Mysterious AliExpress R4

[Fartorias]

I live in Asia so I tried my luck on some AliExpress cards. I bought these because they claim to have RTS support and work on any DS/3DS model. It's distinguishing feature is that it has some kind of cable jack on the top of it. I've googled around for hours and can't find anything about this thing.

I've tried ~20 firmwares from linfox, with varying results.
R4i-gold v4 - upgrade screen
R4i-gold 1.57b - hangs loading screen
R4iRTS - Error screen

The only firmware that I *have* gotten to boot is wood 1.54! -And that will only work on dslite, no dsiLL, I assume due to DS firmware version. The firmware that matches the website on the card doesn't work at all.

The load and error screens look like TTDS, but I'm reluctant to try Wood for TTDS clone. Does anyone know what this card is or what I can run on it?

 

[SylverReZ]

You have a PK3DS/DSTT clone of sorts. Try this kernel to test:
https://flashcard-archive.ds-homebrew.com/pk3ds.org/old/pk3ds.org_Kernel_2.12.zip

 

[Fartorias]

PCB comparison with other carts. I thought it was ridiculous that the newest Wood wouldn't run on ostensibly new carts, but given the rust, maybe they're ancient

Post automatically merged: Oct 25, 2023

You have a PK3DS/DSTT clone of sorts

Thanks for the tip!

I tried pk3ds 2.12 and it hangs at the main screen (unless the icons are not supposed to do anything.)

I then tried DSTTiGold 1.17 and it boots.

Haven't used DSTTiCheck because I don't have TTMenu kernel.

Post automatically merged: Oct 25, 2023

Found an AliExpress listing with a link to a Google drive (lol) that contained a Chinese pack of TY's YSmenu fork 2.0, TTmenu, and some emulators and moonshell. This also boots, although the moonshell path is screwed up.

Starting to assume that these carts are trash that have zero RTS capability and won't run on any vaguely updated dsi / LL / 3DS

 

[SylverReZ]

Found an AliExpress listing with a link to a Google drive (lol) that contained a Chinese pack of TY's YSmenu fork 2.0, TTmenu, and some emulators and moonshell. This also boots, although the moonshell path is screwed up.

Starting to assume that these carts are trash that have zero RTS capability and won't run on any vaguely updated dsi / LL / 3DS

The AliExpress listing contains a pack to the firmware amongst other stuff. The bootloader "TTMENU.DAT" is of nds-bootstrap to load a second file namely "_dos.dat" containing the menu. The pack is really messy and is fairly large too. The cart can run three different files; TTMENU.DAT, R4.dat and _ds_menu.dat. DLDI support is confusing as hell too.

EDIT: Somebody did supply me another download, apparently, its the same as the PK3DS kernel. You can replace the patches from RGF (RetroGameFan) to allow games with AP to run. https://flashcard-archive.ds-homebrew.com/r4i-gold.com/old/r4i-gold.com_Gold_3DS_RTS.zip

 

[Jayro]

I saw this on a shirt, and now I wanna buy it, lol.

 

[SylverReZ]

I saw this on a shirt, and now I wanna buy it, lol.

View attachment 400996

 

[Fartorias]

The AliExpress listing contains a pack to the firmware amongst other stuff. The bootloader "TTMENU.DAT" is of nds-bootstrap to load a second file namely "_dos.dat" containing the menu. The pack is really messy and is fairly large too. The cart can run three different files; TTMENU.DAT, R4.dat and _ds_menu.dat. DLDI support is confusing as hell too.

It sure is. Thanks for the rundown.

Ok, so I'm pretty sure this won't run on anything past 1.3(?) and definitely doesn't have RTS support, so I'll cross my fingers for AliExpress to refund my whopping $3.30/unit.

Cheers

 

[MushGuy]

Your cart is compatible with YSMenu. You have the option to use the original kernel (https://flashcard-archive.ds-homebrew.com/r4i-gold.com/old/r4i-gold.com_Gold_3DS_RTS.zip), or YSMenu which has better compatibility. Just download the latest version from RetroGameFan, and copy the contents from the DSTTi-Clone YSMenu folder (there's also a repack of TTmenu available) to the SD card's root, and you should be good to go.

Here's a link for more info on compatibility: https://www.flashcarts.net/ysmenu-compat-ext.html

 

[Technicmaster0]

It sure is. Thanks for the rundown.

Ok, so I'm pretty sure this won't run on anything past 1.3(?) and definitely doesn't have RTS support, so I'll cross my fingers for AliExpress to refund my whopping $3.30/unit.

Cheers

The R4 Gold RTS by r4i-gold.com has RTS if you use the original menu. You can open the real time menu by pressing L, R and start at the same time. Compatibility when using the original kernel is also pretty good. Ofc it won't run the last games like pokemon black 2 without patches and it won't work with any 3ds fw above something like 2.x/1.4.2 if it doesn't have a cfw.
It's also from before 2014 because then r4i-gold.com switched domains to r4i-gold.me