Flashcart Review: EDGE DS

October 26th, 2008, 02:54 Posted By: BlueCrab

EDGE Card DS Slot-1 MicroSD/MicroSDHC
Manufacturer: EDGE (www.edge-ds.cn)

DS homebrew and development has always been one of those things that has interested me greatly. However, I'm one of those people that always takes on more than I can handle. It should hardly come as a surprise to many of you that my interest in DS homebrew kinda fell on the back burner to the Dreamcast. At one point in time, my interest was high enough in DS homebrew that I actually bought a flashcart and all for the purpose. My card of choice (there really wasn't much of a choice back then) was a SuperCard SD (Slot 2) and an original PassMe. That was quite a few years ago, so when I was given the opportunity to review a much newer DS flashcart, I jumped all over the opportunity. So, now that you know what kind of perspective this review is coming from, I guess it would be a good time to get it started, eh?

The flashcart in question for this review is the EDGE Card. here's a small tidbit from the manufacturer on what EDGE is exactly (and a picture of its rather unique packaging):

Features of EDGE (as given by the manufacturer):

• Supports MicroSDHC cards up to 32GB
• Plays Commercial NDS ROM
• Plays Homebrew NDS ROMS
• Touch to execute OS system
• Works with Moonshell for multimedia playback such as movies and MP3's
• Frequently updated OS for best compatibility
• Action Replay compatible cheat system
• Brighntess adjustment for NDSL
• In game reset
• Full download play support
• Supports slot 2 expansions
• Multi language user interface
• Save game saves directly to Micro SD
• Automatic save game type detection
• Supports clean ROMs
• Robust non-spring loaded Micro SD slot
• Micro SDHC card reader included

First Impressions/Setup of EDGE:
The EDGE card comes in a rather interesting packaging, shaped like a triangle. The package comes with the EDGE card itself, as well as a MicroSD/MicroSDHC reader. There are no discs of any sort included with the card itself. The packaging has instructions on the back for how to get set up with the card. This simply involves going to the EDGE website, and downloading the latest EDGE OS and extracting it to the root of your MicroSD card. Any other DS programs you wish to use go anywhere on the MicroSD card that you wish to put them. Also, while at the EDGE website, you probably will want to download their EDGE version of Moonshell. The Moonshell RAR file contains a directory named moonshl that should be copied to the root of your MicroSD card. The moonshl directory will not show up in the EDGE file browser, so don't dump any DS applications there if you want to run them from the EDGE OS. Upon doing this, Moonshell is accessible from the EDGE OS by choosing the Media option.

Overall Impressions:
I have to say that flashcarts for the DS have certainly come a long way since their humble beginnings. The EDGE card seems to be a very solid piece of kit, so to speak. It had no trouble with all the homebrew that I threw at it. It automatically did DLDI patching, and the interface is skinable. I also like the fact that you can boot any old Slot-2 devices (like my old SuperCard SD) from within the EDGE OS (the option is in a bit of an odd place though, in the Settings menu). The OS has a bunch of different languages that it supports (English, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish and Portuguese, just to name some of them), so even if English isn't your first language, you'll probably find some language you're comfortable with to set it to. I'd recommend the EDGE card to anyone that is looking for a new flashcart for their DS. It does exactly what it needs to do, and the packaging is kinda cool too.

Overall rating: 4.5 / 5

The odd placement of the option booting a Slot-2 device is probably the only thing keeping me from giving this a 5/5.

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