Hacking Is a clone card really a problem?

[newg]

I've had my flashcard from r4ds.co.uk for a week or so, and today I showed one of my friends. and I've always been aware it's not really an R4, just a new card manufacturer plagiarising an older name for marketing reasons.

He said that I was stupid to buy a clone, and that because i hadn't bought a 'genuine' card there would be games i couldn't play, that the card might just one day brick my ds.

Is there any foundation for any of this? I mean, the card works great, plays everything I throw at it, works with wi-fi, and download play,and the website for it even just released a new firmware to support 1mb save files for pokemon platinum etc, so it's got developer support (http://www.r4i-sdhc.com/indexe.asp)

What exactly is the problem with it not being 'original'? as far as I can see it's better in every respect to the original R4, having SDHC support, and active development.

He directed me here (and the r4ds forums, but here seemed more active) so I could 'read for myself' why my card was inferior, but i can see no real reason why, other than it wasn't made by the original team that made the R4, and that doesn't make it inferior, that just means it's newer, and plagiarising a well known name to boost sales.

If there are serious problems with these clone cards I'd like to know, because I'd rather go and buy some other card than run the risk of damaging my ds or whatever. Any help much appreciated.

 

[boogerlad]

brick? You're friends are idiots then. Not flashcart can brick a ds.

 

[InuYasha]

brick? You're friends are idiots then. Not flashcart can brick a ds.

Not sure if it all clones but the N5 seems to been linked to blowing your ds fuse.....

 

[xshinox]

what i dont understand is, why do people buy fakes/clones of r4? seriously, get acekard2i or something else.

 

[BoxShot]

People who aren't tempers only hear about a r4 most of the time. They think its good because of its popularity (scoffs). Like one person I know (no names) bought an r4 and thinks its best with his 16gb card which is utter bs being a real r4.

 

[Depravo]

what i dont understand is, why do people buy fakes/clones of r4?

Ignorance. I mean the people who continue to buy R4's, not you.

 

[xshinox]

it would have been alright to recommend the r4 back in early 2007 but now, it just fails in comparison to the better flash carts. people need to research more.

 

[BoxShot]

Yes they do need to research more. Like I did

originally I was going to get a r4. Reading wikipedia got me to other flashcarts and to gbatemp. Now I have an acekard.

 

[Islay]

In no way is the menu limited for the R4, it may not be updated ever but you can alway use the moonsell method and you can't even use that with the EZflash5i and thats a new card.

also some cone are higher quality then the top brand ones, I've had my Mars card (r4 clone) for over a year, it well out dated, but I still like it over my EZ5i, if only it worked in the DSi then I would still be using it.

 

[Islay]

I guess it is a matter of preference, but I think the R4 menu is a bit cluttered and yet it has nothing special. The EZ Flash Vi, and you can add to that list, Supercard DS ONE, TouchPod, etc all have crappy menus, but that's because they have other things to juggle, more features, more to present within the menu. I guess you could say the R4's menu is acceptible in that sense, but it isn't as strong a selling point as it once was.

What I was leaning towards saying is that the menu will never be updated. Even the crappiest menus are being updated right now. EZ Flash Vi's menu is getting a massive speed boost in the alpha builds, and same with the Supercard DS ONE. The R4... well it'll always have that cluttered look. Although I once found it really nice XD

true, but the speed is nutting if it wont work on there newest card, the EZ5i isn't working with the 2.00 moonshell set up yet for a few people.

and the fact that Theres an alternative to the originally firmware helps the R4 clone.

 

[jackdanielchan]

Wait, so if the R4 Ultra is an Acekard 2i clone, is it possible to use it as an Acekard? And can you tell what's the deal with it being a clone of an Acekard, or other cartridges, is it just using the R4 OS with an Acekard kernel or hardware?

 

[Islay]

Yes and I'm one of those people

I am ware that there are alternative firmwares for the R4, but keep in mind that these are available to more than just the R4.

Anyways, not trying to argue here, the R4 and its clones DOES have its merits. And no matter what people say, there are going to be carts that pale in comparison even to the infamous R4. It had a really great start, and it is still able to ride on that. The main focus is that anyone with both R4 and AceKard or at least most would say that the AceKard kicks butt.

True, I do think that that the new card are lame when compared to the R4 thought, it was the best as it was so simple, a 2 year old with 3 Iq could use one and it has an epic amount skins, and you can have 12 that changed by the month.

 

[newg]

I have another thing to add,

with regards to the firmware on my card just released on the website. It has very little in common with the r4 firmware. the initial menu with 3 options looks similar but that's all, the 3 options are different (games,multimedia, and an options screen with skin changer, power saving options, sound and poweroff options), but my time and date, and a little window showing card size and filesystem (FAT32) are in the top window.

And once i'm in the games menu, my games are listed on the bottom screen, and i can navigate them using the stylus. or if you have many games on the card, you can touch the zoom out icon, and each game takes up a tiny tile, and you can easily navigate through the list quickly..

so, the main menu looks a little like r4 firmware, and the games menu looks a little like dstt firmware, so i'm not quite sure what the firmware i have is. but it works, and seems to be getting new features added by the website.

(the point being, that if this is just a rip of the r4 firmware, they're doing pretty substantial things with it, as it's a sleeker, very user friendly firmware with a smooth interface, that doesn't have the clunky feel of the R4 firmware)

 

[newg]

And for the record, NO they are not doing substantial things with it. NONE of the R4 clones have any path to success. The AceKard clones are beat by the AceKard, the DSTT clones are beat by the DSTT, the R4 clones, well they just blow.

What I said was that IF this was based on the r4 firmware, then they have done substantial things with it, as it's far more advanced than r4 firmware. IF.

if however, this is based on some other card's firmware that I'm not aware of, then they may not have done much to it all, if anything, but as the r4and dstt firmwares are all i'm aware of, all i can say is that my firmware shares similarities to both while being different from both.


And considering my card is not buggy, I fail to see how whichever card it's a clone of 'beats' it. It plays everything i put on it, smoothly, the website for the card just put out a new firmware introducing new menu features and fixes for the latest roms that need 1mb saves (whether they wrote it or it's a rip from some other firmware doesn't matter to me, I mean, I'm pirating ds games, I'm supposed to care about a pirate flashcard?)

At the end of the day, I still haven't seen any reason why my flashcart is worse than whatever it's a clone of. It was dirt cheap (£15) and that included the microSD card, got delivered the next day, and has worked like a breeze since I received it, playing every game perfectly and smoothly.

The point is, I can't accept ' It's not as good as what it's cloned from' as a reason alone, I'd like a reason such as 'your clone is worse than the original card, because it lacks feature x,y,and z, which are essential to playing roms on your DS'

The only other features i've ever seen out there that my cart can't do (on the most expensive flashcarts) are things such as rewind/fast forward, save at any point in every game etc, and that's not something I'm interested in. All I want to do is play games as they were intended, and my cart lets me do that - I don't even use the cheat feature my card has.

 

[newg]

I have links to the site in the first post of this topic, go and have a look at the sites and see if you can identify the card

I've been browsing your site and reading your reviews. My firmware looks almost identical to the cycloDS firmware you posted screenshots of.

I'll see if i can borrow my sisters camera and take screenshots or a video of it, and see if it can be identified.

 

[jruschme]

And another thing, the fake R4 teams are almost unreachable. I can email the AceKard team, the DSTT team, etc any day and get a reply fast.

If so, would you please send an email to the DSTT team and ask them when they are going to release their next update?

I'm being a bit sarcastic, but I do have to concede that *some* of the R4i clone makers are actually making more of an attempt at updates than the so-called big names.