If you haven’t heard of the DSPico, you’ve likely been missing out on what has been the biggest development for DS Flash Carts in who knows how long. From the days of timebomb stuck flash carts with the R4 label, to short lived and barely supported attempts like the EZ Flash Parallel, we’ve seen a lot of options come and go, but never anything significantly better. Well that changed last year when the LNH Team released the original DSPico.
Powered by (you guessed it) a Raspberry Pi Pico, this open source, open design flash cart was unleashed onto the world with great fanfare, and even greater response. By making it open source, we saw these things flooding the Aliexpress market for as low as $5 if you knew which Zu Reviews video to watch. Well it seems some sleeves are getting rolled up because the DSPico IR has just been shown off in a recent Macho Nacho video, and thanks to production from Phenom Mods it seems the best flash cart is getting even better.
When it comes to updates you’re looking at quite a bit changing under the hood, but just a few of the main features I’ve put down below for what you can really expect.
- Powered by a Raspberry Pico 2 (RP2350)
- IR Transceiver Functionality (Hence the Name)
- USB-C Port (Original was Micro USB)
- Lower Power Draw Over the Original
- Increased Ram 8MB up from 264KB
- Support for .ndz ROMs
When it comes to picking one of these up, they’re currently on pre-order as the boards work on getting finalized for production. There’s still time for changes to be made, but if what’s already been shown off here sounds appealing, this may be the way to go. At the time of writing, backorder from Phenom Mods is currently $29.99 prior to shipping, which in my case is around $5.80. For what could be the next great DS Flashcard, I think it’s going to be worth the price, but if you choose to wait a bit longer, you may be able to find one on for less elsewhere.
