Hacking R4-Advance Owners report

[Narin]

I just did a comparison on the firmware from their site, its just a hex edited version of the R4 firmware. Its a clone.

The "English-1.19" that I downloaded today from http://www.r4ds-a.com/ has _DS_MENU.DAT size: 2,449,920 Bytes, date:06/11/08 and boots my R4A on a 4GB TF.

The 1.18 R4 software from 24 Apr 08 is 1,410,048 bytes. It does not boot on R4A, but still does on R4.

A bit-for-bit compare shows no similarities between the files. When and where did you get your file?

The clicking sound while NDS is closed is new for 1.19. The light in the hinge blinks at least twice as fast on 1.19.
The 1.19 file is a MB bigger. It seems more that a simple hexedit. I suspect R4A changed the file since you downloaded yours.

Have you decrypted the R4 firmware properly? Also I managed to get the R4a firmware to load on the R4DS for the most part, I had to manually patch it and encrypt it myself.

 

[LuOmeoga]

If it wasn't a "clone" why would they use basically the same name of the product they're copying? Like EDGE is totally different than CycloDS ans it distinguishes itself from the Cyclo for the most part but all these "R4 Clones" use the same name as the R4 and that just screams clone to everyone.

 

[BurlyEd]

Have you decrypted the R4 firmware properly? Also I managed to get the R4a firmware to load on the R4DS for the most part, I had to manually patch it and encrypt it myself.

I just downloaded the 1.19 firmware from R4A and R4 III and tried both and compared them with the old 1.18 R4 firmware.
I do not know about encryption and decryption except that USRCHEAT.DAT is decrypted and CHEAT.DAT is encrypted. I think.
They are the same size. I can edit either with R4CCE. Does decrypting the firmware change the size? If so I did not know that.

But I do know that the R4A only boots on what I downloaded from the R4A site.
I think that is important because it is unlikely that anyone will accidently brick his DS by running R4 firmware on a R4A.

This WAS an R4:
http://www.volumerate.com/details.vr/sku.1202~r.DX

This may be a clone:
http://www.volumerate.com/details.vr/sku.60157

This is probably a clone:
http://www.volumerate.com/details.vr/sku.60265

This is certainly a clone:
http://www.volumerate.com/details.vr/sku.60270

This is an R4 Advance, This is what I have. VolumeRate calls it a clone.
"As this is a clone R4, you need to upgrade on http://www.r4ds-a.com/, but not on R4 site!!! We will not responsible if this brick your NDSL!"
http://www.volumerate.com/details.vr/sku.60261

Your mileage may vary.

 

[OzModChips]

What does the menu look like?
We can't buy any more original r4s - they arent really being made
the stock they have left, they want to charge 2.5x the original price, and we arent paying a premium for crap!

Instead of buying HQ "clones" its probablt better for us to stock a R4 product with SDHC, so people can play with higher cap cards.

 

[Another World]

"last original production code is 0817#"

-aw

 

[BurlyEd]

What does the menu look like?

Everything on both screens looks exactly like an R4 1.18 except, of course the R4A says 1.19 on the first screen.
Everything seems to work the same, except when I close the DS during a game, the R4s blinks the yellow light in the hinge about once a second.
Both of the R4As blink the light at least twice as fast and make a clicking sound in sync with the blinks.
After a variable amount of time from a few minutes to over an hour the clicking and blinking sometimes stops and the game is frozen.
ABLRXY resets to the R4A menu but the game is no longer running. Soft reset seems more reliable than on R4 - maybe.

Otherwise, R4A is an R4 that takes a 4GB TF card and costs $14.12 each, plus $24.73 shipping per order - 3 weeks from VolumeRate.
I think an EDGE at $23.59 with free shipping from DealExtreme is a safer and better buy.

I buy several flash cards every month for family and friends (and their friends). Sometimes their parents repay me - usually not.
I am always looking for the cheapest card which is easy to use for a kid who has only recently learned to wave bye-bye.
At first that was M3 simply and R4, then I tried AK2, M3 Real (with matching slot 2 card for GBA Pokemon) and DSTT with 3in1.
R4 and DSTT were the most popular, AK2 was "too hard" for most, some liked the M3 combo because is was easier than the 3in1 combo.
The M3R fell apart, the AK2 had a bad usb adapter, DSTTs were $10 cheaper than now and abundant.
Now R4s are unavailable and DSTTs are scarce and cost as much as a an EDGE.

I hoped that the R4A would satisfy the kids craving for more R4s, but I do not like it and I will recommend that they step up to EDGE.

I have not tried any of the premium priced cards beyond SCDS1 (which I like, triple booted), but it is at least as hard to learn as an AK2.

I hope this helps.

@PharaohsVizier,
You are right about the "Plus" - I didn't see that.

 

[OzModChips]

when you hit 'cheats' for a games, is there a bunch of chinese characters everywhere?

 

[Another World]

What does the menu look like?

