Hacking I am new to this.

[Sora de Eclaune]

Hello, I am new to this forum. I come here to ask about something that came with the Nintendo DS Lite my friend gave me as a present before he moved away.

Inside the DS card slot was an oddly shaped cartridge with what appears to be a Micro SD card placed in one side. The front reads R4 Revolution for DS (NDSL/NDS). When I boot the handheld, it skips going to the main NDS menu (it shouldn't skip it, for I've reset that feature to manual booting) and instead goes to another menu, with a calendar and the time on it, as well as the word 'akmenu'. Various games are shown on the bottom screen. They are as follows:

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
Inazuma Eleven
Drill Dozer.gba
Something in Japanese that has an icon resembling a :3 face with a leaf on the top of it.
Tales of Innocence
Riviera: The Promised Land.gba
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past / Four Swords.gba
Lameboy

As my mother had a Micro SD card adapter for her cell phone, I borrowed it and put the SD card into the computer. There were various files in there with random extensions such as '.nds', '.gba', and '.gbc'.

Also, inside the GBA slot of the DS Lite was what appeared to be the slot-cover, but upon removal (I was going to play Lady Sia) I saw it had a label that read "ezflash V" and had "gba game/ram expansion/rumble pack" under it. I do not know what this is, so I put it back into the slot in case it was something the DS needed to function.


My questions today are...
1. Is it possible to change the files on this device without harming anything?
2. What is the GBA cartridge for?
3. Googling this contraption seems to bring up issues on piracy. Is this really holding pirated games?

 

[zygie]

You stumbled on some stuff that I would want to have.

And hello!

The cart on the DS card slot is a flashcart called R4 Revolution for DS, and it sounds like either an original or a 1:1 clone of the original R4 as it booted what seems like Wood R4 firmware with an AceKard skin.

For some answers:
1. The only files you may move (if you want your flashcart to function, that is) are the .nds, .gba, .gbc, .sav, and .srm (I think, if there are .gba/.gbc save files). I'm not sure if there are .cc files since I haven't seen any on mine so far, those are cheat files for the corresponding games. The first three are game ROMs for the Nintendo DS, Gameboy Advance, and GameBoy Color, respectively.

2. The GBA cartridge is a slot-2 cartridge that has the rumble feature (for some games,) RAM expansion for the NDS Browser, enables you to play GBA games (that are on the SD card, explains why) along with other possible features. Normally you don't need this for playing just DS games on your slot-1 R4, but you'll need it for the features that were stated.

3. If you don't own any of the physical cartridges of the corresponding dumps/games/ROMs, it's illegal to have those files with you.

I hope that helped even a bit.

 

[twiztidsinz]

1). If you remove the system files it won't work anymore.
2). Booting Slot2, your GBA games
3). It's for playing backups -- if you don't own the game it's piracy (or if you believe the Entertainment Industry (MPAA/RIAA/Game Publishers/etc in your country) it is the infernal spawn of Satan that steals their profits, kills their mothers and rapes their dogs). But mostly for piracy.

.NDS is a Nintendo DS game (either retail backup or homebrew)
.GBA is a Gameboy Advance game (same as above)
.GBC is a GameBoy Color game

the card in your Slot2 (GBA size) is an EZFlash 3in1

 

[Sora de Eclaune]

Thank you for your answers.

So, to change the files I drag and drop them? I do not condone piracy but as I do not have any Nintendo DS games of my own yet, I would like to try some out.

Also, I have found something more. The '.nds' files have '.nds.sav' files that are named identically to some of the '.nds' files. The '.gba' files are similarly placed, though the file extension is '.gba.sav'. If I wished to delete a game off of this device, do I also have to delete these files as well?

This Wood R4 thing, as well... I saw a post in the top subforum about it. I would have to keep up with updates to it, correct? And to update, I have to drag and drop the files?

 

[TrolleyDave]

Going by the fact that it says AKMenu on the screen I'm gonna hazard a guess that it's an AceKard 2 that you've got. Have you pulled the cartridge out of the slot yet?

 

[Sora de Eclaune]

Going by the fact that it says AKMenu on the screen I'm gonna hazard a guess that it's an AceKard 2 that you've got. Have you pulled the cartridge out of the slot yet?

Yes I have. It says R4 Revolution for DS on it, so I do not think it is Acekard 2.

 

[Krestent]

Going by the fact that it says AKMenu on the screen I'm gonna hazard a guess that it's an AceKard 2 that you've got. Have you pulled the cartridge out of the slot yet?

He said that the front read R4 Revolution.

The small cartridge is a flashcart by the name R4 revolution. The purpose of most flashcarts are to play homebrew applications on the DS, but many are used for piracy; there are very few that can be used only for homebrew. Judging by your description, your cart has the Wood firmware. Therefore, you should not delete the _rpg folder or the DS_MENU.dat file from the microSD card. The .nds files are DS roms, and the .nds.saves are the matching saves for those roms. The cart in the bottom is the EZ-Flash V Expansion Pack. It is used for booting the .gba files; those are GBA roms. The GBC files are Game Boy Color roms; they can be played using lameboy.

 

[zygie]

Considering that Wood R4 is based of AceKard's skins then that must be it.

The .nds.sav files are, well, save files for those games. You can back them up if you want to play that game at another time, or if not, just delete it as well with the .nds file (or gba, gbc, whichever.)

As with the system files for Wood R4, I myself update every time there's a new release, but as not all people really do play newer games all the time, you won't need to unless you run into compatibility problems with some games. Never hurts to be updated though.

 

[Sora de Eclaune]

Thank you for your replies (again)!

I think I shall go attempt to find some games, for the ones on this R4 do not sound like they are within my tastes (specifically Tales of Innocence, which sounds like a [censored] fantasy game, and Riviera: The Promised Land, which sounds like a Christian game).

 

[emigre]

Thank you for your replies (again)!

I think I shall go attempt to find some games, for the ones on this R4 do not sound like they are within my tastes (specifically Tales of Innocence, which sounds like a [censored] fantasy game, and Riviera: The Promised Land, which sounds like a Christian game).

That is brilliant! ToI is just a JRPG nothing remotely risque about that. Just don't judge a book by its cover or in this case title.

 

[twiztidsinz]

It's either a real/1:1 clone R4 running Wood, or an R4 Upgrade(?) that is the OEM AceKard that works with AKAIO 1.8.1

 

[Sora de Eclaune]

Thank you for your replies (again)!

I think I shall go attempt to find some games, for the ones on this R4 do not sound like they are within my tastes (specifically Tales of Innocence, which sounds like a [censored] fantasy game, and Riviera: The Promised Land, which sounds like a Christian game).

That is brilliant! ToI is just a JRPG nothing remotely risque about that. Just don't judge a book by its cover or in this case title.

I apologize. I could simply find nothing about it in English, therefore I jumped to conclusions.