Review by: Sadalius
Date: Jan 25, 2007
Difficulty Level: 1 (1 being easiest, 10 being hardest)
Thanks to the R4 team for providing a sample of their solution for the Nintendo DS family of portable consoles, the R4DS Revolution.
I only spent the better part of two days testing this device, which is unusual. After those two days I feel confident in saying that this device for the Nintendo DS is one AWESOME device. This has to be without a doubt the most easiest to use modding device on the planet. It is truly fool proof. It's very similar to the Cyclops Evolution DS, just the main difference is that the R4's operating system is installed to the micro SD card instead of being flashed to an onboard memory chip like in the Evolution. So with that being said, on with the review!
When I received the sample, it was packed extremely well. It came in an medium size shipping bag envelope. Inside that was a box surrounded by two layers of cardboard that was taped very well with shipping tape. It took me about ten minutes just to open the package. The contents revealed a very attractive box that the R4DS came in.
This box has an inner box that slides out of the top cover with a flap that you lift to reveal the contents of whats inside.
Inside I found a cartridge holder, that will hold two DS carts, a transflash (MicroSD card) USB adapter and a mini-CD with all the files needed to get the R4 up and going. Inside the cart holder I found the R4 and spare case. The R4 came in a white case, but comes with a spare grey/black one to match the color of the original game cartridges. A nice touch on behalf of the R4 team. A single phillips head screw holds the cartidge together so if you want to change to a different cart case, just remove that screw (it is pretty small so don't drop it), slide your fingernail in the slot, and the case will start to seperate. The case stays together with a pin and hole style so once the screw is out, it shouldn't be that hard to get apart. Then simply transfer the R4 circuit board over to the other case and re-assemble. The newer R4's don't come with the alternate color case any longer.
To get started using your R4 you need to have a Transflash card or a MicroSD card. I used a 1 GB Kingston TF that I picked up from newegg.com for a total of $19.00 USD. You can use either the adapter that came with the R4 or if your TF card came with it's own adapter, you can use that to connect the TF card to your computer and format the card with either FAT16 or FAT32, the R4 supports both. Once your TF card is connected and formated, you need to transfer some files to the TF card. You can use the files that are on the CD, but I recommend going to R4 at http://www.r4ds.com/index-en.htm to get the newest kernel. There are two files and one folder that you need to put on the root of the TF card. _DS_MENU.DAT and _DS_MSHL.NDS (This is a program called moonshell) are the two files and shell is the name of the folder that you need to transfer. Once those are transferred, you can start to put your roms, homebrew, music and movies on as well. If you put movies on, they need to be converted to a .dpg file first and I have read the batchdpg is the best program to use for that. You would need to install avisynth in order for batchdpg to work and you can get them both here. Once you have everything loaded up, your ready to try it out. And yes, it really is that simple. The R4 is just like a regular DS cartridge and it inserts in the same manner. The outside of the cartridge has a diagram of how to insert the TF card.
Once you insert the R4 cart and power on your DS, you should see the health warning screen for a second or two and then you will be greeted by the R4 main menu.
The R4 menu is a very nice, clean, simple and very intuitive. There are three buttons on the touch screen section with with to navigate the R4's functions. The first button on the far left, is the Games button. Touching this button will bring the R4 to the file browsing mode. This is where you can select the roms that you would like to play. The second, in the middle, is the media button. This launches a program called moonshell. Moonshell is a pretty nice media player. It can play MP3's, ogg's, movies in DPG format and display pictures. The third button, on the far right, is a slot2 booting option if you have a GBA device like an M3 or a G6 or something to that nature. The gui is skinnable as well. If you have a DS lite, you can adjust the backlight settings once you get into file browsing mode using the Games button. Selecting a rom to play is pretty easy as well. Once your in file browsing mode, use the D pad to navigate your roms. You can put your roms on the root of the TF card or you can create folders to organize them with if you wish. Once you've highlighted a game that you want to play, you can either press the A button, or on the touch screen, touch the graphic for the game thats being displayed and the game will start. If you've never played that game before, it will tell you that no save game data was found and ask if you would like to create it. You will have three choices, yes, cancel and ignore. Choose which ever best suites your needs.
There are a few issue, although not very many, far less that I have read about other devices as well. Some games will not work with the download and play. This is the only issue that I have read about with games. There are some issues with some homebrew apps as well. But again, from what I have read, this is not the fault of the R4 or R4 team, it's been reported as being the fault of the author of the program for not using up to date library files.
Over all, the R4DS is a great solution for the Nintendo DS and DS Lite. It's super easy to setup and get going, the packaging is very attractive. The only thing that would make it any better is if it came with a small TF card just to get you started with. It wouldn't have to be anything huge, maybe just a 256 MB card to where you could fit just 3 or 4 games or homebrew apps. I think entry level customers would love this idea but thats just me.
Ratings:
On a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being the lowest and 10 being the hghest, here is how I scored the R4DS.
Packaging: 10
Accessories: 8 (only because I think customers should get a starter TF card)
Ease of use and setup: 10
Performance: 10
Features: 10
Overall rating: 9.6 out of 10.
Would I recommend an R4DS to someone for their DS? Heck yes I would. In a heart beat. So with that being said, I hope you have enjoyed this review for the R4DS. It truly is a remarkable device so I will leave you by again saying thanks to the R4 team for their help and support of RobinHoods Playground, they are truly a great team! And thanks to Nintendo for the DS!
Now, go get yourself an R4!! If you don't have a DS, get one of those too
R4DS Revolution
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