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[Entwined]

EWin is a team I'm not too familiar with to be honest. There are the heavyhitters of the DS scene and then the lesser known companies which they would definitely fall under. Don't let that scare you though because what EWin has developed is a very fascinating slot 1/2 hybrid solution that offers very simple and user-friendly functionality.


Packaging:

Very nice packaging, I must say. It looks exactly like a normal DS case but on the inside it has a slot for the GBA cartridge and a slot for the DS cartridge. The product cover looks very professional.






Fitting:

The slot 1 DS cartridge will fit flush with both the Fat and Lite versions of the DS.
The slot 2 DS Cartridge will fit flush only with the Fat version, it will stick out of the Lite but remember you only need the Slot 2 cartridge connected when you're adding files to the Slot 1 cartridge.




Software:

Usually to put games, homebrew or media on a cart you would need to use some additional software but thanks to the method EWin has developed that is simply not necessary. To add files to your Slot 1 cart follow this procedure:

1- Insert Slot 1 (DS) cart
2- Insert Slot 2 (GBA) cart
3- Connect Mini-USB Cable (Not included with this package) to PC and to Slot 2 Cart
4- Power on your Nintendo DS

At this point your PC will recognize the hardware and you can manually drag and drop anything onto here. When you're done shut your DS off and you're finished. Simple huh? Very user-friendly.

At this point though it brings out a few small concerns I have. Filesize and Transfer speed. It seems to be sending at USB 1 speeds which isn't too bad as files aren't huge but its a minor nuissance. The other problem is filesizes, at only 128MB (or 1 Gigabit) this version of the cart is kind of limited in what it can do since you need two folders on the cart for it to work, shell and DSYSTEM. They also recommend installing DSorganize. All told its roughly 7MB of space used which matters on this cart when its only 128MB.

I've been informed later versions of this hardware will include USB 2.0 transfer speeds and be available in 8Gb (2 Gigabyte) and 16 Gb (4 Gigabyte) versions so thankfully these concerns of mine will not matter to those of you who buy the higher end products from Ewin but if you're going with the 1Gb be warned.

For good measure heres a few pictures of the GUI that runs on the DS itself





Functionality (Games/Homebrew)

Saving is often a concern for people and Ewin has been kind with regards to this often troubling situation. From the main menu simply select the game you wish to play and then hit the Select button and then tap left and right to switch the savetype. It offers the following types: EEPROM 4Kbit, FLASH 2MbitEEPROM 64/512Kbit and saving in game appears to work just as it would with an original cartridge. You may have to select different types depending on what you're playing but its very straightforward.

A variety of games have been tested, I have not found one incompatible DS game yet. Even the newest games like Star Fox Command, Phoenix Wright: Justice For All and Diddy Kong Racing work.

Homebrew compatibility:

DSorganize - Passes
Moonshell - Passes
LemmingsDS - Fails
DSLinux - Passes

As you can see mostly good result but us Lemmings fans are left out in the cold. If you need any of the big 3 DSOrganize, Moonshell or DSLinux you're golden. Those are arguably the three finest pieces of homebrew out there for the Nintendo DS and they all worked flawlessly for me in my testing.


Conclusion:

As is the case, this product can always be improved upon and EWin listens. They're including USB cables now, the transfer speeds in the newer cartridges has been upped to USB 2.0, the storage capacity has grown and thanks to their software coders the menu system looks much nicer than earlier versions. Thankfully though the latest updates will work on all models of the hardware so you have no need to worry about support suddenly stopping.
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