Everything on both screens looks exactly like an R4 1.18 except, of course the R4A says 1.19 on the first screen.
Everything seems to work the same, except when I close the DS during a game, the R4s blinks the yellow light in the hinge about once a second.
Both of the R4As blink the light at least twice as fast and make a clicking sound in sync with the blinks.
After a variable amount of time from a few minutes to over an hour the clicking and blinking sometimes stops and the game is frozen.
ABLRXY resets to the R4A menu but the game is no longer running. Soft reset seems more reliable than on R4 - maybe.

Otherwise, R4A is an R4 that takes a 4GB TF card and costs $14.12 each, plus $24.73 shipping per order - 3 weeks from VolumeRate.
I think an EDGE at $23.59 with free shipping from DealExtreme is a safer and better buy.

I buy several flash cards every month for family and friends (and their friends). Sometimes their parents repay me - usually not.
I am always looking for the cheapest card which is easy to use for a kid who has only recently learned to wave bye-bye.
At first that was M3 simply and R4, then I tried AK2, M3 Real (with matching slot 2 card for GBA Pokemon) and DSTT with 3in1.
R4 and DSTT were the most popular, AK2 was "too hard" for most, some liked the M3 combo because is was easier than the 3in1 combo.
The M3R fell apart, the AK2 had a bad usb adapter, DSTTs were $10 cheaper than now and abundant.
Now R4s are unavailable and DSTTs are scarce and cost as much as a an EDGE.

I hoped that the R4A would satisfy the kids craving for more R4s, but I do not like it and I will recommend that they step up to EDGE.

I have not tried any of the premium priced cards beyond SCDS1 (which I like, triple booted), but it is at least as hard to learn as an AK2.

I hope this helps.

@PharaohsVizier,
You are right about the "Plus" - I didn't see that.

just be aware that clone cards can (and HAVE/WILL) blow a fuse in the ds when you power cycle it. you may be getting a great deal that works, and i'm not saying anything against that-i love a deal as much as the next guy, but at the same time you may be giving a card to a kid that could kill their ds in after few months. it isn't worth the risk to me just to save 15-25$.

its great you got sdhc support and r4 firmware, wonderful... if it makes you happy mate, do it. just keep in mind what was said here. the people of this forum are not trying to be jerks to you, no matter how ascii-tones come across. they are trying to make you aware that you did buy a clone and it does have risks. they are cheaply made with no one making sure that the $2 process isn't perfect and won't hurt the end user's electronics. in all my years of flash carting (a bit over 8 years) i've never read about a kit that was fresh off the line that killed a system. it is always an altered kit that was fixed aftermarket, or had something removed that broke on it (such as the r4 spring). but with the clone kits you hear about it all the time that they kill a system fresh out of the box.

anyways goodluck with it, and have fun gaming!

-another world

 

[Frederica Bernkastel]

What does the menu look like?
We can't buy any more original r4s - they arent really being made
the stock they have left, they want to charge 2.5x the original price, and we arent paying a premium for crap!

Instead of buying HQ "clones" its probablt better for us to stock a R4 product with SDHC, so people can play with higher cap cards.

Your store is pretty good!
Stock decent modchips/cards and then people will have decent stuff.
Don;t sell R4 clones, the add a SDHC slot, but it doesn;t DO anything, (except consume more power)
Your ruining your reputation by selling clones of a crap product. That MAY BRICK YOUR CUSTOMERS DS's

 

[OzModChips]

What does the menu look like?
We can't buy any more original r4s - they arent really being made
the stock they have left, they want to charge 2.5x the original price, and we arent paying a premium for crap!

Instead of buying HQ "clones" its probablt better for us to stock a R4 product with SDHC, so people can play with higher cap cards.

Your store is pretty good!
Stock decent modchips/cards and then people will have decent stuff.
Don;t sell R4 clones, the add a SDHC slot, but it doesn;t DO anything, (except consume more power)
Your ruining your reputation by selling clones of a crap product. That MAY BRICK YOUR CUSTOMERS DS's

Where are the threads with people saying r4 SDHC clones bricked their DSs
I haven't been on here much lately, but i thought this was only happening to 'N5s'?

we ONLY stock cards made from the producers
M3real, cylcoDs, acekard, r4, itouch etc.
they all come from the people who make them....
But r4ds.com is down, the sales guys are desperate to make a few last bucks.....so whats the point?

If they aren't going to support their customers anymore, then why sould customers pay more for "originals"?
The hardware of a HQ clone is the same, so they are selling the same thing. If there is no software development, then its just hardware they are selling!

 

[GH0ST]

That's fine customers respect is the key ;-)

Enough yapping, onto the product! What is the CycloDs Evolution?
At the time of writing (20/07/08), after about 1 year of selling the CycloDS evolution, its the number 1 selling flash cart on our website, and we are the number 1 reseller in Australia. The reason for this is that once people try one, they never want to try another card! We are well aware that the DS flash cart market is flooded with cheap nasty cards, like the N5, R6, R4 clones, DSTT (yeah, its nasty). CycloDS are among a select few card that hold strong with great features and support.

When someone emails us to ask "what is the very best card on the market to buy for me/my son or daughter/my friend". The answer is that M3 Real will always be close, but if money is not a problem, the answer is definitely the CycloDS Evolution!

