Hacking R4 vs CycloDS

[ap0x]

Hi everyone. I need to upgrade from my G6-lite. Now it's served me well this past year or so, but the attraction of simple drag/drop is just too good to pass up in the Slot-1 solutions.

From what i've read, I was basically sold on the R4. However, this whole CycloDS business has crept up.

What exactly are the advantages of CycloDS over R4?

Homebrew?
Download play compatibility?
Price?
Slot-2 combo compatibility?

Just wondering what exactly are the differences between the 2 so I can make a worthwhile purchase.

So far R4 is looking pretty sweet though i gotta say.


THanks!

 

[dbgtdob]

Homebrew?
Download play compatibility?
Price?
Slot-2 combo compatibility?

on homebrew support both are the same although cyclo has auto dldi patch so it might be better in that since.

on download play,the cyclo evolution beats the R4 hands down, pretty much all games work on cyclo but dont work on R4

on Price R4 wins, its as cheap as $32 shipped, with the cyclo at $55 plus shipping, not to mention you can get a chinese R4 for only $25 shipped and change it to english

on slot 2 combo both work equally well.

one other thing you left out is that cyclo supports up to 32 gb micro sdhc cards, and the max for R4 is 4gb.

 

[simpson17]

Actually the R4 doesn't support all 4GB microSD cards (just wanted to point that out). It only supports the non SDHC cards (which as far as I know there are none, but there may be at some point in time. They will just be harder to find)

On average the R4 price is $42 unless buying from dealextreme (but i guess the option is there). So a $10 price difference shouldn't put too much of a dent in your wallet if you opt for it.

 

[Maikel Steneker]

What exactly are the advantages of CycloDS over R4?

Well...

Homebrew?

Yeah. The CycloDS has automatic DLDI patching. But if you don't mind DLDI patching on the PC, just get the R4

Download play compatibility?

Check. The R4 compatibly isn't really bad, but for the CycloDS it's currently 100%!

Price?

The CycloDS is more expansive than the R4.

Slot-2 combo compatibility?

I know that if you want to use the 3 in 1, the CycloDS has less features atm. This will probably change though...

Just wondering what exactly are the differences between the 2 so I can make a worthwhile purchase.

Other differences are that the CycloDS has an ingame menu and the option for slowmotion.

So far R4 is looking pretty sweet though i gotta say.

Yeah, it's a very nice card. But if you don't look at the price, the CycloDS is better I guess. I can't say for 100% sure though, as the only Slot 1-card I have is the M3 Simply.

THanks!

You're welcome

 

[ap0x]

oh sweet! that's pretty awesome for the cycloDS... guess i'll have to wait until the reviews come out for that to decide
does the 55$ price include the 1gb card?

 

[fli_guy84]

Nope, just the flash card.

 

[Mewgia]

As others have stated, the CycloDS wins in everything except price against the R4 (and every other flashcart at the moment, really)

 

[t3chvest]

$55 for the card, plus $24 shipped for a 2gb kingston microSD off of newegg.

 

[Zombie_X]

R4DS released a new firmware with auto DLDI patching. I know one of the R4DS team members and they said that they are workign on improving the download play. They said within the next few releases it will be almost 75%.

I also have the CycloDS EVO that I got as a review sample and it's pretty much the same as the R4DS except for the download play. I see no reason to Buy a CycloDS EVO if you have an R4DS as the R4DS has even better game compatibility thatn the CycloDS EVO. The R4DS also saves faster. I tried Hotel Dusk and it took 2 seconds to saves with the R4DS but almost 4 with the CycloDS EVO. If you dont have an R4DS, buy it.

 

[ap0x]

Hmmm... the CycloDs definitely looks pretty sweet, but the price is kind of a turn off, especially comparing to the R4 which is an awesome piece of hardware.

Being that the only major difference I see is the download play, it makes for a tough decision. However, the R4 team seems to be very dedicated to their product and their customers.

Is the download play issue something that can be feasibly fixed through firmware updates? If so, i'm confident in the R4 team to get things working in the future!

 

[ap0x]

Btw, where are people getting their CycloDS evos from? I'm in canada. Any canadian retailers already in stock?

 

[Zombie_X]

i got mine as a review sample so i really don't know..

 

[iwakura]

I'd have to say R4 tops evo in slot-2 because of of evo's low compatibility with the EzFlash 3in1

 

[MillionsKnives]

For around $10 more for the CycloDS Evolution over the English version of the R4 NDS, I think it is worth it spend the extra money for some of the extra features. Features I like include:

The in game menu: This is nice because it inadvertently acts as a pause for times when a game might not let you pause, like during movies or dialog. I know many times I've needed to pause a game, but can't because hitting start either skips over important dialog or just doesn't do anything. This is similar with Xbox emulators like ZsnexBox, MednafenX, or practically any other emulator.

100% Download and play: This is a great thing, as everyone else has mentioned.

Realtime save and load: This sounds like a nice feature to have once it is enabled with future updates. Activated through the in game menu.

LCD brightness adjustment: Is it just me, or am I the only one that likes the option of being able to change the LCD brightness through the in game menu with the CycloDS? I never see anyone mention this as a plus really. I think it is great, especially if your DS battery is running low because you can just bump down the brightness if you want.

The slow down advanced feature is the one thing I don't really care much about at all. To me, this just seems useless, but I suppose it could be a nice feature to have for some games.

With the newest R4 update, it also supports Auto-DLDI patching so there is no pro for the CycloDS over the R4 for this feature anymore. Also, as stated in other posts, the R4 team is working on getting to 100% download and play.

The only real advantage I could see with the R4 is the price, and as dbgtdob stated, you can get the chinese R4 for around $25 (DealExtreme - $25.33 for R4 NDS)

Now I was unaware that you could change the Chinese version of the R4 to English, but this is what dbgtdob said. I'd have to look into it, but if this is possible, that could save you like $30 right there. At that price difference, it's hard to say which one I'd want to get. If it is indeed possible to completely change the Chinese version of the R4 to English, then I might get that instead. But then again, $30 to me isn't all that much money and I might be inclined to get the CycloDS Evolution for those extra features.

In the mean time, I go off to look for documentation on how to convert the Chinese R4 to English.

Edit: Evidentially, it's as easy as downloading the English firmware and patching it to the Chinese R4. I thought it would have taken some sort of finegaling!

So, I guess keep this in mind.