Hacking Confirm please: R4 will not damage brand new NDSL

[caribou007]

I would appreciate it very much if you took some time to clarify these things for me.

I just got a brand new NDSL from a Nintendo authorized repair center, and I don't want to damage it in any way by using a faulty flashcart. I'm concerned about the chips being authentic, and I wouldn't want the electronics to damage the handheld in any way. Of course build quality is a concern too, but I can't imagine anything worse than the handheld itself being damaged and later not running authentic cartridges exactly as it should, with the same responsiveness and reliability.

Could you make a recommendation? The original R4 seems to be very healthy (compatibility-update-wise) thanks to support from YWG, so it seems like it's the best bet.

It seems like the ones that are labelled just plain "Revolution for DS" and come in a black box are the good ones, right? I've read some reviews saying these ones are supposed to be 1:1 clones of the original R4 that are good quality. Someone also told me, "they may in fact not be clones of the original hardware at all. In fact they may be the original R4 which resellers put away when Nintendo started their infamous R4 “device” lawsuit (Google for more info)." So, are these reliable- the ones these stores are selling? It's partly the stores I'm concerned about, I'm concerned about them selling clones of the clones that are faulty.

http://www.eachgame.hk/goods-2527.html

http://www.priceangels.com/R4-NDS-MicroSD-...ion-s60265.html


I would consider getting an Acekard 2.1 instead, if they were less likely to cause any form of damage to my handheld, and I'm not saying it is, that's really what I'm asking the community about, but it seems to me that with YWG now doing the Wood kernal, and the NDSL coming to the end of it's lifespan, the R4 Wood's compatibility may be slightly better? I'm not really very interested in other features, such as media playback, and the Supercard DSTwo looks good, but since it's all about playing DS games for me, I can wait a while until it becomes cheaper and to see how well supported it ends up. Besides, I heard the SNES emulation wasn't quite polished anyway (yet), and it's extra hardware drains the battery faster than other flashcarts, so the appeal isn't there for me right at this time.

 

[exangel]

If the reason you're avoiding the DSTwo is because you're wary of support, this is definitely the RIGHT card for you on a DSL. The AK2i is also very good. But the R4, though cheapest, supports only maximum 2GB microSD. And though that's enough, it also requires the frequent updates in order to support any and all new releases.

AK2i features a software "Advanced Anti Piracy" mechanism through which most new commercial ROM releases don't need updates. But its loaders are updated with enough regularity to make it easily on par with R4's support.

DSTwo features a hardware "Clean Mode" where a genuine cart is simulated but no cheat codes can be used in this mode. This will mean that every commercial ROM ever, so long as it's not a damaged file or DSi-Only game will work on your DSL through this cart.

Please refer to Rydian's chart in the "Which Flashcart Should I Get" sticky for further details.

No flashcarts are likely to cause damage to your DSL if you follow tutorials on how to use them. The only possible damage you could incur on your system that would not happen with a genuine game cartridge are: If you somehow damage the inner contacts because there's a physical defect to your game cart that you didnt notice before you insert it. This has never happened to me.

ALSO.
AK2i/AKAIO has better native support for the EZ-Flash 3in1+ slot-2 device for DSLite. You can use this to play GBA roms almost as if they were a genuine cartridge, with the added bonus of the cartridge doesn't stick out of a DSL slot-2. The 3in1+ also features rumble support for DS games that utilize it, and memory expansion for things like the DS (Opera) Browser.


Moral of the Story: Just because Wood is updated constantly doesn't mean the R4 is the "best supported" flash kit for DS/DSL. It is the cheapest that is currently providing updates, but AK2i is somewhat better with a few features that aren't available on the R4: microSDHC support, Wi-Fi update of cheats/loaders and currently in testing of Wi-Fi backup of game SAV files. They use the same skinning interface files for the most part.
It doesn't have hardware AP patching like DStwo and a couple other carts with coprocessors have, but the price is hard to beat.

 

[Rydian]

AFAIK the only flash cart known to cause issues was an old revision of the N5, which you'll never see suggested here.