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[FLASHCART] R4 User's Guide

Started by Guest_dbgtdob , Mar 07 2007 08:05 AM

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#1351 Guest_whatsupfox

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Posted 20 August 2011 - 08:05 PM

thank you for the comprehensive info, IT WORKED!! i had an original ds and was wondering why some games didnt work! woot!

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#1352 scole01234

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Posted 14 February 2012 - 04:17 PM

HiI am trying to use link for Retrogamefan's Menus for software for a clone R4 card (I believe its a clone as it states R4 SDHC) however the link does not work, can this be repaired as the software i am currently using does not seem to allow new games (just get a white screen)Also can anybody recomend where I can get an original R4 card in the UK? ThanksSteve

Edited by scole01234, 14 February 2012 - 04:34 PM.

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#1353 shadowmanwkp

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Posted 14 February 2012 - 05:29 PM

Here's a working link for retrogamefan's updates: http://gbatemp.net/t...updates-release I personally think the R4 SDHC ain't too bad, as long as it is working it does it job just fine. Unlike the original R4, you don't have that stupid SDHC limit of 2GB....

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my awards!

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#1354 Kage Tenshi

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Posted 17 October 2012 - 01:51 PM

Sorry, but im still need help.
Not found my flash cart in this list, or even in gba R4 clones list.
Is names R4 Renovation Revolution, and the site is only r4sdhc.com
Is a red and gold box, like Iron Man suit. I tried update, but still dont play a lot of games, and in site says the last upgrade is V2.20, but the download is aways v2.10
Here, in Brazil, the 3ds comes with this R4. Please, help!

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Don't worry about tomorrow. It's already tomorrow in Japan.

(If you don't understand me, it's becaude i'm Brazilian and I don't master the english write)

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#1355 Guest_Lesoot

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Posted 22 October 2012 - 03:31 PM

OFFICIAL SUPPORT FOR THE ORIGINAL R4s HAVE BEEN DISCONTINUED. MOST OF THE R4s IN THE MARKET ARE CLONES. MOST ARE NOT EVEN CLONES OF THE R4, AND ARE OF VARIED QUALITY.

Nevertheless they should still work. Please refer to "Fakes and clones" and "Setting up your R4 Flashcart" below.

Details:
Spoiler

R4

Box Contents
* 1x R4 DS Card (in white shell)
* 1x Black replacement R4 shell (you may or may not get a replacement shell, the newer shipments do not come with them)
* Mini CD-ROM
* Micro SD USB Card Reader
* Dual DS card carrying case
-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 )

Fakes and clones:
Spoiler

WARNING: THERE ARE FAKE R4 FLOATING AROUND OUT THERE.

Dont be fooled by the fakes, the fakes have some obvious differences.
1. The fakes have a Blue tab on the box, saying 2gb
2. The fakes have a silver 2GB on the card itself.
3. The R4 does not come a usb cable or a slot 2 cartridge.

There are also "clones", which mostly work but are not real R4s:
1. The clones usually call themselves "R4-something" e.g. R4 SDHC, R4 Ultra etc. The real R4 is the "R4 Revolution for DS".
2. Everything called "R4i" is not a real R4, but a clone.
3. Also see GBATemp's Mega-list of R4 clones and How to Identify which clone you have

Setting up your R4 flashcart.
*READ AND FOLLOW THIS BEFORE POSTING. Even if it's just an unrelated question.*

For Original R4/R4iDSN/R4i Gold by r4ids.cn ONLY:
Use Wood R4. Follow all the instructions in there. Be sure to download the latest version (currently v1.31 as of mid June 2011).
-For Other Clones, except for R4 Neo, R4i Gold and R4i Pro Gold: Use Retrogamefan's Menus. Follow all the instructions in there.
Use it, unless your manufacturer's OS ("firmware") is really good AND can play even the latest ROMs.
-For R4/i Neo, R4i Pro Gold, other R4i Golds (or any other R4 clones which do not work on Retro's menus): You'll have to use your manufacturer's OS.

