R4DS Firmware?

[Another World]

R4DS Firmware?
Did Ya' Know Fridays

In an effort to do something a bit different, I bring you "Did Ya' Know Fridays." I will attempt (hopefully with out fail) to give the GBATemp community a bit of info that might not be so well known. All info will be Homebrew, Scene, GBATemp related. If you have some news, info, or tips that you would like to see posted on the front page PM them to me. I'll work the best bits of info into the Friday rotation!

For the 1st installment, Did Ya' Know that the original R4DS is still supported? The team behind the R4I (I.L.S.) has been porting their firmware to the R4DS. I have done some minor testing and a few newer ROMs work great along with DSPack and NesDS. Hopefully this is good news for those who forgot about their original R4DS or those who dislike YSMenu.

The firmware appears to behave the same as the legendary 1.18 official firmware. It looks, feels, and acts like the original. The only issue I had was that themes had to be placed in the _system_/themes/theme01 folder and activated by pushing "select." I can recall that with the official firmware I could put my main theme in the _system_ folder root, but this firmware does not respond that way.

At any rate, if you have a dusty R4 kicking about you now lack an excuse for not using it.

Download v1.23

R4I Homepage

LinFoxDomain Firmware Hosting

Discuss

 

[zeromac]

I'll add to that bit of info about the R4DS firmware, the newest so far is 1.23 which was released on the 5/07/09

 

[Jei]

Downloading it just in case, because my actual 1.18 has no issues running the games I've been currently playing.

 

[TraumaHoundNDS]

While I no longer have my original R4DS (thanks to some sticky-fingered kid at my daughter's camp last summer) one had to drop themes in folders theme01-theme12.

Some of the clones have you drop the theme files into the system folder itself but then you only can use 1 theme at a time. Other clones allow for the 12 theme folders but you can't manually cycle through them, instead it auto-cycles at the start of a new month (based on the DS' system settings.)

...or was that what you were already saying and I just misunderstood you?

 

[Normmatt]

Did ya know this is based on open source software. which in turn should mean this firmware would have to be open source, but we all know the chinese dont respect copyrights.

 

[jan777]

i have an excuse to not use my r4

my ds is dead

 

[Another World]

@TraumaHoundNDS: from what i remember, and i should just test this, i could drop the main skin in the _system_ folder of 1.18 and it would show up. with this firmware i had to put the skin in _system_/themes/theme01 and then use the select button to make use of it. i only want to use 1 skin at a time and not "themes" but it seem this firmware does not have the same default behavior of the 1.18 official.

does that make sense?

-another world

 

[RetroVortex]

Does this have support for saves over 512kb?

If not, then I'll stick with my modified 1.18(that plays daigasso band brothers dx), and YSMENU...

 

[dimsum Kurtis]

Nice, but does it fix the cheat engine? For ex. will cheats appear for each game?

 

[TheDestroyer]

Does this have support for saves over 512kb?

If not, then I'll stick with my modified 1.18(that plays daigasso band brothers dx), and YSMENU...

I don't think so.. I tried it but my 512 KB save games doesn't recognize by it..

 

[zeromac]

Nice, but does it fix the cheat engine? For ex. will cheats appear for each game?

Yea it does it gives u unlimited cheat space, but im pretty sure YSmenu does that also?

 

[dimsum Kurtis]

Nice, but does it fix the cheat engine? For ex. will cheats appear for each game?

Yea it does it gives u unlimited cheat space, but im pretty sure YSmenu does that also?

Yeah but blacklight cheats dont work on ysmenu i blieve

 

[Fun_Zephyr]

@Another World - If you place the 4 relevant files in the _system_ folder then that is the skin used but to have multiple skins you need the setup of _system_\Themes\Themes01 etc etc. I have the original disc that came with Firmware 1.11 and that is how it is setup. My current 1.18 also has it setup _system_\Themes\Theme01 through to theme12 (not that I use the R4 any more)

Unless my interpretation of what they say is wrong in their manual but the above works for me for 1.11 through 1.18 - meaning the _system_\Themes\Theme01 through to theme12

An extract from the Manual off the orginal CD:

7) Switch of the Skins

If the skin does not exist in the directory of _system_ in TF/microSD, it automatically uses the Skin from formal Beta Edition;
There are 4 pictures at the directory "system/_system": logo.bmp ? icons.bmp ? bckgrd_1.bm and bckgrd_2.bmp. They are the background of the R4 operation interface; they can be changed to fit your style.
logo.bmp - Background of the Top Screen of R 4' s startup.
icons.bmp -- Background of the Bottom Screen of R 4' s Startup.
bckgrd_1.bmp -- Background of the Top Screen of R 4' s Explorer.
bckgrd_2.bmp -- Background of the Bottom Screen of R 4' s Explorer.

Note:
Do not change the picture's name;
Make sure the picture is .bmp format, 8-bit/24-bit;
Make sure the picture is 253*192 pixels.
After finishing process on the pictures, copy the "_system" folder to the root directory of the CF card.
If the Skin exists in the directory of _system_ in TF/microSD, it automatically enters multi Skins mode.
The Skins in multi Skins mode can be switched manually and automatically, it is automatically switched with the Skins by months.
The method of the Skin switch is: Click "SELECT" key in main menu, it switches between twelve manual modes and one auto mode, the chart is showed as below (It automatically skips if the Skin does not exist in the directory of themes):

If the users would like the switches of multi Skins while playing, they only need create the directory of themes in the directory of _system_.
For the method of adding more Skins, please view "DIY Manual of R4DS Skins"

 

[dsjoes]

looks good but crashed on me so i will try again tonight

 

[kobykaan]

