Kotaku: R4

Retro Gaming Pin-Up Model Tells Off Game Pirates ("Yaargh!")

Brian Ashcraft — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 05:30:00 MST

Hey! Everyone's favorite retro gaming idol Haruna Anno has some harsh words for you illegal downloader pirate people. Very harsh.

How harsh? This harsh: "[Not paying for games] is the same as not paying your dinner tab or shoplifting," she blogs during a break from writing "Chrono Trigger" in Japanese calligraphy. "It's stealing. Don't think you've really played the game if you've done this... I do not think people who don't buy the games have the privilege to enjoy them."

Well, that wasn't that harsh. Still. Remember, this is coming from a person who once played Chrono Trigger for 36 hours straight. She's the anti-Rola Chen and so not joking around. Haruna Anno is serious business.

DS版『クロノトリガー』が発売前に流出に [杏野はるなの日常。via Sponichi Annex] [Pic]

Even Pin-Up Models Like R4

Brian Ashcraft — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 01:00:00 MST

See it? Look closely. In the DS cartridge slot. In the cart in the cartridge slot. The Micro DS Card. It's there, we think, look. Just as Kyoto cops are cracking down on the R4 business in Japan, Japan-based Chinese bikini model Rola Chen is totally using a R4. And totally taking pictures of herself using it. And totally putting that on her official blog. She writes, "During times when I'm waiting around, I play my DS! ...Now, what game do you think Rola?" Dunno, but we're pretty sure Rola didn't pay for it. Arrest her, officers!

イーちゃんとDS [Rola SMILY Diary via Livedoor News]

Mother And Son Arrested In R4 Piracy Bust

Brian Ashcraft — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 06:00:00 MST

The Nintendo copyright crackdown continues! The Kyoto Prefectural High Tech Crime Prevention Unit has arrested three individuals in Osaka Prefecture in connection with selling R4 style piracy devices. The R4 can be inserted in the DS Lite and has a small slot that the Micro SD card goes into. Data is stored on a Micro SD and downloaded via a flash drive. Not only did the police arrest Yasueda Okada, the 58 year-old president of the company selling R4-type devices, but also her adult son who is a suspect in the case. A third individual is in custody as well. All three have denied any wrongdoing. You know what they say, the family that sells R4 together, gets and arrested and goes to jail together.

ＤＳゲーム無断販売で逮捕著作権法違反容疑で３人 [47NEWS via my game news flash]

Your R4 Cart So Will Not Work In A DSi

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 21:20:00 MST

The camera and bigger screen and internety stuff may look good during a product announcement, but Nintendo probably have an altogether different reason for pushing the DSi onto the market. One related to their burning hatred of the R4 cartridge. As this video above shows, the trusty R4 won't work in the new DS handheld, nor will a ton of other similar devices. Of course, this won't stop new, improved models of those carts from being developed, but for now, you might want to hold onto your DS/DS Lite.

DSi To Stop Flash Cards, Kill Homebrew?

Stuart Houghton — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:20:00 MDT

The Nintendo DSi may come with an SD card slot, prompting fears of even easier piracy, but the redesign will close the boot exploit that allows flash devices like the R4 to load arbitrary code.

According to this story on DigitalBattle, the new DS model will crash if you try to boot with an auto-booting flash card in the slot. Menu-bootable cards will load, but the DSi will crash as soon as a menu item is selected.

On the one hand this may make a dent in game piracy, but it looks like it will scupper legitimate Homebrew developers too. Hopefully Nintendo will be able to come to some compromise - possibly involving that intriguing SD slot...

Flash Cards No Longer Work on DSi [DigitalBattle]

Could The DSi Encourage Piracy?

Mike Fahey — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 10:40:00 MDT

So we've got a new DS coming our way, with a slightly bigger screen and a really crappy camera built in, but for some folks out there the big news is the built-in SD slot, a feature that was some worried that the DSi might make rampant DS game pirating even easier. Speaking with GamesIndustry.biz, Team 17 studio director Martyn Brown echoes my concerns over the sub-par camera and suggests the SD slot might become yet another entry point for pirates.

