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What Are 'Real' and 'Fake' DS Cards?

Buying Genuine R4 and Other DS Cards

Many people worry about fake or "clone" Nintendo DS / DSi / 3DS cards, especially on the internet where so many are for sale! Before we begin, we'd like to say and point out that NDS-Gear only sells genuine cards sourced directly from the factories of the respective card developers. We have on-ground staff that periodically inspect our products and the factories for authenticity and quality, and we also individually test every card (it takes a while but it's worth it!) before sending them to our customers. Shop safe at NDS-Gear!

Introduction to Real / Fake DS Cards

So, what exactly is a 'real' and 'fake' or 'clone' Nintendo DS flash card? The definition can be loosely summarised as follows. 'Real' Nintendo DS cards are those that had original innovation and were created by a team of developers from scratch. Examples of this are the original R4 card, the Acekard 2i, and the iEDGE card. 'Fake' or 'clone' DS flash cards were those that tried to emulate the original by copying the hardware or software (sometimes both) but were almost always of a lesser quality. These cards were also not very well understood by ripoff manufacturers who simply cloned the technology, so software updates are sporadic or non-existent in most cases. Examples of these fakes include the M3 Adaptes card, the R4 Advance card and the R4i Ultra card.

Many clones of DS cards today came from the original R4 card (later named the R4v2 card after the spring mechanism problem with Micro-SD cards was fixed). The R4 team also later had a hand in producing the R4 SDHC card, which is still sold here today. The R4 SDHC card could handle up to 32GB Micro-SDHC cards while the original R4v2 had a capacity of only 2GB, so this was a major step forward.

Many factory owners in east Asia (mostly but not all in China) saw the tremendous success of the R4 and R4 SDHC cards and wanted to make money as well. However, they attempted to copy these cards so that little to know research and development costs would be required. Because of this, there came to be many fakes of the R4 and similar cards. Some copied the box design but were a completely different card, while others tried (most rather poorly) to reverse engineer the original and repackage the card as an upgrade. Some examples of clones of the R4 SDHC card are below.

Fake / Clone Versions of the R4 SDHC Card

Top Left: 'R4 Advance' card
Top Right: 'R4 SDHC Upgrade' card
Bottom Left: 'R4 Ultra' Card
Bottom Right: 'R4v3' Card

Current Genuine DS Flash Cards and Their Clones

The above are just a few of the many 'fake' cards that were spawned off the back of the R4 and R4 SDHC card's success. In almost all cases, it was impossible for rival factories to emulate the original R4 software so cheaper versions of the software (usually slower and less compatible with most newer games) were implemented. The original R4 kernel / firmware would not work on any of these cards.

Fortunately, many newer cards use different names to the original R4 brand and for that reason, typical 'fake' producing factories were less likely to copy them as they no longer understood the market as well. For easy reference, however, below are examples of all the DS and DSi compatible flash cards that NDS-Gear sells, their official websites, and what 'fake' and 'clone' cards exist for each.

 DS / DSi CARD
OFFICIAL WEBSITE
 COMMON FAKE / CLONE CARDS
 Fake iEDGE with Near Identical Packaging (fake website www.edgei-ds.cn - notice the i in the web address)
 
See this NDS-Gear blog post for our guide to telling them apart.
There are many clones of the R4i card. The only genuine R4i 3DS card comes in a red box, has a "games engine" logo, and has the r4i-sdhc official site (the genuine card has the hyphen/dash in the domain).
 
All 'R4i Gold' cards and 'black box' cards are also clones.
 No popular clones exist for this card at this time (Hurray!)
 No popular clones exist for this card at this time (Hurray!)
No popular clones exist for this card at this time (Hurray!)
Huge numbers of clones exist for the R4 SDHC / original R4 card. The new v2.10T version of the R4 SDHC comes in a gold box (but is NOT 'R4i Gold' or similar cards), has 'v2.10T' on the front and has r4sdhc.com (no hyphens or similar) as the official website.
 
The old black box version is still legitimate and can be identified by checking the official website on the box.
Used to be many clones of this card but after mid-2009 ceased production.
 
Check the website address on the card you have bought to ensure a genuine card.

The easiest way to combat propagation of clone cards is to return them if you discover you have one. Most of the time, if you receive a card that doesn't seem to work with the official software (correctly installed, of course) off the websites you see in the table above, it could be a fake.

Common Problems with Fake Cards

We receive a number of e-mails weekly about consumers that have problems with their cards bought from elsewhere, and quite often the problems they describe are problems that are typical of fake or clone cards. We talk briefly about the most common problems below.

My R4 Card has an Error Message that Says 'Menu?' when I Turn it On.

Every DS and DSi compatible card has its own set of error messages that display when software is installed incorrectly or when the card is simply not working. The original R4 and R4 SDHC cards have an error message where the card displays 'Loading...' on the top screen. The 'Menu?' error message is actually that of the DSTT card!

Real and Fake R4 Error Messages

This is common of fake R4i cards as well as clones of the R4 SDHC card, such as the R4v3. The rival factories who manufacture these cards were unable to replicate the original R4 software, so they lifted part of the DSTT's software to use under the name 'R4'. Any R4 branded card that displays the 'Menu?' error message, is a fake or a clone. Although conversely if you have a DSTT card, this error message means it is genuine!

Real R4 and Other Cards from NDS-Gear

We only source original cards directly from the original factories - yes, this means we actually have people inspecting the goods and visiting factories periodically where they are produced. :-) We would not sell any card that's considered a 'fake' (Examples: R4 Ultra, Any R4i card that isn't in the original red packaging, the iEDGE with the fake official website, etc.)

Please contact us if you have any questions and we'd be happy to help. You can reach us via the contact us page and filling in the contact form. Please make sure you leave a correct return e-mail address so we can write back! :-)

All the best,
The NDS-Gear Team