Below are the 3 most recent journal entries recorded in kwstar88's InsaneJournal:

Saturday, January 23rd, 2010
5:56 pm	Using the R4 to improve your brain In my previous article, I mentioned the R4 / R4i for the Nintendo DS. With the R4 / R4i , it is possible to transform your NDS into a gaming device which can play multimedia files and double as a personal organizer. I would now like to turn your attention to the misconceptions that many people have towards the NDS. Many people think that the Nintendo DS / DSi is merely a gaming device, made solely for kids. There seems to be a new fad amongst adults on the internet to bash the NDS as a gaming device for children. If you ask anyone what the age group of the typical DS user is, he or she will likely mention kids or teens under 18. I will have you know that this is a gross misperception. If you look up demographics, you will find that a significant portion of users are aged from 30-45. The fact that 4 out of the top 10 best selling NDS games of all time are games aimed at that demographic further reinforces to the claim that the NDS is not a "kiddy gamer" platform. So if you're a person who fits in the age group mentioned above, what kind of games should you get? Well for starters, you could always go for the educational games like Brain Age, Professor Layton or Picross DS. These games all target a large age group of users. I can guarantee you that I have spent at least a hundred hours on Brain Age DS. You also get the additional benefit of enhancing your brain power and increasing your memory capacity. Another popular type of games enjoyed by the adult demographic is puzzle games. Games worth playing include: Puzzle Quest, Tetris DS, Meteos, Puzzle Planet League and Soul Bubbles. Zoo Keeper is also a game that seems to attract a lot of attention from the middle aged female gamer: I always see office ladies playing that game on the subway. Get those games on an R4 / R4i , which allows you to hold all your games in one single flash cart, and you have yourself a device loaded with an infinite supply of mind stimulating games. In summary: the DS is definitely not just a device for kids. Using the R4 to improve your brain (Comment on this)
Friday, January 15th, 2010
10:34 pm	R4i - The Future Of Portable Gaming A long time ago, I bought a Nintendo DS. A a giant one. It's still in my closet, but I'm scared to take it out because other people always laugh at the "brick" that I'm carrying around. In my quiet shame, I embarked upon a quest for redemption. Off into the wild internets I sailed in search of the latest and greatest DS available, and decided to buy a Nintendo DSi. It appeared that my disgrace was without end however, as I was continually mocked for purchasing physical game cartridges. Noob! I was called. Why aren't you using the new r4i? It allows you to take games that you've downloaded for free, and put them on your DSi to play! And so, I discovered the world of the r4i card and related homebrew ds technologies. After having this revelation of the magnificence of r4i and nintendo ds homebrew, I was so amazed, I had to find out more. And so, I dived into the history of the nintendo ds r4 card. It turns out that there was already an r4 for the original nintendo ds, called the r4 ds. Upon learning this, I hung my head in shame. Why was I paying money for games all of those years when I could have been using an r4 on my original ds? Through the shame, I continued to persevere in the pursuit of enlightenment about the nintendo ds r4 card. It seems that as technology developed, updates were made which lead to the release of the r4 sdhc and eventually the r4i sdhc. These upgrades paved the way for increased access speed and greater storage capacity, living up to the acronym of secure digital high capacity. The technologies surrounding these cards has culminated in the modern incarnation, the r4i card for dsi. This latest instance sports compatibility with the cutting edge nintendo dsi, to the rage of higher ups at Nintendo, and allows you to play pretty much any game available in stores, as well as a vast array of homebrew apps, for no money at all. If you haven't heard of r4i and homebrew, or if perhaps you have and just haven't taken the time to check it out, please do. It's a sick investment, especially if you're tend to spend lots of money on games, that will pay off in savings and enjoyment for many years to come. Go buy yours today! (Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010
7:14 pm	The legal status of R4 SDHC / R4i SDHC cards Flash cards such as the R4 SDHC / R4i SDHC have been around since game consoles have been around. People have used them for a lot of purposes: running emulators, loading homebrew apps or playing ROM games (commonly known as pirated games). Whether you accept the legality of them or not, it is an undeniable fact that flash cards like the R4 DS / R4i DS are becoming increasingly popular for use with the Nintendo DS. Since I have written about the convenience of the Nintendo DS R4 card in previous posts, I will now turn to the legal status of them, and what you can use them legally for. According to a news article in the Times U.K., Nintendo DS flash cards such as the R4 / R4i are not illegal. A representative for Nintendo U.K. tell us in this article that game adaptors (flash cards) like the R4 SDHC / R4i SDHC are not illegal as long as they are used in a lawful manner. Rob Saunders, the Nintendo spokesman mentioned above, states that using an R4 SDHC / R4i SDHC for these purposes is legal: - Running homebrew applications or games. - Playing MP3s of songs you have bought. - Playing movies that you have already purchased and converted yourself. - Playing backups of games you already own. The last point is probably the most pertinent one to R4 SDHC / R4i SDHC users. It is absolutely acceptable to make backups of your games and run them on your Nintendo DS R4 card. This means that you can store your entire collection of DS or GBA games (apparently it's possible to convert GBA files to NDS files) on your R4 /R4i flash card. Think about it: with a 32GB Micro SD Card, you could hold up to 1000 games. all in the palm of your hands, available to be played with no legal consequences. What more do you need? To sum it all up, R4s are legal. So what are you waiting for? Embrace technology, and get your R4 SDHC / R4i SDHC here, today. The legal status of R4 SDHC / R4i SDHC cards (Comment on this)