Please refer to the guide below:
Spoiler

Step 1: Download the Latest Firmware (OS/menu) for your flash cart.Get it from your manufacturer's website, or from http://www.linfoxdom...om/nintendo/ds/
Step 2: Plug your micro sd into your micro sd usb card reader, plug the micro card reader into your computer.
Step 3: Backup all your data on the sd card into some other place on your computer. Format your sd card with the official formatter. Put your data back.
Step 4: Copy and paste the files into the root of your sd card (not inside any folder).
Step 5: Make an "NDS" folder in your sd card, download your ROMs from dgemu, open the file and extract the .nds file into that folder.Safely remove/eject your micro sd card from your card reader and plug it into your R4. Insert your R4 into your DS, and have fun playing your ROMs!

Using the R4.This is only for the original R4. Stuff from here onwards might or might not be outdated. Follow at your own risk:
Spoiler

GAME:
The first icon is the game icon, this icon takes you to a directory/file listing of the contents on your micro SD card. You can go back to the main menu from here by pressing 'Start'. On the top screen is a list of the folders on your card, and below them, a list of all the .NDS files and their sizes.
When you launch a ROM file for the first time, the R4 will tell you that it can't find a .SAV file (save game data, and this is, assuming you haven't already copied across a .SAV file with the same filename as the .NDS) for the game and asks you if you would like it to auto-create the file for you before launching. You are given three options - 'OK, Cancel and Ignore'.

MULTIMEDIA:
The second icon is multimedia.
This starts moonshell a multimedia player.
Moonshell supports a wide variety of media files such as OGG, XMA, MP3, WAV and DGP.
To play Music files simply click on them, Moonshell can also play video files, but you will need to convert your existing videos files such as avi into DGP which the moonshell media player supports.
here is a guide on how to convert avi and other media files into dgp to play on your R4.
http://www.dgemu.com...howtopic=216303

BOOT SLOT 2.
The third icon is the pass me function of your R4, you can load slot 2 flash carts, this allows the R4 to play gba games, browse the internet and use cheat codes on ds roms, that being said it is sold separately from the R4. When booting gba games you will get a frame around the game, this frame can be changed by changing the themes

Optional Extra information.

To Soft Reset.
(L+R+A+B+X+Y) or touch the soft reset button with R to switch on/off this function

Reading eBooks
Select the eBook in the game menu, and open it by pressing 'A' key or touching the icon.
It will ask whether to create a bookmark if it is the first running. Pressing 'A' key or touching the 'Confirm' button will create and then open the bookmark; Pressing 'B' key or touching the 'Cancel' button will not run the process; Pressing 'X' key or touching the 'Ignore' will open the eBook without creating the bookmark (The bookmark's function is invalid).
Press 'START' key to exit the eBook mode and back to the main menu.
Press 'SELECT' key can switch to the horizontal/vertical display.
Press the 'Up/Down' key can process the Row Up/ Row Down; Press the 'Left/Right' key can process the Page Up/Page Down.
Press 'A' key can open/close the intelligent-paragraph division function.
Press 'B' key to change the font (large, Medium, Small in rotation).
Press 'X' key to change the font color (27 color in rotation).
Press 'Y' key to change the row spacing (From 1-8 point space in rotation).

eBook support the DIY background:
Create 2 BMP files (256X192 pixels, 8 bit or 24 bit colors), name them to be �bckgrd_1.bmp� and �bckgrd_2.bmp�, and then save to the �_system_/eBook� directory of the TF card.
If the bookmark has been created, the features below will work:
Whenever you press the 'START' key to exit, it can memorize the location where you have read automatically, and it will go to the location directly next time while you open the eBook.
Press 'L' key to save the bookmark (3 positions available), press 'R' key to keep the previous bookmark (No any change).

Trimming Roms
DS roms can be made smaller so that you can fit more on your flash cart, most roms are actually smaller then they really are, they must be at least 16MB, 32MB, 64MB and 128MB etc... so they add on blank or trash data that is not needed for the rom to run.
R4 has made its own program to get rid of excess data.

