Princedmorn
Offline
Michigan

So I will make this a quick question for a few reasons. First, I am on 8% battery. Second, I am still so new to chiptunes that I am afraid of asking such a silly question, but I never dealt with this before.

I am quickly buying a cartridge so I can finally start programming my music, and when I came across this EMS64usb cart (because of the price) I noticed that not a lot of people enjoy it because of it only able to have 'one save'. What is 'one save'? What is 'one save' in terms of LSDJ? Does this mean I can only save one song?

Thanks for any help given!

Victory Road
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Gosford, Australia

it basically means you can't put savable games and LSDJ on the same cart cause the save data will be constantly overwritten or corrupted. but if you just have LSDJ it's fine, you can save a whole bunch of songs onto one .sav file man.

L-tron
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The only problem I ever had was getting the drivers to be recognized by my os (windows 7 64bit). The other downside being that they run off sram, like most other carts. In other words, this means that the .sav files are being sustained by the cartridges internal battery, which can last anywhere from a year to several years, depending on how much you use it and possibly other factors that I am unaware of.

This shouldn't be a problem if you back up your music regularly.

If you can scrounge up the extra cash, I highly suggest looking into a Drag n Derp. They are super easy to use and don't rely on an internal battery or use sram. Thus they are more stable and easier to back up. Well worth the investment. Well, good luck.

Princedmorn
Offline
Michigan
L-tron wrote:

The other downside being that they run off sram, like most other carts. In other words, this means that the .sav files are being sustained by the cartridges internal battery, which can last anywhere from a year to several years, depending on how much you use it and possibly other factors that I am unaware of.

This shouldn't be a problem if you back up your music regularly.

Does this mean after the battery dies, all my songs and progress is lost?

herr_prof
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yep

Princedmorn
Offline
Michigan
herr_prof wrote:

yep

Wow...

Nick Walrus
Offline
Québec

Well yeah but it would take a long time, really if you backup your stuff regularly it shouldn't be a problem.

kuzimoto
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Even some normal game cartridges have their batteries last a while. I've have a Pokemon yellow last from when I bought it to now. That's at least 10 years.

katsumbhong
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Taichung, Taiwan

I've had my EMS64 cart for at least 3 years and I'm still going strong on the battery it came with. If I write music on it, I back it up once a week.

Princedmorn
Offline
Michigan

I didn't know if I should pick this cartridge up now and start, or save up for a drag n deep instead.

sprusr
Offline
bed

If money is a concern, just go for the ems. Mine's never caused me any trouble.
In terms of everyday usage, you won't notice a difference in usability between the two, especially if you're just going to be using it with lsdj. The price difference only becomes apparent when you connect it up to a computer to transfer saves, and in reality, flashing the ems isn't as awkward as some people make it out to be.

Famikiller
Offline
Edinburgh, Scotland

If it puts your mind at ease, I've been using the same EMS32 cart since 2006, with no means to back it up, and it has not failed me yet. The batteries last longer than you think.

There were more hoops to jump than I liked with a USB EMS than say, a bleep bloop or drag n derp when it came to flashing. But if that's not much of a concern, an EMS is fine. You can always upgrade in the future if you feel like investing more money.

Princedmorn
Offline
Michigan
sprusr wrote:

The price difference only becomes apparent when you connect it up to a computer to transfer saves, and in reality, flashing the ems isn't as awkward as some people make it out to be.

In terms of flashing, I was going to have the website I buy the cartridge from flash for me (unless that isn't recommended, than I guess I'll do it myself). When it comes to saving , is it just copy and pasting over to a desktop folder?

rot
Offline
UK / FR

With the drag'n'derp yeah it's drag'n'drop, just like a usb flash drive. With the EMS you need to use a special program to copy the saves/roms over on windows, think like itunes or something. on linux & os x theres a little command line tool, which is super easy to use.

My recommendation would be to get the EMS because it's like half the price and you might want to get another cart anyway in the future if you wanna play live or something.

I've been using an EMS for about a year and the save memory isn't even full yet. I just bought another one so I can experiment with 2x lsdj. For sure the drag'n'derp is a higher quality, and more reliable product, but that's not to say EMS has any major problems or is unreliable.

EDIT: However the d'n'd was made by someone who used to post on these forums, which is kinda cool and its nice to support these projects. while the ems is produced by some shady faceless company who just sell stuff to pirate games. also most importantly the d'n'd has a drawing of a cool lookin' dude on the label.

Last edited by rot (Mar 1, 2015 3:27 pm)

my.Explosion
Offline
Finland
rot wrote:

also most importantly the d'n'd has a drawing of a cool lookin' dude on the label.

I *KNEW* it! I am not the only one who bought it because of the cool dude!

But more seriously, yeah go for the EMS, dude.
I have two, gone for 3 years now, still doing fine. Admittingly I don't use them 24/7 but as has been mentioned already, if you back your stuff up the batterylife isn't that big a deal. The battery life on the game boy should be far more concerning. At least it is for me, I've lost songs once or twice because the Game Boy jolted and the batteries shifted or the batteries ran out on me.

And hey, in case you wake up one day and you figure it's not for you, you won't have spent 100 bucks on a cartridge smile (not wishing to imply anything here, but that happens sometimes, people change.)