# R4 price raised



## vivienne (Jun 27, 2008)

Hi all. Today when I want to purchanse one more R4 in Volumerate, I found that the price raised. Why?

http://www.volumerate.com/details.vr/sku.1202

Comparing with SuperCard, Acekard and M3 Real as below:

http://www.volumerate.com/details.vr/sku.60049
http://www.volumerate.com/details.vr/sku.13829
http://www.volumerate.com/details.vr/sku.60118

The R4 is the cheapest one while the Acekard is the most expensive one. 

Will the R4 factory stop producing?


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## Renegade_R (Jun 27, 2008)

Because they are getting much more rare to find...plus there are millions of better options to choose from like the CycloDS, the SuperCard and the M3.

Don't buy the R4...its basically the worst card at the highest price as of now.


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## Satangel (Jun 27, 2008)

Just buy another card, not the R4DS.
My guess:

- The R4DS is very popular by noobs who buy it, so they raise the price
- The R4DS is quite rare too receive, so there aren't many in stock, so they raise the price


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## Sephi (Jun 27, 2008)

I wonder how the R4DS got so popular in the first place...


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## vivienne (Jun 27, 2008)

I knew that there are so many options now, such as CycloDS, the SuperCard and the M3.

So I think the R4 price should be reduced to get the advantage to compete with others. 

However, it raised contrarily. Just cannot understand.


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## Sephi (Jun 27, 2008)

It's just gotten overly popular some how, unexperienced buyers (noobs, young people, parents) thinking the R4 is great (still is though)


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## Satangel (Jun 27, 2008)

Sephiroth said:
			
		

> I wonder how the R4DS got so popular in the first place...



It was the first slot1 cart that could run any DS game without patching. In the time the updates were very fast, homebrew support was excellent and userbase was great.
It was the first to set a new standard, that's why its so popular.


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## MR_COW (Jun 27, 2008)

The store is in charge of raising the price...not the R4 team.


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## ScuberSteve (Jun 27, 2008)

Satangel said:
			
		

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Wrong, that was the AceKard...


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## Sephi (Jun 27, 2008)

Satangel said:
			
		

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I was actually wondering if the R4 was the first 'good' flashcart, now I see.


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## SkH (Jun 27, 2008)

ScuberSteve said:
			
		

> Satangel said:
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But it had True Drag 'n' Drop! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





And 100% compatibility with automatic save type detect!


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## Foie (Jun 27, 2008)

The R4 made a name for itself as the most simple and noob friendly flashcart on the market, while at the same time being relatively inexpensive.  Now many (if not most) other flashcarts have not only surpassed it in quality, but their prices have become much cheaper as well.  Yet among the technologically-impaired mass public, the general term for "DS Flashcart" has remained "R4".  Because of this, it has immense popularity, and the vendors are able to raise the price for it while still having many sales.  

That pretty much sums it up


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## Destructobot (Jun 27, 2008)

The R4 was the best DS flashcart available when it was launched. It was the first one that ran games without a problem regardless of memory card speed, and that was a big deal in late '06. It also had some of the best support in the industry for a while, with quick updates to fix problem games, and major features added in updates (cheats, full download play compatibility). It was a very worthy cart for about a year.

Obviously, things have changed.


And as far as the Acekard goes, it didn't need patching, but it did need a special program to write games to the memory card because of its stupid file system. From an end user's point of view there in really no difference.


Edit: I forgot about the saves. The R4 was the first cart that didn't require you to either patch the roms or specify a save type. That was a huge deal for user friendliness.

Edit 2: Well, there was the DS-X, but that doesn't count does it?

Edit 3: According to those links, the R4 is only $26.99. Unless they're charging a lot for shipping that's not a high price compared to what the R4 has been going for, and it's cheaper that either of the other carts.


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## vivienne (Jun 27, 2008)

Destructobot said:
			
		

> The R4 was the best DS flashcart available when it was launched. It was the first one that ran games without a problem regardless of memory card speed, and that was a big deal in late '06. It also had some of the best support in the industry for a while, with quick updates to fix problem games, and major features added in updates (cheats, full download play compatibility). It was a very worthy cart for about a year.
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> Obviously, things have changed.
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Sorry, I didn't notice the shipping cost. 
And as you said " From an end user's point of view there in really no difference.", it is unnecessary for me to pay high price for a Acekard inatead of R4?


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## Destructobot (Jun 27, 2008)

From an end user's point of view there is no difference between having to use a program to patch every game and having to use a program to put every game on the card. Either way it's not drag & drop.

Keep in mind that we are talking about the Acekard here, not the Acekard+, Acekard R.P.G or Acekard 2. Those all came later.


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## Sephi (Jun 27, 2008)

edit: I'm lost.