@Another World - If you place the 4 relevant files in the _system_ folder then that is the skin used but to have multiple skins you need the setup of _system_\Themes\Themes01 etc etc. I have the original disc that came with Firmware 1.11 and that is how it is setup. My current 1.18 also has it setup _system_\Themes\Theme01 through to theme12 (not that I use the R4 any more)

Unless my interpretation of what they say is wrong in their manual but the above works for me for 1.11 through 1.18 - meaning the _system_\Themes\Theme01 through to theme12

An extract from the Manual off the orginal CD:

7) Switch of the Skins

If the skin does not exist in the directory of _system_ in TF/microSD, it automatically uses the Skin from formal Beta Edition;
There are 4 pictures at the directory "system/_system": logo.bmp ? icons.bmp ? bckgrd_1.bm and bckgrd_2.bmp. They are the background of the R4 operation interface; they can be changed to fit your style.
logo.bmp - Background of the Top Screen of R 4' s startup.
icons.bmp -- Background of the Bottom Screen of R 4' s Startup.
bckgrd_1.bmp -- Background of the Top Screen of R 4' s Explorer.
bckgrd_2.bmp -- Background of the Bottom Screen of R 4' s Explorer.

Note:
Do not change the picture's name;
Make sure the picture is .bmp format, 8-bit/24-bit;
Make sure the picture is 253*192 pixels.
After finishing process on the pictures, copy the "_system" folder to the root directory of the CF card.
If the Skin exists in the directory of _system_ in TF/microSD, it automatically enters multi Skins mode.
The Skins in multi Skins mode can be switched manually and automatically, it is automatically switched with the Skins by months.
The method of the Skin switch is: Click "SELECT" key in main menu, it switches between twelve manual modes and one auto mode, the chart is showed as below (It automatically skips if the Skin does not exist in the directory of themes):

If the users would like the switches of multi Skins while playing, they only need create the directory of themes in the directory of _system_.
For the method of adding more Skins, please view "DIY Manual of R4DS Skins"

^^ beat me too it but IT'S ALWAYS BEEN LIKE THAT afaik with official R4 cards

 

[TraumaHoundNDS]

does that make sense?

So it would have an either/or ability but now it can't? Hmm, didn't remember that (though I filled up my 12 folders pretty quick when I first got my R4DS a couple years back.)

At any rate, cool to know some work is going into keeping the actual R4's on life support. Thanks for the update.

 

[datroubler]

in german i like to say "leck mich fett" but in english i say: holy shit it works with my M3 Simply!!!!

edit:

softreset is working, also Moonshell 1.71
I already tried the Game Contra 4 Succesfully

 

[StuKeeler]

@Another World - If you place the 4 relevant files in the _system_ folder then that is the skin used but to have multiple skins you need the setup of _system_\Themes\Themes01 etc etc. I have the original disc that came with Firmware 1.11 and that is how it is setup. My current 1.18 also has it setup _system_\Themes\Theme01 through to theme12 (not that I use the R4 any more)

Unless my interpretation of what they say is wrong in their manual but the above works for me for 1.11 through 1.18 - meaning the _system_\Themes\Theme01 through to theme12

An extract from the Manual off the orginal CD:

7) Switch of the Skins

If the skin does not exist in the directory of _system_ in TF/microSD, it automatically uses the Skin from formal Beta Edition;
There are 4 pictures at the directory "system/_system": logo.bmp ? icons.bmp ? bckgrd_1.bm and bckgrd_2.bmp. They are the background of the R4 operation interface; they can be changed to fit your style.
logo.bmp - Background of the Top Screen of R 4' s startup.
icons.bmp -- Background of the Bottom Screen of R 4' s Startup.
bckgrd_1.bmp -- Background of the Top Screen of R 4' s Explorer.
bckgrd_2.bmp -- Background of the Bottom Screen of R 4' s Explorer.

Note:
Do not change the picture's name;
Make sure the picture is .bmp format, 8-bit/24-bit;
Make sure the picture is 253*192 pixels.
After finishing process on the pictures, copy the "_system" folder to the root directory of the CF card.
If the Skin exists in the directory of _system_ in TF/microSD, it automatically enters multi Skins mode.
The Skins in multi Skins mode can be switched manually and automatically, it is automatically switched with the Skins by months.
The method of the Skin switch is: Click "SELECT" key in main menu, it switches between twelve manual modes and one auto mode, the chart is showed as below (It automatically skips if the Skin does not exist in the directory of themes):

If the users would like the switches of multi Skins while playing, they only need create the directory of themes in the directory of _system_.
For the method of adding more Skins, please view "DIY Manual of R4DS Skins"

As mentioned this is/was correct for the R4 firmware.

It is almost the same for the new R4 firmware but they seem to have removed the ability to have a permanent single theme and defaults as the rotating 12 month/12 folder themes.

I use the same theme all the time so I just created 12 duplicates of the same theme as "theme01" - "theme12"!

 

[amanda]

do you know what is the relations between the original r4ds and the r4li ?


as many players know there are more than 20 kinds flash cards for ndsl or ndsi in the market, but yes , right , the r4li the same factory with original www.r4ds.com, why they don't put the official upgarde firmware on www.r4ds.com ?

because the www.r4ds.com can't be opened ,Smart person will find it will jump to www.r4ds.cn while click the www.r4ds.com , but the R4DS Update didn't be updated since a year before on www.r4ds.cn .

base on the needs from vast agents ,the original r4ds factory register a new address www.r4li.com to open a link for r4ds. so that the buyer can download the data from it ,can play a new game.

if who interest in r4li or original r4ds for ndsl and ndsi . www.gamezway.com is good website i conside you can find a good price over there..

 

[shakirmoledina]

i never knew it was "official"... i will try it out cuz i heard star wars also works with this one... (1.21 or something) thanks AW and i was also confused as to why there is a difference with the themes but i guess there isn't