except for one important feature: full SDHC support. Both carts swallow tiny MicroSD cards, but these only go up to 2GB normally. A new standard for big and fast SD and microSD cards has been developed, named SDHC. These cards start at 4GB and are the future. However, the CycloDS is a bit more expensive than the R4. This is where the DS TT comes in. According to the box and the site, it has all the features the other cards have and also supports SDHC. The big difference, this card is actually cheaper than the R4! The difference is only about 10%, but there is a difference and it can still get cheaper.

The TT is a lot like the R4. For now, it's only available in white. I picked one up today and was quite satisfied, because I had bought a 4GB MicroSDHC card only to find that it wouldn't work in my R4, although I did expect that. The box is also dark and slightly taller than the R4's, but very similar in shape. It's metal graphics attract attention immediately, and so does the SDHC logo. The inside of the box is a simple plastic tray with gaps for the DS TT in a plastic cover, and teeny tiny microSDHC USB card reader. Unlike with the R4, you don't get any useless accessoires like a bright blue wristband.

The plastic case around the DS TT meant to protect it is a bit more flimsy, but then again who uses that anyway. 99% of the time it's in your DS anyway. Unlike the R4's included microSD card reader, this one is actually really small and looks good. The card slides in better, which has caused problems (broken memory cards) with the one you get with the R4 before, but it's a bit hard to get it out as it goes in all the way and there's no spring. It has a nice cap and a thing to tie it to your keychain, which doubles as a trap so the cap can't get lost. Smart. Both readers work on my Mac, but the TT's one also reads SDHC cards (obviously)

Now, on to the actual product. As I said earlier, the TT is only available in white as of now. Just like the older R4, the TT has a spring loaded microSD. I hope they change that, as it caused problems with broken springs and flying cards for the older R4s, and this one doesn't feel as powerful. The sticker on the TT features the logo just like on the R4, but R4's sticker is shinier. The cards feel the same quality plastic. The design of the case is very similar to that of the older R4, but R4 has since updated it's cards to a a bit more optimised case and springless card slot. The TT feels a tiny bit too wide (as in 1/10th of a mm tops) but still fits into the DS fine and without resistance. The microSD slot seems to be a bit spacious as the card can move to the side a bit when inserting it, but it has no problem locking it and it fits perfectly otherwise. Unlike the R4, the TT doesn't have a visible screw which makes me wonder how to open it. I don't think you can, because it's glued quite shut. I'll have to sacrifice one later i guess.

Just like the R4, you need to download some files and put them in the root of the memory card for the TT to work. The main difference here is that TT doesn't needlessly distinguish between the chinese version and the english version, whereas the R4 does and the chinese hardware is cheaper. You can alter the english software to work on the chinese R4 though. The TT software boots quite quickly and directly into the game menu, unlike the R4 which has a useless menu to chose between games and media. Both cards support homebrew and therefore Moonshell, so the TT can play any media the R4 can. The TT menu is better than the R4's in my opinion. It shows more info, like pictures for the game files, and it uses the two screens more efficiently. The lower screen shows the list and a working touch scrollbar and the top screen shows info for the selected file. There is also a settings button. Loading games takes the same short time as the R4.

Conclusion for now:

Out of the three major Slot 1 carts today, the DS TT is the cheapest and has all the features the other cards have, including support for SDHC cards. The build quality could be better but might be updated in the next batch. The free USB reader is superior to R4's, and so is the menu software. It's clear that the DS TT team don't waste money on packaging and accesoires and those savings are calculated back into the retail price, which is marginally less than the established cards already.

I'm not too enthousiastic about the build of the cart itself but apart from that it seems the TT has an advantage over the others in many aspects, and if you're looking to buy one for your DS I'd suggest giving the TT a try :)

I will use the TT over the next few weeks and update this if there's anything notable.

WOAH THIS IS A ESSAY AND A HALF

Im getting a CycloDS, apparently they are much much better ^^
Wellz, waiting for it to arrive now *SLur*