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Introduction

As half a month after the launch of Dsi, AK and Cyclods Teams announced that they had already got flashcart kits on Dsi, and posted vedios on Youtube. But on Dec 19th, the Top Toy Team unveiled the DSTTi, the world’s second commercial Dsi compatible flashcart. Since AK2i released, DSTT always keep silent, now it bring us a great surprise. We know that except running on Dsi, AK2i has nothing special, comparing with AK2. How about DSTTi? Please read on:

Features:
Ds original cartridge size, Slot-1 interface.
Plug ’n play, easy to use, just drog ’n drop.
No flashme, built-in NoPass.
100% SDHC TF and standard TF compatibility up to 4096GB
High speed SDHC. Support any TF and speed with no lag.
Supports Moonshell and homebrew, DLDI auto-patching.
Supports FAT/FAT32, works on any OS.
Supports Action Replay cheat and edit the code base.
Built-in energy-saving design.
User friendly skinnable interface. Touchscreen or button operation.
Supports Skin DIY.
Supports the SOFTRESET.
Supports the WIFI, DS Rumble Pak, DS Browser.
Supports Download play
Supports 4-scale-lightness adjustment (DS Lite only).
Free SDHC high-speed reader.

Package:
The package of DSTTi is almost the same as DSTT. And “i” on the package points out the fine difference. So it’s easy for users to distinguish them. Unlike AK2i, DSTTi has no TF reader. But some users cannot get a TF reader from resellers. So you had better purchase another TF reader. And the design of the sticker on the cartridge is also like DSTT, but adding “i” to make a difference.

One of its advantages is that DSTTi is original cart size, unlike other flashcarts are a little toolarge or make for a tight fit. So it make people insert cart easily. The case is made from a thin plastic, but fits firmly into the slot. DSTTi uses a spring loading mechanism for the TF card, that is really good as it’s not a tight fit and the TF card can be inserted and removed with ease. So it’s more convenient than AK2i.

Hardware:
Tearing off the sticker, we can see the surface is very plain,no bump. And there’s a finny design between the connecting finger: DSTT 2i or DSTT 21? Its inner design is similar to DSTT, with a hole on the front side.

Let’s make a brief comparison as following:

The front view of DSTTi (left) and DSTT (right)

The back view of DSTTi (left) and DSTT (right)

We can see that the arrangement of the components are also very similar: both have black rubber casing.

Performance

After we got the DSTTi, we cannot find anything on its official website. So we use the 1.16 version kernel. Great! It works. It’s not a surprise when AK2i used its 4.12 kernel. As DSTTi works on DS and DSL, it’s just the same true as DSTT, fully compatible. Also, this is a feature same as AK2i.

Now let’s have a look at how it works. If you put the DSTTi to NDS/NDS-L and run without TF card, the screen will show like this, it’s mean you need to put one TF card inside. Upon booting up your Nintendo DS, TTDS automatically skips the Nintendo DS logo and brings you to the main menu of TTDS which displays all of your hombrew and games that you copied over to your TF card. It seems that the DSTTi cannot wait to release, so they have no time to change the logo.

The setting o f single game, DMA reader mode, soft reset and Action Replay can work on Dsi and DS/DSL with nothing different. But in the “SysOption”box, three of four functional keys cannot work, for those functions all work on DS/DSL. PassMe mode and GBA mode is designed for Slot 2 solution. Dsi has no Slot 2. Pressing the two buttons will cause white screen. And brightness option is also useless, because select+ A can adjust the lightness of the screen.

Game Compatibility

DSTTi and DSTT use the same kernel, so it also support business games and homebrew. We tested some special games:

PHANTASY STAR zero—-ROM + Copy Protection Fix Patch
Gensou Suikoden Tierkreis—- Pass
Tales of Hearts—-Pass
Ragnarok Online DS—-Pass
Chrono Trigger—-ROM + Copy Protection Fix Patch
Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow—-Pass
Mario Kart (Chinese Version)—-Pass

As you can see its compatibility is very nice. Recently some games got copy protection, so users need to make a patch manually or get an update kernel. DSTTi can support some Chinese version games, but AK2i cannot, for example Mario Kart. Here, let’s show you some pictures:

Homebrew support:
Besides the nice game compatibility, another important point is homebrew support, because it will provide extra fun for users. DSTTi also supports automatic DLDI patching so no modification of DLDI enabled homebrew is required before copying them to your SD card. Most homebrew software appears to work fine in DLDI mode.

Moonshell 1.71 OK
NEODS 1.1 OK
Dolphinreader 0.15 OK
Image viewer 1.1 OK

Soft Reset
As long as the option is enabled in the settings, the DSTTi supports soft reset. Enable it in the Special Menu and hit L+R+A+B+X+Y in-game to reset back to the main menu. Or, as you’re using a DSi, you can just hit the power button to reset to the main DSi menu, for those trickier situations!

Cheat support
DSTTi supports Action Replay cheat and editable the code base. During gameplay, it supports Action Replay real time switch, L+R+START+DOWN, turn down Action Replay; L+R+ START+UP, open it. Cheat works on NDS/NDSL and NDSi.

Conclusion:

DSTTi is the second flash kit compatible with Dsi. It has a lot of features in common with Ak2i. The kernels they use is the same as before, and the performance almost the same, also they work on DSL and Dsi. To most users, they are the same products but in a new console. Anyway,this is a new choice for users.

Pros
The world’s second commercial DSi compatible flash kit
Backwards compatible with both original and Lite DS
Micro SDHC compatible
100% ROM compatibility
Full download play support
Drag and drop all files – auto DLDI patching
On-board file management & trimming
Extra features such as cheat support and soft-reset
Great build quality, fits flush

Cons
Low reader speed under system interface.
DSTTi may be obsolete as DSi firwmare update by Nintendo.