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NDS/3DS Emulation with R4?

47
Posts
12
Years
  • Seen Oct 30, 2016
Alright so I really want to play Pokemon Red, Blue, Gold, Silver, Yellow, and Crystal on my 3DS or DSi. Ive heard that you can't just download them to the SD card that came with my 3DS, but rather you need an r4 card. What exactly is it? Can I play gameboy/gbc games on it? Ive searched for tutorials on Youtube, but I haven't found anything about GB/GBC on 3DS. Its all downloaded DS games on to the DSi. Can someone explain what I will have to do?

Also, I've heard that you need a micro SD card. Can I use the one that came with my 3DS or do I need a different one? If I need a different one, how can I get it into my computer? I can fit the SD card into my MacBookPro 2012, but I'm not sure it will take a different size. What should I do? Can I even use a mac with the r4 software?

Thanks, I really need to know soon cuz Im going out of town in about a week and don't wanna have to bring my GBA with Red, Blue, ect. and my 3DS with my newer games. Id love to just bring one!
 

Canen

Sometimes, I like to party.
46
Posts
11
Years
Hey.

An R4 cart is a cartridge that will fit into your DS like a normal game. The cart itself contains a removable microsd card which will contain the roms of the games you want to put on it. With this R4 cart you will get a usb converter for the microsd card which will allow you to take out the card from the R4 and put it into your PC like a pen drive. This way you can transfer roms from your PC to your microsd, and then you simply put the microsd back into the R4 cart and play it like a normal DS game.

There is a website for the R4 cart and having been a user myself I can recommend using them. However I am unsure if I am allowed to link up here so I will PM you with a link.

I hope that helps mate.
 

GoGoJJTech

(☞゚ヮ゚)☞ http://GoGoJJTech.com ☜(゚ヮ゚☜)
2,475
Posts
11
Years
R4 can also play movies, I think. Research it.
I have action replay but the 3ds has security thats blocks it. It might do the same for r4.
CHECK BEFORE BUYING!
 
47
Posts
12
Years
  • Seen Oct 30, 2016
Hey.

An R4 cart is a cartridge that will fit into your DS like a normal game. The cart itself contains a removable microsd card which will contain the roms of the games you want to put on it. With this R4 cart you will get a usb converter for the microsd card which will allow you to take out the card from the R4 and put it into your PC like a pen drive. This way you can transfer roms from your PC to your microsd, and then you simply put the microsd back into the R4 cart and play it like a normal DS game.

There is a website for the R4 cart and having been a user myself I can recommend using them. However I am unsure if I am allowed to link up here so I will PM you with a link.

I hope that helps mate.

Thanks much man. I answered your PM, but decided to just ask on here incase anyone else has questions, they can see your answers here too.

Anyways, will this allow me to have (for example) Pokemon Red, Pokemon Silver, and Pokemon Ruby? Basically can I have GB, GBC, and GBA games all on one card or do I have to buy a card for each system/game? D you know if I can emulate other systems on this card, like n64, XBox360, PS3, ect?

My final question, on the r4 website, there are some products with hundreds of DS games preloaded onto the card. How does this work? If I got that, would I have like 300 DS titles and then could I add GB, GBC, and GBA games? That would be the most bang for my buck for sure!

Thanks

R4 can also play movies, I think. Research it.
I have action replay but the 3ds has security thats blocks it. It might do the same for r4.
CHECK BEFORE BUYING!

Alright thanks man. Ill check it out! Thanks for the heads up!
 
Last edited:

GoGoJJTech

(☞゚ヮ゚)☞ http://GoGoJJTech.com ☜(゚ヮ゚☜)
2,475
Posts
11
Years
No problem but you can use it for anything before the 3ds like dsi etc.
 

stp

ShootThePuck
196
Posts
11
Years
Thanks much man. I answered your PM, but decided to just ask on here incase anyone else has questions, they can see your answers here too.

Anyways, will this allow me to have (for example) Pokemon Red, Pokemon Silver, and Pokemon Ruby? Basically can I have GB, GBC, and GBA games all on one card or do I have to buy a card for each system/game? D you know if I can emulate other systems on this card, like n64, XBox360, PS3, ect?

My final question, on the r4 website, there are some products with hundreds of DS games preloaded onto the card. How does this work? If I got that, would I have like 300 DS titles and then could I add GB, GBC, and GBA games? That would be the most bang for my buck for sure!

Thanks



Alright thanks man. Ill check it out! Thanks for the heads up!

