Hacking An official announcement by Team R4

[paul3100]

But wouldn't they need a good reason to update the software? Like maybe new features or bug fixes? If all the new software does is brick a cloned R4, who would be stupid enough to fall for it?

revenge for R4 team as said above and to tempt genuine/clone r4 owners to update they probably chuck in a couple of game fixes!

But in all honesty if the R4 team really have this time stopped production then i can't see september 15th being the date they bring there final update out, i think we seen that in april......

paul

 

[RyoSaeba]

Now that the R4 team is stopping production, it wouldn't be commercial suicide? Think about it this way, they are out of business, so whatever people will do (other than suing them) they can't be touched. If I was going out of business, I'd want to take down those clone makers with me....

I notified the people where I purchase my R4 from they said the following:

"Production in China has not stop. In reality, China has busted the doors down on several R4 Clone factories. That is what actually happened here. We have actually received a FAKE R4 from a vender trying to sell theirs as real. When I ask them about the sticker, they just said if I don't like it, just return it. But not before I was able to open it and snap a few shots!"

Bad bad cheap copy of the original sticker on the left. The right is the one I received from Deveno.com

The inside actually looks decent. But notice the chip number. 0817# is actually fake while 0815# is actually real!!! Also notice the clean lines and printing on the right. Fakes use cheaper printers and results in poor quality fat lines.

Here's the deal breaker. The 1st post states that the real doesn't have the extra solder point. But this is what is found on the badly made fake R4. No extra soldering point!!! Wow! They were trying to pass their fakes as real!!!

Last but not lease, the microSD card picture on the fake is actually the thin outline!!! Who would of thought they would pull something like that!

From the pictures, you can clearly see that they did a very good job inside but made a mess on the outside. The original pictures from the first post never showed the front of the current R4!!! Now I know why. They try to make people believe their fake one is the real thing!

What you want to believe is up to you. I opened mine from the one I bought at their store and it looks exactly like the picture on the right, inside and out. If you're going to buy else where, I suggest you ask for a picture of the actual product. Deveno.com has theirs right on the R4 ordering page. So I know mine is real. The pictures from the 1st post are fakes, just like their R4 and lies about the new firmware bricking your DS.

 

[chiseen]

OK, I don't know who to believe now.

 

[Sarouk]

Mine is real. There is absolutely no doubt about it ... and it got the 0817# inside.

If I compare it to the pictures in the post above I have everything from the real one but the 0817#. Every single detail on the cartridge, the circuit board, the shape of the screw on the back, the label, etc.

I also checked the pictures comparing real ones and fake ones in other forums and web sites, and again, every pictures of the real ones are identical to my R4DS.

 

[RyoSaeba]

Mine is real. There is absolutely no doubt about it ... and it got the 0817# inside.

If I compare it to the pictures in the post above I have everything from the real one but the 0817#. Every single detail on the cartridge, the circuit board, the shape of the screw on the back, the label, etc.

I also checked the pictures comparing real ones and fake ones in other forums and web sites, and again, every pictures of the real ones are identical to my R4DS.

Here's what happened. The cloners got the chip maker to changed their fake chip to 0817# (it's gonna happen sooner or later) so the real manufacture changed theirs to 0815#.

So basically, you are proof that at lease the thin microSD outline means it is fake, and the thick printing on the circuit means it is fake, and the missing extra trace on the circuit board means it's fake. Therefore, the announcement was fake. No questions about it.

Whoever was the 1st original poster was trying to play a prank or had other reasons that we don't know and AhTin believed it without even doing any research by reposting it.

Hey, forward this to 1000 people and Bill Gates will send you $1000!

 

[ojsinnerz.]

Mine is real. There is absolutely no doubt about it ... and it got the 0817# inside.

If I compare it to the pictures in the post above I have everything from the real one but the 0817#. Every single detail on the cartridge, the circuit board, the shape of the screw on the back, the label, etc.

I also checked the pictures comparing real ones and fake ones in other forums and web sites, and again, every pictures of the real ones are identical to my R4DS.

