Hacking R4 DS newbie questions ...

[AdamBrunt]

Hi all,

Got a DS Lite off eBay for my daughter's Christmas present and it came bundled with an R4 card. The wording on the card mentions www.R4li.com (I am not sure if that means it is a clone or not ... but the thing seems to work anyway).

I have two questions (for now).

1) The firmware installed on the SD card seems to suggest it is 1.23. The website above, says the latest version (only release about a week ago) is 1.24. What is normally changed in firmware releases ? Just greater game compatibility or other stuff as well ?

2) The SD card also has Moonshell 1.71 on it. a) is it normal to see what looks like a code dump (in the top screen) while it loads ? and (b) what are the advantages of upgrading to v2 ?

3) If the 'default' R4 'software' appears to be working fine do I need to bother with YSMenu ?

TIA for helping a DS hacking newbie.

Regards,

Adam Brunt

 

[emigre]

Firstly you're card's a clone, however it should play the basic stuff eg mario kart your daughter may want. However it could have difficulties with newer games and recieve slow fixes.

1) better rom compatability.

2a) I guess it's normal, I haven't used that version for over a year now so my memory of it isn't great.
b) uses better decoding so you get better quality. Also it has a better GUI and is much easier to use.

3) YSmenu doess a good job but i don't your card is compatable with it. (the site doesn't say to which rom number) It only works with real R4 and some clones.

 

[AdamBrunt]

thanks for the reply emigre.

looking at the r4li.com website, it looks like they were doing firmware upgrades fairly regularly until June. But then nothing till a couple of weeks ago. I am assuming upgrading R4 firmware is just a case of backing up the SD contents and then copying the latest firmware to the root of the SD card ?

 

[emigre]

that's pretty much it. however you could always get an alternative card with more reliable support and flashcarts are rather inexpensive, you can get a good one for $13.

 

[AdamBrunt]

Is there a thread for comparison of various cards ?

I basically just need a card that will play backups, doesn't need GBA compatibility or homebrew. But regular updates would be good. Bear in mind, a 6 year old will be the main user of the DS so nothing too complicated

As I say, I noticed it came bundled with R4 (clone or real) and a mate who has one (possibly a real one) said his did all he wanted it to do.

 

[emigre]

put up what you want here

If we're going by cheap, play games and simplicity. I think the Edge could be your best bet. It's menu is pretty simple but it's not the easiest card to find at the moment. Or you could get an acekard 2, I use one and with teh AKAIO firmware it's been fantastic but it's menu isn't the best for a child. Or you could use moonshell 2 to load games and it's simple for a child to use. It looks like this

 

[AdamBrunt]

put up what you want here

If we're going by cheap, play games and simplicity. I think the Edge could be your best bet. It's menu is pretty simple but it's not the easiest card to find at the moment.

Did that a fair while ago and IIRC the general consensus was to go for either an R4 or Edge.

 

[emigre]

well there's always my alternative acekard way. I'm just not to keen on the R4 to be honest.

 

[twiztidsinz]

Did that a fair while ago and IIRC the general consensus was to go for either an R4 or Edge.

Must have been a really "fair" long time ago...
No one should ever recommend any R4 clone -- because that's what they all are, clones.
For the same money you can get an AceKard2, or even a DSTT/TTDS which are clones but still updated unlike your typical "R4DS Ultra Super i (eye) III supporting SDHC up to 800 terabytes" clone which will have updates for a few months tops then nothing.

 

[AdamBrunt]

Hmmm ... might have to go the AceKard 2 route