There are different types of R4 (R4, R4i, R4 Gold, 3DS R4 Gold, etc) and each has it's limitations, but you need to get one depending on the system you have. You can't use a 3DS R4 and play 3DS games on a DS Lite, it doesn't work like that. All the games (roms of the games), firmware and whatever else are placed on a Micro-SD that is insterted into the R4. You can't emulate other systems, and without using a program on the R4 (such as Lameboy, which only emulates gb and gbc games), you can't play any gb, gbc, or gba games. GBA games are impossible to emulate on an R4, as of now.

I don't think there's any possible way to have 300 games on your R4, there isn't enough space on your Micro-SD for 300 games. But, yeah, everything would be on one micro sd.

The problem with older R4s is that their firmware is still outdated for some DS games. An example would be Black 2 and White 2, which you can't play on an R4i without using another firmware (TTMenu or YSMenu). I assume it's like that with the R4 too, not sure about Gold versions and I believe the 3DS has no such problem.

I realize I'm also talking about stuff that you may not totally understand, sorry!

I own an R4i and understand a lot about R4s in general, so feel free to pm me if you have any questions. I'm not master, but I have some experience. :)
 
Last edited:

shadowdueler474

Muffins for all!
49
Posts
11
Years
  • Age 25
  • Seen May 25, 2014
I would recommend getting a Supercard DSTwo instead if an R4 because it can emulate GBA and SNES games along with DS games on the 3DS, DSi, etc.
 

stp

ShootThePuck
196
Posts
11
Years
I believe you would need a slot 2 Supercard as well for that, if I'm not mistaken.
 

machomuu

Stuck in Hot Girl Summer
10,507
Posts
15
Years
I believe you would need a slot 2 Supercard as well for that, if I'm not mistaken.
DSTWO can emulate the GBA and SNES games (the latter of which run incredibly thanks to the recent updates of CATSFC). Slot-2 Supercard (which is for Supercard 1) doesn't exactly emulate the GBA, it just runs the GBA games natively, something that's impossible on the DSi and 3DS.
 

GoGoJJTech

(☞゚ヮ゚)☞ http://GoGoJJTech.com ☜(゚ヮ゚☜)
2,475
Posts
11
Years
The 3ds screen is huger tban a ds screen, so even if you could play 3ds on a ds, the screen would be cut off because of the size.
Plus when i play ds games on my 3ds the screen automatically shrinks to fit the game.
no 3ds emulation for ds, sorry.
 

EJ

everything is purple
1,618
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15
Years
  • Age 31
  • FL
  • Seen Mar 19, 2022
I think it is possible. I managed to emulate the Sega Genesis with an R4 years ago. Like someone said previously, the GBA can't be emulated by it.

The 3ds screen is huger tban a ds screen, so even if you could play 3ds on a ds, the screen would be cut off because of the size.
Plus when i play ds games on my 3ds the screen automatically shrinks to fit the game.
no 3ds emulation for ds, sorry.

He doesn't want to play 3DS games on a ds....wha?
 

stp

ShootThePuck
196
Posts
11
Years
The 3ds screen is huger tban a ds screen, so even if you could play 3ds on a ds, the screen would be cut off because of the size.
Plus when i play ds games on my 3ds the screen automatically shrinks to fit the game.
no 3ds emulation for ds, sorry.

I think the more likely reason would be that the DS can't handle the 3DS hardware.
 
47
Posts
12
Years
  • Seen Oct 30, 2016
Honestly, I don't know where everyone is getting this information about me wanting to play 3DS on DS. That not at all what I'm trying to do. Not sure where we went off track, but we did.
 

GoGoJJTech

(☞゚ヮ゚)☞ http://GoGoJJTech.com ☜(゚ヮ゚☜)
2,475
Posts
11
Years
Huh, i guess we did
anyway good luck with the emulation
But any reason gba games arent possible to emulate on one?
Its like we are in an era where everyone emulates gba
 

machomuu

Stuck in Hot Girl Summer
10,507
Posts
15
Years
Huh, i guess we did
anyway good luck with the emulation
But any reason gba games arent possible to emulate on one?
Its like we are in an era where everyone emulates gba
R4s (and most other flashcarts) don't have enough power to do so. The DS and DS Lite don't emulate it, they just run it natively in GBA-mode, which does not exist in the Slot 1 (and thus, not on the DSi or slot 1 carts). The DSTWO has extra power for the sake of doing such, and more.
 
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