R4DS ROM Trim Tool
Installation Guide
http://download.r4ds...OM-Slimming.rar
There is a pop-up window displayed after running the software:
here are two textboxes, the top one for inputting the NDS/IDS game files, the '...' button can do a convenience browsing if you can't remember the file name and the path. Choose the correct input file type by clicking the pull-down menu according the ROM, which need to be trimmed. Please remember that .nds is extension of the NDS game and .ids is extension of the IDS.
The bottom textbox is for outputting the trimmed ROM's file (When you choose the input file, it will generate one automatically). You can change the output path if you need; default is the same as the input path. The '...' button can do a convenient location.
To start processing trim tool by clicking the 'Start' button once every thing is ready, a pop-up window will display the processing status.
You can see the difference between the trimmed ROM'S file and the original file, (0%-50% trims will be available according to the different ROMs.) The Trimmed ROM can be copied and run on the SD/TF card directly!
Tips: The processing on the hard disk will be faster than processing on the SD/TF card as the hard disk has the higher read/write speed.

Replacing Skins.
Replacing the Skin.There are 4 pictures at the directory �system/_system_�: logo.bmp 、 icons.bmp 、 bckgrd_1.bm and bckgrd_2.bmp. They are the background of the R4 operation interface; they can be changed to fit your style.logo.bmp � Background of the Top Screen of R4' s startup.icons.bmp
-- Background of the Bottom Screen of R 4' s Startup.bckgrd_1.bmp
-- Background of the Top Screen of R 4' s Explorer.bckgrd_2.bmp
-- Background of the Bottom Screen of R 4' s Explorer.

Note:Do not change the picture's name;
Make sure the picture is .bmp format, 8-bit/24-bit;Make sure the picture is 256*192 pixels.
After finishing process on the pictures, copy the �_system_� folder to the root directory of the CF card. here is a background system folder so you can see what to do.
http://download.r4ds...er/_system_.zip
you can use any photo you wish as long as you fit the parameters above.

USING ACTION REPLAY CHEAT CODE SYSTEM
Can the R4 use cheat codes on DS roms?
The answer is yes.

The R4 firmware 1.08 and above comes with cheat codes on selected games, simply click Y to go to the cheat code option screen.
If the game has cheat codes already supported a small box will appear on the bottom of the screen.
(sorry its in chinese, the red circled square simply says Press Y)
When you click Y on a cheat code enabled game as Shown in the picture above.you will be sent to the cheat code list, mark which cheat codes you want and hit save.
(The top screen is the codes you want, the bottom screen in chinese says save selected cheat code selection, save and exit, quit, you will need to save the codes you want turned on, the R4 remembers your setting so whenever you start the rom now, it will have cheat codes enabled, to turn off press Y again and turn them off remembering to hit save)

Can i install English Firmware on a Chinese R4?
The answer is ............. you cannot English Firmware on a Chinese R4 without doing something to it, either by opening up the R4 and soldering the language lock, or by hacking the firmware and changing the chinese text to english, luckily for you someone has done just that.
http://www.savefile.com/files/793971
(Hacked Chinese R4 firmware to be in English)

Updated some info- 04-11-'09 ShadowmanwkpLast update by Mo�lh.
New list of R4 clones/guide to identifying them from GBATemp.

the link for the sd formatter has changed slightly and can now be found @ https://www.sdcard.o...ds/formatter_3/

also the link to the wood r4 is down

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#1356 shayde

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Posted 22 December 2012 - 12:49 AM

Brilliant guide. Even though I'm not getting the top of the line card, this will come in handy.

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#1357 Guest_nightmare

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Posted 24 December 2012 - 07:49 AM

any sites you can recommend to buy from?

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#1358 Mo�lh.

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Posted 25 December 2012 - 09:05 AM

Shoptemp has a list of reliable sites to buy from, check it out. The cheapest site is probably Zhuzhuchina, but if you don't like China sites, try RealHotStuff.

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#1359 Guest_eriksun123

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Posted 19 January 2013 - 08:45 AM

WoW

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#1360 Guest_xyeroh

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Posted 19 March 2013 - 03:15 PM

Goodness, how to tell whether it's a fake or not? Anyway, isn't R4 kind of "illegal" from the start? Downloading free ROMS arent right... especially when getting original ones from nintendo cost soooo much/game.