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Geek Culture / R4DS - Expansion card for the DS

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SpyDaniel
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Posted: 13th Nov 2007 00:57
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My IT tutor was talking about the R4DS (I can't remember why) the other day. It sounded good, so I searched for it and found out it only costs £30-40, depending on the package you buy, but the main site says every package should come with a SD TF card.

Does anyone here use it for homebrewing? or does anyone know if you can install an OS onto it? I was thinking of turning my DS into a pocket PC.

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Van B
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Location: Sunnyvale
Posted: 13th Nov 2007 08:13
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No, it's really more for homebrew stuff, you can't install a replacement OS on it. It comes with and relies on Moonshell, which is quite a neat little front end for loading roms and playing mp3's, you can even make your own skins for it quite easily (I made a custom skin with all the best nintendo characters and a lot of pixel art).

It is a neat little card, it's a lot better than the SupercardSD, MicroSD cards are reasonably priced and are a very impressive storage method - like 2gb storage on something the size of a fingernail.

If you like retro gaming then you should grab some Spectrum roms and SpeccyDS, it's the best emulator available, it plays those old classics perfectly.

The best homebrew I've found recently is Colors! - it's a really great art package for the DS:
http://www.collectingsmiles.com/colors/

Check out these pieces of art done on it...








We're going down... in a spiral to the ground...
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SpyDaniel
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Posted: 13th Nov 2007 12:41
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Van, I did some searching and found a Linux port for the DS. It is still in beta but sounds as if it works. The link is: http://dslinux.org/

I'm going to buy the R4DS and an extra memory slot for the DS and give DSLinux a go. If it works, ill be taking it into my college, to show my tutor (I'd like to see the look on his face when he see's a DS running an OS)

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Roxas
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Location: http://forum.thegamecreators.com
Posted: 13th Nov 2007 18:27
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R4DS or M3DS Simply are both great

Sadly i dont have the extra ram pack (or slot 2 device what can be used as ram) so i cant run all emulators or OS's

But anyways i heard R4DS had little proplems somewhere so i just bought M3DS just in case.. They are same thing but m3 is little bit newer i think..

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SpyDaniel
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Posted: 13th Nov 2007 21:41
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I'll look into the M3DS and see what it has to offer, over the R4DS.

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Darth Vader
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Location: Adelaide SA, I am the only DB user here!
Posted: 14th Nov 2007 06:47
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I have an M3DS and it's great! My DS Has become so useful now! If your looking to use it has a pocket PC then look at DSOrganize, a very good program! Also a great ebook reader is dslibris, it just got to version 1.0, although it reads only xhtml, but thats not hard to convert!

The only thing bugging me is I don't know if it was always like this or only happened after I started using the M3DS but my Animal Crossing games seems to have slowed down a little in the menu! I don't know if it's a problem though!

What ever you get you'll have fun!


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SpyDaniel
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Posted: 14th Nov 2007 10:56
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Quote: "he only thing bugging me is I don't know if it was always like this or only happened after I started using the M3DS but my Animal Crossing games seems to have slowed down a little in the menu! I don't know if it's a problem though!
"


It shouldn't slow the games down, as the adapters don't overwrite anything, they just bypass the main DS OS (if you can call it an OS?).

Try taking them out and see if the game speeds up again.

I have also read that there are problems using a 2GB SD card, so that might be your problem, if you have one?

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Darth Vader
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Posted: 14th Nov 2007 13:09
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Only 1GB card. Maybe I just didn't notice it before! I don't think it's really an issue though. I'll try see if it does the same on my sisters DS which doesn't have any homebrew device!


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Van B
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Posted: 14th Nov 2007 14:09
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I use a R4 with a 2gb card with no issues at all, my R4 is only a couple of weeks old mind you, maybe they fixed some of the issues.


We're going down... in a spiral to the ground...
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Jess T
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Posted: 15th Nov 2007 00:15
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The R4 & M3 come out of the same factory. The only difference is in the firmware loaded on it.

I have a SuperCard MiniSD, and I have to dispute your claim there, Van, I believe the SuperCard is much better than the R4 or M3.

After flashing my firmware to run unsigned code (ie, homebrew), I can use my SuperCard for everything that R4/M3 can, and also in my GBA.

My good mate here at Uni has an R4, and he only has bad things to say about Moonshell as the interface (personal preference, I guess), and only uses it to load DSOrganise

DSOrganise is an awesome little application - great for note taking, organising, browsing the net, chatting in IRC!

Before getting the Memory expansion, and trying to put DSLinux on the R4, make sure you have a look around to see it will actually work (every homebrew hardware is different!).

Having said all that, I may eventually get an R4, simply because it's cheap, and I want a backup homebrew cart.

Nintendo DS & Dominos :: DS Dominos
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Keo C
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Posted: 15th Nov 2007 03:08
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With the R4 do you put programs in the MircoSD Card from your PC and just plug it in, then boot it up?


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Jess T
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Posted: 15th Nov 2007 07:01 Edited at: 15th Nov 2007 07:03
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Yep, the same with almost every Homebrew cart these days.

I used to have an EFAII which had 256MB of internal memory and a miniUSB plug to connect it to your PC. Still works, but I upgraded to a SuperCard MiniSD so I could use expandable memory (and it has much better compatibility and the ability to use the FAT filesystem)

Nintendo DS & Dominos :: DS Dominos
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