Official Website: http://www.r4ds.cn

Much is written about these products on the official website and other sources - NDS-Gear are here to give a plain, short, simple review in layman's terms! Of course, the original feature list can still be found below our own review.

The R4v2 is undoubtedly the fastest loading of all the cards for sale on NDS-Gear (although the DSTT comes close). The downside to this, of course, is the lack of Micro-SDHC compatibility, which means the R4v2 can only accept 2GB Micro-SD cards and no higher, unlike the R4 SDHC or the DSTT. The R4v2's interface is intuitive and simple; the user is presented with three options on startup: Games (for homebrew/backup games), Multimedia (for MP3s, movies in .dpg format, eBooks etc.), and BootSlot-2 (generally ignored; this is for things such as rumble packs and GBA-emulators).

The R4v2's menu with the three buttons (depending on skin, the button images will look different, but always in the same order)

Changing Skins

The R4 v2 provides 12 different theme skins. The skins can be manually changed by pressing the 'SELECT BUTTON' in the main menu to cycle through the 12 R4 theme skins and the AUTO MODE. The AUTO MODE cycles the skin for each different month - so your twelve skins automatically cycle each year!

The original R4 Revolution DS Card, produced by the self-titled Team R4, came into existence in early 2007. The original R4 Revolution DS Card looked much the same as the current R4v2 Card, but there was a noticable difference - the slot in the top of the card.

The top of the first R4 Revolution DS Card had a small groove to push-lock a Micro-SD card inside. This made use of a spring mechanism so that a Micro-SD card would lock into place when pushed. A simple second push would allow it to come back out of the R4 DS Card. This is just like the ones sold on NDS-Gear today.

The original R4 DS Card was produced for just under one year. The R4 team realised that the spring mechanism in the R4 card had problems, affecting up to 5% of the card's production line. Problems with the spring could cause the mechanism to break - and this obviously led to a few unhappy customers!

This meant that Micro-SD cards would not go into the R4 DS Card properly. This was a big problem! Therefore, the R4 team set out to create a newer version of the R4 DS Card, fixing the problem and helping reliability. They called this card the "R4v2 Card" - which is what you see here on NDS-Gear.

The new R4 Revolution DS Card, titled the R4v2 Revolution DS Card (predictably!), was released in late 2007. This new version removed the need for a spring mechanism for the Micro-SD card. Instead, it had a slot in the back where one could manually slot a Micro-SD card in. Much simpler! This eliminated the problems of the original R4 Revolution DS Card where the spring mechanism could go wrong.

A new problem could be that the Micro-SD card accidentally becomes dislodged from the R4v2 Card during playing. However, we found during tests that this is fine. Unless you put a fingernail underneath the Micro-SD card and pry it out, it is actually quite hard for it to simply shake out, even on a moving train. The London Underground provided a good location for this test!

R4 Menu Commands

1. Switching between Game Interface Display Mode

   You can switch between the display mode by pressing the 'SELECT' button

    

   • Explanation: The R4 has 4 different display modes: "Game Display", "Save Display", "eBook Display" and "File Display".
   • Game Display" which is the default mode shows the game list.
   • "Save Display" shows the Save files on the Micro SD card.
   • "ebook Display" shows the directory file.
   • "File Display" shows all the files on the Micro SD card.
   Please be aware that the "SHELL,MOONSHL,_SYSTEM_"directory and the "_DS_MSHL.NDS "file will be hidden under the "Show Games Only" mode; Any other directories or files with hidden attributes will also be hidden.

    

2. Adjusing the brightness of the screen The R4 has a 4-scale-lightness adjustment system (Only on DS Lite console). To change the brightness, touch the sunny icon on the top-left of the bottom DS screen or press the 'L' button of the DS. There are 4 different levels of brightness on the DS.

    

3. Choosing the soft reset At the right top of the touch screen there is the "Soft Reset" status. Red indicator means the "Soft Reset" function is off. Green indicator means the "Soft Reset" function is on. The users may touch the screen screen or press the "R" button to switch the "Soft Reset" On/Off. While the "Soft Reset" function is on, pressing "L+R+A+B+X+Y" will allow you to go back and forth to the main menu; please do not do this while saving, as it will lead to malfunction. It is recommended to go back to main menu inside an application or game before you use the "Soft Reset" function. If errors occur during games, please try to turn off the "Soft Reset".

    

4. Choosing the game files The top screen displays the files under the directory. Use the 'Up/Down' key for scrolling, 'Left/Right' key for flipping. The current path and amount of the total files will show on the top, the scroll bar will show the location of the current file. The files under the directory will be sorted by file name. Please note that (..) is the parent directory.

   The bottom screen display the details of the files and directory, the icon and title will be displayed if it is an NDS game. Press the 'A' button or touch the screen to enter the corresponding functions or run the game, and press "B" button to go back to the game menu.

Official R4v2 Technical Features List

• R4 DS is a 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
• Support Skin DIY by setting background and font colors on Main Menu and Game Menu manually and automatically
• Supports 4-scale-lightness adjustment (DS Lite only)
• Supports the Soft Reset.
• Supports Action Replay cheat
• Moonshell 1.6 support Software Reset function (Press START key back to the R4 menu)
• DLDI auto-patching
• Full download play support