Fortunately for me, I do not own one. I mean this unironically.

Even though I have an R4 i dont use it for Ds piracy as much as others. I mainly use it for ScummVm, NeoGeo, NES and SNES emulation. If i like any of the games I pirate I will usually buy them mainly because i like having a large collection of boxes.

if you kill it, 4 more will take its place.

I blogged about this not too long ago actually.

I hate the attitue more than anything of most pirates, they feel entitled to this kind of thing, like anything should be free.

Fuck that nonsense.

Yes, I has an R4. I use it to play homebrew, NES games, and read manga on my DS. (And play a few retail games when I'm low on cash)

Finally. It's about damn time. I would have thought Nintendo would have gone after these guys by now. Nevermind that it's illegal, it's screwing the industry in the butt.

I use my R4 card for just homebrew. I'm just kidding.

I have an R4, and I've bought all of the games that I really like. I bought it for homebrew, like SNES and NES emulators, and of course, to walk around with a peg leg.

I ended up using to try before I buy. I've pirated, and then purchased: Advance Wards: Days of Ruin, Elite Beat Agents, and more than a couple RPGs. I'm a collector at heart, so owning the actual case with the game inside actually has worth to me if I'm proud of the game. I'm currently "pirating" Tactics A2, and plan to buy it next time I'm able. The law system, goddamn the law system is now optional. Jesus yes.

I've downloaded a lot of games that I thought I was going to buy, and then turned out to not like. "The world ends with you" turned out to be a button masher, but with a touch screen, and the new Pokemon games don't capture the magic of the earlier ones. If I had bought these games, and then found out I hated them, who would be getting screwed then? Me. Now that I tried them and found out I didn't like them, they're losing a software sale they would have got if I hadn't had the opportunity, so I guess you could say they're getting screwed.

I'm sorry, but if I have the means to make it so I don't have to every buy a game I don't like, then I'm going to use it. If it means they make less money because I don't blindly walk into shitty games, then so be it.

In before people tell me to use game reviews instead. Both Twewy and Pokemon: D&P got rave reviews, and I didn't like them.

The problems is that they made the R4 too user friendly. No need to flash your DS with a paperclip or patching roms makes it accessible to the technological retarded. Piracy should only be reserved for elitist nerds :-P

@misanthrope are you trying to justify your thievery or just being a prick playing devil's advocate?

One of the major reasons to have an R4 is to have lots of games on one piece of media, instead of carrying a ton of carts around you can have a few SDCards.

Nintendo should have jumped on this from the beginning and immediatly released their own 'iTunes for DS'.
The problem is that most of the expense goes in making the cartridges. Im sure nintendo could sell games for a few £ each and still make the same as selling carts through retailers.

And the R4 does seem to be FAR more widespread than PC piracy.

I have an R4 card, but I also have a small collection of about 11 actual DS games. Some games aren't worth purchasing, and that's where the R4 card comes in. I only buy games that I think are worth the $30. They are not losing a sale (from me personally) because I wouldn't have bought the game in the first place. I still buy games for my DS, but I don't make the mistake of purchasing a shitty games.

If my local rental stores had handheld games, I wouldn't have a need for an R4 card. Some games are worth a $30 purchase, and some are worth a $5 rent. I am not getting the second option with handheld games (I'm not going to deal with gamefly just to rent DS games).

Hypothetically, If I were to have a flash cart/slot 1... They might be gaining a DS sale. It could be entirely possible that someone like me would never purchase a DS or a DS game without them :p

This is of course if I did have one... which I'm not admitting to.

I have a Games 'n Music (same thing as an R4 as far as I know. I've tried using it for emulation, and couldn't find a good emulator. I tried using it for homebrew, but got sick of wading through the crap titles.

Now it collects dust, waiting for a better reason to be used. Like I said elsewhere, I won't use it to pirate games because I don't even have time to play the games I do buy. :p

@Misanthrope

"You know what downloading is? Its certainly NONE OF THE ABOVE. Get this through your head: just because you CAN download a game doesn't means you would buy it if you couldn't download it. Potential sales are NOT sales, what greedy console companies and their advocacy groups claim is exactly that: For every download on the internet thats a lost sale. Thats just fucking absurd. NO single marketing campaign in the history of mankind has ever achieved 100% adoption rate of a product, I think they are lucky if the manage 5% adoption rate and even that is like a dream come true if only 5% of the people interested would make a buying decision.

So if you say "out of all these people who download roms for the R4, maybe 5% would buy the games if they couldn't download" then I could take the arguments seriously. Until then its the same argument used by PC companies to infest games with malware intentionally."

::wipes tear:: that was well said, my friend.

I'd only buy such things to play games that were not localized into english on a native console.
Say...Mother 3 and the two jump brawlers.

