CycloDS review, special thanks go to The Cyclo Team 4th of February 2007

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Introduction

The Cyclo team is a newcomer to the scene, with their only (released) product line being the CycloDS. So how well have they done? The CycloDS series is composed out of two (GBA slot) solutions. One made for the normal DS (and GBA) using miniSD and one specific for the Nintendo DS lite using microSD. Although they have been announced quite some time ago they have only recently become available. The Cyclo team have also announced another solution (no information released) and a Wii mod-chip.

The review

The packaging

As the packaging is so similar only the microSD version picture shows the text on the back properly

Both of the CycloDS units are in the same boxing with minimal differences. The boxart is quite simple which I like. The green fits the units themselves. As for the quality of the packaging, it's also very very standard. The cardboard is very thin and the unit itself is held in place by a mere bit of thin plastic. Shipping won't be very good for the boxing, but the unit itself should be fine. Box content is only the unit. Simply put, a nicer packaging would have been nice but this cuts costs which was probably what the Cyclo team was thinking about.

Build quality

First of all when you look at the CycloDS you notice that it looks a lot like the Supercard. This was already in my mind when I saw the packaging, but when I saw the product it really showed. I contacted the CycloDS team about this and this was their response:

They are close, a lot of those products are similar, ourselves we pay attention to quality of production, innovation was not the focus on this product (on cyclo revolution there is more dev. work).

The build quality of the CycloDS units is pretty good; that of the miniSD version is slightly better. The plastic is generally (there are of course thinner points) thick and hard. It can also bend (the microSD version can bend quite a lot) which is also a good thing (as than it doesn't break very easily). They match official GBA slot devices closely. The microSD version however seems to be slightly thicker then for example the opera RAM extension. That makes it slightly more difficult to insert (though it isn't a very big problem). You could possibly fix this by filing a bit from the shell.

Both units are front loading, which has both pro's and con's. Personally I'm a fan of side loading as that reduces the chance of ever accidentally removing the SD card, but it's really just preference. The miniSD version has a spring loaded slot, whereas the microSD version doesn't. The PCB's are also pretty thick which is good. However again the microSD version is slightly less, but in this case that is because they have chosen to use two PCB's. That is also what makes it slightly too thick. The two PCB option has advantages, the Supercard team have also used this approach. The CycloDS team has however made small adjustments which made the upper PCB slightly less big.

Looks
Of course the exterior of the miniSD version isn't very important so I will only cover the microSD version. The CycloDS doesn't win it on looks. The casing is white, as I don't have a white Nintendo DS lite I can't check, but it doesn't quite seem to match the NDSL. The two parts of the shell also don't seem to line up perfectly which makes it less attractive (though this can also be fixed, simply slightly unscrew the screw closest to the microSD slot). For the rest the looks are pretty good, but, like the rest of the CycloDS, very simple.

Using the CycloDS
PC side / before use
As with most GBA slot devices the CycloDS requires you to patch games/applications before they can run. As you can see below the CycloDS patcher looks very similar to that of the SuperCard series. After a few tests I have found that they are interchangeable.




The patcher is pretty strait forward (NDS), though there are a lot of patcher options that do not get explained. Things like “Enable Restart”, “Enable trim rom”, “Enable GBA union” and “Enable iQue game” are self explanatory, but “Faster Play Game”, “Enable DMA mode” and “Enable patch cartidge access = High/Low” are not that obvious. In the end they all either make the game run faster or give a higher compatibility when enabled/disabled, but it would have been nice if that would have been explained.

When it comes to GBA it seems the Cyclo team has forgotten a few things. When compared to the Supercard software the GBA options are very limited. Now as this is just version 1.0 of the software this might be corrected in the future. A very good thing about the patcher is that it understands .zip files.

