Hacking Why The R4DS Will Never Get SDHC Support

[arsehat]

R4DS seems to be dying and fast. The R4 team don't seem to have any tricks up their sleeves. A 3rd party flash for the R4's chip to add SDHC support is what would save it. Everywhere I look on the R4 forums there are veterans and fanatics trying to hold on to this card. Is none of them motivated strongly enough to give it a shot? If there will be no SDHC support... I believe the R4 won't survive the next 2 months.

Here's a thought. A strange one. It might be true, it might not. Hell, it probably isn't. It's interesting, nonetheless.

Imagine, for a moment, that Team R4 have a major problem. They've been targetted by anti-flashcart forces and their brand is practically unsellable in some places because of that.

Imagine that they've dusted off an old design, one they abandoned when they went with the custom ATF01 chips for power and/or cost reasons - and market it as a clone. Maybe it's now cheaper for them to use those parts than the custom ones. Or maybe there's no real cost difference any more, but this gives them supply continuity because they now have two products and at least one will probably always be available when the other isn't. Perhaps they're getting ready to spawn a whole range of "clones", in an attempt to become the natural successor to the N-Card and its myriad clones.

Or, imagine that they've had a new SDHC-compatible cartridge design in the works for a while, but for various reasons (say parts availability, not wanting to get the new design targetted by those who gave them grief over the original one, whatever) they decide to first release it as a "clone". It'll run either their existing kernel (which won't support SDHC on the new hardware because of design limitations) or a new kernel which will work for non-SDHC use in the old carts or for both non- and SDHC on the new hardware.

For all we know, this could be the trick Team R4 have up their sleeves. I'd give them at least two months, because stock's starting to appear again, but the lack of SDHC support is starting to make their cards look less attractive compared to some others. I'd give them six months without either SDHC or a trick like the ones I've just described and a huge price cut. A pity, really... I personally prefer the straightforward (some would say "basic" or "primitive") menus, as do many I've shown them to in comparison with things like the DSTT and M3Real and EZ-V, but the pricing of the real R4s and the lack of SDHC is starting to make me seriously consider alternatives.

 

[Searinox]

SEND IN THE CLONES(all the fans are waiting)!!

The ATF01 isn't the problem by all means, remember it's a CHIP and it contains SOFTWARE. That's what needs to be changed. Really all they could have done would've been to release the chip's specs to the public so we'd know what we're up against.

arsehat, for all we know the R4 team could have, for all this time, been gathering the profit they've made with the R4 for world domination. Until they actually say something themselves, all we have is speculation. And the R4 team omerta is pretty damn strong sadly.

 

[Urza]

The only people who purchase R4's nowadays don't even know what SDHC is.

It wouldn't change anything anyways, so why should they bother? Even with SDHC its still the lower tier of the slot-1 market. The ignorant will continue to (try to, or clones) buy it, and the informed will continue to buy the competition.

 

[monopoman]

The only people who purchase R4's nowadays don't even know what SDHC is.

It wouldn't change anything anyways, so why should they bother? Even with SDHC its still the lower tier of the slot-1 market. The ignorant will continue to (try to, or clones) buy it, and the informed will continue to buy the competition.

Not true I have yet to find something my R4 can't do that I want it to do. Sure the other ones might have a few more advantages that no one except maybe a small portion of the community cares about. But the R4 gets quick updates when a game doesn't work and a lot of home brew is geared towards the R4.

I can't even fathom why someone would want a 4 gig Micro SD card on the thing. Unless your a media junkie or something which the DS is a pitiful media machine the PSP does all that far better.

So for DS games and other things like NES Genesis games 4 gigs is a bit of overkill. You can load up about 20-30 DS games on a 2 gig card with quite a bit of room to spare.

Compare that to a 4 gig card on the PSP you can get maybe 2-4 big games and quite a few smaller ones like Luxor or Dinner Dash for instance.

 

[Urza]

The only people who purchase R4's nowadays don't even know what SDHC is.

It wouldn't change anything anyways, so why should they bother? Even with SDHC its still the lower tier of the slot-1 market. The ignorant will continue to (try to, or clones) buy it, and the informed will continue to buy the competition.

Not true I have yet to find something my R4 can't do that I want it to do. Sure the other ones might have a few more advantages that no one except maybe a small portion of the community cares about.

So you'd rather pay more for a cart that has less features?

Thats what I would call being an ignorant consumer

the R4 gets quick updates when a game doesn't work

The R4 has the lowest release day compatibility of all carts on the market now, and it rarely is the first cart to put out a fix, often leaving its users hanging for several months (or until a third-party fix is released).

QUOTE

and a lot of home brew is geared towards the R4

That hasn't even been an issue since DLDI came out over a year ago.



Do your homework before making statements like these; you're just making yourself look like a blind fanboy.

 

[Psy-Phi]

Why do people call the R4 one of the worst cards now? It works for everything I need it to.

What am I missing by not having SDHC? RTS? or 2 second faster loading?

Not a lot IMO, as I wouldn't use or care about any of those features except perhaps SDHC for the extra space as my collection grows. It's why I've been able to hold off still. All my games still fit on 1GB, so I have room for expansion even with the R4.

 

[Urza]

Why do people call the R4 one of the worst cards now?

Because almost all the competing carts are better, therefore by definition making it one of the worst on the market.

Sure, those features may not be enough for you personally to ditch the R4 and spend money on something else; but for someone looking to purchase a new flashcart, theres just no reason to choose the R4.

 

[Psy-Phi]

Why do people call the R4 one of the worst cards now?

Because almost all the competing carts are better, therefore by definition making it one of the worst on the market.

Sure, those features may not be enough for you personally to ditch the R4 and spend money on something else; but for someone looking to purchase a new flashcart, theres just no reason to choose the R4.

I can agree with that.

Still wouldn't call it the worst card on the market -- it's old, but good. Better than the M3 Simply, and the other cards from its era still being sold.

 

[AshuraZro]

I wouldn't really consider most carts below it to be competition.

 

[fabulo]

they get in stock is enough for me.. LOL......

 

[JPH]

Eh, don't really care if the R4DS will ever get SDHC support or not - who the hell needs 4gb - 8gb of little tiny shit NDS ROMs anyway?

 

[fabulo]

Eh, don't really care if the R4DS will ever get SDHC support or not - who the hell needs 4gb - 8gb of little tiny shit NDS ROMs anyway?

yes! absolutely.....

 

[Searinox]

Eh, don't really care if the R4DS will ever get SDHC support or not - who the hell needs 4gb - 8gb of little tiny shit NDS ROMs anyway?

yes! absolutely.....

If that was true we wouldn't have so many people avoiding them for their lack of SDHC support...

 

[FaRReR]

Eh, don't really care if the R4DS will ever get SDHC support or not - who the hell needs 4gb - 8gb of little tiny shit NDS ROMs anyway?

uh...
I happen to like NDS games, as do about 20 million other people. Your case is only justified with games such as Meteos: Disney Magic, and other Disney games (because we know that all of them suck!)
Anyway, I think 32gb (in the future) MicroSDHC cards would be awesome, holding a justifiable amount of NDS ROMs.