Hacking newbie confused.com

[ftw_uk]

Hi

My tiny grandchildren keep losing the game cartridges for the ds's. My two grandaughters have a DS Lite and my grandson has a DSi. Because my daughters aren't made of money and haven't got a clue about computers they asked me to get the children R4 cards so they can keep the game cartridges safe.

I did my research first, found a supplier that had good feedback on forums like this. Went to their website and they provide loads of information about their products and a step by step guide for setting everything up so I thought "I can do this" phaaa - how wrong was I

.

Firstly let me say I don't play games at all, so I'm a complete newbie to game consoles of any description, but I confident PC user and usually pick things up quite quickly.

So the card has come and I've started following the guide but I'm really confused.

It talks about the firmware - if I'm using a DSi it needs to have a firmware version lower than 1.4.1

So I googled how to find out the firmware version of your DS and I found the instructions but instead of giving any info about a firmware that's anything like 1.4.1 the pink screen tells me I've got a v5

I can't currently do anything with the DSi because my daughter didn't give me the charger for her sons so I'm trying to get things working with the DS lites.

I don't get it - Can someone explain where I'm going wrong?

I think I'm confused:

What I've got to do to the DS's
What I've got to do with the card

 

[Rydian]

The firmware only matters with the DSi, the DS Lite didn't have the firmware updates you need to worry about.

What cart did you get? There's like a hundred.

 

[jurassicplayer]

lol You were checking your DSLite's firmware. You won't need that information since all flashcarts work with DSLite/DSPhats. For checking your DSi's firmware, it should be in the corner of your system settings and that is the one that you want to be 1.4.1 or lower.

As for what you need to do in order to set up everything, it's actually extremely simple. Nothing ever has to be done with the console (and it's generally useless updating the DSi's firmware, since Nintendo hasn't actually released a decently useful DSi firmware update in a long while) and the only real thing you need to worry about is getting a microSD (or SDHC if supported...only the 1:1 R4 clones can't support it) and a supported flashcart (preferably not a clone flashcart).

All you need to do is extract and drag the kernel that your flashcart website provides (most will call it the "firmware" but it is actually supposed to be called the kernel) onto your microSD and then get the ROMs of the games and also place those on the microSD (they can be placed in a folder if you prefer it that way).

At this point, your flashcart will work just fine on any of the DSLites you have, but on the DSi, you may need to update the firmware of the flashcart in order to support the DSi's firmware (the 1.4.1 bit that you probably read already). If there isn't a firmware update for your flashcart, then you might be out of luck for using it on a DSi (usually only unsupported flashcarts are out of luck, so as long as you get a decent one, you are probably fine). Since you have DSLites easily accessible, you can just update the flashcart firmwares using one of them before handing it off to the DSi user (it might also be a good idea to warn them not to update the instant they can, as it would most likely render their flashcart incapacitated until a new firmware update is made for the flashcart).

 

[ftw_uk]

wow peeps done it - thanks for the help

I got a couple R4i ultra carts (am I using the word correctly lol) and I eventually used the AKAIO 1.8.6A (thingy me bob)

I can't even believe what I've been trying to do for the last hour - I don't understand the console controls and it took me over an hour to find out that you can't exit a game you have to turn the player off... what's the about lol - I feel like I'm going round in circles and the music is making me want to throw it out the window.

I'll just have to get the children to show me what to do now

Thanks for the help folks

 

[Miss Panda]

This is so sweet, you are one groovy grandma.

 

[Rydian]

I can't even believe what I've been trying to do for the last hour - I don't understand the console controls and it took me over an hour to find out that you can't exit a game you have to turn the player off... what's the about lol - I feel like I'm going round in circles and the music is making me want to throw it out the window.

The original games weren't meant to be run outside of their original carts, so there's no built-in functions to exit. Instead each flash cart's system software (such as AKAIO) has a method to soft-reset back to the menu. For AKAIO the combination is L+R+A+B+Down, but it varies.

 

[ftw_uk]

Hey Rydian - Thanks, yea that makes sense now - you only have one game cartridge in at a time so you would shut the game down.

I've tried the soft reset but it's not happening... do you have to press all the buttons at the same time. The L & R at the back - A & B on the right - and the down button on the cross thing on the left?

 

[s4mid4re]

Hey Rydian - Thanks, yea that makes sense now - you only have one game cartridge in at a time so you would shut the game down.

I've tried the soft reset but it's not happening... do you have to press all the buttons at the same time. The L & R at the back - A & B on the right - and the down button on the cross thing on the left?

Yes; all at the same time (while in-game, of course). That will take you back to the screen where you pick the game you want to load.

 

[NES SNES V.B. N64 G.C. Wii WiiU]

Hey Rydian - Thanks, yea that makes sense now - you only have one game cartridge in at a time so you would shut the game down.

I've tried the soft reset but it's not happening... do you have to press all the buttons at the same time. The L & R at the back - A & B on the right - and the down button on the cross thing on the left?

Yep all (A+B+X+Y+Down) at the same time. AKAIO is definitely your best option, so you're good there. It should work pressing all the buttons at the same time. Also make sure you hit all of the buttons, miss just one and it won't work.

 

[ftw_uk]

thanks peeps - it's all going well!

The cart works with the lites and on the dsi too, wouldn't have been able to do it without you

Just about got round pressing all the buttons at once to take me back to the menu - thanks for that

@mabilouz - I'm not normally down with being called grandma but I really like groovy grandma so just might adopt the name lol

 

[NES SNES V.B. N64 G.C. Wii WiiU]

thanks peeps - it's all going well!

The cart works with the lites and on the dsi too, wouldn't have been able to do it without you

Just about got round pressing all the buttons at once to take me back to the menu - thanks for that

@mabilouz - I'm not normally down with being called grandma but I really like groovy grandma so just might adopt the name lol

Great. However it would be wise to update the firmware on the card to the latest in case you grandson accidentally updates his DSi and can't get the card to work again.

 

[Sora de Eclaune]

thanks peeps - it's all going well!

The cart works with the lites and on the dsi too, wouldn't have been able to do it without you

Just about got round pressing all the buttons at once to take me back to the menu - thanks for that

@mabilouz - I'm not normally down with being called grandma but I really like groovy grandma so just might adopt the name lol

Great. However it would be wise to update the firmware on the card to the latest in case you grandson accidentally updates his DSi and can't get the card to work again.

Parental controls could also be set so that without a password, you can't update the DSi.