G6 Third Generation
Nintendo DS Flash Cart

The Box
I received my G6 originally before the flashy boxes came with them so I have no real insight on them, but from what I've seen, they look great.

The package contained a 2G G6 flash cart, a U-Disk USB adapter, PassKey and a mini CD. The CD went straight in the bin since it broke on it's long journey, and I downloaded all required files off the internet at handheldsources.com.

The PassKey

The first thing I noted about the PassKey was that it was in a U shape so that the DS game you use the PassKey with doesn't stick about an inch out of your DS. The problem I had with PassKey was that even though the DS game was tucked secretly away underneath my DS, it wasn't secure and I'd either knock out or budge the DS game and cause the whole thing to freeze. After my first few encounters with PassKey, I decided it would be wise for me to install FlashMe and just put PassKey to the side. If you're going to use a PassKey, I recommend you get the sticking out version, or glue / tape your Metroid Prime demo in to the PassKey so you don't accidentally crash your game. Don't worry if you want to play your original game though without the hassle of removing the glue or tape. The PassKey has a switch which will let you flick from Game Pak to PassKey; I wouldn't advise doing this whilst being powered on though...

The U-Disk Adapter

From my previous experience with GBA cart adapters, this is the god of all adapters. It is so simple! With my EZ II, I have to install drivers and software to read the flash cart and the whole thing became one big nightmare (and I'm not a PC novice.. I fear how they'd have coped), and in addition, it was literally impossible to get any flash cart in and out of them without brutal force. With the G6 U-Disk Adaptor, everything is plug and play. There is no need to update any USB drivers or any thing; only the software for the U-Disk Manager and the G6 Flash Cart itself. The flash cart just slots right in, and there you go.
The difference between the G6 U-Disk Adapter and say EZ USB is that the G6 U-Disk Adapter doesn't allow one to dump the contents of an original GBA game (although it could be a future possibility).

The G6 2G Flash Cart

Silver in design, black underneath. The cart fits perfectly into any GBA slot, whether it be the Nintendo DS or the GameBoy Advance. After a few inserts and removals, you will begin to see the scuff showing the black casing underneath, and the silver paint inside your DS / GBA slot. But it's not what you see, it's what's on the inside that counts! The G6 has a little black button on the front which I have yet to discover what it does. From what I've heard it can be used to boot Nintendo DS homebrew or kill your battery, but I'll update this bit when I find out for sure. The G6 Flash Cart comes in 3 capacities; 1Gb, 2Gb and 4Gb. Most games are approximately 128Mb in size, so I'd advise you to get any cart over the size of 2Gb so you have room to store your media and games.

The G6 U-Disk Manager
This is the software you get with the G6 to convert and upload your Nintendo DS and GBA ROMs to the G6 flash cart. The current version is 2.0 Special Edition.
This features:
* Support for DoFAT / GST and Clean Dump Images
* SRAM Manager to backup and restore game saves
* Real Time Saves
* Multi Media Player
* SNES / NES / GB emulator
* PDA
* FlashMe support
* No Wait Booting

The installation of the software went smoothly. For some reason, my initial installation was in Chinese which did cause me some issues on using the software, but this was fixed in version 2.0 (thankfully).

Installing a game image couldn't be easier. Just plug in the G6 cart into the U-Disk Adapter, plug the U-Disk Adapter into the PC, launch G6 U-Disk Manager.

Select the tab at the top either GBA or NDS.

Nintendo DS images

This window contains a list of all installed games. To install a game, click Write. This will launch an Open window where you select the .nds file you wish to install.
After selecting the .nds file, it will ask you what you want to do with it.

Here you can compress, trim and change the format of the game image. After clicking OK, it will take about a minute to install the game. There is a progress bar on the main screen and you will notice the blue light on your U-Disk Adapter going mental. After the installation, You will get a message to tell you everything was OK.

To remove a game, select the game you want to delete and press the Delete button. After a confirmation, the game is gone along with your game saves, so it is wise to make a backup first, which brings me to...

If you want to make a backup of your Game Saves, select the Game, then the Save (indicated by .0 .1 .2) and click Read. This will allow you to save your file on your computer in a chosen directory and file name for future use.

GameBoy Advance

The first thing you'll notice is that this is pretty similar to the NDS installation. In the same way, you can click Write to add a game, Read to backup a Game / Save and Delete to remove a game.

Unlike the NDS install, you will have different options available. You can't trim the image or convert it, but you can compress it. In addition is the ability to enable or disable Real Time. Some games need this, other games don't so it might be worth doing a bit of research on what games do and don't require this.. Or play it safe and have all games Enable Real Time.

Launching G6
Having inserted both the G6 and the PassKey along with any Nintendo DS game pak, check that the PassKey is set to PassKey and not Card. If it's set to Card, the G6 menu will not load.
Unfortunately, at this stage I lack a camera to take any screenshots of the G6 in action. The menus are easy to navigate but lack decent use of the stylus. Although you can still use the stylus to navigate, I find that it is more problematic and frustrating than using the good ol' fashion buttons.

As promised, the games booted quickly and I had no problems. At the moment, WiFi doesn't work with some games, hopefully this will be fixed.
At the end of the game, when everything is saved and you want to turn it off, you have to go through a complex system of saving which I still don't have the hang of.

First you need to turn back on the DS, then select the game, then press select to back the game up to Default, Backup 1 or Backup 2. Then to launch the game, you select whichever you saved to. If you get confused like me, then you'll find that you accidentally overwrite your save with a blank save and lose everything.

In theory, the G6 saver system is fantastic, since it allows you to restore backups you've created of games if you wish to undo something you can't undo in a game, such as choices on which door to go through. In practice, it's something that needs a lot of tweaking. During the beta stages, I found the G6 saver system a little less confusing, and I was able to keep a save going which was fantastic. Hopefully the saver system will be sorted out and fixed within a future update.

To get into GBA mode, remove the PassKey and select GBA at the Nintendo DS menu. Here you will find some sections including Game, where you can launch your emulators or GBA games. Like with the NDS G6, you can backup saves, etc and this is a little less confusing. You also have the option of making in game save states whilst playing games.

The Media Player lets you watch videos you've installed on the G6 including music and pictures.

I'll update this section of my review with pictures as soon as I get a camera.

Conclusion

The G6 Flash Cart is far superior to the other flash carts available today for the Nintendo DS and GameBoy Advance, whilst it's save system is completely screwy and takes a while to get used to, it's positive points outweigh the negative points.

Positive
+ Fast Booting Time
+ Great Game Compatibility
+ Smart U-Disk requires no drivers and can be used as storage
+ Simple Menus
+ Media Player
+ Works both on GBA and NDS without modifications between booting.

Negative
- Crappy Save System can cause loss of game data.
- PassKey gets in the way
 

Overall, this is definitely a product worth buying.

You can buy the G6 kit from stores found at http://g6flash.com/global_sell_net.htm

Stay Tuned for our M3 review by Gofthick.