Nintendo DS Lite?

[LancelotSA]

Hey guys,

We are considering getting the little guy a Nintendo DS Lite. His cousins have one and he digs it.

Now... as much as I know about PCs and most technology, I am not at all familiar with these hand held "consoles", so I have a few questions.

I have heard mumblings about R4 chips etc etc? What are these and what do they do?

What format do the games come on? Are they on MicroSD or SD cards or is it a cartridge specific to the DS Lite?

Now, no lectures or high and mighty comments about this question, but can you download games for the DS Lite? Actually I can answer that as I have seen mention of ROMS etc online already. So more specifically, if you do download them onto your PC, what format are they in and how do you then get these onto the DS for the lighty to play?

Can they be played on any DS Lite or is that where the R4 chip comes in?

 

[GreGorGy]

Hi Lancelot

I got my 2 kids DSes for Christmas last year and I imported two of those R4 cards from Amazon UK (it was cheaper than the only local supplier I could find). They work with MicroSDs. The R4 goes into the DS ROM card slot and the MicroSD into the R4. Then, you download ROMs from the various easy to find places and the kids are happy forever. Also, you can play movies and stuff on those R4 cards. They're fantastic. Their grades have slipped though...

Also, you may not like the rugby ROM - it has Morné Steyn on it but not Ruan Pienaar

Still, value for money until you need to buy a game, which is why I opted for the R4 / ROMs route...

That, and you will never guess which criminal organisation is behind Nintendo in SA - CORE!

 

[JerryMungo]

Hey guys,

We are considering getting the little guy a Nintendo DS Lite. His cousins have one and he digs it.

Now... as much as I know about PCs and most technology, I am not at all familiar with these hand held "consoles", so I have a few questions.

I have heard mumblings about R4 chips etc etc? What are these and what do they do?

What format do the games come on? Are they on MicroSD or SD cards or is it a cartridge specific to the DS Lite?

Now, no lectures or high and mighty comments about this question, but can you download games for the DS Lite? Actually I can answer that as I have seen mention of ROMS etc online already. So more specifically, if you do download them onto your PC, what format are they in and how do you then get these onto the DS for the lighty to play?

Can they be played on any DS Lite or is that where the R4 chip comes in?

R4 cartridges allow you to stick games onto microSD cards and pop them into the DS - instead of lugging ten cartridges (for example), you put all your games onto one. Yes, you download them *disclaimer - only legal for ones you own* They are .NDS files. They just go into the root of the micro SD card. The R4 cartridge plugs into the DS lite like a normal DS game but has a slot for your microSD card with the stuff on it. Before it works, you download and install the R4DS software on the microSD - it's freely available on their site www.r4ds.com (that url changes depending on the model you get - the unit you get comes with the correct web site)

There are two flav's of R4 card - you get the model that allows you to use the newer SDHC micro sd card (4Gb and more) and you get the one that only allows regular micro sd cards (up to 2Gb). Games range in size from 16Mb to 128Mb each.

This guy can get them...
http://www.bidorbuy.co.za/item/15646516/R4i_Gold_SDHC_R4DS_Multimedia_Card_for_Nintendo_DSi.html

I paid R185 for mine including shipping from him. Feel free to PM me if you need help setting up.

 

[LancelotSA]

Thanks very much guys. That information was very useful. Thanks.

Just one more terminology clarification... the term ROM is used often. Yes, I could google I suppose but what does that mean? Am I correct in assuming that the ROM is the "cartridge" used by the DS and this contains the .nds file?

Are all the games interchangeable between the DS and the DS Lite etc? Or do you get older versions and newer versions?

 

[Nerfherder]

ROM is short for Read only Memory, Like on a CD-ROM. Means you cant change it, all consoles store games on ROMs. When they talk about ROM's in the above context they are referring to a file that is a copy of the information on a game disk, it is a disk image or ROM image. Meaning that instead of putting in a disk you can load a ROM off of a SD card.

 

[LancelotSA]

Aha, I should really have just thought back to my computer science days! Random access, read only etc It just didn't click when I read it in reference to the DS.