posted by admin on May 12
My little nephew has taught me something great about his new DSi!
I recently wrote about the new Nintendo DSi and how my little nephew was addicted to the thing! Playing Pokemon games even when he was asleep!
Anyway, I was watching him playing one game (which I couldn’t quite understand) when he suddenly started playing a completely different one with just a few bangs of his stylus!
How on earth??
Well, it turned out he had heard about the r4i adaptor card and was taking full advantage!
So, what’s the r4i adapter card then I hear you ask? Well, it’s a modified flash memory card that is exactly the same shape and size as a normal DSi games cartridge – but it can hold more than just the one game!
Basically you can use it as a sort of memory stick. You can download games that you have already brought from sites on the Internet for free – this way, you are getting a ‘back-up copy’ of your favourite game. So, if you damage your original cartridge, you don’t have to buy a whole new one – just stick in the r4i adaptor cartridge and carry on playing.
Is that all?
Well, no. The thing is that the r4i adaptor can hold more than the one game – therefore allowing you to download copies of all the games you already own into one cartridge – and as my nephew had just done – switch from one game to the next without having to swap cartridges – or spend 20 minutes trying to wrestle the other game off of his younger brother!
The technology is so simple that my nephew was downloading files himself from his Mac – it was basically using drag-and-drop technology to move the files across!
And, further to the whole games concept – the r4i adaptor can also hold anything else you fancy from your computer. For example, you can download movies onto it to watch on your DSi, or music to play when you are supposed to be brushing your teeth!
It also allows you to perform other simple functions from your media, including browsing through your favorite photos with family, reading e-books about tips for your new games and you can read your own downloaded computer files including birthday lists (with more games on it) or boring work documents!
The r4i cartridges can hold up to 32gb of memory – so there will be plenty of space for a bit of everything inside!
What’s the catch?
To be honest – there isn’t one! It does exactly what it says on the packet. It is a cartridge-shaped flash memory ‘stick’ that works with the new Nintendo DSi.
There is a separate r4 adaptor you can buy that works with the original DS, as these cannot be used for the new version, and vice versa. That way, which ever console you choose to use – you just need the one cartridge!
Both the original r4 cards and the new r4i cards are readily available from www.gamesbackup.co.uk – so you can start moving your games across and enjoy your games and personal media files in a whole new way!
But, please remember- you need to have originally brought each game before you can legally download it from the Internet to make sure you stay within the bounds of copyright law. These files are only meant to be an online back-up for damaged cartridges or to move your favourite games into a new media format – i.e. – onto the r4 cards!


