R4 Card – Should you Buy one?
Yes, you should buy an R4 Card. Because there are many great advantages of owning one. For example, you can play any DS games you want. The Nintendo DS Family has a huge library of games. You can install emulators on your card to play older retro games from Gameboy, Gameboy Color, NES, and Sega Genesis.
R4 cards are very popular online. Even when Nintendo discontinued the DS in 2013. R4 Cards are still selling like hotcakes. Especially R4 Cards that come with a lot of ROMs. Nintendo sold 154.02 million DS consoles worldwide. Also, the Nintendo DS Family are the best selling handheld consoles of all time. And the Nintendo DS came with a huge library of games. More than 2028 games and you can play all these games on an R4 Card. That’s why these cartridges are so popular all over the world. Of course the R4 Card I am going to review is a clone. And they are the most popular R4 Cards. There are three of them, R4 Gold Pro, R4 Lite, R4 White Dual Core.
You are probably asking yourself which R4 Cards is the best. Well, the answer is simple. They are all the same, The only difference between R4 Gold Pro, R4 Lite, and R4 White Dual Core is the color and the name. So if you buy an R4 Gold Pro from China, and you get the R4 Lite or White. You get the same cartridge. You can even install the firmware for R4 Lite on an R4 Gold Pro. It will work perfectly fine. However, in the US the R4 Gold Pro Cartridge is the most popular. I don’t know why, maybe when they add the word “gold” on a product name. People think that they are getting the best of the best.
When I used to sell R4 Cards Online. People always asked me the same questions over and over again. Will this R4 Card work on my DSI, DS Lite, 3DS Lite, or my new 3DS XL. And the answer was always, yes. These R4 Cards will work on all DS and 3DS consoles. However, they cannot play 3DS ROMs. They can only play DS ROMs. If you want to download DS ROMs, Google is your friend. I am not going to provide any files or links to download DS games illegally on this blog. I am not judging anybody. R4 Cards are the best product I sold online. I used to sell them without and with ROMs on eBay.
Did you know that R4 Cards are illegal in many countries? Like in the UK. It is illegal to sell R4 Cards. But it is not illegal to own one. However, if R4 Cards are illegal in your country and you want to follow the law. Don’t buy an R4 Card. I don’t think anybody is going to track you down if you bought a R4 Card from Aliexpress or eBay. This will be a waste of time and taxpayer’s money. Selling R4 Cards is illegal in Japan as well.
Like I said, the Nintendo DS Family came with a huge library of amazing games. And they are all compatible with the R4 Card. Not only can you play all the DS games you want. An R4 Card can emulate some retro consoles as well. Of course you have to install an emulator to play your favorite retro games. There are many emulators for Gameboy, Gameboy Color, NES, and many older consoles. I tried to use Gamboy Advance Emulator on an R4 Card. It didn’t work well. There is an emulator for Sega Genesis or Sega Mega Drive for the R4 Card. It is way better than the Gameboy Advance emulator. I remembered I had some issues with many sega games. They were playable, but they didn’t fit the screen properly. Also, Gameboy, Gameboy Color, and NES emulators for the R4 Card work like a charm.
Some emulators for the R4 Card that I have tried personally:
- jEnesisDS for Sega Megadrive aka Genesis
- NesDS for NES and Famicom
- NeoDS for NEO GEO
- snesDS for SNES
- GameYob and Lameboy DS for Gameboy Color and Gameboy
Time bomb is not a real bomb. All three R4 Cards came with a time bomb. And the time bomb is not a big deal. I have clients that told me that they won’t buy a R4 Card from me because they read on a forum that these cards came with a time bomb. The manufacturer of these R4 Cards installed the time bomb, so these cards will stop working after X amount of time. For example, these R4 Cards will work for 5 years. After 5 years they will stop working. The manufacturer did that, because they want you to buy another card from them. However, all you have to do is go to the setting. And set the date back to 5 years ago.
These R4 Cards support all DS Game ROMs, cheat, you can save your games, and they are also compatible with all 3DS consoles. However, you might encounter some problems with these cards. For example, you set up everything properly. The games you upload on your micro SD card work fine. But you can’t save your game or any DS games on your R4 Card. To fix the issue makes sure you are using a 16GB micro SD card. The R4 cards support 32GB micro SD cards, but you might have some issues with them. Therefore, try to use a 16GB micro SD card, and make sure it has less than 300 DS games on your micro SD card.
How to set up a R4 Card?
There’s a link on your card, and the same link is on the package as well. Go to that link and download the firmware for your R4 Card. Format your micro SD card and upload the files on it. Create an empty file. I like to name that file Game. Upload all your DS ROMS on that file and then upload that file on your micro SD card. Make sure you have less than 300 DS games on your micro SD card. Try your R4 Card to make sure everything is working properly. Voila, you are ready to play your favorite DS games at a very low-cost.
Since most of you are going to download DS ROMs online for free. Here is a list of DS games you should get: all the Pokémon, Zelda, and Mario games available for the DS. The World Ends With You, Animal Crossing, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, Geometry Wars, all the Kirby games, Contra 4, and whatever you would like to add to your collection. Don’t forget “Dementium The Ward,” it is a scary DS game, or just a fun DS game for most of you. If you like Gameboy and Gameboy Color games. You can install an emulator on your R4 card to play them, and there is no limit on how many GB and GBC games you can upload on your R4 Card.
Should you sell R4 Cards? My answer to that question is, Hell NO. And I am going to tell you why you should not sell these products. Sooner or later you will get banned on eBay, or any other selling websites like Etsy, Amazon and Mercari. They will ban your account. And some of these websites will ban you for life.
Now let’s move on to my favorite part “The Ultimate Gaming Machine Set Up.”
DS Lite + R4 Card + EZ-Flash Omega
Clear Case Shell for DS Lite + R4 Card + EZ-Flash Omega
Little Warning: Don’t try to replace a DS Lite case if you have never done it before. You might break your DS Lite.
My favorite clear case video on Youtube. This is not my video and I am not affiliated with the guy.
That’s what I am talking about
Homebrew Your New Nintendo 3DS XL + R4 Card
I recommend installing homebrew on a New Nintendo 3DS XL, so you can take full advantage of all the free 3D games for the 3DS. And yes, you can use an R4 Card on any homebrew 3DS console.
I found this post on Reddit