How to Mod a Nintendo DS with an R4 Flashcart

SpellBel

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posted on 17 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

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Your Nintendo DS can do a lot of things out of the box. It can play DS games, as well as Game Boy Advance (GBA) games. It can download demos from download stations at places like Best Buy, and you can chat with friends in the same room. It can even play music, videos, display text files, and much more! But if you want to take full advantage of the DS, you may want to mod it. That’s where we come in! Read on to learn everything you need to know about modding a DS with an R4 flashcart.

Steps

Buy a flashcart.

Acquire the R4DS (Revolution For DS) flashcart from an online retailer. They are not sold in stores, but they are not illegal as sold (apart from in the UK where the were ruled illegal as of 28th July 2010). You can find them on the official web site, or you can search online for other online stores which have them available.

Update the firmware.

Download the latest software for the R4 to prevent bugs. At the time of this writing, the latest version is 1.18 which was last updated in 2008. There is a third party R4 DS firmware available called WoodR4, which offers better features and greater compatibility with all homebrew games, apps, and emulators. The R4 may not ship with the latest firmware. You can find the download pretty easily just by using Google.

Connect the card.

Link the Transflash/microSD card to your computer. The R4 comes with a microSD to USB adapter which is very nice. If you have a memory card reader, use the SD adapter that comes with most microSD cards. In a pinch, put the memory card in a compatible phone and connect the phone to the computer.

Unpack the file.

Open the firmware file, which should be Language-Version.zip. Unpack the contents of this archive to the root directory of your microSD card.

Confirm it works.

Verify that you have done everything right before disconnecting. That should be all it takes. Remove whatever game may be in your DS' Slot-1, insert the R4, and insert the microSD card into the R4. There is only one way it can go, and it will most likely be the way you don't expect. It does not matter in what order you do this - you could also put the microSD card into the R4 and then put the R4 in the DS. (A clever individual can remove the microSD card from the R4 while the R4 is in the DS, but it's a tight area.)

Turn the DS on.

You should get the safety warning when the DS turns on. Don’t touch the screen to confirm, the R4 should take over. The default DS menu, if it was enabled (it is by default), will be bypassed, and the R4 menu will load. You will get three choices. The first one, Game, will allow you to load a .NDS file (a DS ROM, or a homebrew application - .NDS is to your DS what .EXE is to your Windows computer). The second one, Media, will allow you to play multimedia - music, video, text - using the Moonshell OS. The third one, Slot-2, will allow you to boot a Slot-2 (Game Boy Advance) game.

Download some fresh content.

Go get some good old homebrews online! See the list linked under references for the compatibility guide - anything with a green square behind R4 is a go!