Nintendo concedes it can't smash homebrew R4 mod

By Tim Conneally | Published November 26, 2007, 6:28 PM

It's not a reference to the eagerly awaited Wii title Super Smash Brothers Brawl. "We cannot smash them all." is a quote from a Nintendo spokesperson regarding unauthorized third-party modification devices for the DS.

The R4 is a microSD reader that fits into the Nintendo DS' Slot-1 port and bypasses all of the handheld's security functions, allowing a host of uses: playing music and movies, reading text files, creating homebrew software, and playing "backed up" - or copied - games.

The product requires no drivers, and copied games are fully supported, complete with Wi-Fi and the Rumble Pak - a plug-in device that makes the game physically shake at the appropriate moments. The R4 and the M3 DS -- a similar product reported to be produced in the same factory -- both retail for around $45 USD.

Products like these are technically legal, but the most common uses are typically piratical, and not looked upon favorably by Nintendo. Even those activities that fall within the legal uses of the product -- such as creating and trading homebrew games -- could be potential negatives for the system.

One can be sure Nintendo never intended support for games like (and I'm not making this up) "Porn All Stars" and "Strip Rock-Paper-Scissors."

Comments

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Rule 34 in effect /b/oss

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FOCROFLMFAO

Nice hack, btw.

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Where's Joey, he should be here telling us how bad Nintendo sucks and how great Sony is.

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I still don't see why these company's still bother trying to do away with piracy. No matter what they try, its going to happen. Take Super Mario Galaxy for example, they put new protection into the game, but yet a simple update to Mod chips bypassed all the protection in a matter of hours.

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Strip Rock Paper Scissors: (To get CONTEXT for this story) http://www.nakedworldrecords.com/striprps.htm NSFW

Just think of if we had never bombed the Japanese. We'd all be participating in Strip Rock Paper Scissors.

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Looking around myself, I cannot even begin to imagine the horror...

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sweet.

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Nintendo should embrace this

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I agree. If you can't fight it and can't beat it, then do everything you can to offer the services people want.

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I think that ole Nintedno should release their own version as homebrew mod kit and undercut the R4. This way they can still make some profit off something they are unable to prevent. I think this is what annoys me most about the PSP, the fact that sony keep releasing thinly veiled firmware updates every few weeks that are nothing more than homebrew killers. I agree that piracy sucks, but how much do they lose compared to the amount of money they spend on constantly preventing it and the number of legit homebrew users they put off buying the hardware.

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they hope that if the user is getting annoyed with the constant fixes they may go legit.

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Sounds COOL!

Where can I get one?

I love news like this because I never would have known this device even existed.

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Yea...you have never heard of pirating...I believe that.

What I love more then news like this is people like you that try to make the reporters feel bad by pretending this is some sort of amazing discovery they have never heard about...

"What?! There is pirating??!! No way, how do I get involved?!?!"

What makes this even funnier is that you're trying to make this claim on a technical news site

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I have heard of pirating, but I never heard of this device.

It's not the pirating I am after, but the ability to use a DS as an mp3 player, possibly a video player, how about a port of Firefox?

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Amazon has them, I already ordered one.

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Are you serious? lol

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Have you ever heard of google? It's an amazing tool that allows you to find out certain things faster than it takes, in many cases, to post that question to a forum. :p

Google: amazon R4 (fifth result)

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I am serious, after going to FleaBay and seeing the $70 - $100 dollar jack ups, I decided to see if Amazon carried it and sure enough, they do.

I haven't bough the DS (Lite) yet but they are everywhere, it was last years hot item.

The Wii however is fetching $600 plus as we get cloder to Christmas, Nintendo is the master of fake demand and low supplies. They know most Wii's go to Ebay and people still think it's a hot item because of purposely low shipping numbers.

I will post my opinion of the R4 after I use it the first time but almost every review is a 9.5 already.

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Piratical? Is that a word?

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piratical

adjective
1. characteristic of pirates; "piratical attackers"
2. characteristic of piracy; "piratical editions of my book"

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lmao....

Can anyone guess the first results returned by Google on the search "piratical"?

I bet you can, Tim. :p

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Now im afraid to see what turns up, atleast while im at school.

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The first result is exactly what Tim posted.

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If you were expecting what I was expecting, then I was actually kind of disappointed!

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