TTDS Review - Emuholic & Emuboards - All the latest homebrew and hacking news

Top Toy DS (TTDS) Review
By Guyfawkes

[UPDATE] A new model of the DSTT has been released which is compatible with the DSi. You can purchase it from Store4game and GameKool[/b]

The Top Toy DS is the latest DS flash cart from Neoflash, the cart itself appears to be a licensed rebranded flash cart by another company. Neoflash have done this in the past with the excellent MK-5 flash cart so I see no harm in continuing this trend if it works.

Top Toy DS Features from Neoflash
* Slot-1 1:1 Original small size
* Built in passme function
* Not need patch, just need drag and drop, then plug and play
* Support all roms, compatibility = 100%
* Support homebrew app & game, auto DLDI patch in memory
* Support moonshell MP3/Movie player
* Support cheat code function, more fun now
* Support 4-class brightness adjust in menu (NDSL only)
* Pure hardware save, never lose data
* Automatically detect and generate save type
* TF menu core upgradeable
* Supports FAT/FAT32, works on any OS
* Supports any TF card speed without any lag in the game
* Built-in power-saving function
* User friendly skin able interface. Touch screen or button operation
* Supports skin DIY
* Support normal TF and SDHC, up to 4096GByte.
* Support soft reset in the game
* Support wireless multi-player (WIFI Game)
* Save data can use in NDS Emulator directly

Packaging and contents

The TTDS comes in a plastic shell container which keeps the contents secure. It is not blister packed so you can reuse the container if you wish to. Inside are the following contents:

1x Top Toy DS flash cart
1x Micro-SD reader USB keychain
1x Software CD

The Top Toy DS cartridge

The cartridge itself is plastic and is the same dimensions as a standard DS cartridge. The build quality seems very good and there are no stickers covering bumps or loose fittings. On the back of the cartridge is the MicroSD/MicroSDHC card slot which is spring loaded. People may or may not like a spring loaded slot, the TTDS spring slot was a little tight at first but after a few goes it loosened up and worked fine

Left to right: Original Cart, CycloDS Evolution, TTDS, NinjaDS

One thing to note is Micro-SD reader USB keychain. It is a normal Micro-SD reader that plugs straight into your PC’s USB port, the blue casing slides off to reveal the Micro-SD slot. There is also a keychain fastener attached so you can add it on your keychain. This is probably my favourite ‘free card reader with a flash cart’ and I know one of my friends wants to steal it from me

Setting up the Top Toy DS

The TTDS supports SDHC, a new specification for SD cards that allow them to have higher storage capacity. The TTDS can use the latest 8GB cards no problem, it should be able to support up to 32GB if/when they are made. The TTDS is of course backwards compatible with the standard Micro-SD card which is available in storage sizes up to 4GB. It is good to see the TTDS supporting SDHC from the start, while they are not the first to do this (CycloDS, DSOne etc) there are many carts that do not support this and are now playing catch up.

As is the trend now there is no PC software to install but you will need to copy a few menu files to your Micro-SD for the TTDS to work correctly. These files can be found on the supplied software CD and are simply copied to your Micro-SD card via the card reader.
Once you have copied over your ROM files to the Micro-SD card you are ready to go!

A tour of the Top Toy DS software

Booting up with the TTDS takes a second or two to load then a couple of seconds to scan the Micro-SD card for valid ROM files, this may take longer if you have a large number of ROMs on your card. Folders are supported if you wish to categorise your ROM files, but they are not shown on the menu and therefore not able to be navigated, instead all folders are scanned at the start and any found ROMs are listed together on the menu. This poses a problem, Micro-SD cards now have a lot of storage space so you can fit a large number of ROMs on them, having to scroll down a long list of games can be an annoyance. This problem is magnified on the TTDS as there is a short delay in scrolling down the list when a new ROM is to be displayed; secondly there is no ROM sorting feature which is found in many other flash carts. Adding folder navigation here would mean faster usability for those with a larger number of ROM files on their card, so this and ROM sorting are something I would like to see added in a future firmware update.

The TTDS menus are skinnable and while the default skin is not exactly pretty (a metal effect design) it does the job. It shouldn’t be too long before some custom skins are created, keep an eye on the Neoflash forums and http://www.ndsthemes.com/.

The bottom DS screen lists the currently found ROM files on your Micro-SD card. Each ROM entry shows its Game Icon, File Name, File Size and below that some Icons which I will explain next.

Soft Reset – Allows you to soft reset the DS during a game by holding the L+R+A+B+X+Y buttons together. This will return you to the TTDS menu.
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Cheat – If shown, cheat codes are enabled for this ROM. More on this further in the review.
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DMA Read – This enables greater compatibility and should be left enabled.
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Download Play – If shown, the game supports download play.
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Plus Symbol – Access the individual game settings.

The top DS screen shows information on the currently selected ROM. It shows the game Icon, File Name, File Size, Last Save Date and the four characters Game Code.

