Hacking Best ds flashcard but also not to expensive?

[deadman8555]

Even though I have nearly every ds game I will play I wanna make it more easy to travel with lol. Didn't know if there was a site that's better to order from in north America or if most sites were located outside the country

 

[Vague Rant]

"Best" is obviously debatable, but many would say the SuperCard DSTWO fits that bill; it certainly doesn't fit with "not too expensive", though. Personally, I'm not a fan of the SuperCard anyway, its on-board CPU is an ugly solution to a problem that doesn't really exist any more for you as a 3DS owner and you'll be paying for it forever in reduced battery life.

For something much cheaper but still reasonable quality, you might try something like the R4i Gold 3DS (not the Deluxe version, that's a dated Gateway clone, which is two things you don't need at once). This card runs Wood R4, so it has the nice and responsive AKRPG-based menu and good compatibility, plus real-time save (save state) support among other things. There is a notable factor in that the case molding on the card itself is somewhat nonstandard, so it can be more difficult to get New 3DS models' cartridge slot to latch onto the card when plugging it in. Up to you how much of a concern this is.

As you guessed, most sellers are located outside of the US, you can generally expect flash cards to be shipped from east Asia and take at least a couple of weeks to show up. There probably are US sellers around if you look a little harder, but you can also expect to pay more than to somebody in, e.g. Hong Kong.

 

[ertaboy356b]

Use R4i SDHC Gold if you just want to play DS games.

 

[teegeeack]

Even though I have nearly every ds game I will play I wanna make it more easy to travel with lol. Didn't know if there was a site that's better to order from in north America or if most sites were located outside the country

well, since a north american who sells these kinds of products is participating in the "grey" market just as much as any east asian seller is... i would say that you risk dealing with unreliable or dishonest sellers either way, no matter what country you order from. delivery speed notwithstanding.

i've ordered from nds-card.com (which is gbatemp's main advertiser) and gotten my products in working order & timely fashion. likewise random ebay sellers from east asia, and websites based in the U.S. & canada. i also had a canadian modchip website flat out rip me off back in the day. if you buy illegal or semi-legal product, you take your chances with the people who sell them.

as for which DS flashcarts are best: if you have an original DS (or Lite), or a CFW 3DS with the whitelist restrictions removed (through flashcardtimewarp/bluecardfix or through a TWL_FIRM patch), there's really not a whole ton of difference between the lowliest piece of junk and the most expensive premium brands. some of them have loading menu software that browses fast, and some don't. for those that don't, hopefully you can use a replacement menu like YsMenu. otherwise, the baseline measure of quality is the ability to throw clean ROMs on an sd card and have them boot & save without problems -- which pretty much any $5-$10 flashcart can do.

 

[zoogie]

Even though I have nearly every ds game I will play I wanna make it more easy to travel with lol. Didn't know if there was a site that's better to order from in north America or if most sites were located outside the country

Modchipsdirect sells and ships from the US. Beware, a lot of Chinese sellers claim to sell from the US but don't.
Seems like they only sell the r4igold and dstwo. But those are good choices - the r4i is just $15.

 

[Davidosky99]

Even though I have nearly every ds game I will play I wanna make it more easy to travel with lol. Didn't know if there was a site that's better to order from in north America or if most sites were located outside the country

R4i gold SDHC 2016 from nds-card.com is a bargain

 

[deadman8555]

"Best" is obviously debatable, but many would say the SuperCard DSTWO fits that bill; it certainly doesn't fit with "not too expensive", though. Personally, I'm not a fan of the SuperCard anyway, its on-board CPU is an ugly solution to a problem that doesn't really exist any more for you as a 3DS owner and you'll be paying for it forever in reduced battery life.

For something much cheaper but still reasonable quality, you might try something like the R4i Gold 3DS (not the Deluxe version, that's a dated Gateway clone, which is two things you don't need at once). This card runs Wood R4, so it has the nice and responsive AKRPG-based menu and good compatibility, plus real-time save (save state) support among other things. There is a notable factor in that the case molding on the card itself is somewhat nonstandard, so it can be more difficult to get New 3DS models' cartridge slot to latch onto the card when plugging it in. Up to you how much of a concern this is.

As you guessed, most sellers are located outside of the US, you can generally expect flash cards to be shipped from east Asia and take at least a couple of weeks to show up. There probably are US sellers around if you look a little harder, but you can also expect to pay more than to somebody in, e.g. Hong Kong.

So with me having only n3ds systems. Would the R4i gold 3ds be a bad idea?

 

[HenryLeonheart]

I got an r4 gold pro the other day but it doesn't stay inside the n3ds xl cartridge slot. Since it was mentioned that it's because of its design what could I do to make it stay in the slot?

 

[Davidosky99]

I got an r4 gold pro the other day but it doesn't stay inside the n3ds xl cartridge slot. Since it was mentioned that it's because of its design what could I do to make it stay in the slot?

