R4i Card For Nintendo DSi XL - Homebrew Gaming With the R4i

Every time Nintendo releases a new version of its massively popular handheld console - the Nintendo DS, homebrew developers and gamers aline wonder whether or not their current Homebrew NDS Flash Cards will work on the new system. When the Nintendo DS lite was released, everything just worked when it came to homebrew. No major changes were made to the Nintendo DS Lite internally, and any and all changes were really just the look of the unit.

With the release of the Nintendo DSi console however, things were not so easy. The most famous of all of the NDS Flash Cards, the R4 DS Card simply did not work in the new Nintendo DSi console. Not that any of the others worked either, they simply did not. The hardware inside the DSi was different, blocking some of the abilities of the flash cards to work as they should. That did however change fairly quickly, with the release of the R4i Card for the Nintendo DSi. The R4i Card worked just as well as the R4 DS Card did for the original Nintendo DS.

What was great about the R4i Card was that it not only worked for the new Nintendo DSi, but also on the older Nintendo DS and DS Lite. Making it 100% backwards compatible to all versions of the handheld. This way, gamers who owned a Nintendo DS or DS Lite could buy the R4i Card instead of the R4 DS Card in order to ensure update / future compatibility, should they ever decide to go out and buy a Nintendo DSi.

Once again Nintendo is releasing an update to their Nintendo DS, this time it's going to be called the Nintendo DS XL. XL, I can only think, stands for Xtra Large :). The update this time is in the form of a major size update. Both screens will not be 4.5 inches in size, with the same type of operating system / firmware as the DSi.

This is good news for any Nintendo DS owners who have an R4i Card. Because the internals of the new DSi XL will remain the same. And I am happy to state that I have personally tried my R4i Card in my brand new Nintendo DSi XL (well, the LL from Japan, thats where it is available for now - soon to be here in North America) and the R4i Card works like a charm. It loads and runs exactly the same way that it does on my regular Nintendo DSi console. Now, if I were the only one that it worked for - I may consider myself to perhaps just be lucky. I have however found a slew of web sites in Japan, as well as gamers here who have purchased a Nintendo DSi XL from Japan, and everyone so far is reporting that the R4i Card works just as it should, and as it did in their Nintendo DSi consoles.

The message here is that if you have a Nintendo DSi and and R4i Card - you're good to go. If however you have an original Nintendo DS, because the DSi did not have enough extra features for your to upgrade, but the DSi XL might be your cup of tea, then the R4i Card is your safest, and perhaps BEST bet to ensure you can continue playing your homebrew games and applications and watch your movies. And let me tell you, the bigger screen makes a big difference, especially when I am watching a movie on my R4i Card and my DSi XL ! As good as a portable DVD player - just based on the screen size!

The DSi XL offers enough of a change, and feature updates to warrant and justify an upgrade from the older Nintendo DS, and even from the Nintendo DSi. I do honestly think that Nintendo did the right thing, and making the screen size bigger may just mean attracting a bit of an older gang of gamers that initially were turned off due to the small screen sizes, etc...

Find out more about the R4i Card, the R4 DS Card and other NDS Flash Cards, and get the complete run down of their features and functions by visiting http://www.ModChipStore.com

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