NONE

In my previous article, I wrote about the R4 / R4i for the Nintendo DS. With the R4 / R4i , it is possible to transform your NDS into a gaming device which can play multimedia files and double as a personal organizer. I want to now turn your attention to the misconceptions that many people have towards the NDS.

Many people are under the impression that the Nintendo DS / DSi is merely a gaming device, made solely for children. There seems to be a new fad amongst adults on the internet to bash the NDS as a gaming device for children. If you ask someone what the age group of the typical DS user is, he or she will likely mention kids or teens under 18. I will have you know that this is a stereotypically wrong assumption. If you look up demographics, you will find that a large number of users are aged from 30- 45. The fact that 4 out of the top 10 best selling NDS games of all time are games aimed at that demographic further adds weight to the claim that the NDS is not a "kiddy gamer"

A long time ago, I bought a Nintendo DS. A a big obese one. It's still in my closet, but I'm scared to take it out because other people always make fun of the dinosaur that I'm sporting. In my humiliation, I embarked upon a quest for redemption. Off into the wild internets I sailed in search of the latest and greatest DS available, and came to purchase a Nintendo DSi. It appeared that my humiliation was without end however, as I was continually made fun of for purchasing physical game cartridges. Imbecile! I was called. Why aren't you using the new r4i? It allows you to take games that are available online for free, and put them on your DSi to play! And so, I was introduced into the world of the r4i card and related homebrew ds technologies. After having this revelation of the wonders of r4i and nintendo ds homebrew, I was so intrigued, I had to know more. And so, I delved into the history of the nintendo ds r4 card. It turns out that there was already an r4 for the original nintendo ds, called the r4 ds. Upon hearing
about this, I hung my head in shame. Why was I paying money for games all of those years when I could have been using an r4 on my original ds? Through the humiliation, I continued to persevere in the pursuit of enlightenment about the nintendo ds r4 card. It seems that as technology developed, updates were made which lead to the release of the r4 sdhc and later the r4i sdhc. These improvements lead to greater access speed and increased storage capacity, living up to the name of secure digital high capacity. The technologies surrounding these cards has culminated in the modern incarnation, the r4i card for dsi. This latest instance includes compatibility with the cutting edge nintendo dsi, to the anger of higher ups at Nintendo, and allows you to play pretty much any game available in stores, as well as a variety of homebrew apps, for free. If you haven't heard of r4i and homebrew, or if perhaps you have and just haven't taken the time to check it out, please do. It's an awesome investment, especially if you're tend to spend lots of money on games, that will pay off in savings and enjoyment for many years to come. Go buy yours today!

Flash cards such as the R4 SDHC / R4i SDHC have been around since game consoles have been in existence. People have used them for a lot of purposes: running emulators, loading homebrew apps or playing ROM games (commonly referred to as pirated games). Whether you accept the legal status of them or not, it is an unquestionable fact that flash cards like the R4 DS / R4i DS are becoming increasingly popular for use with the Nintendo DS. Since I have talked about the versatility of the Nintendo DS R4 card in previous posts, I will now turn to the legal status of them, and what constitutes legal use of them.

According to an article in the Times U.K., Nintendo DS flash cards such as the R4 / R4i are not illegal. A representative for Nintendo U.K. says in this article that game adaptors (flash cards) like the R4 SDHC / R4i SDHC are not illegal as long as they are used in a non- law breaking manner. Rob Saunders, the Nintendo spokesman mentioned above, says that using an R4 SDHC / R4i SDHC for these purposes is legal:

- Loading homebrew apps or games.
- Listening to MP3s of songs ripped from CDs that you have purchased.
- Watching movies that you already own.
- Playing backups of games you already own.

The last point is probably the most relevant one to R4 SDHC / R4i SDHC users. It is completely acceptable to make copies of your games and run them on your Nintendo DS R4 card. This means that you can store your entire chest of DS or GBA games (apparently it's possible to convert GBA files to NDS files) on your R4 /R4i flash card. Think about it: with a 32GB Micro SD Card, you could hold up to 1000 games. Years worth of games all in the palm of your hands, available to be played with no legal consequences. What more do you need?

To sum it all up, R4s are legal. So what are you waiting for? Embrace technology, and get your R4 SDHC / R4i SDHC here, today.

T he legality of R4 SDHC / R4i SDHC cards