That said, I do have a for-reals copy of Jump Ultimate Stars.

Hey man, I'm buying my games. No R4 for me here, and that's a fact.

Hey guys, guess what? I have an R4. I use it to download games off the internet and play them so I don't have to go out and spend my money on them at EBGames.

I don't use it to play homebrew games, I don't use it to read manga or any of that shit.

I use it to get retail games for free and I don't give a shit about the health of the industry because frankly it's not like Nintendo is going to stop making games.

Bitch me out, see if I care.

While I don't agree with the piracy aspect of the R4 the device itself is completely legal. I think it's bullshit that ELSPA are targeting retailers of the R4 in the same way I think it's bullshit that Nintendo blocked the freeloader.
When you consider that in the UK 26 charges against "MrModChips" were dropped recently it makes you think what kind of real backing this kind of action ELSPA are taking really has.

On a side note I also find it hard to swallow that a DS game costs as much as a new 360 and wii game but that's just me

I admit, I don't have an R4, but I do have something similar. What I use it for are really japanese DS games that we will never see, either because of nightmare licensing issues (Super Robot Wars, Nodame Cantabile, Daigasso, Taiko DS etc). I make a point of buying those japanese (or U.S/U.K) games in the end, once they hit my sweet spot, as you can't beat owning the real deal and I'm a big games collector at heart.

Next up, I use it for the awesome aps and games that home brewers write for DS (Still Alive DS is cool), but Nintendo still cock block and deny, painting them as piracy too. As an artist, Colors DS is a superb dreamy kind of ap that I've always wanted and in fact was the core reason I purchased my card. Now I don't need an expensive laptop and graphics tablet in order to draw on the move. On the issue of such aps, if they could progress enough for publishers etc, to consider buying the license from the creator to sell officially, I'd wholeheartedly support it. But alas no, and much cool stuff like Colors gets passed by. A big shame indeed as I'd love it to get a wider audience of artist use. Colors DS has got some good press from U.K art magazine Imagine FX. (Look out for an Imagine FX guide on Colors DS drawing/painting in Issue 34)

And the final reason for my card is the emulators. If you had told me, its possible to run GB, GBA, NES, SNES, MD and even Neo Geo arcade roms on my DS, I would have called you a fat ass liar. Scumm VM to run old forgotten PC games is another sweet bonus too. Suddenly we have a whole new generation of gamers discovering, how cool these old games they never knew of are. That should be celebrated, as its actually helping grow the industry and even nuture potential future industry talent. The industry as a whole denies all this, lips closed.

As for ELSPA etc now potentially going after these cards, I understand their concern, but I know as usual they will never include the homebrew arguement into the equation, and it will just be about stopping piracy and potential lost sales as usual. They'd have to prove you are pirating the games for reasons beyond your own use, that would seek to threaten Nintendo etc. At present there is no significant threat and more than likely never will be throughoout the DS's Life. Remember we are a few years into it and its only a matter of time before Nintendo produce a successor.

With Nintendo themselves never acknowledging the homebrew side of gaming, mainly because they can't control it, they would rather criminalise and alienate a talented and resourceful bunch of gamers/creators (who they know very well are not rolling in cash or doing what they do, not for money but love).

Lastly, I do agree that if Nintendo were not so tight ass and draconian, they could have made the DS more open from the start, like home brewers are using it and creating some outstanding stuff for it. I know now, Nintendo are never gonna shake this draconianism, that even scares the most industry established developer/publisher, hence a lot of games ending up on other more open systems.

Like someone said, they had enough trouble trying to stop mod chips, so they'll have little success with stopping cards. So long as home brewers/modders are out there, the fight will go on. How ironic it is, that many in the industry forget, many established developers we now know, were also born from home brew and modding.

Sorry for the essay, people. I say to summarise, if you do download any DS games, please buy and support which ones you like. Don't forget, we can make a difference, even if the big wigs think we can't.

@braulio09: I have used cards to play rom games if that is what you mean, cause in my country there is nothing illegal about it and yes, ive actually talked to a lawyer about it.

Thats what I don't like, the fact that not only do americans pass stupid laws that benefit nobody at all but you actually try to use the connotation like "illegal" to refer to other countries who have SANE copyright laws.

If you have choosen to follow the wisdom of such highly regardless individuals as Lars Ulrich and George W. Bush that is your problem, outside of your country however downloading is perfectly legal.

All you kids with an R4, get a job and pay for something you want, if you can't afford it, tough shit, that's part of being an adult and having responsibilities. Man up you sad losers.
To cope with how truly tragic these people are I've devised this method:
In my mind I just replaced everyone talking about their 'R4' with "really small penis" and the content comes through just as accurately.

I justify my R4 with the fact that I would have to wait ~23 years before any new game worth playing lands in stores here.