(http://www.ozmodchips.com/cyclods-evolution-p-26.html)

Just remembers that one year ago the CycloDS was also under the gun ...

 

[BurlyEd]

@OzModChips
Another good question!

hit 'cheats' for a games, is there a bunch of chinese characters everywhere?

I have not seen any non-english characters. It is EXACTLY the same menu and excellent cheat menu as R4 English 1.18.
It has been so long since I used my R4s, I didn't remember the line:
"(dot) Real-time on/off enable (B)"
in the cheat menu, so I ran the R4 again to verify it.
I also had forgot that the R4 does not have repeat scrolling in any menu. Neither does DSTT. EDGE does.

QUOTEWe can't buy any more original r4s - they arent really being made
the stock they have left, they want to charge 2.5x the original price, and we arent paying a premium for crap!

Instead of buying HQ "clones" its probablt better for us to stock a R4 product with SDHC, so people can play with higher cap cards.

This was exactly what I thought, that prompted me to order the two R4A samples.
Now that I have used both samples for several hours, I find that the nostalgia for the R4 was misplaced.
I find the clicking and rapid light flashing during suspended games to be increasingly annoying and the freeze-up to be infuriating.
Note: closing the DS during any R4A menu does not produce the clicking and rapid flashing, this only happens during suspended game play.
I miss the rapid scrolling of the main menu and cheat menu on the EDGE and I expect to pass the R4As on to some of the many tykes who really want an R4.

I hope some of the other clones are better than the R4A and that one of them gets their hands on the R4 firmware source and can update it.
Until then the EDGE is my budget card of choice.

Since you do not have to buy retail and pay outrageous shipping costs, and since demand for R4s is so high, one of the new clones probably makes good business sense for you. I only have experience with R4A. I hope you will report on your experiences if you do.

 

[lonewolf80]

gotta love your analysis, Narin. Thanks for all the information.


Guys, just never ever buy anything named "R4" again...i have one, and now I regret it, and am trying to get rid of it.

 

[Ferrariman]

R4 = Bad, dead cart. Get over it, people.

 

[Tanas]

R4 = Bad, dead cart. Get over it, people.

What he just said...

 

[Q.Ghost]

The R4 was okay back then now its rusted, i had mine for about a year and then chucked it out. I think it hit a fly on its way to the garbage.

 

[Frederica Bernkastel]

Maybe they just stole the firmware for something for their useres to use. Maybe they have one of these awesome R4 custom firmwares coming out for it?

 

[BurlyEd]

A few last tests to report:
08_19_08_All USRCHEAT.DAT Cheats found thru The Simpsons Game, but not for The World Ends With You

The Incredible Hulk.nds does not play (cannot make save file)
... just like any other R4.

No new problems noted.

It looks like I should have tried a "R4 DS Revolution R4DS MicroSD" instead of the R4A,
because it looks like they probably have the R4 firmware source and are actively updating it:

R4 SDHC downloads page

Update R4 SDHC v1.21 kernel 2008-8-7
1.Fixed compatibility issued with Daigassou Band Brothers DX?2385??Nanashi no Game?2420?

Update R4 SDHC v1.20 kernel 2008-7-19
1.Fixed some problems with the the multimedia configuration.
2.Fixed compatibility issued with The Incredible Hulk?2341?2352?

The _DS_MENU.DAT is dated 23Jul08 and is 3,783,680 bytes.

I will not be trying anymore R4 versions for a while.
I am happy with EDGE for budget card for kids.
I do not feel like sharing my experience any longer with such a rude and stupid bunch of louts as I find here:

N5 is reported to burn fuses in NDS's according to DX users. N5 is an R4 clone.
All R4s current in production are "clones". Therefore:
ALL clones will brick your DS and will hurt the little baby jesus and will make him cry.
"Don't Think". R4 is bad, mkay? Trying anything new is bad. Buying anything other than the posters favorite is stupid.
That seems to sum up the collective belief system of most of the posters (not thinking, testing or reasoning).

 

[fabulo]

how's r4 sdhc at volumerate.com? anyone tried?

 

[zhuzhuchina]

If R4 III or advance, is same made from N5-R4II producer i reccomend to sell them without warranty!
beucase their flashcards are very bad quality,
i can report only n5-r4II personal experience as their share same hardware, only different label, of a stock of about 200 pieces , sold mostly in 2/3 months, but more than 150 pz returned back to us for exchange and replace.
spring broken rate are high 5-10% about, 5% flashcards don't boot anyway, 30% flashcards boot only with some tf brands and not with others, and 30-50% flashcards can reset your memory cards and then you need to format again and reinstall kernel, 10% flashcards can blow the fuse, only minor parts support SDHC probably these new cards support more sdhc than before but the old N5 and R4 II support sdhc too. For each card returned to use and exchange there was a huge lost.
Personally i got 3 nintendo ds with fuse blown by N5-r4II
The warranty time process from N5 producer was more than a month, plus they forgot to give us n5 labels in return process.
Who made these N5 and R4 II is same of these R4III or Advance. If i supply and sell them, surely without warranty. Sell as crap card as it is.