Here's what happened. The cloners got the chip maker to changed their fake chip to 0817# (it's gonna happen sooner or later) so the real manufacture changed theirs to 0815#.

So basically, you are proof that at lease the thin microSD outline means it is fake, and the thick printing on the circuit means it is fake, and the missing extra trace on the circuit board means it's fake. Therefore, the announcement was fake. No questions about it.

Whoever was the 1st original poster was trying to play a prank or had other reasons that we don't know and AhTin believed it without even doing any research by reposting it.

Hey, forward this to 1000 people and Bill Gates will send you $1000!

"
Here is an official announcement by Team R4 at their official chinese forum"

Also, even the Supercard team has actually sent a message to the Team R4 in public, that they're taking the wrong way, etc. You know what that means.

 

[neoice]

Mine is real. There is absolutely no doubt about it ... and it got the 0817# inside.

If I compare it to the pictures in the post above I have everything from the real one but the 0817#. Every single detail on the cartridge, the circuit board, the shape of the screw on the back, the label, etc.

I also checked the pictures comparing real ones and fake ones in other forums and web sites, and again, every pictures of the real ones are identical to my R4DS.

Here's what happened. The cloners got the chip maker to changed their fake chip to 0817# (it's gonna happen sooner or later) so the real manufacture changed theirs to 0815#.

So basically, you are proof that at lease the thin microSD outline means it is fake, and the thick printing on the circuit means it is fake, and the missing extra trace on the circuit board means it's fake. Therefore, the announcement was fake. No questions about it.

Whoever was the 1st original poster was trying to play a prank or had other reasons that we don't know and AhTin believed it without even doing any research by reposting it.

Hey, forward this to 1000 people and Bill Gates will send you $1000!

Well, from looking at RyoSaeba's images, they are both right and wrong.
1) The ovals of the stick on the R4 where he labeled FAKE on the left are correct for the real R4.

2) About the production number of 0817# being on the fake R4. That is because fakes now changed their production number to 0817#. But the Real R4 had a production number of 0817# too.

3) About the circuit, I dunno, your real circuit looks like the same as Ahtin's post

4) I dunno, about the MicroSD symbol, they both look fake to me lol

Anyways, you gotta give Ahtin credit, he has been around for a long time and he knows his stuff. I doubted him before too, and I had to go on the phone with the R4 team to confirm myself before believing him.

You are right about the fakes changing the production number to 0817#,
But I dunno how you can say they changed the production number to 0815# R4, when I know that the R4 factory stopped production for awhile already.

I'll double check on if the factory opened again or not though. I haven't talked to them for a long time, or maybe Ahtin can contact them. *shrugs*

 

[neoice]

no, the factory is not open.

 

[RyoSaeba]

no, the factory is not open.

Well, maybe not the original factory or staff but somebody is still making them because there are still shit loads of them being sold everywhere, fake and real... and I'm sure everyone would of run out of stock by now if production had stopped.

One thing is for sure: the original R4 Team is gone. 4 months and not a peep from them. Someone or some group picked up on the original machinery and started pumping out R4's again. Clones have always been pumping out fakes since the beginning.

Will we ever see a update? That's hard to say. The original team can probably care less. The people that picked up on it might do it to keep sales going.

Oh and sorry, you can toss AnTins salad all your like but this time, he is dead wrong. Maybe he was drunk when he made the post. Maybe he's part of the conspiracy. What is fact is that he never backed up his post with any proof that he did any research before he posted. All he did was pass a post he saw somewhere else.

And to who ever said they'd release a firmware to kill DS to get revenge is just ridiculous. They are Chinese. As long as they made money, they can care less about revenge on cloners. And that's not even targeting cloners. Releasing a DS killing firmware means targeting end users who might not even know they bought fakes! That's just stupid!

 

[neoice]

You're not making sense!!!

I said that I contacted the R4 team so I know they are not dead. I said Ahtin's announcement is true because I confirmed it myself.

Search around on posts made by Ahtin so check out his reliability before you say he's drunk or not.

You just said yourself someone other than the R4 team is making real and fake r4s. If it's not the R4 team making them, they are fake. Period.

