Do you know just how lovely it is to have 8 Gigs with you, and that means just about the whole DS library (at least the 60-70 worth playing) and Speccy and GB and Nes.. I already had a DS-X, but this is so much better,

I finally discovered a Go-playing game to (in the 1500 series)

I looked at geeting a CycloDS but it over twice as much as a R4...

Does it do anything extra?

Plays GBA games without separate launcher (3-in-1 cart still required though), supports SD-HC, is still supported by manufacturer, best compatibility out of all cards.

It's also got a "realtime mode" which lets you change the brightness, save and load savestates and run the game in slow motion without having to quit the game.

It really is a flashcart with bells on. If you're not interested in any of that, you're best off looking at the R4 (not that there's many real R4's in the channels any more) and it's ilk. Plus there are new cards coming with DSi compatibility which might be worth holding on for for future-proofing.

Ooo. I've been wanting something specifically to replace the DS-X, for a while now.

Cheers, great find.

"It really is a flashcart with bells on. If you're not interested in any of that, you're best off looking at the R4"

I wouldn't advise anyone to get an R4 these days since it seemingly isn't being supported with software updates anymore (several current/recent games don't work on it, and you can expect more & more incompatible games in the future).

I've got an Edge card, which is basically a CycloDS without the extra bells & whistles, and it's much cheaper.

If you simply must have "in-game brightness changing" and slow-motion etc. then pay the extra for a CycloDS.

If you just want excellent compatibility and aren't bothered about in-depth cheat facilities etc., you should be more than happy with the cheaper Edge card (I am).

Have any hackers taken on the task of updating the R4 software?

I've got what I think is a genuine R4 card i.e. 2GB flash limit.

What games won't run on it? I've tried 70 odd including new titles without any probs

If i would have known this, i might have bought the edge, but i do like i can return to the main menu.. and the 8gb which isn't supported by the -original - r4.. did have a dsx before this, and it is so much difference: in speed, in size, in games supported, that it feels like the having never had a flashcard before

It's not possible. The "firmware" is stored on the SD card rather than on-board the flash cart itself. The R4 can't physically interact with an SD-HC card.

There are SD-HC compatible R4's out there, but they aren't made by the R4 team. And if you're buying a new card for SD-HC, you might as well plump for something a bit better than what the R4 can offer.

There are a number of them - from the top of my head I know that Carnival Games doesnt work.

And there is a way to hack the DSTT firmware so it will run on an R4 (have a look on GBATEMP's forums)

Why not just get a DSTT?

they're quite nice.

And *absurdly* cheap.

I agree - there is no point in buying an R4 now - however since they have a bit of a reputation (deserved a year or two ago) a lot of people just think of them when they want a flashcard.

I'd actually say get just about anything *but* an R4 just because they are not doing updates.

If you have an R4 (as i do) and start hitting software which wont work on it then its useful to know that its possible to change the software on there to something which will work without shelling out for a new card.

PS congrats to romanista on his star appearance in this month's Retro Gamer...

The Xmas issue or a newer-new one?

I really should subscribe.

New one, out to subscribers a few days ago but probably not in shops yet.

Wonderful news! Someone has finally reviewed Warhead?

Seeing how you gave up on the campaign to get Warhead reviewed I wouldn't hold out much hope :)

Any recommendations as to where one might buy the TT or the Cyclo DS? I've lost faith in Dealextreme after a bad R4 experience last year.

DX don't do the R4 directly, do they? I'm pretty sure the R4 goes through another company. I've ordered countless times from them and had nothing but excellent service.

You're right - they stopped a year or so ago, and all their R4 trade was transferred to another site. I bought a couple before they stopped selling them: one was perfectly fine, the other stopped working after a couple of months, and turned out to be a fake. I've bought a load of other stuff from them since (torches, DS bits, gadgets, etc), and it's all been good, but I'm wary about buying another DS card.

Did you get your Top Toy from there? If so, I'll give them another go.

Yes, My DSTT (and several others subsequently purchased by friends) came from DX.