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## vivienne (Jun 27, 2008)

Things have changed so fast.

I don't know whether buy the current one or wait for the future one now.

I'm lost too!


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## Joe88 (Jun 27, 2008)

vivienne said:
			
		

> Things have changed so fast.
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> I don't know whether buy the current one or wait for the future one now.
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> I'm lost too!


there is a solution

SCDS1


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## bunnybreaker (Jun 27, 2008)

I have an R4 (avec spring), and when I bought it, it was the best value for money with a good set of features, this was also before the influx of SDHC cards.

I'm very much happy with my R4 apart from the spring issue, but there is no way I would buy one now; not when there are cards that have more features and storage capacity for not much more (money).


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## mikagami (Jun 27, 2008)

Can anyone fill me in what HUGE features other carts have over the R4?  (other than SDHC...)


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## Satangel (Jun 27, 2008)

Huge features, none.
But the overall feel, + minor features + great support give other flashcarts more quality then the R4


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## Fat D (Jun 27, 2008)

CycloDS Evolution has real-time save, Wii connectivity, native support for EZ-Flash V 3in1, homebrew soft reset, slow motion, in-game cheat disable....


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## Salamantis (Jun 27, 2008)

Buy another flashcart instead of the R4, it's getting old and support for it is dropping. You'll regret it later. Get a different flashcart.



			
				Satangel said:
			
		

> *Huge features, none.*
> But the overall feel, + minor features + great support give other flashcarts more quality then the R4
> Wrong
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## euphemism (Jun 27, 2008)

Salamantis said:
			
		

> Buy another flashcart instead of the R4, it's getting old and support for it is dropping. You'll regret it later. Get a different flashcart.
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You know the in-game text reader is coming soon too.


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## Satangel (Jun 27, 2008)

Salamantis said:
			
		

> Buy another flashcart instead of the R4, it's getting old and support for it is dropping. You'll regret it later. Get a different flashcart.
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What is a huge feature, next to SDHC?

All those features you say aren't exactly huge.


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## layzieyez (Jun 27, 2008)

SDHC capability is the hugest thing for me.  I don't have to manage the space left on the card nearly as much as I had to with the 2GB limitation (I have 8GB on my EDGE and 4GB on my M3 Real).


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## jalaneme (Jun 27, 2008)

because noobs like u keep buying them and they can take advantage of that by hiking the prices because you don't know any better.


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## Rayder (Jun 27, 2008)

When I bought the R4 it was the best one to get.

Now, I want one with SDHC compatibility, but still be simple in that I don't have to fiddle in superfluous menus or be forced to select savetypes. It MUST be compatible with the official GBAtemp cheat dat and boot a full-fledged (read: not a 3in1) slot2 card correctly. It must also support DPG vids and 8gig and larger SDHC cards.


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## Sephi (Jun 27, 2008)

M3DS REAL, EDGE, CycloDS Evo, DSTT, Acekard 2, SCDS1, umm list cold go on for a while.
(I think they changed the SCDS1 to automatically pick the save type)


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## CorruptJon (Jun 27, 2008)

Who still buys R4's anyways?


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## Sephi (Jun 27, 2008)

I bought my R4 about a year ago, I still love it.


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## imtony (Jun 27, 2008)

I've had my R4 for a lil over a year now and it still works great. Only thing that makes me consider getting a new flashcart is SDHC support and maybe RTS.


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## ojsinnerz. (Jun 27, 2008)

CorruptJon said:
			
		

> Who still buys R4's anyways?


Noobs, ignorant consumers, and parents.

My friend just bought a R4 for around 50 bucks, and he thought it was still the best, etc. He got it just a few weeks ago. He said "His friends recommended it over everything else".

When his R4 breaks, I'll be making sure to make him get a new cart.


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## pokemongalaxy (Jun 27, 2008)

Sephiroth said:
			
		

> I bought my R4 about a year ago, I still love it.


Yah same here (actually mines m3simply ds=clone, m3 version of r4). Only thing I wanted was sdhc, no slow mo or real time save, those are just stupid. Thing is, an sdhc 4gb card is like $50 here, its more expensive than the card, so why buy one? But I wish I got a dstt instead because its only $20 on dx, I got m3simply ds for $35...so I sordof regret it. But hey, it's a good card!!


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## Destructobot (Jun 27, 2008)

mikagami said:
			
		

> Can anyone fill me in what HUGE features other carts have over the R4?  (other than SDHC...)


Strong support from the companies selling them.


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## ojsinnerz. (Jun 27, 2008)

pokemongalaxy said:
			
		

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That's what I thought too, until I actually used them.

Those "stupid" things are what also helps the carts sell. It really depends on the user themselves, not just you. 