The menus can be navigated with either the stylus or the joypad and buttons, to access the main options or the individual game options you will need to touch the corresponding boxes with your stylus.

To start a ROM simply touch the entry with your stylus or press the A button. It takes up to a couple of seconds for the ROM to load and is shown by a progress indicator on the bottom of the screen.

There are five options to be found in the Options screen which can only be accessed by touching the Options icon with the stylus. The options here again can only be controlled with the stylus.

Soft Reset – Enable/Disable default for new ROMs to use soft reset or not.
PassMe Mode – When touched will boot the GBA slot device.
GBA Mode - When touched will boot the GBA slot device.
Power Off – Switches off the DS.
Adjust Light – Adjusts the DS Lite light.

Touching the + icon for a ROM entry will give you the ROM option screen. Here you can enable or disable the Soft Reset, DMA and the Cheats. You can touch the ‘Cheat Cod’ button to enter the Cheat Screen.

Performance

ROM Compatibility
This review was a little delayed due to it being written over the Christmas period and also while being ill with the flu so it gave me some extra time to put the TTDS through its paces. I did not experience any slowdowns, games crashing or incompatible games. According to reports by other owners there are one or two games that do not currently work such as Contra 4. Although most flashcart makers claim 100% compatibility there are always a small number of games that do not work, so 99% would be a better claim.

The majority of games load within three seconds, but I noticed that sometimes the time takes a bit longer. I am fairly sure this is due to the save file being created for the first time, as future loads of the game are faster in the majority of cases.

Saves are handled by hardware saving. The standard .sav file is created on the Micro-SD card when the ROM is first run and is directly updated when the game saves. This is a more efficient way of saving than say for example in the past saves could have been lost when saved to flash memory and the battery had run out.

Download Play
I was unable to try this myself as I do not own two DS to try download play. From what I have read from other owners of the TTDS the compatibility is very good and ran many games that have this feature.

Homebrew Compatibility
The TTDS supports DLDI and is automatically patched when the ROM is loaded. As such there is no need to manually patch the ROM with a program on your PC. I tried a variety of homebrew and found there to be no problems. There is no manual DLDI patching file but this should not be required as the automatic patching works great.

Firmware Updating
Unlike other DS flash carts where you are required to flash the cartridge firmware, the TTDS does this another way. Instead of running a firmware updater you simply copy the updated files to your Micro-SD card and the firmware is updated. The TTDS system runs from the Micro-SD card so it is very easy and safe to update but with the minor annoyance that you have to copy the software to multiple Micro-SD cards if you use them.

Soft reset
The soft reset feature allows you to reset your DS back to the TTDS menu without having to switch the DS off and on. You do this by holding down L+R+A+B+X+Y buttons together. This worked perfectly for all software I tried it with.

Cheat support

The TTDS supports Action Replay cheat codes and is compatible with R4 flashcart formatted databases with the filename usrcheat.dat. You can use either the stylus or joypad or buttons to enable or disable a cheat option which is shown by a tick box. Nested options are available and can be shown by pressing the Plus icon, you can move back a screen by pressing the Back button with the stylus. You can enable or disable the cheats in game by holding L+R+START+UP and L+R+START+DOWN respectively. I did not experience any problems with the cheats enabled and it seems to work fine.

Conclusion

The TTDS stands alongside the CycloDS Evolution and R4 for features such as SDHC, cheats, near excellent compatibility and reliability, good save system, soft reset and DLDI support to name but a few. What lets the TTDS slightly down is the menu software which can easily be resolved in a future update. Make the design a bit easier on the eye, improve the useability such as folder navigation, ROM sorting and improve the small delay when navigating ROMs. If these small problems were to be resolved it would transform the TTDS into a great flash cart but until then it is a very good flash cart. Work is under way to improve the software so this is definitely a flash cart to keep an eye on and consider purchasing.

Final Score: 8 out of 10 (9 once the software is improved)

TTDS Homepage - http://www.neoflash.com/
TTDS Forum - http://www.neoflash....php?board=101.0
Where to buy:

[UPDATE] A new model of the DSTT has been released which is compatible with the DSi. You can purchase it from Store4game and GameKool

Guyfawkes, on Nov 1 2008, 12:21 AM, said:

You may have downloaded the japanese menu by accident. Try downloading the english menu software and install that. If not then you can replace the cheat file with an english one by downloading it from http://cheats.gbatemp.net/ you need the 10_30_08_USRCHEAT.DAT.zip (10_30_08 date at front may be different by the time you read this). Extract this file to the TTMenu folder on your SD card overwriting the existing one. This is also the latest cheat database so you may want to use this again in the future instead of waiting for firmware updates.

I have the same problem as that other guy and i tried doing what you said. I overwrote the usrcheat.dat in my ttdsmenu folder and put in the latest from that website. Now all my cheats are gone when I try to turn on some??