[Note: for those visiting from EFNet/#dsdev, my nick is cohmappapp]

Today I purchased the Action Replay Max GBA/DS so that I could trade Nintendogs save games with others. There are no Nintendogs saves in the Action Replay online repository, yet(although I think that may be a region thing).

Here are my findings:

Problem 1: When the cartridge is booting, holding A+B+L+R+Start is supposed to erase all the codes and saves. On the GBA SP it does that. On the Nintendo DS, it puts the cartridge in System Test mode. Normally, System Test mode is achieved with A+B+L+R. So… it turns out that there is no way to erase the codes and saves when using the cart with the DS.

Problem 2: Even after deleting everything from the cartridge and it says 100% free, when I try to backup the save for Nintendogs, it says “There is not enough space on the unit to complete this operation.” When I use the System Test, it says that the Nintendogs save is 282144 bytes. The save can still be downloaded from(and, presumably, uploaded to) the device by connecting the USB cable and setting up a transmission from the GBA or DS to the PC, so this is not actually a huge deal.

In the System Test mode, you can see how big the save area is for each cartridge. Looks like Nintendogs is the only serious offender in my collection.

262144
Nintendogs (JAP)

512
Spiderman 2 (US)
Yoshi Touch and Go (US)
Pac-Pix (US)
Episode 3 (US)
Metroid Demo (US)

8192
Super Mario DS (US)
Meteos (JAP)
Feel the Magic (US)
WarioWare Touched! (US)

None (—)
Electroplankton (JAP)

Other facts about the Action Replay Max GBA/DS:
– It runs in GBA mode.
– When interacting with the DS cart, the DS cart is inserted into the Action Replay, which is a GBA cart.
– For the GBA, it does codes, not saves.
– For the DS, it does saves, not codes.
– Saves and codes can reside on the Action Replay cart, on your PC and in an online repository. Data is moved between the cart and the PC with a USB connection.

Using a suction cup, people are starting to get analog stick-style interaction with the DS.

Apparently, it all started on the gamefaqs forums and culminated in this video.

Later in the gamefaqs thread, someone claims that a mouse ball is even better than a suction cup.

A new team is claiming to have a DS Tunneling solution in the works. Will we be playing Yoshi’s Touch and Go over the internet soon?