Topic: Datel Max Media Dock

[Nick DiMola]

I saw this in Walmart the other day and comtemplated a purchse because it said you could play "homebrew" DS games. Does this mean you can actually play DS ROMs with this? I'm not really into game piracy, but there are a ton of Japanese games I'd love to play which sucks because I don't have the money to afford to import them. This would give me some way to play those games and import the ones I really think are good. Anybody have any information or knowledge on this?

[darknight06]

Was it with the hard drive or just the dock by itself.  If the latter you'd still need to buy either the compact flash addon, the one gig cartridge, or the slow as heck hard drive which I have.  Even then it doesn't play a whole lot of anything including DS games

[pirateluigi]

I'm pretty sure walmart only sells the $40 dock, which doesn't include the hard drive.  This is the better choice than the one with the included hard drive, since that drive is too slow to do much of anything.  Get a compact flash (I got a 2 gig at walmart for 75 bucks) and enjoy.  The playable game list is better than most people say but for a lot of games you might need a donor cartridge.  Essentially, you put in an old game that you don't play anymore (like mario 64 ds) and the new game will save over that one.  (It just saves over the save file, not the actual game).  There are some really cool homebrews (and make sure you get Moonshell.  It has a much better mp3 player than the built in player)  Just be careful you don't download a virus that'll brick your system.

[Nick DiMola]

Well, my brother wound up doing this whole deal with the flash card and all, and it seems to work decently. It is by no stretch perfect and alot of ROMs flat out don't work. Considering Ouendan and the NES and SNES emulators didn't work, I have reconsidered a purchase for myself. I'm pretty sure there are much better alternatives out there equally priced (considering the cost of the CF card) that play old ROMs and have a higher compatibility with DS ROMs. Though, I did get to clock some significant time with Jump Super Stars and Band Bros. which was great.

[LuigiHann]

Codejunkies.com sells the empty dock for $19.99, and if you shop smart you can get a gigabyte CF card for around $20 as well. I ordered the dock from them, I hope I don't regret it.