1.1) DS Card (Pic) A DS Card is an emulator device that can be used to play homebrew games on the akun pro DS and Nintendo DS Lite. It comes in the size of an original DS game cartridge and is inserted into the DS via the Slot-1 of the Nintendo DS console. There are many brands of DS card made by different manufacturers such as the R4, DSTT, EDGE DS and many others. 1.2) DS card components For a DS card to work, it will need three component: The DS card itself, a micro SD / SDHC card and the DS card firmware. The firmware is basically the software part of the system. It is a program that allows a DS card to run homebrew application on the Nintendo DS console. The DS card is basically the hardware part of the system. It contains the Integrated circuit (IC) and various other hardware component that allows the DS card the act as a physical adapter to interact with the Nintendo DS console. The micro SD is the memory of the system where the firmware and homebrew appication are stored. It is basically the RAM and hard disk space of the system. The micro SD can come in 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, 16GB and 32GB. Micro SD for 4GB and above are known as micro SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity).
1.3) Getting a DS card to work The first step to get the DS card to work is to get the DS card firmware. This firmware may sometimes be provided in a disc but most likely nowadays to be available for download from the DS card manufacturers site or from the reseller site (like us -> NDS-Gear). The DS card firmware is usually in a .zip or a .rar file, which need to be unzipped (or unrar) using the WinZIP or WinRAR program. The next step is to transfer the unzipped DS card firmware and homebrew applications that you would want to play on the Nintendo DS console from the computer into the micro SD. To do this, you will need a USB-micro SD adapter. Insert the micro SD into the USB-micro SD adapter. Insert the USB-micro SD adapter into the USB port on the computer. The computer will now detect an external memory drive which is the micro SD. Drag and drop all the DS card firmware and homebrew application into the root directory of the micro SD. The transfer of the DS card firmware is now completed. Unplugged the micro SD from the computer.
The micro SD can now be inserted into the micro SD slot on the DS card, which is usually located on the top corner of the DS card. The DS card is now a fully functioning system and can be inserted into the Nintendo DS or Nintendo DS Lite console. Turn on the power on the Nintendo console and the DS card is now working and the user can start playing homebrew appicaion that they have transfer onto the Nintendo DS console. 1.4) DSi card A DSi card is similar to the DS card except it was created to work on the new Nintendo DSi console. DS cards can only work on the Nintedo DS and Nintendo DS Lite console. DSi card can work on all three Nintendo DS consoles (DS / DS Lite / DSi).2) What is an R4? 2.1) Introduction R4 is the most popular brand name for the DS card. There a 30+ brand of DS card that calls themselve R4. On NDS-Gear, we sell 2 out of 30+ of these R4 brands, the R4v2 (R4DS) and the R4 SDHC. 2.2) R4v2 (R4DS) 2.2.1) History of R4v2 (R4DS) The R4v2, also known as R4DS, is the original R4 brand DS card. R4DS stands for ‘Revolution for DS’. The R4DS is one of the first superior DS card on the market as it can automatically boot itself on the Nintendo DS console without the need a PassMe Device (type devices are inserted into the DS slot and trick the DS into allowing unsigned DS code to run from the GBA cartridge slot in full DS mode). This made the R4DS cheaper, superior and very popular compare to other DS card on the market when it was released in early 2007. It was considered to be one of the best DS card when it first came out in 2007. Because of its popularity, many other manufacturers start making clone copies of the R4DS and also naming their product ‘R4’, giving rise to the 30+ brands of R4.
The R4DS change its name to R4v2 (Revolution for DS Version 2) when it release a non-spring loaded version of the R4 card in late 2007. This was to get rid of spring mechanism failure which was quite common in the R4DS. Now only the non-spring version R4v2 is sold on the market. 2.2.2) R4v2 package The R4v2 package comes with the R4v2 DS card itself, a blue protective case to protect the R4v2 DS card, a USB-micro SD adapter and a disc which contains the R4v2 firmware. R4v2 firmware can also be downloaded from the manufacturer site. All this are contained inside a blackish green paper packaging box. The R4v2 package does not include the micro SD which must be purchase separately. 2.2.3) Advantage of R4v2 The R4v2 still have the fastest loading performance of any DS card on the market eventhough it was one of the earliest DS card released. The R4v2 also have many other functions which was created by the R4v2 development team and are now a standard in other DS card. These functions includes the ability to play mp3 music, watch videos and read e-book on the Nintendo DS console. Currently the R4v2 is also the cheapest DS card on the market. It is also quite a stable card and has a very low failure rate (less than 1%). Other R4 brands have a failure rate of 4-10% and the really bad ones can reach 20%. 2.2.3) Drawback of the R4v2 The R4v2 can only take micro SD with 2GB memory size or below. Newer DS cards can now take micro SD with memory size upto 32GB. The R4v2 also have some game compatibility issues whereas some of the best newer DS cards have 100% game compatibility.