Put a little slice of paper between the cartridge and slot so it stays in there

 

[LiquidFenrir]

The cheapest cards you can get:

- the original R4, for 7$, but it only supports SD (up to 2GB, won't work with a bigger card).
- the DSTT. supports SDHC (up to 32GB) but costs 1$ more than the R4

The 2 cards above need a patched TWL_FIRM + launcher by @Apache Thunder(you can't simply run them with the normal card slot)
The cards below cost more but you don't need anything special to run them (like any normal 3DS or DS game card)

- the r4ishdc dual-core 2016, with YSmenu. Usually people avoid those cards (with a year written on them), because they have a date block: when it detects the year on the 3ds is higher than the one written on it, it tells you that you can't use it (bypassed easily by changing the date on your 3ds, or by using YSmenu instead of the stock firmware). also 1$ more than the DSTT

Now, for pricier but higher quality cards:
- the R4i-SDHC 3DS RTS, for 14$. doesnt need a special firmware, seems to be exactly the same as the next one (except the color) but since no one buys it (and chose the next one instead), I don't know for sure
- the R4i GOLD 3DS RTS , for 17$. Seems to be the same as the previous one, and people usually recommend this one, it's proved as a good card.

hope I helped you!

 

[Deleted member 333767]

I use an R4i Dual Core SDHC 2014. It's still being updated to this day, as far as i know. Works well for playing DS games.

If you have homebrew capability on your 3DS, then just buy a cheap clone since you can emulate retro consoles natively in 3DS-mode. All a DSTwo can do over an r4 clone is emulate SNES and GBA.

 

[BloodRose]

An ACE3DS Plus is around $10.

 

[Vague Rant]

So with me having only n3ds systems. Would the R4i gold 3ds be a bad idea?

I got an r4 gold pro the other day but it doesn't stay inside the n3ds xl cartridge slot. Since it was mentioned that it's because of its design what could I do to make it stay in the slot?

I have a New 3DS XL and an R4i Gold 3DS. When I insert it into the XL's cartridge slot, I have to put some extra pressure on the left side, where the microSD slot is. Same again when ejecting it, I have to put my thumb on the left side and press there to remove the card. It certainly felt a bit weird at first, and indeed I thought the 3DS was just never going to latch to the R4i when I was inserting it "normally". But now it's just second nature, I don't have any problems getting it in or out and I don't consider it enough of a concern that I wouldn't recommend the card. That said, a card of equal quality which inserted as comfortably as a genuine card would be nicer, but I can't really suggest any since this is the only 3DS-supporting card I own.

I use an R4i Dual Core SDHC 2014. It's still being updated to this day, as far as i know. Works well for playing DS games.

I'm wary of these dated cards. The reason they still receive updates is that the cards have a kill-date after which the firmware will stop working. The cards check the real-time clock on your console and if it's after the date specified in the firmware, the card will say the firmware has expired and direct you to download an update. This is problematic because a) it's forcing you to update when you don't actually need an update, just kicking the kill-date down the line, b) you're relying on these updates from shady pirate developers to keep coming just to keep your card working, and if they ever go out of business or just decide to stop providing them, you're kind of boned. You can always set the date on your (3)DS back to a time when your card was working, but all of this is effort nobody should be forcing you to expend to keep something you paid for in working condition.

 

[BORTZ]

Check here.

 

[Apache Thunder]

The cheapest cards you can get:

- the original R4, for 7$, but it only supports SD (up to 2GB, can simply make a 2GB partition on a bigger card).

I would advice against the idea of trying to use a 2GB partition on a larger card. That has not worked for me in my experience. You need a real 2GB card else you risk it not working anyway and have to waste time ordering a 2GB card.

 

[AdmiralToucan]

I just have an acekard2i that works fine for playing DS games. Doubt people make em anymore though and don't order anything from china.

 

[Davidosky99]

The cheapest cards you can get:

- the original R4, for 7$, but it only supports SD (up to 2GB, can simply make a 2GB partition on a bigger card).
- the DSTT. supports SDHC (up to 32GB) but costs 1$ more than the R4

The 2 cards above need a patched TWL_FIRM + launcher by @Apache Thunder (you can't simply run them with the normal card slot)
The cards below cost more but you don't need anything special to run them (like any normal 3DS or DS game card)

- the r4ishdc dual-core 2016, with YSmenu (don't have the link for it right now, will add later). Usually people avoid those cards (with a year written on them), because they have a date block: when it detects the year on the 3ds is higher than the one written on it, it tells you that you can't use it (bypassed easily by changing the date on your 3ds, or by using YSmenu instead of the stock firmware). also 1$ more than the DSTT

Now, for pricier but higher quality cards:
- the R4i-SDHC 3DS RTS, for 14$. doesnt need a special firmware, seems to be exactly the same as the next one (except the color) but since no one buys it (and chose the next one instead), I don't know for sure
- the R4i GOLD 3DS RTS , for 17$. Seems to be the same as the previous one, and people usually recommend this one, it's proved as a good card.

You can find all of these on http://nds-card.com

hope I helped you!

How do i install YSMenu on r4i gold sdhc 2016 for avoiding the "expiry" of the card? I don't feel like buying one every year

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Even though I have nearly every ds game I will play I wanna make it more easy to travel with lol. Didn't know if there was a site that's better to order from in north America or if most sites were located outside the country

The r4ids.cn R4i Gold is the cart for you, it fits the question perfectly (best ds flashcart but not too expensive)
There are cheaper carts you can get, but at only a couple bucks difference, there is not much reason not to go with the R4i Gold.

 

[HenryLeonheart]

Pressing on the left side of the cartridge with my finger did the trick. Thanks @Vague Rant

 

[LiquidFenrir]

@Davidosky99 I am back home so I have the link now:
https://transfer.sh/g9eYz/ysmenu.zip
Just remove the files on the microSD (except your games and saves), and copy the ones in the zip on it. Should be good.