I've only had my new R4DS flash card for a couple of days now and already I've been able to do so much that I never imagined I would be able to when I first ordered it a little over a week ago. The R4DS is truely a wonderful piece of hardware and a must have for any DS owner no matter what you intend to do with it.
What you can do with the R4DS (what I've learned):
- Run homebrew roms on your DS without needing to use a passme to load it from a GBA flash card (patching required)
- Run commercial game roms without a passme
- Boot software in the GBA slot straight from the R4 menu with skinable border (can also be used as a passme to boot NDS software from the GBA cart, not tested since I don't have a GBA flash cart)
- Play MP3s (128kb/s with no ID3 tag information)
- Play DPG videos
- View JPEG images
- View TXT documents
- View eBooks (not tested yet only read about in R4 manual)
The R4 comes with the MoonShell OS which allows you to view and play media and the R4 and the MoonShell OS are both fully skinable and can be customized to suit your needs. All the software you need is included on a mini CD that comes with the R4. Just copy the files from the system folder on the disc to you microSD/transFlash card and the software is installed. Roms and other files can be stored anywhere on the memory stick except the system folders as those are hidden from view in the R4's menu.
The MP3 playback feature allows you to listen that any MP3 as long as it is 128kb/s and does not contain any ID3 tag information. If ID3 tag information is present on the MP3 file when it is loaded on the memory stick then the MP3 will not play correctly (personal experience and a lot of trial and error taught me this). The MoonShell OS will even continue to play the music even after you close the DS's screen and put it in sleep mode allowing you to use your DS as a portable MP3 player. Plug in your headphones, stick your DS in your pocket and jam
.
Running homebrew roms for the DS requires you to patch them with the appropriate DLDI patch.
As for running commercial roms all you do is copy the uncompressed rom the your memory stick and load it into the R4. The R4 fully supports all features incluing Wi-Fi, microphone support and sleep mode support. I already tried a copy of Mario Kart DS on it and the Nintendo WFC servers couldn't tell the difference between my real copy and the rom on the R4.
The R4 also contains an in-game reset feature that can be turned on and off at will by pressing the R button or tapping on the R icon on the top-right on the touch screen before loading a rom. When turned on you can press L+R+A+B+X+Y to reset the R4 to the main menu no matter where you are in your game. This is a nice way to quickly switch roms without having to turn off your DS and turn it back on again.
I have managed to fit a total of 15 roms and about 25 MP3s on a 1GB microSD and still have space left over. Oh and for those of you who don't have a momory stick reader on your computer, the R4 comes with a USB microSD reader that lets you access you microSD memory stick through your USB drive so noone is left out.
So far every commercial game I've loaded on the R4 has run flawlessly including the Castlevania games and the new Pokemon Diamond and Pearl.
Feel free to ask me any questions and I will be glad to answer to the best of my knowledge.