Ta. At $6 it doesn't fall under the category of "risk", but it's nice to know you've had good experiences with them anyway.

thanx, the post-dove hasn't reached holland yet, but yeah! darran emailed me sometime ago befor he went on holiday. better update my site then :)

My TT DS cards arrived today, and they look rather spiffy. I can't seem to locate a suitable firmware, though - can anyone recommend any favourite download site/s?

http://www.linfoxdomain.com/nintendo/ds/

Thanks.

The DSTT is certainly great value for money.

It's basic but the important thing is that it has perfect compatibility (as far as I'm aware).

A small tip though for anyone buying one (this minor problem was apparent through-out several software updates - certainly up until a few months ago when I last used one - maybe it's fixed now but I'm guessing it either isn't or can't be fixed).

Some people on a couple of other sites were having problems with games freezing during loading (I was too), and after looking around various forums I found a simple solution (that worked for me and others), so I'm just copy-pasting what I said on the other sites here :

"To anyone having problems with thier TTDS freezing when trying to load games, here is the solution :
DO NOT put your games directly onto the root of your microSD card. If you do put them on the root then you probably won't encouter problems if you only have a few games on there, but once you start filling the card up with lots of games/apps there's a good chance you WILL start to get the freezing problem.
I won't go into detail as to why this happens, but trust me, it does/can (and it has nothing to do with which version of the firmware you are using - the problem still exists on the latest version).

Anyway, make a new folder on the microSD and call it "GAMES" (or whatever), then copy all your games/apps and save files to that folder.
You won't notice any difference when you switch on your DS. The game list will still appear straight away (ie. you won't have to manually navigate to your "GAMES" folder), but everything will now load perfectly without freezing up."

just ordered a EZ3in1 as it is supported by the cyclo ds to start gba games, and extra mem and rumble

r4 illegal in japan
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/sales-of...tlawed-in-japan

<cough>
Actually there is a version of the DSTT 1.17a -DiGiTaLuK "firmware" knocking about, thats been hacked to work with the R4(its called YSmenu ,google for it ).It seems to sort out" compatibility" problems in more recent titles.It sits on the micro sd card though rather than the r4 itself so Its probably more of a shell than a firmware

So, I'm in the market for a flash card. But: I am stupid and ignorant! Which ones do all the cool kids have these days?

Considerations:

- I'm not really planning to do much with it short of playing DS games
- Probably looking to get a 2GB card, unless anyone can tell me why that might not be enough.
- GBA support would be a bonus, although I'm not even sure that's possible without something unslightly crammed into the second slot?
- Price is most definately a consideration.

why 2 gb? 8 gb for microsd cards is just a few pounds more expensive, and easy to fill.

gba support can with an ez flash 3-in-1 next to your flash card, you can always decide to do that a bit later, 18 euro, fits nicely into the gba slot

for the ds, edge, or cyclo, the last is a bit more expensive, but more bells and whistles.

Or if you want a really cheap one the DSTT is only about $7 from Deal Extreme at the moment

Pros : plays everything released and has regular updates

Cons : no where near as flashy as any of the other cards

However at the price i cant really see where you can go wrong.

The DSTT firmware can effectively be used on an R4 I should point out, by means of YSMenu.

Just bought one of these for my girlfriend's sister - seems quite lovely. Thinking of upgrading my Simply M3 to one of them while they're so cheap.

Warning: It seems the $7 DSTT cards on DealExtreme are fakes, and are prone to stop working after a few weeks. The "Genuine NDSTT.COM Ver." (going for about $15) is the one you want, which also claims to be DSi compatible.

DX claim that all their DSTTs now are originals.

Thanks for your input, everyone. I'm thinking of going for this one ( http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.10402 ), unless anyone can think of a last minute 'NOOOOOOOO!' reason.

My DS TT from DealExtreme is still working. A bit slow at times, and it didn't want to know until I'd put my games in a separate \games subfolder; but otherwise perfectly fine. And it runs stuff that the R4 doesn't, which is what I wanted it for.

No complaints here.