CycloDS Evolution Review and Video Guide - Emuholic & Emuboards - All the latest homebrew and hacking news

CycloDS Evolution Review
By Guyfawkes

You can purchase the CycloDS Evolution from GameKool and Store4game.

Review Take 2 Disclaimer said:

Review Take 2 is Emuholic’s way of making sure our product reviews are up-to-date, so as to make sure your purchasing decisions are based on the most current status of the product you’re reading about. Our original review remains intact, but it is now followed by a summary of the product’s most recent developments. This includes a new score, entitled Score Take 2, which is what we feel the product now deserves in the current market.

Review Take 2 can be found at end of review here.

The CycloDS Evolution is the latest product from Team Cyclops, this isn’t their first product for the DS as they previously made the CycloDS Mini/Micro SD which had fairly good success in the already saturated DS flash cart market and more recently the Wii modchip CycloWiz. The CycloDS Evolution has the following features claimed by the manufacturers:

* Completely plug & play - no FlashMe, PassMe or PC software required
* 100% game compatibility, supports clean ROM's - works on any OS
* Full NDS download play support, including problem games such as Mario Kart DS
* Action Replay compatible cheat code engine, comes bundled with cheat codes for over 300 games!
* Uses MicroSD card, both FAT16 and FAT32 supported
* Supports the MicroSDHC specification, allowing for high capacity memory cards
* Save type is automatically detected, no need for a save type database
* Save directly to MicroSD rather than onboard flash
* User friendly, easily skinnable interface. Both touch screen and button operation supported
* Multi-lingual user interface
* "Enhanced Mode" which provides powerful, unique features during game play. Enhanced features are activated through an in-game menu. Enhanced mode features include:
o Adjust LCD brightness during game play (NDSLite only)
o SlowMotion mode which can be used to slow down game play to make fast paced action sequences easier to master
o Return to CycloDS Evolution Menu (aka soft reset)
* Excellent homebrew compatibility thanks to the DLDI auto-patcher
* 2 megabytes of onboard flash memory which contains the CycloDS Evolution OS and will be utilised in the future to add exciting new features. A recovery mode is also included.
* Autoboot mode which when activated will directly boot into the last ROM or homebrew application executed
* Moonshell included to provide media playing functionality
* PassMe function (boot from slot 2)
* Supports rumble and memory expansions

Packaging and Contents

Click to open larger image

The CycloDS Evolution comes in a stylish metallic tin which opens up to reveal the CycloDS Evolution cartridge and a USB MicroSD Card Reader/Writer which are surrounded in foam padding. It’s good to see a bit of thought gone in the packaging as the past few carts I have reviewed have been in plastic blister style packaging.

Although it says on the back of the tin there is an instruction sheet included I did not receive one. A quick visit to the CycloDS Evolution homepage provided me with an up to date guide in PDF format which is probably better than reading an out of date instruction book. No drivers CD are required as everything is ‘plug and play’ and no patching or ROM converting software is needed.

The CycloDS Evolution Cartridge

Click to open larger image

The CycloDS Evolution cartridge uses MicroSD cards and exclusive to the CycloDS the MicroSDHC format which is a fairly new standard for cards which allows higher capacity (up to 32GB) than MicroSD. Currently the highest capacity MicroSDHC is 4GB with 8GB in the works.

The cartridge itself is plastic and is the same dimensions as a standard DS cartridge, on the back of the cartridge is the MicroSD/MicroSDHC card slot which is not spring loaded. The jury is out on whether spring loaded is good or not, I have read in other cartridges that use spring loaded card slots that the springs can get damaged and become unusable, personally I prefer it not to be spring loaded.

A minor annoyance is that the CycloDS Evolution sticker covers a large bump (a chip inside the cartridge) in the case and while it doesn’t cause any usability problems it detracts from the overall finish of the product especially when compared to other recent cartridges such as the MK-5 Giga, SuperCard DS One and the very stylish metallic case of the NinjaDS.

Once inserted into the DS, the cartridge sits just under the top of the slot as a normal DS cartridge would. This is the first cartridge I have personally used which sits correctly as others are flush with the slot, around 2mm difference.

