R4 SDHC
The Nintendo DSi was launched in April 2009 as an upgraded version of the popular Nintendo DS Lite console and the XL model (essentially a larger DSi) is being rolled out globally at present.
Handheld DS consoles keep children busy for hours in their own little world (especially on long car journeys), but the size of the DS and DSi cartridges and the perpetual swapping over of game cartridges can lead to the loss of expensive games through mislaying them or to a theoretical wear on the contacts.
That is a big loss when games cost £25 on average to replace.
Whilst the Nintendo DSi is backwards compatible with the Nintendo DS (except where a game requires the GBA slot or ‘rumble pack’), it means that as a consequence the games cartridges throughout the DS range are identically small – no matter what variant of DS you have, you run the same risk of losing the game cartridges.
R4 Adapter Card for the Nintendo DS
What if you could store all the games on a single Nintendo DSi Memory Adapter, eliminating the swapping? The R4 adapter for Nintendo DS is a mini electronic card of tricks which is the same size as an original DS game cartridge, but also accepts flash card micro-SD memory allowing you to upload files to it, which may be music, videos or other multimedia files; depending upon the size of the R4 card memory you choose to install, this could be up to hundreds of backed up games eliminating the need to swap game cartridges forever and allowing you to tuck your original retail games cartridges safely ensuring that your valuable investment is protected!
It isn’t very easy for most people to backup their games themselves – I don’t have a clue how it is done, but others have already done this for most games (maybe even all of them) and have loaded the game backup files (NDS Roms) to the Internet, Note: Whilst this means that you can easily acquire and play games even if you have not purchased them, I would expect any such activity to be illegal in most, if not all jurisdictions. Therefore, whilst it is theoretically possible to download and play virtually every DS/DSi game ever published, for free I must caution that would certainly be in breach of copyright.
There is also a new R4i version available that appears to be completely compatible with the Nintendo DSi and so far appears to have beaten the Nintendo software engineers : the R4i Adapter for Nintendo DSi. This new R4i adapter will work in exactly the same way as the original R4 adapter for the Nintendo DS, but is re-engineered to work with the new Nintendo DSi and will be covered under a separate review page.
What can I do with an R4 Adapter for the DSi?
This R4 adapter firmware allows you to watch movies, play music, browse your pictures, read E-Books, transfer files from your computer (including the games backup roms) as well as the opportunity to run Homebrew (often free) software. Now you really can use your DS or DS Lite to do things that were otherwise impossible :
- Watch movies
- Play music
- Browse pictures
- Read E-Books and more…
Features:
- R4 adapter is same size as an original DS game cartridge
- Built-in PassMe (NO need for any boot cart./passcard etc.)
- Uses microSD memory card (Trans Flash) as storage
- Boot clean dump images (downloadable from internet)
- Very simple to use: drag and drop files to the microSD card, insert into R4 adapter for DS and play
- Standard FAT system support
- Supports different speeds of micro SD cards
- Supports HC memory cards
- Upgradable Firmware ( OS / Bios / Kernel )
- DS Touch screen control and robust skinning support
- No battery needed, back up the save file directly into the microSD card
- Homebrew support , IO lib available on launch
- Supports up to a MASSIVE 32Gb Flash memory card. Purchase preferred card size and insert into R4i adapter
Where can I buy the R4 Adapter for the Nintendo DSi?
Many merchants are starting to offer R4i adapter cards, however our recommendation is :
Buy the R4 Nintendo DSi Adapter
R4i.co.uk (formerly Memorybits) have supplied our memory cards and adapters in the past and continue to supply only official R4/R4i stock, backed up by excellent instructions for setting up the R4i adapter and locating the software and firmware for it.
MyMemory have also kindly supplied sample stock of cards and we are happy to endorse them as a supplier too.
Now for the details :
We ordered the R4 Adapter from Memorybits complete with 2Gb micro SD card at a cost of £27.95 when we bought some time ago.