On to the DS/GBA part ;)
For DS mode: Booting the CycloDS goes in the normal fashion for GBA slot cards (via FlashMe or pretty much any NoPass/PassMe device). Once booted you are greeted with a fairly simple and strait forward menu. It's the same as that of the SuperCard without any icons. Personally I couldn't care less if there are no icons or etc.. One can see the file name and browse through folders easily which I find most important about a card that has a large storage capacity.



Compatibility is pretty good, though the official software has some slight problems with the latest games (such as Diddy Kong Racing). There is however quite heavy slowdown during the Castlevania (Dawn of Sorrow) intro movie. Because the design is so similar to that of the SuperCard the CycloDS (both units) work with the OperaDS RAM patch (meaning that you can use it as a replacement for the RAM expansion pack for the Opera DS browser). Another big pro is that save files are created automatically (by the patching software) which means less hassle for you, the user.

When it comes to homebrew, the CycloDS runs pretty much any application/game. This is also because the design is so similar to that of the SuperCard. As the CycloDS team have also released a DLDI patch file all FATlib homebrew should be able to run soon. There is but one problem with running homebrew on the CycloDS. The CycloDS thinks that .nds extensions are used for .ds.gba files (nds files with a GBA header) rather then really .nds files. So when running homebrew on this kit your application or game needs to have a GBA header but still have the extension .nds (for example use a .sc.nds extention instead).

GBA mode: GBA mode is very similar to DS mode when it comes to looks. As said earlier the patching software is rather limited, and functions that are available are not explained. Compatibility however is nice and high as one would expect.



The CycloDS also advertises it runs Sega Master System games, NES games and PC-engine games. This feature is achieved by having emulators for those type of games contained inside the supercard firmware (for example the GBA homebrew NES emulator; PocketNES). You can just drop .nes files (for example) on the micro/miniSD card and start them up. In the “Options” section of the CycloDS's menu you can select to set emulator options before starting an emulated game. Those options vary from emulator to emulator but they can significantly increase the speed of a game. Saving emulated games however seems to be a problem, as the emulators generally want to save to SRAM which isn't handled correctly.

Because those emulators are only available in GBA mode, they only use the DS's processing power to a very low extent. Personally I think you're better of using DS homebrew emulators.

Another feature of the GBA mode is the movie player option (not stated on their website). By downloading the SuperCard movie player software you can convert movie files to .gbm & .gbs files so you can run them on your GBA. On a DS this is rather a useless feature as one can also use Moonshell, but it's still nice that it's available (it's especially nice if you have a GBA micro lying around). Remember though that only the miniSD version fits in a GBA (micro) ;).



Conclusion

The CycloDS series is a fairly nice card with a few (though not always official) features. Compatibility is pretty good as many games run correctly with little to no slowdown (the Castlevania Dawn Of Sorrow intro movie however suffers major slowdown). Homebrew support is very good as this card is based on the SuperCard series (for which most homebrew has been released and a DLDI patch is available). That is (or so I feel) the strongest point of this card. As it is based on the SuperCard SD line (non-rumble) support is already quite high.

The build quality is fair though not perfect. They made a few adaptation for the better (added a battery to the microSD version and made the hole for the miniSD card smaller in the miniSD version) and re-released the product. What can be especially interesting is that the OperaDS RAM patch for SuperCards also works with the CycloDS.

Overall rating for the CycloDS miniSD & microSD slot-2 media adapters
Discription	CycloDS (out of 10)
Design Boxart, manual and product appeal	7-
Hardware Hardware design, durability and features	7+
Compatibility Overall Homebrew and NDS game (if applies) compatibility score	9-
Product future What this products future looks like	?
Features (Built in) extra features of the NDS media (adapter) card	GBA movie Built-in-Emulators

The insides of both carts

Left; miniSD version front PCB. Right; miniSD version back PCB.

Left; microSD version lower PCB front. Right; microSD version upper PCB front.

Left; microSD version lower PCB back. Right; microSD version upper PCB back.

I hope you all enjoyed my review and found it useful.

-Simon van de Berg

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