Hardware What are the weirdest R4 cards you have or found?

[SylverReZ]

As nobody has ever created a thread like this, I'd like to share some of the strangest and most misleading R4 flashcarts.

R4i-DRIVE (box, V1.4.3 cartridge, 'Brazil 2014' cartridge)
R4i-FIFA (box, cartridge)
R4i-3DS V2.5 Avengers (cartridge)
R4 SDHC Special Editiona RTS (cartridge/box)

 

[Catastrophic]

It's funny to me how ubiquitous R4 cards were back in the day. Wouldn't surprise me if someone slapped Coca-Cola on one of these batches.

 

[Ryccardo]

It's funny to me how ubiquitous R4 cards were back in the day. Wouldn't surprise me if someone slapped Coca-Cola on one of these batches.

Why is the background Coca Cola???

 

[Catastrophic]

Why is the background Coca Cola???

WHAT WERE THEY THINKING!?

 

[SylverReZ]

Why is the background Coca Cola???

If there's something popular then anything goes.

 

[Technicmaster0]

Personally I like the box design of r4i king fu and the overall design of hyper r4i.
Of course there is also ace3ds+ with Mario and the pink design that has nothing to do with Mario. And the case for ace3ds+ is just a big ass microsd reader

 

[SylverReZ]

And the case for ace3ds+ is just a big ass microsd reader

The likely explanation for the comically large microSD reader is to disguise it to get around customs. Some countries, but not all, ban the import of modchips and flashcarts. I don't know if that's still in effect, but it's highly unlikely.

Not the first time modchips have disguised themselves as something else. Take the E3 Card Reader for the PS3, which just looks like a regular SD card reader, but is actually a jailbreak dongle.

 

[raxadian]

The R4ideluxe for the fact that's one of the crappiest Acecard clones ever made, doesn't allow Homebrew to save and it took like 12 years until someone figured out the BL2CK kernel works on it. It is a copy of the R4i Ultra but a really bad one since again homebrew can't save.

Oh and if you try to boot it using Twilight menu it doesn't work.

 

[Technicmaster0]

The likely explanation for the comically large microSD reader is to disguise it to get around customs. Some countries, but not all, ban the import of modchips and flashcarts. I don't know if that's still in effect, but it's highly unlikely.

I know. But that doesn't change the weirdness of the case (or the card in general)

 

[Ryccardo]

to disguise it to get around customs

Ha, both on the packages from nds-card (along with the obligatory "value: 0.6 dollars") and many ebayers' attempts to sell them they're called "memory card adapters", which isn't even wrong

 

[SylverReZ]

The R4ideluxe for the fact that's one of the crappiest Acecard clones ever made

Is it this one in particular?

 

[SylverReZ]

 

[supergamer368]

The N5 came to mind. It's got Shrek ears on the logo for some reason.

There were also some R4 clones slapping Snoopy on the cover for awhile. Doubt there were any hardware differences but hopefully they at least provided a Snoopy theme, right?

 

[SylverReZ]

There were also some R4 clones slapping Snoopy on the cover for awhile. Doubt there were any hardware differences but hopefully they at least provided a Snoopy theme, right?

The r4isdhc.com.cn card website has a dedicated Snoopy theme, many of these flashcarts are based on Ace3DS+/R4iLS.

DSTTi timebombed cards on the other hand do not.

The N5 came to mind. It's got Shrek ears on the logo for some reason.
View attachment 562116

The N5 DS made me laugh with how they chose to go with the packaging design. Not so much for destroying DS lites due to poor power circuitry which can blow out the fuses and render the console inoperable (could be because they're using 3.3V tolerable chips and no level shifting which was another problem with other flashcarts). They tried to fix that with version 2 with the exclusion of the spring-loaded SD card slot, but I do not trust using this on my DS lite.

 

[Abaw245]

As nobody has ever created a thread like this, I'd like to share some of the strangest and most misleading R4 flashcarts.

R4i-DRIVE (box, V1.4.3 cartridge, 'Brazil 2014' cartridge)
R4i-FIFA (box, cartridge)
R4i-3DS V2.5 Avengers (cartridge)
R4 SDHC Special Editiona RTS (cartridge/box)

I know we said r4 cards but are ttds users included too?

 

[SylverReZ]

I know we said r4 cards but are ttds users included too?

Absolutely. "R4" has become a generic term associated with any flashcart nowadays for the DS so I don't think it matters, much like the Japanese calling any flashcart a "magicom."

 

[Abaw245]

Absolutely. "R4" has become a generic term associated with any flashcart nowadays for the DS so I don't think it matters, much like the Japanese calling any flashcart a "magicom."

Awesome, I have some interesting stories with both an r4 card and a ttds card.

When I got gifted my DS it came with a black r4 card like the one above, it had a lot of games and I put a ton of hours into them. One day I accidentally deleted a game out of curiosity (didn't know English well at the time, oops) and I asked my dad if he could help bring it back, and he certainly tried, what I mean by that is that he did the exact same mistake as mine but it was multiple games now and every now and then while I was sleeping he would try again and accidentally deleted more games until only one was left. So one day I got tired of it and deleted the last one to see what would happen and I got greeted with a list of all the games but they were .sav files and I didn't know they were just saves so I hopelessly tried everything but in the end I never played on that card again and eventually it broke.

Post automatically merged: Mar 14, 2026

When it comes to the ttds card, I knew a friend who I would make temporary trades with, expect it would happen that I gave his things back and he never gave mine back ever again. So one day I decided to play it smart and make a trade with him where I gave him a shitty licensed justice league game and he gave me his ttds cart. Eventually we stopped being friends due to events and all that, but I got to keep that cart forever and I still use it to this day sometimes.

 

[raxadian]

Is it this one in particular?

Nope.

That's the R4Deluxe that's a R4 clone.

The R4ideluxe is an Acecard clone.

website was: http://www.r4deluxe.com/

OG firmware here: https://gbatemp.net/download/r4ideluxe.20808/

 

[Sliter]

Nope.

That's the R4Deluxe that's a R4 clone.

The R4ideluxe is an Acecard clone.

website was: http://www.r4deluxe.com/

OG firmware here: https://gbatemp.net/download/r4ideluxe.20808/

I've got a "Deluxe" from friend that was said to be probably bricked... the SD data was corrupted but I never found a compatible system for it, but now I'm not sure if was a Deluxe or a Deluxe i , I'm going to give it a look when I get back at home!

 

[raxadian]

I've got a "Deluxe" from friend that was said to be probably bricked... the SD data was corrupted but I never found a compatible system for it, but now I'm not sure if was a Deluxe or a Deluxe i , I'm going to give it a look when I get back at home!

The i has a "i" on the flashcard and I already made a thread of what works with it:

https://github.com/R-YaTian/BL2CKOS

Homebrew  Thread 'BL2CKOS A Wood Clone for Acecard clones'

Feb 22, 2025

https://github.com/R-YaTian/BL2CKOS

If you have a crappy old Acecard clone this is way safer that bricking it forever trying to make it run official Acecard firmware by flashing the card (Not the same as a kernel update, that's just copying stuff to the micro sd card).

Only thread I could find about this was in Reddit and this works in my r4ideluxe so have fun.

Other options are:

https://gbatemp.net/threads/ds-i-3ds-akmenu-next-wood-frontend-for-nds-bootstrap.665743/ For a lot of clone cards. Has the drawback that ndsbootstrap does not play nice with some homebrew...

• raxadian
• Replies: 14
• Forum: Nintendo DS

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