Because one person doesn't need it, doesn't mean everyone else won't need it.

I used it quite a few times, and it's really helpful. I still try to use it as little as possible, but it's more useful than you think.


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## vivienne (Jun 28, 2008)

ojsinnerz said:
			
		

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I still love R4 than any other ones.

And I recognised that the price was really raised a little, no mistake on the shipping cost. Because we also need yo pay for EMS for 5 R4s at that moment. And the shipping cost raised too!

Everything is so expensive now.


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## shakirmoledina (Jun 28, 2008)

scs1 or cyclo not this one atleast not anymore


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## JPH (Jun 28, 2008)

Not necessarily scene or NDS news...just news about a certain online shop's price changes.

Topic moved.


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## Trolly (Jun 28, 2008)

Well I got mine pretty much exactly a year ago (just before I went on holiday, if I remember well), and I'm actually not sure why it was that one I bought. I think it was the only one to list on Amazon or something. Either that, or it had a good reputation at the time. And it was cheap.

But I remember them saying one of their factories was shutting down in an e-mail, and that my R4 would probably be very late (luckily, the day before holiday! I almost pissed myself with excitement lol - not really :-/ ). They've probably been slowing down production continually since then.
Still, the only particularly useful function the R4 lacks is SDHC support. And then I probably wouldn't even use all that space.


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## NeSchn (Jun 28, 2008)

I just got mine a week ago (a trade with SleepingDragon) I am only using it for reviewing purposes. I really like the GUI and the Gba Loader skin. Its an alright card.


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## ojsinnerz. (Jun 28, 2008)

vivienne said:
			
		

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Have you ever seen the cart's GUIs, at all? 

If you want something that looks like an R4, but better, why not just get the DSTT and put on the YSMenu on it?

It makes it look very similar to the R4, while still having the advantages of the DSTT.

And the DSTT is only 20 bucks off of DealExtreme, unlike the R4, which is double that price.


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## Sephi (Jun 29, 2008)

I have a DSTT with ysmenu + 4GB SDHC. I only use my dstt for videos and GBA games (with GBA ExpLoader) I still like my R4 better though, a little better for homebrew, which I like a lot.


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## GBA_Temper (Jun 29, 2008)

Destructobot Knows... In my opion the R4 was The best Slot 1 cart around and everyone knows it...I still love the G6DS Real...Well anyway I didn't see you guys Posting in the forum when the R4 Craze was popular so don't try to down it now because More & More flashcarts are coming out....


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## paul3100 (Jun 29, 2008)

QUOTE said:
			
		

> the only particularly useful function the R4 lacks is SDHC support. And then I probably wouldn't even use all that space.



Lol all R4 fanboys say they don't really care about the 2 gig limitation as they " probably wouldn't even use all that space " yeah right!!! 

I sold my R4 about 2 months ago with a 2 gig sd for £40/$78 and bought me self a supercard v3 SCHC with 4 gig sd and had change.

R4 is old now and no one should really be buying one because:

A) price

B) non SCHC support

C) lack of features (no: RTS/Game guide/slow motion....)

D) slow down in firmware updates 

As everyone has been saying the TTDS is like a £10/$20 and does everything the R4 does but has SCHC support and regular firmware updates, or for £17/$35 the supercard v3 which has as many features as the mighty ccyclods but cheaper and has a great support forum...

paul


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## Toni Plutonij (Jun 29, 2008)

Smart talk paul3100.....The biggest problem with R4 now, is actually that there are no upgrades for loong time now..Besides everything else (SDHC, extra features, price...) some of the recent released games can't even be played, and that's the big issue..


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## vivienne (Jul 1, 2008)

As you say, the R4 may be wash out soon.


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## psycoblaster (Jul 1, 2008)

there is nothing "bad" about the R4.
What I know as the word "bad" is that there is a problem. but considering the functions of the R4, nothing is "bad", it's just that the R4 lacks many new features.
There is nothing wrong with the R4, and the R4 does not "suck".
It's just that there are many more choices you can choose from that has more functions when compared to the R4. All it is is that an R4 is now a little TOO outdated, but that doesn't make any of it's function bad. It has all of the functions for people to play their roms or watch vids and listen to music with moonshell. Simple and totally skinable, there is nothing wrong with it.

The price of the R4 itself didn't raise, it's just being sold more expensively. Where I bought my R4 - its even cheaper than when I bought it o.O
Now prices may depend on where you get it, and you should know that when a shop's quantity drops, the prices will raise. Compare the prices from a shop with millions of R4s to a shop with only 1 R4 left. You can just tell that the price of the R4 from the shop with 1 left will be a lot more expensive.
Prices may drop as it gets old, but don't expect the price of the R4 itself would increase.


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