Nintendo Battles Makers of the R4 [Slashdot]

[Jorpho]

Does anything else benefit from the ram expansion?

For some completely pointless reason, you can run Linux if you want to. Don't ask me why.

we don't have fair use in Canada

Um, what? The laws might be different, but it cannot be said that there is nothing in Canada that cannot be called "fair use" as far as copyright is concerned.

There are a dozens of these flash cards pouring out of China. What are they going to accomplish? I can't help but think these sort of things are instigated by the lawyers just to get paid.

Depending on the size of the settlement, there'd probably be a decent sum left for Nintendo in the end. And draining the company's profits could keep them from creating some other clever innovation that could do far greater injury to Nintendo's corporate health. For instance, maybe Nintendo could implement a new protection scheme in the future, and stopping the R4's developers could keep a firmware fix from popping up right away.

But considering it's the R4 clones these days that have SDHC support and not the R4 itself (right?), it might be argued that the creators of the R4 are already slipping behind the times.

[j_factor]

Of course I don't know what Nintendo's worried about, if this thread is any representative of the general population, absolutely nobody uses the R4 for piracy ... (eye roll.)

People use CD burners for piracy all the time. Doesn't make them illegal devices, does it?

[TonyTheTiger]

People use CD burners for piracy all the time. Doesn't make them illegal devices, does it?

I think he's making fun of the fact that nobody here has opened up to having games on the R4 that they don't actually own.

[Cryomancer]

I do. There, I said it. And that's another thing: undubs, fan hacks, translations, etc. Can't play those any other way. I also have all the legal features I mentioned, or have at least used them in the past (comic book reader wasn't so hot I didn't think, but the IRC is cool, and the DS homebrew Drugwars is awesome).

[TonyTheTiger]

I don't own Kirby Squeak Squad but I played it on my DS anyway not too long ago. I don't think there's any shame in saying it. What I find annoying is when people try to justify it by using some bad logic about how what they're doing isn't really piracy. If you're going to do it then at least man up and call it what it is. I pirate games. Doesn't matter how much I make use of other features like homebrew and such. That doesn't justify my pirating Kirby Squeak Squad. I guess few people want to admit that they are actually doing something wrong.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

If history is any indicator, I have to disagree with some of the responses in this thread. When Nintendo sued Bung I believe they won a $7 million dollar settlement. Not only did it squash Bung but it also single-handedly killed console copiers. A lot of these places operate under the guise that "it's not really illegal" and when a court determines that those things really are illegal, people will close up shop. Once places realize they stand to lose $7 million (or whatever) and aren't covered by operating in a "gray area," they'll shrivel up.

Of course I don't know what Nintendo's worried about, if this thread is any representative of the general population, absolutely nobody uses the R4 for piracy ... (eye roll.)

Bung totally went away ... and GBA flash technology did suffer a dry spell for a few years afterward both on the development front as well as the distribution channels out of Hong Kong to the US.

However, after a few years (probably even less than that) the "headless snake" as it were re-grew and the market re-vitalized.

I think that Nintendo can and will win whatever court battle that they bring to the table ... and the R4s and clone cards will become scarse.

But give it enough time and they'll resurface.

And as far as what I use mine for? I don't make any bones about it, and I don't hide behind any excuses. I'm totally contributing to the problem ... but speaking in the frankest terms ... I've been a DS owner since launch, subsequently updated to a Lite, and only purchased about 4 games total during that time before owning a DSTT card ... software companies didn't and weren't going to get my money anyway.

[Jorpho]

and the R4s and clone cards will become scarse.

But there would be no reason for the clone cards to become scarce unless Nintendo went after the nameless multitudes in Hong Kong that produce the clone cards.

What is kind of surprising is that Nintendo hasn't just gone after DealXtreme. Shutting down Lik-Sang was pretty good for Sony, no?

[TonyTheTiger]

It's a scare tactic. You beat up the biggest guy on the block and hope the smaller guys turn tail out of fear that they're next. And I swear, every time I glance at your avatar I think Charlie Brown is holding a rifle.

[Sudo]

I think he's making fun of the fact that nobody here has opened up to having games on the R4 that they don't actually own.

I do. I have 80-something DS games stored on my hard drive that I transfer to my R4 and back that I don't own.

[c0ldb33r]

I do. I have 80-something DS games stored on my hard drive that I transfer to my R4 and back that I don't own.

Another victim of the ban hammer.


I'm just kidding, I've been waiting to use that image for awhile.

[alexkidd2000]

I really cannot afford to buy all of my games. So I buy my PS3 games legit and copy my DS games. Maybe not right, but really I could not put any more money into gaming.

[Ze_ro]

I have a bad habit of buying a game, playing the first level, and then losing interest in it. I bought an M3 Perfect a while back, and it was nice for trying games out to see if they were worth buying in the first place... in many cases, I only played the game once, but in many other cases, I decided the game was worthwhile and actually did go out and buy it. All in all, I think I actually bought MORE games for the DS as a result. The way I see it, I'm screwing Blockbuster far more than I'm screwing Nintendo... and I consider that a good thing.

Just recently, I bought a CycloDS Evolution... quite an upgrade over the M3 in just about every way. Forget the R4, get a CycloDS.

--Zero

[Iron Draggon]

do they make something like this for the GBA too?

[Sudo]

do they make something like this for the GBA too?

Yeah, there are quite a few GBA flash carts, probably more than DS ones.

[Gapporin]

I bought an M3 Perfect a while back, and it was nice for trying games out to see if they were worth buying in the first place...

I will say this: My flashcard paid for itself when I didn't waste $30 to play Sprung and see how awful it was.

[Zing]

Just recently, I bought a CycloDS Evolution... quite an upgrade over the M3 in just about every way. Forget the R4, get a CycloDS.

Weird. My wife has an Edge card and the OS looks almost exactly the same. It has all the same features and layout, except the 3 main icons are slightly different (they are the same items, headphones, etc, just drawn differently). I wonder if one company made a basic OS and multiple others just copied it. Hell, even the card itself looks and works identically.

[Jorpho]

Weird. My wife has an Edge card and the OS looks almost exactly the same. It has all the same features and layout, except the 3 main icons are slightly different (they are the same items, headphones, etc, just drawn differently). I wonder if one company made a basic OS and multiple others just copied it. Hell, even the card itself looks and works identically.

Yes, many DS cards do indeed use MoonShell.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonshell

[eggwolio]

Weird. My wife has an Edge card and the OS looks almost exactly the same. It has all the same features and layout, except the 3 main icons are slightly different (they are the same items, headphones, etc, just drawn differently). I wonder if one company made a basic OS and multiple others just copied it. Hell, even the card itself looks and works identically.

I did a lot of research the other day because I decided it was finally time for me to order a card. All of the reviews I read of the Edge card said it was essentially a budget solution cyclods missing a couple of features that most people wouldn't miss too much anyways, and they recommended it highly. At under $25, I can't really argue. Now I just have to wait for it to arrive from DealExtreme.