My R43ds.org Review
I've had loads of questions both from offline friends and on the forums, about my experience with buying the from guys over at the official R4 3DS Store at www.r43ds.org I haven't tried every single type of R4 card, but I have had some experience with probably about 5 different types / brands.. Maybe calling them each a brand isn't really appropriate... Let's say I have had experience with R4 3DS cards from 5 different factories. There used to be only one factory that made the R4 cards. They were referred to as the R4 Team. These original guys were the ones that made the very first slot 1 flash card (I'll get in to the history of it another day.. it's fascinating really), but then the team split up. The different team members went their own separate ways, and that's how several different types of cards came about.
The original R4 DS Card
The original R4 DS was the very first in the R4 line. Since they, there have been several different versions that have come out. They supported SDHC Micro SD Cards first, and then went on to support the DSi and Nintendo DSI XL with the R4i SDHC Cards. Once the Nintendo 3DS was released, the team went on to start work on bringing out a compatible card for the Nintendo 3DS and later the Nintendo 3DS XL. They continue to get updates to their firmware and kernel, because as the consoles themselves get updated, sometimes an update renders the R4 incompatible. By getting a clone card from some unknown source (or factory, call it what you want) you risk getting a card that just doesn't get updated, so you end up with a unit that won't work if you should ever update your Nintendo DSI or Nintendo 3DS system. I know, trust me... I've had it happen twice, with 2 different cards.
After getting "ripped off" by 2 different online stores selling the R4, I decided to really search for the actual people who make them and sell the official cards. From everything I had read, this was the only way to get a card that I won't have to keep replacing. I want to make something clear though. When I say "ripped off" it's not as though these stores took my money, and didn't send me the product I ordered. They did. I bought it, paid for it, and receive them. The problem was I got cards that these factories stopped supporting. So when an update came for my 3DS system, and I updated thinking all would be fine, it turned out that it wasn't fine at all, and my card was not getting any updates. This was confirmed after sending email to the factories themselves. Really sucks... especially since they all say they will offer unlimited updates... I guess unlimited means that they'll send you the R4 3DS, and they'll update as long as they feel like it, but then forget about it. As you can imagine, I pretty much had enough of having to buy a new card every time someone decided they didn't want to update the card any more.
After getting "ripped off" by 2 different online stores selling the R4, I decided to really search for the actual people who make them and sell the official cards. From everything I had read, this was the only way to get a card that I won't have to keep replacing. I want to make something clear though. When I say "ripped off" it's not as though these stores took my money, and didn't send me the product I ordered. They did. I bought it, paid for it, and receive them. The problem was I got cards that these factories stopped supporting. So when an update came for my 3DS system, and I updated thinking all would be fine, it turned out that it wasn't fine at all, and my card was not getting any updates. This was confirmed after sending email to the factories themselves. Really sucks... especially since they all say they will offer unlimited updates... I guess unlimited means that they'll send you the R4 3DS, and they'll update as long as they feel like it, but then forget about it. As you can imagine, I pretty much had enough of having to buy a new card every time someone decided they didn't want to update the card any more.
Why I ended up going with the R43ds.org store instead of some other site with slightly lower prices.
I tend to do my research before I buy something. The first thing I research when I have several options available is which brand or version of the product is the better one. And with the R4 cards, there are quite a few different choices available. I did what I always do and researched and did my homework to find out which cards were the most compatible with the brunt of the games and freeware apps out there. Included in the freeware apps of course are all of the different emulators for the classic game systems that I like to play.
Unfortunately it seems like there are a hundred different factories that make the R4 or R4 3DS cards, but most of them seem to be copies of some other type of card that just doesn't have the compatibility of the original ones... or the official ones... whatever you want to call them. And if you're only using it on a DS or DS Lite, it may not make a huge difference - other than for game compatibility.
All of these cards need firmware to run. A batch of files that you copy on to the micro SD card you have with your r4. If the firmware isn't updated, you eventually end up with a card that plays the games it played perfectly fine, but you can forget about playing any of the newer ones, as the firmware has to support those games too. In the end, whichever card you buy, or whatever the brand is, is less important than how often it gets updated... and whether or not it will continue to be updated. A good way to look at any one of these cards is to look backwards. Has the card you're buying been updated for the last few years? If so, chances are good that the developers know what they're doing and will continue to support their card.
That's what made me choose r43ds.org instead of some other store. From what I can gather, they're the actual official store for these cards, and as a result, they support the cards themselves. I scanned loads of stores, a lot of them out of China (nothing wrong with that) and some stores had like 30 different brands of the cards available. As I started to look more closely, I found that a lot of these r4's had varying degrees of firmware support. By this I mean that the box for the item and the downloadable firmware, said things like: 3DS V4.2.1 support or Works on DS, DSi and 3DS up to Version 4.5 ... Which is all well and good, if 4.5 or 4.2.1 were the latest 3DS OS versions, but we're now up to 6.1.0... And considering that the 4.5 3DS software update was over a year old and has been out for that long without a new firmware for the cards - it's unlikely then that these cards will get any future firmware updates.
I went to all the trouble of doing this because I have read time and time again on sites like GBATemp.net and ds-scene, etc.. that whena new 3DS update was released, people were out of luck with their cards if new firmware wasn't available and were stuck having to buy a new card, or not updating their 3DS to get the latest features.
Unfortunately it seems like there are a hundred different factories that make the R4 or R4 3DS cards, but most of them seem to be copies of some other type of card that just doesn't have the compatibility of the original ones... or the official ones... whatever you want to call them. And if you're only using it on a DS or DS Lite, it may not make a huge difference - other than for game compatibility.
All of these cards need firmware to run. A batch of files that you copy on to the micro SD card you have with your r4. If the firmware isn't updated, you eventually end up with a card that plays the games it played perfectly fine, but you can forget about playing any of the newer ones, as the firmware has to support those games too. In the end, whichever card you buy, or whatever the brand is, is less important than how often it gets updated... and whether or not it will continue to be updated. A good way to look at any one of these cards is to look backwards. Has the card you're buying been updated for the last few years? If so, chances are good that the developers know what they're doing and will continue to support their card.
That's what made me choose r43ds.org instead of some other store. From what I can gather, they're the actual official store for these cards, and as a result, they support the cards themselves. I scanned loads of stores, a lot of them out of China (nothing wrong with that) and some stores had like 30 different brands of the cards available. As I started to look more closely, I found that a lot of these r4's had varying degrees of firmware support. By this I mean that the box for the item and the downloadable firmware, said things like: 3DS V4.2.1 support or Works on DS, DSi and 3DS up to Version 4.5 ... Which is all well and good, if 4.5 or 4.2.1 were the latest 3DS OS versions, but we're now up to 6.1.0... And considering that the 4.5 3DS software update was over a year old and has been out for that long without a new firmware for the cards - it's unlikely then that these cards will get any future firmware updates.
I went to all the trouble of doing this because I have read time and time again on sites like GBATemp.net and ds-scene, etc.. that whena new 3DS update was released, people were out of luck with their cards if new firmware wasn't available and were stuck having to buy a new card, or not updating their 3DS to get the latest features.
