REVOLUTION 4 DS (R4DS)

What we have here is the no less than a revolution for Nintendo DS, at least that's the name of the product. It has to be said that the initial release of the R4 is identical to the M3 Simply product, the only thing that had to be changed was connecting two solder spots on the cartridge PCB. Lately though a revision oh both the M3 Simply and R4 has been completed so this option of changing an R4 to an M3 and vice versa is no longer possible. The R4 is a so called SLOT-1 flash cart, meaning that is does not require a "Gameboy Advance" flash cartridge inserted into the slot 2 of the DS to run DS games from, instead everything is packed into a normal DS size cartridge featuring a small slot for a microDS cartridge. Here's a list of the features provided by the manufacturer. 2nd generation storage device (no booting tool required) Flush fitting slot 1 card Uses MicroSD card, FAT16 or 32 Supports any MicroSD card speed with no lag in game Supports Clean ROM, drag and drop. Works on any OS Built in NoPass Automatically detect save type Save directly to MicroSD card, not to onboard chip Supports Moonshell and other homebrew. Open I/O interface User friendly skinnable interface. Touchscreen or button operation Supports rumble pak and memory pak Supports the WiFi game, DS Rumble Pak, DS Browser Supports changes of the background of Operation Interface Supports 4-scale-lightness adjustment ( DS Lite only ) Supports the Soft Reset. A lot of these features will we take a closer look at in this review. WHAT YOU GET Everything is packed nicely in a small cardboard box and inside you'll find The R4 cartridge incl. a replacement shell, although this is not available in the newer release of the R4 with the changed cartridge PCB design. Included is also a carry case + strap for the DS cartridge, I personally find this rather useless but a nice extra none the less. Finally you also get microSD USB reader and a mini-cd with all the tools you need, including a manual in well written English, that's unusual he he. THE HARDWARE As mentioned, the cartridge is the size of a normal DS cartridge and has a slot for a microSD card at the top. A great feature compared to some other flash carts is that the R4 fits perfectly in the DS cart slot, you don't have to force it into the slot or even have trouble removing and reinserting the microSD in the R4 cart. The USB microSD card reader is of excellent quality even though it seems to be of the same type as the one Datel includes with the Cartridge Construction Kit that doesn't work, this one actually does work! HOW IT WORKS The R4 uses FAT16 or FAT32 formatted microSD's for storage, this is a great choice compared to other flash carts like AceKard which uses it's own FAT format. Downsides to using FAT16/FAT32 could be speed issues, which might be why the AceKard developer decided to go with his own format, but the great side to using FAT16/FAT32 is that you can plug in the microSD and use windows file explorer to drag and drop files to the microSD, meaning no special tools are required to transfer the rom files. Another great feature is that ROMs can be placed in directories so everything can stay sorted, though I kinda wish the system would use a "save" folder for savegames instead of placing them in the same folder as the ROM, but maybe that's just me... To be able to run games from the microSD though you have to copy a couple of files to the microSD first otherwise you won't get very far. The files that needs to be copied are 2 menu files called "_DS_MENU.DAT" and "_DS_MSHL.NDS" and a directory called shell for use with moonshell which is accessible from within the R4 menu system. I see both good and bad sides of having these files placed on the microSD, bad sides such as someone forgets to copy these files to the microSD and leaves on a vacation with a useless DS flash cart. Therefore it probably would've been nice to have these files, at least the "_DS_MENU.DAT" and "_DS_MSHL.NDS", contained in the R4 cartridge and then upgradable from a microSD. But I also see the good idea in having the files on the microSD, as they then are easy to replace whenever a new cartridge firmware (menu) is released. But seen from a less experienced users view, these files probably shouldn't be on the microSD. Anyway with the latest release of the R4 menu a great feature has been added, a "soft reboot" from a ROM being played back to the R4 menu. The feature is not on by default but in the upper right corner of the Touchscreen is a red small button which changes to green if pressed and the reset feature is enable. Now hold down Y,X,B,A,L,R and you'll return to the menu....nifty!! and your setting will be remembered by the R4. It has to be to said though that the feature doesn't work with any of the homebrew I used for testing in this review. The