Setting up the CycloDS Evolution

No software or much setting up is required with the CycloDS Evolution. First you need to format your MicroSD/MicroSDHC, FAT16 and FAT32 are both supported, you can then copy any ROM’s, media etc. This is simply done by copying the files from your PC to the Card Reader drive as you would with a MP3 on your player for example. You do not need to copy over any software for the CycloDS Evolution as it is automatically created on your SD card the first time you boot the cart.

One thing to note is that I have read reports that the card reader is the one also supplied with the R4/DS Simply flash carts. I would advise against using the card reader as some users have experienced major problems such as corrupted MicroSD cards.

A tour of the CycloDS Evolution Software

Booting up the CycloDS Evolution takes approximately three to four seconds which is shown by a progress bar on the top DS screen. Once loaded, you are present with the main menu which has three options; Games/Homebrew, Media and Settings/Misc. You can use either the joypad and buttons or the stylus to navigate the menus.

Games/Homebrew
From this screen you can browse your Commercial and Homebrew ROM files (.nds extension) on your MicroSD card. You can use either the joypad to scroll up and down the list, L or R buttons to scroll one page at a time, or use the stylus to scroll the files and folders by dragging the scroll bar which can be found on the right hand side of the screen or touching and holding the top or bottom of the screen.

Each ROM in the current directory is clearly listed, for commercial ROM’s it shows the Icon, Game Title and Company Name, and in the case of homebrew ROM’s it will show the Icon, ROM filename and its file size. By pressing the X button you can switch view to show the file name and size for commercial ROM’s. To choose a ROM to load simply press the A button or touch the game entry with your stylus.

The ROM browser is very easy to use and the stylus usage is especially easy and fast. I also liked the ability to change between the ROM and File views as I always forget what files are what as they have their release names instead of a meaningful name

Media
The flashcart manufacturers favourite software MoonShell is the default media player for the CycloDS Evolution, I hope the authors Infantile Paralysiser get commission from all the manufacturers

Anyway, it’s a great media viewer which supports a variety of formats such as DPG video files, MP3, OGG, MOD music, JPEG, BMP, PNG images, text files and loads more. Every flashcart owner should have it installed, end of. A version of Moonshell for CycloDS Evolution can be downloaded from the CycloDS homepage.

Settings/Misc

This screen allows you to changes settings to some of the CycloDS Evolution features. I will give a quick overview of them now and go into further detail for the main features later in the review.

Enhanced Mode
Enabling this allows you access a in game menu which freezes the game and you can access some enhanced features not found in standard game cartridges. Full details on this can be found further in the review.

Cheat Codes
Enabling this activates the built in Action Replay compatible cheat engine. This allows you to get for example infinite lives or more money in the game. Full details on this can be found further in the review.

LCD Brightness
This option is only activated for DS Lite owners and allows you to toggle the brightness of your screens.

Language
This options toggles between English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, L.A. Spanish, Portuguese and Chinese languages for the software text.

Boot from Slot 2
This option allows you to boot a Slot 2 device, it is very useful if you have a Slot 2 cartridge and want to continue using it as the CycloDS Evolution also acts as a Passme device.

The menus are fast, well designed, easy to use and look great. It is among the nicest menus I have seen on a flashcart.

Performance

ROM Compatibility
I have chosen a random set of games to test compatibility; these include some games that have had problems such as slowdowns or save problems in the past on other flash carts.

Brothers In Arms – Works
Diddy Kong Racing - Works
Lost in Blue 2 - Works
Puzzle Quest - Works
SimCity DS – Works
Tank Beat – Works
Tetris DS – Works
Tony Hawks - Works
Touch The Dead – Works
Transformers – Works
Wario: Master Of Disguise - Works

I tried other software and all of them ran fine so the compatibility is very good. A work in progress compatibility list has been started at http://wiki.scorpei....patibility_list, please note at the time of writing it wasn’t complete as the CycloDS Evolution has just been released.

Saving is done in the standard 512K size .sav format and is compatible with other flash carts saves. I had no problems interchanging them with other flash carts. The .sav files are created automatically when the game is first ran and reused on future loads.

Homebrew Compatibility
The CycloDS Evolution has built in DLDI automatic patching which means you do not need to run patching software on your PC in order for homebrew using DLDI to work. DLDI is a file access library which allows you to save your data to the SD card, more information can be found at http://chishm.drunkencoders.com/DLDI/.