"Adding an SD slot makes a bunch of sense for downloadable content given the way things are going," offered Brown. "I just hope they've done something to counter the mass piracy that exists via the R4 on the Lite. It scares me that with an SD card input, that might leave it even wider open that it was on the original device," added.

I've known suburban housewives with flash cards for their DSes, so if you ask me, it really doesn't get much easier than it already is.

Team 17 boss cautious of new DSi features [GamesIndustry.biz]

Capcom Explain R4 Lawsuit Participation

Luke Plunkett — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 10:00:00 MDT

In case you missed it, Nintendo and 54 other companies are engaged in a legal battle against the forces of evil. Evil being the R4 cart for the DS. One of those 54 other companies is Capcom, and in a conference call they explained the reason behind their participation in the suit:

There are companies that sell downloads without any license in the U.S.A., while a considerable number of pirated copies of game software are available in the Chinese market. In response to these situations, this lawsuit took the initiative for the whole industry in terms of taking countermeasures. It does not necessarily have a great effect at this stage, but we intend to send a wake-up call to such companies in the future.

That last line's interesting. Particularly if you're involved with the R4 - or other similar devices - and your boots were previously shaking. Their heart's not really in it!

[Capcom]

DS Half Elf Tentacle Assault Game STOPPED!

Brian Ashcraft — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 00:00:00 MDT

This summer, doujin circle Team-DSX planned to release DS title Half Elf Tentacle Assault at Comic Market. The self-made game's entirely homebrew and certainly does not have the Nintendo Seal of Quality — and never will!

However, the Comic Market preparation committee has cancelled Team-DSX's registration, meaning that the circle won't be allowed to sell their DS game. There's no word whether Nintendo was behind this, but the facts that the R4 cartridge was on the Half Elf Tentacle Assault poster and that Team-DSX seemed to be selling the R4. (Nintendo has taken legal action against the R4 in Japan.)

Team-DSX originally planned to sell Half Elf Tentacle Assault in Akihabara as well. However, the doujin circle's website is currently blank. Hit the jump for a pixelated version of the game's flier.

Half Elf tentacle rape DS stopped before release [Canned Dogs]

R4 Price Going Up In Akihabara

Brian Ashcraft — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 22:00:00 MDT

Not only is Nintendo's legal action against R4 cart spiking the sales, it's also spiking the prices. Check out this Akihabara retailer on July 29th when the news was first announced. R4s were going for ¥2,980 (US$28). The following day, the price jumped to ¥4,980 at the same retailer. And today? This shop's price hit ¥5,980 ($55). Pics of that after jump.

This is how you stamp out DS piracy, we guess. Inadvertently drive up the price! (And demand.)

秋葉原】とあるお店のマジコン価格　約２倍に値上がり [Akiba Blog]

Nintendo And 54 Companies Battle Evil R4 In Court

Brian Ashcraft — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:30:00 MDT

Nintendo has just announced that it and 54 game software companies are filing a lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court against companies that import "R4 Revolution for DS"-type devices, using the Unfair Competition Prevention Law as the legal grounding. Nintendo is asking for the cease of marketing, sales and importation of these Chinese-made devices. The R4 allows easy software piracy by fitting right into the DS's cartridge slot. Data is stored on a Micro SD and downloaded from websites via a flash drive, and the R4 has a small slot that the Micro SD card goes into. In a statement released today, Nintendo announced that these R4 devices "allow illegal uploading from the internet", adding that "it is causing severe damage to our company and software makers, and this is something that we cannot possibly overlook." In conclusion, Nintendo adds that such devices hurts the growth of the entire game industry and steps must be taken regarding the legality of R4 carts. It's important to note that this legal injunction is for Japan only.

Back in November 2007, Nintendo announced that it was "keeping a close eye on the products and studying them." Earlier this spring, Nintendo apparently pressured Akihabara retailers to stop carrying the popular R4 carts.

