Why is R4 so popular ?

[Keylogger]

I am wondering why R4 is so popular?

It’s absolutely not the first DS flash cart that was available, it was the Neoflash kit

There were a lot of SuperCard products (all super card slot 2, then DSOne,DStwo,…)
The M3 series was also very popular with M3 simply, M3 DS real, M3izero, G6 flash ,…

All the EZflash products,…

So why people only talk about R4 when talking about DS scene ?

 

[EmanueleBGN]

It was one of the first, so its name has became a synonymous of "flashcard for DS"

Post automatically merged: Jun 7, 2025

It was one of the first, so its name has became a synonymous of "flashcard for DS"

 

[Latiodile]

because the others were more expensive, and probably harder to clone
the supercard having it's own CPU in it added to the price quite a bit

 

[SylverReZ]

It was one of the first, so its name has became a synonymous of "flashcard for DS"

Not one of the first, you have other cards that came before it such as the NinjaDS or the Acekard which accepted SD cards as a form of medium storage, they didn't have much success as far as I know likely due to its price point at the time for being new. The R4 shipped to retailers around December 2006 and not 2007 as many others had claimed online, and the name simply stuck for being synonymous with flashcarts for the DS. And with that success, as well as no protection for protecting your code and methods for producing these carts, loads of clones came after it that are not made by the R4 team, of which by then had disbanded.

If you want to go far deep into the DS flashcart rabbit hole, this Japanese blog has a whole heap of news articles about them, dating way back from when the R4 was announced. https://ayasuke.exblog.jp/i28/

It’s absolutely not the first DS flash cart that was available, it was the Neoflash kit

Not the first "true" DS flashcart where it would trick the system into booting from a legitimate game from slot-1 when the blowfish encryption was cracked; in-fact, older DS flashcart kits relied on "PassMe" devices, whilst the ROMs you store are on a GBA flashcart.

 

[k66]

R4 cheaper?
Original R4(M3 DS Simply) was a cheap version of M3 DS Real.
Various R4is were also cheap.