Hacking How legal are flashkarts?

[iczfire]

Hey, after putting up with my crappy supercard lite i decided it was time for a new flashkart, and I want to buy one online. Is it legal to buy them online? I'm not worried about getting caught using a game, I've honestly never played my ds outside out my house. I'm gonna buy an r4 clone from dealextreme, which ships from hong kong. Will I run into any problems?

Also-is the r4 clone a good choice?

Thanks.

 

[Zarkz]

R4 BAD! R4 CLONES WORSE!
Get AceKard 2, its cheaper, they have em from Dealextreme

 

[iczfire]

R4 BAD! R4 CLONES WORSE!
Get AceKard 2, its cheaper, they have em from Dealextreme

ohhh I knew it.....thanks for the heads-up.

But really.....is it legal?

 

[dinofan01]

The device is legal. What people tend to do with it is not.

 

[Sportsmaniac1322]

Flachcarts are just as legal as a DVD; as long you own every single game that's on there then they're perfectly legal. For your second question, the R4 clone is a terrible choice. The original R4 is a bad cart already and the clones are worse. If you want a cheap cart, go with the Acekard2 or the EDGE. If you want one with a little more features but not a super high price, go with the M3 DS Real. If you want the top of the line and money is not an issue, the CycloDS is for you.

 

[Zarkz]

Flachcarts are just as legal as a DVD; as long you own every single game that's on there then they're perfectly legal. For your second question, the R4 clone is a terrible choice. The original R4 is a bad cart already and the clones are worse. If you want a cheap cart, go with the Acekard2 or the EDGE. If you want one with a little more features but not a super high price, go with the M3 DS Real. If you want the top of the line and money is not an issue, the CycloDS is for you.

Right on the dot

 

[iczfire]

Flachcarts are just as legal as a DVD; as long you own every single game that's on there then they're perfectly legal. For your second question, the R4 clone is a terrible choice. The original R4 is a bad cart already and the clones are worse. If you want a cheap cart, go with the Acekard2 or the EDGE. If you want one with a little more features but not a super high price, go with the M3 DS Real. If you want the top of the line and money is not an issue, the CycloDS is for you.

hm......guess i'll be buying the EDGE, I like the label design on it (

lol i'm so shallow). I guess I was a bit ambigious about the question, I meant is it legal to ship it to the US?

I guess....if it's legal to use it, it's legal to ship it....anyway thanks for all the help!

one more thing...........what are these features on the M3 ds real you speak of?

 

[Sportsmaniac1322]

Flachcarts are just as legal as a DVD; as long you own every single game that's on there then they're perfectly legal. For your second question, the R4 clone is a terrible choice. The original R4 is a bad cart already and the clones are worse. If you want a cheap cart, go with the Acekard2 or the EDGE. If you want one with a little more features but not a super high price, go with the M3 DS Real. If you want the top of the line and money is not an issue, the CycloDS is for you.

hm......guess i'll be buying the EDGE, I like the label design on it (

lol i'm so shallow). I guess I was a bit ambigious about the question, I meant is it legal to ship it to the US?

I guess....if it's legal to use it, it's legal to ship it....anyway thanks for all the help!

one more thing...........what are these features on the M3 ds real you speak of?

Well it has real time save (the ability to save even if you can't in the real game) along with a beautiful GUI (best out there in my opinion). It's also unmatched when it comes to GBA games. If you get the perfect bundle (deluxe bundle on DX) then you get the expansion pack as well. It's the only slot 1 and slot 2 combo that allows for real time save on GBA games. I highly recommend it, since it's my cart of choice.

 

[iczfire]

Flachcarts are just as legal as a DVD; as long you own every single game that's on there then they're perfectly legal. For your second question, the R4 clone is a terrible choice. The original R4 is a bad cart already and the clones are worse. If you want a cheap cart, go with the Acekard2 or the EDGE. If you want one with a little more features but not a super high price, go with the M3 DS Real. If you want the top of the line and money is not an issue, the CycloDS is for you.

hm......guess i'll be buying the EDGE, I like the label design on it (

lol i'm so shallow). I guess I was a bit ambigious about the question, I meant is it legal to ship it to the US?

I guess....if it's legal to use it, it's legal to ship it....anyway thanks for all the help!

one more thing...........what are these features on the M3 ds real you speak of?

Well it has real time save (the ability to save even if you can't in the real game) along with a beautiful GUI (best out there in my opinion). It's also unmatched when it comes to GBA games. If you get the perfect bundle (deluxe bundle on DX) then you get the expansion pack as well. It's the only slot 1 and slot 2 combo that allows for real time save on GBA games. I highly recommend it, since it's my cart of choice.

hm....sounds real good, although I couldn't find it on DX (dealextreme right?). Anyway thank you so much for your input. I wish there was some kind of rep system here......

 

[Sportsmaniac1322]

hm....sounds real good, although I couldn't find it on DX (dealextreme right?). Anyway thank you so much for your input. I wish there was some kind of rep system here......

Here's the bundle with the slot 2 (recommended): http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.14165.
This one is only the slot 1: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.2728

 

[iczfire]

eh, I'm done with slot-2s, my supercard tells me never to use a slot 2 again.

 

[Sportsmaniac1322]

eh, I'm done with slot-2s, my supercard tells me never to use a slot 2 again.