And about you saying R4 dead this, R4 dead that, everyone always say they are dead anyways until an update comes out. (ie the Moogle screen of death update)

I agree with the firmware update bricking the DS is ridiculous, and they never meant to say that. They meant to say it will brick the fake R4s.

 

[thepspgamer]

thats good news, the other speculation that it was going to start bricking ds's was starting to worry people

since i know now that my r4 is authentic, i wont have to worry, so il happily update to the new firmware

my r4 is awesome, im chuffed with the £20 i payed for it with a 2gb mini sd, so im not complaining

 

[RyoSaeba]

You're not making sense!!!

I said that I contacted the R4 team so I know they are not dead. I said Ahtin's announcement is true because I confirmed it myself.

Where did you confirmed it? How are you contacting the R4 Team? What's their contact info? I would like to confirm this myself.

Search around on posts made by Ahtin so check out his reliability before you say he's drunk or not.

Already have. Still nothing about his reliability about THIS post. A lot of people just don't want to admit they've made a mistake.

You just said yourself someone other than the R4 team is making real and fake r4s. If it's not the R4 team making them, they are fake. Period.

You still are not explaining how there are still real R4's being sold. It's been months and there are still stock of real R4's. Do you really believe companies stocked them by the 1000's just in case the factory goes down?

UNLESS you're saying EVERYONE who is selling R4's now are selling fakes?

QUOTEAnd about you saying R4 dead this, R4 dead that, everyone always say they are dead anyways until an update comes out. (ie the Moogle screen of death update)

I never said the R4 is dead. I said the original R4 Team is dead. Someone has picked up on them (bought out maybe?) and continue production but without the support (for now).

QUOTE

I agree with the firmware update bricking the DS is ridiculous, and they never meant to say that. They meant to say it will brick the fake R4s.

Same difference. The fault lies on the sellers, not the consumer. There is no advantage whatsoever in doing this for the R4 Team as a whole. New people looking to buy will simply look for other brands while old users will just not update until there's a hacked one.

Oh and just to set the record, if you knew how to read Chinese, they clearly said "it might brick the DS system." Then go on to say "to prevent the main [DS] system from being damaged." What they "meant" to say was clearly speculations of people in this thread but I know the Chinese 100% said bricking DS, not the R4.

Besides, the R4 itself is basically a ROM chip (that includes the fake ones as well). How can a firmware brick a R4 when it can't be written to? Technically, it's not possible.

The announcement is BS!

 

[ahtin]

Please note that if you dont beleive this post, I am fine and OK, but dont said that I am drunk, or posting without backup.

here is the R4 Review that I made at 2006-12-14

http://www.hacken.cc/bbs/viewthread.php?tid=71841

I am the first R4 reviewer in the world, I have contact them for a long long time, lots of R4 application like 512k save converter and the production of a black color R4 is my suggestion. I always get a new kernel from them before they release at the website. I can get a Zelda DS bug fix kernel before the rom release by dump group, I am not pass the post I saw someone else, I get this information from them and post it out directly.

I dont think I have to backup my post is true or not, everyone can choose to believe it or not even there are lots of backup.

Just like what I have said is R4 have stop production before, then R4 website remove their frontpage next day, you can choose to beleive R4 is out of market or their website was hacked.

if someone think the photo is BS, yes this is useless for define the real card and fake card but who can find out all the fake sample in the world. for myself I only got one R4 card which is provided from them at Dec 2006

 

[cubin']

And about you saying R4 dead this, R4 dead that, everyone always say they are dead anyways until an update comes out. (ie the Moogle screen of death update)

I never said the R4 is dead. I said the original R4 Team is dead. Someone has picked up on them (bought out maybe?) and continue production but without the support (for now).

Where is your source for the original R4 team being dead? We've had bigger spaces between updates/game fixes than at the moment.


The final word on the R4: Is play games, is good. Is not break, is good price.

Sometimes it seems like people acually want the R4 to 'die' for some strange reason. These are usually people that own another flashcart (eg.Cyclo)..perhaps they want their flash cart to be #1?

