The legendary R4 card, which allows gamers to essentially help themselves to the entire Nintendo DS library, has become officially illegal to import, advertise and sell in the United Kingdom. The R4 is used by thousands of UK gamers, but as of today it is outlawed.
"Nintendo promotes and fosters game development and creativity, and strongly supports the game developers who legitimately create new and innovative applications," states Nintendo. "Nintendo initiates these actions not only on its own behalf, but also on behalf of over 1,400 video game-development companies that depend on legitimate sales of games for their survival."
It has been argued that the R4 has legitimate uses as a homebrew device, or a means of storing digital versions of games that have already been purchased. While these are ways in which the R4 can be used, the popular and most commonly boasted use has always been to simply pirate games.
I wish I could claim this is an outrageous ruling that infringes on our freedom, but screw it. The R4 has always disturbed me, especially in a community where we complain about there not being enough "hardcore" games, yet hardcore games don't sell on the DS because a bunch of people have stolen them. I've not got some moral objection to piracy, but the wholesale theft of a console's entire library by the very gamers who demand that they be catered to just never sat well with me.
So sod the R4.
Nintendo victory as R4 emulator is outlawed [Develop]
Contest:
8:00 AM on 07.28.2010
| 
In fact, my aunt bought my 10 year old cousin one, and I'm tempted to break it (when no one is looking) the next time that I visit. Very tempted...
That'd be a pretty dick move. Just ignore it. Be adult.
Fuck you Nintendo.
Strange to see US go forward with copyright law and the UK backwards in one day. Feel like I'm in opposite land.
ill continue using my cyclo
Just wanted to say that the R4 is also outdated and unmaintained compared to all the others. It's like they've just gone after the biggest brand (I don't even believe official R4's are manufactured anymore, all the current ones are knock-offs)
But some of these comments are lulz. Either way you put it, whether these people are downloading catalogs of games vs. people who generally pirate you're both doing the same thing, so let's not get superior here.
Again, I'm not advocating piracy'm just saying that this type of card will always find its way.
R4 cards have no other use than PIRACY - correct me if i'm wrong.
Piracy is illegal.
I cannot fathom why they weren't illegal in the first place. It's like selling daterape, advertised as daterape, without even reminding people that Rape is illegal.
I have a buddy who in the past, would buy 5+ R4 cards, load them up with games (not even a, painstaking, lovingly downloaded Rom collection, a simple "rom collection" single torrent! and sell them for 5/6 times what he paid for the R4.
I must admit, i have borrowed one of said friends DS's complete with R4 card, but i used it to see if i wanted to buy a legit DS and to buy games for it. It did not impress me so i did not buy (Well it made me buy GTA chinatown on my PSP). Fingers crossed the 3DS will be more impressive.
@Uzeless - where do i find a bigger version of your Avatar? I just wanna see if it looks better or worse full size.
Of course getting some hundreds of games absolutely free is also a pretty big draw too, but think about it: if I'm a gamer with a 10-game DS library and constantly use my DS while on the subway or waiting in lines, having to shuffle in my pocket/bag for the game I want takes away a lot of the quick turn-on-and-play simplicity of having a portable device.
Having a flashcard changes all that, since you can just turn the DS on, pick a game, and switch to a different game within seconds. Honestly, if the DS was a console, I think piracy wouldn't be as serious a problem as it is now. It's the fact that flashcards streamline the whole portable process that makes it such a huge draw. Alongside other more obvious reasons, of course.
...Nah, ain't gonna happen is it?
There are multiple legitimate uses for a flash cart device. The problem lies with the users, not with the technology.
Here is the current contents of my AceKard2i. All of the below is also compatible with the R4:
MoonShell Media Player
NDS Mail Email Client
Ace Attorney DS: Casemaker 1.1 (Honest to god, the single greatest thing on any console ever. A fairly easy to use creator for creating Phoenix Wright style games ar even just go straight in with Ace Attorney fanfic. Contains MP3, movie playback and even a motion cartridge add-on for motion enabled controls. Simply amazing)
Mario Kart Extra Tracks
A few emulators
DS Doom
SCUMMVM (Best version of Sam and Max EVER)
DSAcadamy
GeoWarsDS
And a bunch of other homebrew games. That has literally scraped the surface of all the legitamate programs you can run from this page
here
According to the linked article, it is literally only R4's as it's an injunction against 2 individual manufacturers of them. This has not outlawed any other flashcart.
Nintendo and its pirates have a love hate relationship.
Pirates are like the Mafia of gaming.
They sell Nintendo consoles by stealing their games.
They will have your games available to more countries, increasing the demand & resulting to what many fanboys call "success" or "victory" - units sales & installed base.
But who suffers?
Not Nintendo but its the likes of Sega, Namco Bandai, Capcom and most of the developers.
Nintendo tried to make the Gamecube hard to pirate...result?....an all time low of around 22 million units lifetime sales... that's 50 million units shy of the Wii and 110 million units shy of the DS.
R4 is just a petty pirate to catch what about the other big time pirates?
With all its billions Nintendo can really afford a decent anti-piracy method on its system I just feel they really wanted to do it.
Just my dos centimos.
Thats a fairly different story altogether, considering *just* R4s would make no significant impact.
http://www.joystiq.com/2010/07/28/r4-and-other-nintendo-ds-flashcarts-outlawed-in-uk/
When that happens I'll never pirate another game, pure and simple.
I agree, I just don't have that kind of moral restraint ;)
They link to a different gi.biz story as well as the Develop one. The Develop one only mentions R4's and 2 manufacturers of R4's.
I'm too lazy to register with gi.biz to read their whole story, so I'm guessing they mention more or different details :)
Still, how many soccer moms looking for a cheap way to keep their kids quiet really want all those homebrew apps?
We're not talking a few r4 cards sold to (no offence) geeks, we're talking millions.
Since I downloaded that one (legally) I haven't played anything else. I even sent $20 to its creator.
POWDER is AWESOME.
None taken, I'm a total geek for this type of crap and have been since the PS1. You're right, there will be pirating fucktards using it.
Looking around at that homebrew reminded me that there is a device called the iplayer, which is more powerful than the R4 but doesn't run game ROMs. Still doesn't let you dump and carry your library of games unfortunatly, but if the rumored install feature on the 3DS comes to fruition, it won't be needed on that device.
So far I have imported Pokemon Diamond and I plan to import Starcraft II. To do so you need the help of someone that can go abroad because no one ever ships ANYTHING to Iran, and paypal and most other payment sites are blocked here.
So yeah, I have an r4 for my DS, and I can say that my conscience is perfectly at ease. It's not like I COULD buy the original games and I didn't want to, it's just nearly impossible for me to play anything in these conditions.
i will keep downloading shit and pirate shit as much as i can, and i make a point of not paying for it if it can be had for free.
I will buy a 3ds when the equivalent of r4/acecard comes out for it, and i will steal all their new games as well. Piracy owns. I love it so much.
When I was a kid, they cost fifty bucks a pop and releases were not weekly like they are today. If you want to "keep up" or "stay current" you'll wind up facing great expenses for doing so.
Which is why I do now what I did back them - I play what I have, play it into the ground and save for what I really want. Financially ruining yourself or stealing games just to be part of a conversation is, quite frankly, fucking stupid.
When I was a kid, they cost fifty bucks a pop and releases were not weekly like they are today. If you want to "keep up" or "stay current" you'll wind up facing great expenses for doing so.
Which is why I do now what I did back them - I play what I have, play it into the ground and save for what I really want. Financially ruining yourself or stealing games just to be part of a conversation is, quite frankly, fucking stupid.
AMEN brotha!