Hit the jump for a list of some of the companies who along with Nintendo have filed in this suit.

Arc System Works
SNK
Capcom
Koei
Jaleco
Square Enix
Sega
Taito
Takara Tomy
Tecmo
Hudson
Bandai Namco Games
The Pokémon Company
Yukes
Level Five

British Industry Group Not Impressed With The R4

Luke Plunkett — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 07:20:00 MDT

Enjoying your R4 carts, Britain? I bet you are. Designed as they are to run code on a DS, many use them for homebrew, but some, obviously, also use them to pirate legitimate DS games. And it's those folks attracting the attention of the authorities, spoiling it for everybody else. The ELSPA (Britain's industry body) reckon that the sale of R4 (and other, similar) carts "is an infringement and an offence under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Trade Marks Act 1994", and from here on they'll be investigating any and all retailers stocking the units. It's important to note that at this stage this is more of a warning than a direct threat, as they haven't come out and called for an immediate, blanket ban, but I imagine a stern warning is all it will take for many small retailers to quit stocking them anyway.

DS: The Shocking Truth [MCV]

Nintendo Spooks Retailers Into Pulling R4 Carts

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 01:30:00 MDT

R4 carts, you either love 'em or hate 'em. People who want to play pirated DS games, they love 'em. Retailers in Akihabara, they love 'em, because they sell a fuckton of them. But Nintendo? They hate 'em. And may have started doing something about it. We knew that they'd begun to grow concerned over the carts late last year, but over the past week many specialist retailers in Akihabara have put up notices saying they'll no longer be selling the R4, following threats made by Nintendo. Same goes for some Japanese online retailers. So is this the end for the naughty little cartridge? Eh, probably not. Nintendo may be able to strong-arm the little guy, but not the littler guys they don't even know about. Or the internets.
マジコンR4　もう入荷しないって [Akiba Blog]

R4 Cartridge Discovered in GameStop Ad

fdemarco — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 09:00:00 MST

Kotakuite razmig snapped this rather interesting photo at his local GameStop. In a sign promoting the Nerf DS case, he noticed something a little strange. Right there in the case, nestled among the other games is an R4 cartridge. For those not in the know, the R4 is a popular product that will allow its users to download and play DS games illegally through the use of a Micro SD card. Mind you, the cartridge itself is technically not illegal, but given GameStop's hard stance on this type of thing and Nintendo's recent crackdown on piracy, I'm rather surprised this ad made it through. Having been a graphic designer, I know these things get looked at by a number of people before it goes to print and I would think someone would have caught it. Guess not.

90% Of United States Is Pirating DS Games?

Mark Wilson — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 11:40:11 MST

John Hillier is the manager of the UK-based The Entertainment & Leisure Software Publishers Association's Intellectual Property Crime unit. And he just made one hell of a claim about the American piracy market for the Nintendo DS.

In America it's thought 90 percent of Nintendo DS users are playing pirated games because of R4s...takings from Nintendo DS games in the US are lower than any other console...

Seriously? Is this guy for real? Because we can't believe that 90% of DS owners have even heard of the R4.

Chips are down for Super Mario [TheSundayPost via CVG]

Nintendo's Biggest Threat? R4

Brian Ashcraft — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 00:00:43 MST

It's called the R4, and it's here to rain on Nintendo's parade. The R4 fits right into the DS's cartridge slot. Data is stored on a Micro SD and downloaded via a flash drive. The R4 has a small slot that the Micro SD card goes into. The China-made piracy device is available all over Akihabara, where retailers advertise it vaguely: "New R4 shipment has finally arrived! You know what it does! Absolutely no questions will be answered concerning this product..." or "Guaranteed for one week only! Of course we can't explain what the R4 will do..." Says a Nintendo spokesperson:

We are keeping a close eye on the products and studying them. But we cannot smash all of them.

With DS games appearing on the internet within days of release, the R4 is certainly be a very real threat. And something Nintendo should be keeping a closer eye on.
The R4 Chip is Small [Times Online, Thanks Philip!]