I tried a variety of homebrew software

A Touch Of War – Works
DSLinux – Not Working
DSMaster (Master System emulator) - Works
Puzzle Maniak – Works
Warcraft: Tower Defense – Works
Lameboy (GB/GBC Emulator) – Works
nesDS (NES emulator) – Works
Omalone – Works
Picodrive DS (Megadrive/Genesis emulator) - Works
snesDS (SNES emulator) – Works

The automatic DLDI patching seems to work fine with up to date software, there currently is no manual DLDI file to patch software but any non-working software should be in small numbers. The automatic patching is a great feature which should have been in all flash carts from the start, it’s good to see the CycloDS Evolution supporting this and other manufacturers are now finally following.

Game Sharing
Unfortunately I was unable to test this feature as I do not have two DS to try the game sharing. According to posts on the forum the compatibility is very good, you can view an up to date compatibility list of games which feature game sharing on the homepage forums at http://www.teamcyclo...thread.php?t=26. This is the first cartridge to offer 'full' support for Game Sharing and it keeps the promise.

Enhanced Mode
The Enhanced Mode is a new feature to the CycloDS Evolution. While playing a game you press and hold the A, B, X, Y, Left and Right buttons which will freeze your game and display an Enhanced Mode menu on the top DS screen. From this screen you can do the following:

Adjust LCD Brightness
As with the option in the Settings/Misc menu, if you have a DS Lite you can change the brightness of the DS screen.

Toggle Slowmotion
Once enabled it will unfreeze and return to your current software. But instead of running at its normal speed it will run at half the speed. This is ideal for games such as Tetris on the higher levels as you can play at a comfortable speed and not at its usual high speed

The audio continues to play at its default speed so for music related games this may be a problem. You can see the SlowMotion feature in action on our CycloDS Evolution Video Guide (approx. 2 minutes into the video).

Realtime Save and Load
These options are currently disabled as it has not been implemented. If/when it is implemented it will allow you to save a dump of the DS memory (known as a Save State) to resume exactly where you left off at a later date.

Return to Main Menu
This option will quit the current software and return to the CycloDS Evolution Main Menu, basically it’s a soft reboot. You can see this feature in action on our CycloDS Evolution Video Guide (approx. 168 seconds into the video).

Return to Game
This option will unfreeze your current software being used and return to it.

The Enhanced Menu mostly works fine but there are a few games that don’t seem to recognise the key press combination to initiate it, an example of this is Touch the Dead. Another minor problem is that on some games you may see corrupt graphics when you activate the slowdown, and example of this is Sega Darts. Hopefully both these issues will be fixed in a future firmware update.

Cheat Engine

The CycloDS Evolution features a built in Cheat Engine which is activated from the Settings/Misc menu. It uses Action Replay codes and at the time of writing has support for over 300 games, currently the software does not support the ability to add your own cheats but it will be supported soon, probably by the time you read this.

The Cheat Engine menu appears when you are about to load a game. A menu will appear and prompt you to activate the cheats. Choosing Yes will display a list of cheats found for the game you are about to load. You can navigate the nested options using the joypad and buttons or touch the radio button or check box with the stylus to enable or disable the respective cheat. Once you have made your choices you can press START to continue loading your game with your enabled cheats.

The cheat engine works great and I did not have any problems. The lack of adding your own cheats in the current firmware is a downside but as mentioned it should be supported soon which will make the cheat engine perfect. One other thing I would like to see is the ability to enable/disable cheats through the Enhanced Menu as this is missing and would be useful for just cheating at one point in the game if for example you are stuck on a certain point. You can see the cheat engine in action on our CycloDS Evolution Video Guide approx. 50 seconds into the video.

Other features

Autoboot
When loading the CycloDS Evolution you can boot straight to the ROM you last ran by holding the Left and Right shoulder buttons.

Autoload ROM
You can automatically run your favourite ROM at boot time by renaming the file to ‘autoload.nds’ and copy it to the root of your MicroSD card.

