Nintendo R4 DS - The Original R4 DS Revolution Card

Now Nintendo R4 DS Revolution cards are in stock the entry level R4 DS cartridge (R4 version 2). This is the original and most popular version of the R4 Revolution flashcards / R4 Card with a 2GB Micro SD capacity. When the R4 DS Card is combined with a 2GB Micro SD(not included), the true potential of the R4 DS card is released. The capabilities of such a small device are extraordinary for the size of the device, as its the same size as an original Nintendo R4 DS cartridge. The adapter, when combined with the Micro SD TF Memory card, brings the Nintendo DS / DS Lite to life allowing the console to turn into a media centre. The user friendly interface means the device can be used to play videos, watch movies, read e-Books, listen musics and play ds homebrew applications and so much more! It's the complete solution for any DS / DS Lite game owner(when combined with memory) for the easiest media enhancer ever. With the Drag and Drop facility allowing easy movement of file to and from the device via your compeueter onot your MicroSD card, making this little device very easy to use.

• The Original R4 DS Summary
• The R4 DS Revolution Package Contents
• The R4 DS Official Features List
• Tthe R4 DS Revolution History
• R4 DS Official Website
• R4 DS Kernel Download

The Nintendo R4 DS Revolution History

The original Nintendo R4 Revolution card was first produced in 2007, and was the first ever homebrew flash card for the Nintendo DS and Nintendo DS Lite. Users could put a Micro SD TransFlash(TF) memory card (containing homebrew applications and games) into the R4DS card, and plug the assembly into their Nintendo DS console. This would allow them to play multiple vidoe games,watch movies,play musics,brower pictures,read e-books and other applications on their NDS!

The implications of this were obviously huge NDS or NDS Lite users no longer needed to carry many cartridges around if they wanted to play more than one game. Homebrew applications could also start improving the way everybody used their NDS, and introduce user-developed games and virtually limitless programs that could do anything a regular computer could do.

The original R4 DS card ceased production in early 2008 because of a problem with the spring mechanism on the back of the ds card. On about 5% of ds cards, it was found that the mechanism could break after a few months of usage. Because the spring no longer 'locked' in place to keep the Micro SD TF memory card in, these R4 DS cards simply became defective. The ds cart was redesigned without the spring mechanism, so that the Micro SD TF card was simply 'pushed' into the slot-1 port. This iteration of the cart was called the R4 version 2(R4 V2). There were initial fears that the MicroSD memory card could simply slip out of the R4 DS v2 card, but this was shown to be nearly impossible without actually using a fingernail to pry the card out, as the MicroSD memory card sits rather snugly inside.

The R4 DS v2 card was produced with periodic kernel updates until June of 2008. By this time, many other Nitendo R4 DS cards were available on the market,such as R4 v3,R4 SDHC, R4i SDHC and more. These had many features, including support for MicroSDHC memory cards (The R4 DS v2 could only accept up to 2GB MicroSD TF cards) which increased capacities up to 32GB. Other features to come later included Real Time Save, the ability to save a game at any freeze point and continue at a later stage.

The last R4 kernel update for the R4 DS version 2 was v1.18 released on the 24th of April, 2008. While manufacturing itself did not stop, the R4 team disbanded and have since worked on many other cards, including the R4i Gold,R4i SDHC,M3, M3i Zero, DSTTi, and EZ-Flash cards. A group of dedicated R4v2 fans continued producing unofficial firmware to keep the R4 DS v2 compatible with later video games (the original kernel was incompatible with some newer Nintendo video games with different coding). This software was known as YSMenu. It could play newer DS / DSi video games, but (initially at least) was unable to play homebrew applications.

These days, while still the fastest loading card of all time, the Nintendo R4 DS v2 does not tend to be bought nor offered for sale - simply because users who play newer games demand larger capacity for storage space, and compatibility with new video games from Nintendo.

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Nintendo R4 DS Official Website

http://www.r4ds.com

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Nintendo R4 DS Kernel Download

You can download the R4 DS Kernel for your Nintendo DS / Lite console from the official website or our webpage: R4 Download. The latest kernel, v1.18, was released on the 24th of April, 2008. Most old games work completely fine, but many newer applications and video games do not work. A group of DS programmers continued making software, called YSMenu, to fix incompatibility problems - but YSMenu appears to not work with homebrew software. Therefore, homebrew users are still recommended to stick with the 1.18 kernel, while game players can use YSMenu.

A link explaining everything you need to know (including downloads) about YSMenu can be found on the GBATemp forums here.

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