The Nintendo DS is an amazing gaming machine that offers a unique interface, a huge range of awesome games and a stylish, compact design to satisfy all your portable gaming needs. The introduction of flash media cards for the DS has opened up a world of new uses for Nintendo’s flagship portable, allowing it to run homebrew games and applications.

This introduction allows you to play MP3s, watch movies, play games from older consoles through emulators, and play ROM backups of your games.

The R4 and the M3 DS Simply represent the latest in the development of flash based memory cards for the DS. The two cards are essentially the same and differ in name only, both utilizing microSD memory cards and plug into Slot 1 (The DS game slot). Both feature drag and drop support for ROMs and Homebrew (meaning no fiddly patching of files, you literally just copy the files to your micro SD card) and have an easy to use interface with Moonshell built in as default, allowing playing of MP3s and movie files. Both can be used without having do dangerous mods to the system or use buggy pass cartridges.

The following are 4 cool things you can do with your DS using the R4 or M3 DS Simply.

1. Play ROM backup files – Contrary to popular belief, flash memory cards for the DS are not simply for playing pirated games (although it certainly is possible, and is a question of your personal ethics whether you do or not) and can be used in a variety of legal ways. Putting backup ROMs of games you own on the R4 or DS Simply is a great way to make your DS even more portable, as you won’t have to carry your game cartridges around with you. This is also a great option if you have young kids, who can easily lose the DS’s tiny cartridges.

2. Play MP3s and Movies – By using the excellent program Moonshell (Which comes bundled with the R4 and M3 DS Simply) you can turn your DS into a portable media player, able to play MP3s and DPG movie files. This is great for those like myself, who previously walked around with bulging pockets trying to carry my DS, Ipod, phone and PDA. A set of good headphones gives sound quality rivaling the iPod for MP3 playback, and The DS Lite’s super bright, high resolution screens are great for watching Simpsons episodes on the train. Moonshell will play MP3s natively, and a small free-to-download application called DPG Converter will quickly and easily convert your movies and shows to Moonshell’s DPG format.

3. Turn your DS into a PDA – Using the excellent homebrew program DSOrganize, you can turn your DS into a full featured PDA, utilizing input via the touch screen. Among it’s many features it contains a Scheduler, Calender, Notes, Drawing application and reminders, and my favourite of all the uses of DS Homebrew, the ability to play streaming radio off the internet through the DS’s wifi connection.

4. Run Homebrew Applications – Homebrew software, which is software created by programmers and hobbyists for the sole purpose of experimenting with the system, has exploded since the release of the new, easy-to-use R4 and M3 DS simply. Ranging from simple games to full fledged applications, there’s a universe of homebrew available for free download from the internet. Some of the newest software allows wonderful new uses for the DS, such as using the DS as a VOIP phone (through the built in microphone), a wifi hotspot detector, a web browser and the above-mentioned DSOrganize PDA software. There are also a series of emulator programs that allow one to play games from the NES, SNES, Gameboy, Sega Master System and Sega Genesis.

For more info on the Nintendo DS, The R4 Revolution and where to get yourself an R4 and Homebrew games and programs, check out Welcome Distractions – Nintendo DS

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Seth_Gecko

Author: Seth Gecko

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Transform a Nintendo DS with the R4 DS Revolution

The R4 DS Revolution brings a host of exciting features to the Nintendo DS, including one Nintendo are keen to avoid.

Nintendo’s DS systems is one the most successful handheld gaming systems in history. Unfortunately all you can do with it is play games. Well that’s what you bought it for isn’t it? But wouldn’t it be great if you could use your DS as a portable media centre? Wouldn’t it be good to listen to your mp3s, watch videos and see your holiday photos on it?

Guess what. You can. All you need is a little device called the R4 DS Revolution (or R4DS if you prefer). The R4 is a bit of a Revolution for DS as it happens. It could become an essential component for every DS owner to enhance their experience, or it could turn the system into a software pirate’s dream.

The R4 DS Revolution works as an adaptor for your DS to transfer data with a flash SD card, the type you might use in a digital camera or mobile phone. First you need to put your applications and files on your SD card from your computer. Following that, simply plug the R4 DS Revolution into your Nintendo DS, then your SD card into the R4 DS Revolution. Then you can use whatever files and applications are stored on the SD card on your Nintendo DS.

The applications can be downloaded from the Internet from specialist websites. The types of application you can expect range from music players, image viewers and calculators to card games and homemade platform games.

On top of this, using the R4 DS Revolution, you can back-up all your current DS games onto an SD card. This is a Godsend if you have messy children that don’t put their games away and a 3 month old puppy eager to tear apart anything it can get its teeth on. Since I had a back-up of Pokemon Diamond there were no tears when our dog got a little over excited with the copy we’d bought just a week before. Thank you R4.

Not only that, you can easily back-up all your games onto a single SD card. That means you don’t need to lug your entire games collection around with you. In fact you never need to unplug the R4 DS Revolution as it can store all your games in it. That means no more hunting around for lost DS cartridges. It makes the Nintendo DS an all-in-one portable gaming and media station, for less than the price of a single game.

However, this isn’t all good news from Nintendo’s view point. There is a fairly significant threat that could harm the video gaming industry and it’s consumers on two fronts. That is piracy.

The R4 DS Revolution is not illegal and can be bought at many reputable online stores. However video games can be pirated to use the R4 DS Revolution for playing game which they do not own. Nintendo urge R4 DS Revolution owners not to use the hardware for illegal purposes. Long-term effects caused by piracy include a weaker games market which leads to a lowering of the quality and quantity of games produced.

Ironically, the threat of piracy also threatens the R4 DS Revolution itself. There are many online stores selling imitations of the R4 Revolution. There are plenty of Internet forum reports of people plugging in their brand new R4 DS Revolution only to find they can never turn their DS on again. But after closer inspection, they realise it not a true R4 DS Revolution but a very similar clone. I found advice on buying a real R4 DS Revolution before making a purchase.

It looks like the R4 DS Revolution will give a large proportion of Nintendo DS owners a new and exciting way to utilise their portable gaming console. It also looks like Nintendo have quite a battle to stop the sale of the R4 DS Revolution which will undoubtedly lead to in an increase in piracy. The fairest situation it seems would be for Nintendo to close down the pirate websites and allow the ethical use of the R4 DS Revolution to continue.

WikiPrice offers more information and a UK price comparison on the R4 DS Revolution for people interested in the multimedia aspects of the system.

Access The Largest and Most Complete Nintendo DS And DSi Database on the Internet and Download UNLIMITED NDS Games! Click here