Should I update to the DSi

Hey guys. I'm thinking about trading my DS and GBA in along with a couple games to pay for the majority of the DSi. I do, however, have a few questions first, and since this site has always helped me with almost every question I figured I'd give it a go:

First and most importantly. I have a R4 card that I use as my sole source of games. Does anyone know if the R4 works on the DSi?

Second, I'm worried about the "No Gba slot" thing. For the pokemon games, that means no pal park and the like, and I can't play my fire emblem games anymore without emulation. So on the other hand... does anyone know of a GBA emulator for the DS?

Third, any idea on the SD card slot. I know it works for pictures and music, but is there any restrictions on roms / Gba games? I would assume there are, but I'm not sure.

Fourth, Is it really worth it? I'm counting on you guys who've already played with the DSi. Is it really worth the upgrade. I got my DS near thanksgiving (black friday) 2008, so i've only had it for about 6 months now. I gave 100 dollars for it and it trades in for 75 towards A DSi. Is it worth taking a 25 dollar loss on a 6 month system for the potential "DSi only" games.

I'm trying to capitilize on the free DS points they are giving as an incentive to the DSi, so a quick respone would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance guys...
Jason

P.S. I would appreciate answers from people who have actually had hands on time with the DSi, preferably people who have tried the things i've mentioned... I know you guys, someone's tried to run a rom off an SD card by now

 

Only DSi Flashcarts work on the DSi. Like the Acekard 2i, the TTDSi, or the R4i. All the old flashcarts for the DS will not work for the DSi.

There are currently no GBA emulators for the DS, so you cannot play GBA games on your DSi.

You currently cannot play ROMs directly from the SD slot on the DSi. It is not known if you ever will be able to. I'm sure they are trying, but so far there is nothing.

If you have a DS and a Flashcart, and play GBA games... I personally would not get the DSi. Currently the only news about the "DSi only" games are those DSware games, which you download from the nintendo store, and talk of games in the future having content only accessible from a DSi, like content that uses the DSi Cameras. But the game itself would be playable on the DS, just without that content.

 

Make your own choice. Also, the development channel for DSi, is #dsidev on EFNet server.

 

I would rather stick to the DS myself I really don't see any reason to have a camera (yes I understand they have games that use the feature, but look at the Eye Toy for PS2 it didn't get very far) and it had a slightly bigger screen and from what I have seen of them its not worth the price. Maybe after awhile when the price gets reasonable I might consider it...maybe.

 

If I had a DS with R4 + tons of GBA games, I would not upgrade to DSi. I never had a DS or DSL , so in my case getting the DSI was near perfect.

So far R4 dont work with DSi, but there are R4i... dont know if they work or not as I am using Ak2i.

The SD slot is currently for storage only, and its not like the new upgrades from Wii menu 4.0 where you can run games off the SD card, I doubt they will release it on the DSI tbh. So generically you make backups to your SD slot to make space on your DSI main menu, run out of space store them on your sd slot. (just pretend your using the wii without the recently upgrade menu 4.0), want to play the old game from the sd slot, copy it back to your DSI main menu. thats it so far.

The only real differences from DSi are : better cpu, more internal ram, SD slot accepting upto 32 gigs, online downloads (DsiWare), and better wifi capabilities that I can tell from comparing to friends DSL.

My friend has the DSL and is not planning to upgrade to DSi nor planning to get one right away... guess the GBA functionalities are still keeping him at bay.

 

it actually has better CPU and RAM? i've always heard that there's no improvement in that area

personally i like my DS too much to dump it in for something else. can't afford it anyways

 

DSI specs:

CPUs: The main CPU is an ARM processor clocked at 133 MHz.[40][41]
RAM: 16 MB of RAM (four times as much as previous models)[42]
Storage: 256 MB of internal flash memory[43] with an SD/SDHC card expansion slot (up to 32 GB)[7]
Wireless: 802.11 internal wireless connectivity[44]

DS specs :

CPUs: Two ARM processors, an ARM946E-S main CPU and ARM7TDMI co-processor at clock speeds of 67 MHz and 33 MHz respectively.
The ARM946E-S CPU processes 3D rendering and the ARM7TDMI processes 2D rendering for DS games and Game boy Advance gameplay.
RAM: 4 MB of Mobile RAM
Wi-Fi: Built-in 802.11 Wireless Network Connection (802.11b compatible with WEP encryption support only)



Big differences if you asked me....for cpu/ram improvements... just based on specs
also Dsi web-browser is faster than DS web-browser...
no major differences known yet.. is a better term for graphic wise visually, after all it came on the 5th to the public, its now only the 12th. Screen visual theres no differences, but with added faster cpu/ram in place, game devs can create better games/homebrewers too.


Like I said before : If I had a DS with R4 + tons of GBA games, I would not upgrade to DSi. I never had a DS or DSL , so in my case getting the DSI was near perfect.

I comming from PSP side to DSi I guess. I like em both.

/cheers.

 

nice find. if only the DSi wasn't region locked though. i would get one on my visit back to China in the summer if it wasn't :-\

 

thanks guys. And to amandjones, I was just looking to see if my stuff would be compatible with the dsi before I upgraded. I don't use IRC for the channel. I bought about seven games when I got my DS and then a friend showed me the flashcard. Didn't want to lose the ability to use my flashcard if i did a trade in. I may still do it and just by the DSi versions. Thanks for all the information guys, it really helped...

-jason