The R4 (pictured above) is an unassuming little cartridge with a big reputation – it has enabled Nintendo DS owners to enjoy game backups, media playback, homebrew games, and everything else Nintendo really should’ve added to the thing from the start to really make the most out of their handehld’s hardware.

The R4 (and other flashcarts like it) also allow for easy piracy of DS games, so it’s understandable that Nintendo wouldn’t be entirely approving of the device. Hence in their latest DSi update, as well as adding support for Facebook photo sharing they also decided to cripple many popular makes of flash cartridge. The R4 was included, and thanks to the thorough anti-R4-ness of Nintendo’s patch, it’ll take more than a software update to re-enable it.

In fact, the original R4 is essentially completely useless for fully-patched DSi’s now.

Of course, it was only a matter of time before the pirates fought back, and fight back they have with the R4i Gold – boasting support for the very latest DSi firmware with the convenient drag-and-drop operation that made the R4 so popular in the first place.

It’s a shame Nintendo don’t release their own version of this device (without the piracy, of course) and allow all DS owners to take advantage of the media playback, ebook reader, and other fantastic little features that a cart like this can provide.

Oh, well. We can but dream.

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