 

[Cablephish]

This seems kind of suspicious to me... You know how Nintendo has been trying to catch the makers of R4 flashcarts? Maybe R4 was found, and now Nintendo made a prescription for them to brick DSes using that flashcart? Maybe Nintendo is behind it. They'll make all the R4 owners buy new DSes, ergo profit from DS again, and make up for part of what they lost?

Yeah, pretty farfetch'd...

 

[DeMoN]

This seems kind of suspicious to me... You know how Nintendo has been trying to catch the makers of R4 flashcarts? Maybe R4 was found, and now Nintendo made a prescription for them to brick DSes using that flashcart? Maybe Nintendo is behind it. They'll make all the R4 owners buy new DSes, ergo profit from DS again, and make up for part of what they lost?

Yeah, pretty farfetch'd...

Very nice theory, except it'd work a lot better if Team R4 bricked people with real R4s as well. I wouldn't put it past Nintendo to think up of a scheme like this.

 

[neoice]

Where did you confirmed it? How are you contacting the R4 Team? What's their contact info? I would like to confirm this myself.

I don't want to post it because then everyone on this board WILL constantly harass them. Find out yourself. It's not that difficult to find.
I confirmed it over the phone. If you say you know so much about real and fake R4 then you should be able to easily find out their phone number too.

You still are not explaining how there are still real R4's being sold. It's been months and there are still stock of real R4's. Do you really believe companies stocked them by the 1000's just in case the factory goes down?

UNLESS you're saying EVERYONE who is selling R4's now are selling fakes?

Actually yes, That is exactly what happened. When word came out that the R4 factory was shutting down, wholesalers started buying them in the 1000's.
But There is definitely a lot of fakes out now. I'm glad you told me about the "real" fakes having a production number of 0815# because the I had a seller try to tell me they were real, when they weren't. I wouldn't have been as suspicious if you didn't tell me.

QUOTE

I agree with the firmware update bricking the DS is ridiculous, and they never meant to say that. They meant to say it will brick the fake R4s.

Same difference. The fault lies on the sellers, not the consumer. There is no advantage whatsoever in doing this for the R4 Team as a whole. New people looking to buy will simply look for other brands while old users will just not update until there's a hacked one.
Oh and just to set the record, if you knew how to read Chinese, they clearly said "it might brick the DS system." Then go on to say "to prevent the main [DS] system from being damaged." What they "meant" to say was clearly speculations of people in this thread but I know the Chinese 100% said bricking DS, not the R4.

Yes, I know chinese, you mean this part ????????????? right?
Translation: It says that using fakes may damage your system.
BUT it doesn't say anything about the firmware bricking the R4.

If you look at the first line R4????9?15????????????? , it just says that the sept 15th R4 firmware will stop the fake R4s from working.


1) Using fakes may damage your system
2) The R4 firmware on Sept 15th will stop the fake R4s from working.

No where in the chinese announcement does it say that the firmware will cause the bricking of the R4.

If you can paste in the phrase that says that, then I will believe you.

Besides, the R4 itself is basically a ROM chip (that includes the fake ones as well). How can a firmware brick a R4 when it can't be written to? Technically, it's not possible.

Sorry, in my previous message "bricking the R4" was a poor choice of words. I meant to say stop the fake R4 from working.

Anyways the announcement said the new firmware will stop the fake R4 from working.

To me, that just means that the new firmware will not work with the Fake r4s. So you would be stuck with the old firmware.
I would be surprised if it actually "bricks" the R4.

 

[NeSchn]

Oh the R4 Chinese site is back up.

 

[lafleche]

..... the english one (www.r4ds.cn) also returned...

Perhaps already mentioned but if R4 really stops, why doesn't M3 take over the firmware development for their M3 simply?
M3 as a brandname is very strong and dropping support for a product is so unlike M3.... they even support their old slot-2 solution.

And if M3 takes over, a M3-to-R4 conversion is a piece of cake...

or release the sourcecode and be over with....

 

[Zerrix]

Hmm, when did the fake R4s took their way through developement?
I bought one July last year although I don't think the fakes were already out at that time, right?