For the avoidance of doubt, this was not a review copy, but was bought and paid for by ourselves; however, we now have an exclusive 20% discount code ‘PR20′ which you can use at Memorybits or their sister Zoombits stores in France, Germany or the US. Whilst MyMemory has not provided us with a discount code, they do have keen prices for the same packaged R4 card.
The packaging was full retail box packaging (no shrinkwrap) rather than OEM. In common with many suppliers, Memorybits supplied the micro SD card separately to the R4i adapter packaging and this once again was in full retail but blister packaging probably due to the very small size of these flash cards.
The micro SD card was Kingston branded which is a respected brand and was supplied pre-formatted straight out of the package. You must have a micro SD card for the R4i Revolution to be of any use to you.
We ordered the R4 Revolution, but what we actually received was the R4 Revolution Upgraded (still for the DS, DSL). I haveno idea what Úpgraded means in this context, but haven’t found any differences to actually report.
- R4 Adapter in a protective game case
- Thumbdrive USB Micro SD card reader
- Wrist-strap … could be used with any of games case, thumbdrive adapter or even the DSi itself
I already had another R4 Revolution and a Micro SD card from the original DS that this DS (and R4) was replacing, and it was a simple matter of removing the old R4 operating system and downloading the new R4 software (Memorybits pointed me to and hosted the R4 firmware download) onto the original SD card leaving the original content intact.
The firmware installation was an easy matter of downloading a zip file and extracting it. Once I had extracted the zip file to my PC, it was a very simple job to drag and drop two folders and a file to the root folder of the micro SD card.
If you do want to add the backup versions of your games, then you will need to have a look around the internet to find the NDS Games Roms; we will not help you here as that could be considered a copyright theft and whist we think it only proper that you have access to safeguard your game, we do not believe that you have any right to play games that you locate as backups but have nought bought. See our warnings below in red text.
However, what matters is that when we plugged everything together and had the R4 in our DSi (in total 5 minutes effort), everything worked as well from the R4 card as they did from the original cartridge, except that the original cartridges are now in their box safely on a shelf where they will not be lost or damaged.
The firmware comes bundled with the Moonshell application that allows you to access multimedia and tools are available to allow you to recode movies and music in an R4 compatible format allowing you to watch movies, listen to your music and to play games all from your DS + R4.
Firmware downloads : Best downloaded from http://www.r4i-sdhc.com –
DS Compatability : Works only with DS & DS Lite
Other Notes : Later revisions support Games Engine / Wifi Engine (only where manufactured after Nov 2009).Games Engine will be subject to a separate standalone article, but in essence makes it easier to locate and to add backup games to your card over a wifi connection.
Don’t confuse with : R4 Ultra, R4 Gold, R4, M3 or Acekard variants – they are all different cards.
Score : Very impressed … So far a 8/10 for me with using the R4 as supplied by Memorybits and the R4-SDHC team are constantly revising the Firmware. If you now want to buy, then don’t forget that we now have an exclusive 20% discount code ‘PR20′ which you can use at R4i.co.uk, Memorybits or any of their sister Zoombits stores in France, Germany or the US.
Negatives : The card is slighly long in the tooth now, and the firmware upgrades are not as often as for the R4i SDHC card. That said, the card itself underwent a revision in November to support Games Engine so is still receiving support.
Positives : Now a very cheap card and as it is designed only for use on DS and DS Lite variants with no firmware upgrades possible by Nintendo, then the card should have a long and stable life with Firmware upgrades only required for the very latest games backups (again – see warning below).
Where to buyR4 Revolution? We list stockists below and have actually tested stock from MyMemory and Zoombits/R4i.co.uk to confirm their authenticity.
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***Warning*** This site operates as an information service explaining what theDS Games Adapters allow you to do, and to help you buy one. If you decide to purchase a game adapter for your DS model, it will be your responsibility to use it in accordance with the laws prevailing in your territory. DS-Game-Adapters.co.uk does not condone lawbreaking or piracy. In fact, we do not sell them ourselves, but merly point you in the direction of sellers.
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