R4 automaticly starts when the Nintendo DS is switched on, no need to open it from the DS user interface and you won't have to tap on the screen to get past the health and safety warning screen (i've always hated that health and safety warning). Great! USER INTERFACE (OS) The user interface is quite simple, once the R4 is started you have 4 options "Game", "Multimedia" (Moonshell) and last but not least "Boot slot-2" if anyone should ever have a need to do something that crazy. Anyway the interface is nice and all, there are no nice extra features such as a built-in MP3 player or anything like that, well unless you count moonshell as built-in, I choose not to. When you enter the interface you are able to use the touchscreen to make your choice however in the "Game" section you magically enter a no-stylus zone and the interface changes to something no one should be proud of... where did all the eye candy go? A funny side note to the "Game" section is that files are not sorted by title... there's truly something to work on here. MICROSD TEST Unfortunately I didn't have that many microSD carts to test with. But I did test compatibility with the ones I do have and I promise that the review will be updated shortly with more microSD tests. Brand Note DaneElec 512mb OK Datel 128mb OK Kingmax 512mb OK HOMEBREW TEST The following homebrew and commercial games were tested with the latest R4 firmware (OS) available at the time the review was written (V1.06b) and I must say the homebrew test was poor, it performed worse than the mediocre Datel Cartridge Construction Kit with my selection of test homebrew. Scroll down to see how the commercial ROM test went. Title Note BOFH Legends DS Freezes on the titlescreen Breakout DS OK Caisse DS OK DS Doom V1.1.0 Unable to initialize media device, then freezes DS Organize V2.4B Initializing loop, dancing cow DShokoban OK Explosive Gas V0.4 OK Extreme Onslaught OK Flashback DS V0.2 Not compatible FAT device, then freezes Invasion Freezes at "touch screen to continue" Lemmings DS V3.2 Screen content all garbled Mario Bros DS OK Mp333333 V3 Black screens Nester DS V0.3 OK NitroTracker V0.2 Black screens Number Minds Freezes on the titlescreen OMalone V2.0a Black screens Snezzi V0.28a Freezes when trying to load ROM Space Games OK Super Mario War DS OK Super Pang 0.1b OK Tetatt DS V1.2 OK Watari V1.0 Unable to initialize media device Way of the Rain Intro pictures show, then black screens Wolfenstein 3D DS Preview 1 OK xRick DS V1.5 OK COMMERCIAL ROMS Title Note Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow OK Diddy Kong Racing DS OK Meteos OK Micro Machines V4 OK Nanostray OK New Super Mario Bros. OK Point Blank OK SBK Snowboard Kids OK Super Mario 64 DS OK SAVE GAMES Saving games are handled automaticly in the R4. Savegame files are stored in the same folder as the ROM being loaded. If a save file does not exist, the R4 will ask you if you want to create one or not. If a save file is existing it will be loaded along with the ROM, no questions asked. Since the M3 (pre M3 Simply) "movie adapters" use another savefile (.dat) format than the one for the R4 (M3 Simply) a converter has been released to convert these old savegame into the format (.sav) used by the R4 and M3 Simply... a very nice extra. I've tested a lot of games and haven't had one game screw up on the savegame part. Unfortunately it's not possible to delete or rename a savegame file directly from the R4 interface, they're not visible, and would I be able to have things my way, I would've liked if all savegames were stored in a folder called "SAVE" or something like that, but don't blame the R4. CLOSING WORDS The R4DS is an extremely well made and user friendly DS Flash cart which is nearly as good a it can get, but there's still room for improvement in the user GUI, such as sorting filenames better support for homebrew, if possible, and maybe even a more DS'ish user interface where you use the stylus to pick the game you want to play. Let's have a look at the ups and downs I believe the cart has. Good quality feel to the flash cart. Extremely easy to use, drag 'n drop roms to a microSD card. Great (commercial) ROM support. Great save support and includes save converter for the older M3/Supercard save type. Good value. Supports clean roms (a must for a DS flash carts now) Very nice to see a CD included with drivers (menu), tools and manual. Useful reset feature included from version 1.06beta of the menu. Menu files placed on the microSD & not in the R4 device. Mediocre homebrew support. Lacks "extra" features... relies too much on moonshell (as everyone else these days?) PRODUCT RATING The rating given here is our overall impression of the R4 device, 4 start means that this cartridge is well over average but still needs the final touch to make it a true master piece.