It's not just a slot 2, it's a slot 1 and a slot 2 expansion. The slot 2 isn't actually a flashcart but just a lot of memory. What happens is when you select a GBA game from your slot 1 card, it'll load the game onto the memory of the slot 2 and then launch the GBA game. So basically the one with the slot 2 has GBA support and the one without doesn't.

 

[Isaiah]

eh, I'm done with slot-2s, my supercard tells me never to use a slot 2 again.

It's not just a slot 2, it's a slot 1 and a slot 2 expansion. The slot 2 isn't actually a flashcart but just a lot of memory. What happens is when you select a GBA game from your slot 1 card, it'll load the game onto the memory of the slot 2 and then launch the GBA game. So basically the one with the slot 2 has GBA support and the one without doesn't.

ummm.... OK so the slot 2 is just memory? different types that is?

 

[Sportsmaniac1322]

eh, I'm done with slot-2s, my supercard tells me never to use a slot 2 again.

It's not just a slot 2, it's a slot 1 and a slot 2 expansion. The slot 2 isn't actually a flashcart but just a lot of memory. What happens is when you select a GBA game from your slot 1 card, it'll load the game onto the memory of the slot 2 and then launch the GBA game. So basically the one with the slot 2 has GBA support and the one without doesn't.

ummm.... OK so the slot 2 is just memory? different types that is?

Yeah it's just memory. There's no GUI, you can't boot to it from the main menu, just memory.

 

[golden]

Flachcarts are just as legal as a DVD; as long you own every single game that's on there then they're perfectly legal. For your second question, the R4 clone is a terrible choice. The original R4 is a bad cart already and the clones are worse. If you want a cheap cart, go with the Acekard2 or the EDGE. If you want one with a little more features but not a super high price, go with the M3 DS Real. If you want the top of the line and money is not an issue, the CycloDS is for you.

This common misconception is false. Sorry. Although the simile to the DVD is a pretty nice simile, owning any kind of ROMs whether you own the game or not is strictly illegal. People still do it, including me, but since this thread is about legality issues I thought I would give you as accurate as legality gets in this department.

 

[GameSoul]

Flashcarts play other things besides roms. (Well most of them do, anyway.) I don't think there are really any laws about buying things, mainly about selling things.

 

[skyman113]

Flachcarts are just as legal as a DVD; as long you own every single game that's on there then they're perfectly legal. For your second question, the R4 clone is a terrible choice. The original R4 is a bad cart already and the clones are worse. If you want a cheap cart, go with the Acekard2 or the EDGE. If you want one with a little more features but not a super high price, go with the M3 DS Real. If you want the top of the line and money is not an issue, the CycloDS is for you.
This common misconception is false. Sorry. Although the simile to the DVD is a pretty nice simile, owning any kind of ROMs whether you own the game or not is strictly illegal. People still do it, including me, but since this thread is about legality issues I thought I would give you as accurate as legality gets in this department.

Golden is Correct. On the inside of the nintendo game manuals it even states that Backups are not allowed.
Nintendo Game Manual

"Back-up" or "Archival" copies are not authorized and are not necessary to protect your software. Violaters will be prosecuted.

As for the actual topic, it is legal to buy. And I would say buy the Acekard2. Stay away from R4.

 

[Diosoth]

Flachcarts are just as legal as a DVD; as long you own every single game that's on there then they're perfectly legal. For your second question, the R4 clone is a terrible choice. The original R4 is a bad cart already and the clones are worse. If you want a cheap cart, go with the Acekard2 or the EDGE. If you want one with a little more features but not a super high price, go with the M3 DS Real. If you want the top of the line and money is not an issue, the CycloDS is for you.

This common misconception is false. Sorry. Although the simile to the DVD is a pretty nice simile, owning any kind of ROMs whether you own the game or not is strictly illegal. People still do it, including me, but since this thread is about legality issues I thought I would give you as accurate as legality gets in this department.

It shouldn't be illegal to own a backup of ANYTHING in your possession, but large companies got their way. If your copy is damaged or stolen, well, too bad for you! Go buy a new one! The RIAA recently stated that people should not be allowed to rip music from their own CDs to play on MP3 players.... they want people to buy separate digital copies of music they already own. They throw that "you only buy a limited use license" down our throats like it matters. Mike Capps doesn't even want you to sell your used video games(whatever. Epic titles suck anyway).

I've been emailing Vince Desi(Running With Scissors CEO) about this. He opposes these laws and ideas. He believes that charging a customer more than once for anything is WRONG! He doesn't care if you make a personal backup copy of Postal 2 should your legit CD become damaged beyond use.

I think the key thing here is that it's always LARGE companies that whine about "losing money", and never the smaller companies. A large company makes mor emoney than they will ever need, yet it's not enough. I wanted to vomit when Square started whining about piracy "deeply affecting" Chrono Trigger DS profits, 2 days before the US release. Yeah, the day Chrono Trigger doesn' tturn a profit is a day that will never happen. I'm getting sick of companies making up whiny excuses. They're not happy with 990% profits, they want 1000%.

 

[SpikeyBryan]

They're as legal as you want them to be

 

[UltraMagnus]

it depends where you are in the world.

in the UK i am 99% certain that you can own a single backup of anything digital you own, and this cannot be restricted by anything in a eula (and most eula's are of dubious "bindingness" anyway)