Custom Skins
The CycloDS Evolution supports the ability to add custom skins which are used throughout the Main Menu. These can be downloaded from the homepage forums at http://www.teamcyclo...isplay.php?f=14. Despite the CycloDS Evolution being just released there are already a variety of custom skins to download and use.

Firmware upgrading

Firmware updates are performed by adding an upgrade file with the extension .evo to the root of your MicroSD card. When you next boot the CycloDS Evolution it will automatically initiate the upgrade process. The update menus are clear and offer you the choice to cancel before the upgrade is performed. The actual process takes around 30 seconds and is shown by a progress bar. Once the update is completed the .evo file is automatically deleted and you can restart to continue using the flash cart.

If you happen to experience a bad firmware update you can enter a Recovery Mode by holding START and SELECT while the CycloDS Evolution is booting. You will then be able to install the firmware again.

CycloDS Evolution Video Guide

The following video gives a brief explanation of the CycloDS Evolution features including the menus, cheat engine and enhanced mode. Please click on the image to open the video in a new window.

Conclusion

I have reviewed many flash carts over the years and I have to say the CycloDS Evolution really impressed me. Ignoring the slightly lacking cartridge design (the sticker covering the bump) the overall quality and ease of use is great! It is pretty much future proofed with its MicroSDHC support so you won’t be running out of space any time soon if you purchase a larger MicroSDHC card. The price is fairly competitive at around $55 (£28) compared to around $45 (£23) for its nearest competitor the R4DS which is an older and less feature packed cartridge. I think the extra few $ is worth the money and not a factor between deciding between the two.

As a basic flash cart it does exactly what it is supposed to do, with great compatibility even with ROMs released after firmware updates it works with no problems. As an advanced flashcart it leads the way with its Enhanced Menu and Cheat Engine features, there are some minor bugs with the Enhanced Menu but these should be easily fixed in a future update. Download Play support is something that many end users have been begging for and this is the first cart to deliver on the promise. Homebrew users are also well catered for with the automatic DLDI patching which works very well and makes running homebrew less of a chore having to manually patch software before running it.

I have been reading the Team Cyclops forums and their list of proposed features for future firmware updates is looking good, it seems that the team know what they are doing and it’s shown with the already well working and feature packed firmware.

If you are looking for a flash cart this is the one to seriously consider against current more popular carts such as the R4. You won’t be disappointed!

Final Score: 9 out of 10

Additional Links
Homepage: http://www.cyclopsds.com/
Stores selling the CycloDS Evolution: GameKool and Store4game.

Review Take 2 said:

CycloDS Evolution Review Take 2
Based on developments up to and including August 26th 2008

The Cyclops team have certainly not been sitting at their desks doing nothing but counting the cash since the CycloDS Evolution was released just over a year ago in June 2007. Work on improving the CycloDS firmware has been constant with regular beta and public updates with many new features. Here is a quick overview of them:

- Improved Cheat Code support – This feature was mentioned in our original review and has since been improved a great deal with a PC application that downloads and compiles the latest cheat database.
- A new autoload feature allows you to hold a button combination at boot to instantly load your chosen application.
- New auto-boot to slot 2 feature which allows you to boot your GBA cartridge.
- Many new translations of the menu which can be chosen in the options.
- Multiple skins supported via the options.
- RealTime Save feature added which allows you to save and load at any time during your game.
- Homebrew soft reset added allows you to reset the DS via a button combination.
- Direct GBA launching supported which allows you to load GBA games (via slot 2) from the menu.
- Many game compatibility fixes.
- Various support for Slot 2 devices.
- In-game text reader feature allows you to read text files during a game.

This is just a quick overview of the main features and there are many smaller changes which would take too long to list here. The Cyclops team have kept to their promise of supporting the CycloDS Evolution and delivered on it, some of the features mentioned above have been among the first to be seen on a flashcart. Full marks here for keeping the CycloDS Evolution at the cutting edge and there are more plans to improve in the future such as a redesign of the GUI.

One year on I am still using the CycloDS Evolution along with the TTDS as my main flashcarts. Despite its age in an overpopulated market, regular firmware updates, excellent forum support and innovative ideas still make the CycloDS Evolution the king of the castle. It is still my top recommendation for someone looking to purchase a DS flashcart!

Score Take 2: 10 out of 10 – An amazing cart!

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