For those of you that may be unaware, the AKAIO 1.5 version was JUST RELEASED moments ago! The firmware believed to be speculation has lifted off at last! Well, this information is straight from GBAtemp, and Normatt, the AKAIO programmer, teamed up with some Yellow Wood Goblin dude and released the binary files. Now, ladies and gentlemen, please note that if you want to update loaders in the future, you MUST UPDATE TO 1.5. I repeat, you must UPDATE to 1.5! This version is quite fantastic, because it features fixes for 100+ NDS games, anti-piracy destroyer thing, a POR fix (what the bloody hell is that?) and WII CONNECTIVITY. I really am pleased and kinda laughing right now. Please download at GBATemp.net and discuss here or there.

Here is the official changelog from GBATemp:

+ Fixed issue with the hiddenFileNames globalsettings option not accepting non lowercase filenames.
+ Optimizations to the AK2 dldi should be a little quicker now.
+ Update Dutch translation (Thanks MarioWaza).
+ Update Spanish translation (Thanks Pendor).
+ AK2/AK2i clones are now officially unsupported.
+ Gba icon has been removed from main selection screen on DSi.
+ Removed outdated plugin system.
+ Per rom GBA frame support (256×192x15bpp)
- Place BMP with internal game id of gba rom in __aio/frames.
+ Added support for save sizes up to 256Mbit (32Megabyte).
+ .sav is now default save extension.
+ Reverse Alphabetical List sorting (set sortListAlpha=0 in globalsettings.ini).
+ Auto-Anti-Piracy Patcher updated.
+ ARGV support for homebrew.
+ New DSi detection (Shouldn’t show slot2 icon after softreset on ak2i now).
+ Disable start menu by adding “LockStartMenu = 1″ to your globalsettings.ini
+ Fixed Trainer Toolkit support.
Please refer to LoaderChangelog.txt for compatibility fix!

Well I’ve amassed quite a few DSi flash cartridges over the last half a year or so, and I’ve been stuck using the 1.3 firmware so that all my carts can work. Now that they are all updatable, the last being the iPlayer, I figured I’d take videos of the update process and sort of tell you guys how to do it. So, the four carts I have with me today are: M3i Zero, Supercard DS ONEi, AceKard 2i, and the iPlayer. I know that there are other carts that work with 1.4, but I don’t have an EZ Flash Vi at the moment, but I will update this blog when I receive mine.

Before I start off, I just want to thank 4CoolDay, one of this site’s sponsors for providing some of the stuff used in these videos. And also for providing the helpful list found at (http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=174664&st=0). So be sure to support both DSDatabase and 4CoolDay by shopping at 4CoolDay.com.

So read more to see how each of the carts update. My personal favorite is the M3i Zero, it was nice and simple, although I suppose the iPlayer is also impressive if it weren’t for the scare. The Supercard DS ONEi was by far the longest, but it too was relatively pain free, while the AceKard 2i has the best system for flashing multiple carts at once, so kudos to them.

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There is a new DSi update floating around in Australia, Europe and Japan that is blocking out ALL DSi flash carts. Currently it is not yet available in North America, but please be aware that this update BLOCKS ALL DSI FLASH CARTS.

I will update this post when or if there are updates for flash carts to regain their ability to boot.

Working:
EZ Flash Vi (first updatable cart with an update)
Hyper-R4i (updatable)
R4i Gold Box (they are not updateable, you need to purchase the news one that are being released from August 10th and on)
AceKard 2i (fully updatable)
R4 Ultra (stole the update from the AceKard team, but works)

Doesn’t work, has updatable boot-loader, possible that an update may fix it:
M3i Zero
Supercard DS ONEi

Doesn’t work, not quite sure what the status is. No official word on whether it has an updatable boot-loader or not (unlikely though):
iPlayer: Doesn’t work

Doesn’t work, unlikely to ever work again, perhaps new batches in the future will work, but all old batches are most likely dead:
iTouch2
most R4 clones
DSTTi
most DSTTi clones

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Looking for something to do over the summer? And you happen to also be one of those people that never played Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, or perhaps never heard of it?? Well it seems like now is a great time to pick up the game because Djipi finally finished his hi-resolution cel-shade mod for the game and released it 5 days ago. (http://www.emutalk.net/showthread.php?t=49340) I had a bit of spare time, so I put together a quick video of various locations and how the game looks now.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was first released on the N64 in 1998 and is often hailed as the best game of all times. The game was re-released on the Gamecube and Virtual Console with identical graphics, but in two flavors, one original, and one with a higher difficulty level (Master Quest). Needless to say, after 11 years, the graphics, no matter how jaw-dropping they were when first released, were getting bland. Djipi’s cel-shade mod is one of the most extensive retexture projects out there.

To explain what hi-resolution retexture is, some N64 emulators have the ability to replace every single texture of a game with custom ones, and as a result, over the years users have created mods that enhance the game’s visuals. One of the best packs I’ve found was Djipi’s “Celda”. Djipi retextured the game to look as similar to Legend of Zelda: Windwaker as possible, and the results are fantastic.

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Club Nintendo is a part of the Nintendo website that gives prizes out for registering your games and consoles. You do have to complete relatively short surveys that take no more than a minute or two to fill up. Most of the games share the exact same survey that are mainly, “where did you hear about this game?” questions. Once fill out one, you don’t even need to bother reading the others, just tick away! There are draws, “purchases”, and of course the elite status giveaway for the prizes, and who doesn’t love free stuff?

Keep in mind that this year is coming to an end. This doesn’t really affect your purchases, but if you want to get ahold of the elite status prizes, you need to get 300 or 600 points by JUNE 30TH, 2009!

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