First of all, hello I'm a bit new to the whole NDS deal with flashcarts and the like. I've had some experience in general but after doing some research with R4's firmware going out of date, everything's just so new to me now. (also I hope I posted this in the right spot. If you feel it should be moved, by all means!) Anyway I've done a bit of searching around all over the place and I've found that there are in fact replacements/mods for the original R4's firmware considering you need to patch so many games just for them to work anymore on it. (I have the original R4 if you're curious) My question is pretty much as the title states: which is better? I've had trouble determining which despite all the search attempts I've done so any straight up opinions would be helpful. I know there are variances depending on whether or not a specific game will work on either substitute, but it seems in many cases both are pretty good. So far I've learned this: (It's not really complete/correct so if anyone could expand on this it'd be great) 1.) YSMenu seemed very technical, although the community here has been extremely helpful to post premade, ready-to-use files that you simply have to transfer. I have heard comments though that YSMenu can sometimes have issues with performance when it comes to loading games (is this correct at all?) Is there anything else I should look out for in terms of configuration? 2.) Wood R4 seems simpler aside from minor alterations with things like changing the skin colour for cheats and updating the cheats file (it seemed complicated with its own guide to update the wood r4 cheats file--is this true?). Also it seems that it isn't compatible with some games YSMenu is with (however it appears it works with some not even listed on the official compatibility list). Any thoughts/comments? Finally, it does look easier to update compared to YSMenu--any opinions on what is better for updating? 3.) It's possible to have all 3 together [or just 2] (original R4 + YSMenu + Wood R4) Is this actually possible/recommended and if it is, does it require a lot of tweaking here and there just to get it to work? I really don't know much about this--seems pretty mind boggling to me despite some posts I've looked up. 4.) This is a bit off-topic but related in some context. Currently I've got a bunch of patched up games that work fine on the regular R4 1.18 firmware (some involve using the cheats file which I haven't updated since about a year ago). Would these be fine & working if I were to try playing them on either of the new platforms? That about covers my questions. Again apologies if I did anything wrong with posting this, and also I give you my thanks in advance for those that are willing to provide feedback. I know there are probably some other threads out there that I could've found but again, this is just something asking for a front-up opinion in general. (it might also help out others who are new to the scene)
Wood R4, as it has a nicer GUI and it has more functions then YSMenu. The DSTWO EOS is much like Wood R4. 1) Yes, you can update EXTINFO, INFOLIB and SAVLIB to fix most problems. 2) Wood R4 is easier to update. Replace the kernel and you are done. YSMenu needs you to download a new package of files, then replace them, etc. 3) It is possible, but not really recommended. When you have Wood R4, you can add YSMenu, but 1.18 is not needed in any way. The only problem you will have is that Wood R4 uses .nds.sav and YSMenu just .sav (like Wood R4 uses New Super Mario Bros.nds.sav when YSMenu uses New Super Mario Bros.sav) 4) Your patched games will work, yes.
The files used for Ysmenu are realy for TTDS card users, but with YSMenu its kined of emulated DSTT for the R4 original card
well with wood r4 you have to rename your savs to nds.sav and sometimes this can go wrong either way you are going to have to swich as a lot of games are out there without patches and also firmware updates usually fix the game before a patch comes out wood r4 has better compatability
When R4 Wood is slightly out of date, The latest files for the TTmenu of YSMenu can subpasssed it thanks to pong and retro at the gbatemp, but when the newer version of Wood R4 came out it gose the opsit way for a while... Weard XD!
The most convenient part of Wood R4 is that you don't have to update it to fix one or two games a time. Each firmware update fixes every game up to the release of the update. YSMenu gets selective updates based on the popularity of the game.
Thanks for the info so far, it's helped quite a bit. I guess after hearing all this it seems Wood R4 sounds like the better way to go with personal preferences and all that. I do however have 3 questions left regarding Wood R4. Hopefully this isn't too far off-topic now from the original thread. :S First of all, it appears that in some cases people are able to play games fine on Wood R4 that aren't listed on the compatibility list. Is that list really "the law" so to speak, or is it more so general documentation that may not cover ever specific game. (example to throw out there: I see YSMenu working fine with a game like Suikoden but it isn't listed on Wood R4 even after quite a bit of time from its release. Haven't been much uproar about it though which makes me think that in general it's running ok so far?) Second, I remember there being that problem with settings or cheats being "invisible" due to the default skin colour--is this gone now or is it something I still have to tweak? And finally, regarding what dills2 said earlier on about renaming files to .nds.sav and the risk of problems when this happens: is this frequent? Is it mostly ironed out now? I guess what I'm getting at is whether or not I'd lose all my saves or not doing the transfer due to whatever (sure I can back em up but in the end I wouldn't be able to play them easily without switching around). I wonder if this has anything to do with the game for that sav file being patched or not. That's about it though. Thanks again for any input!
One: You simply get a usrcheat.dat file and put it in the folder labeled Cheats in the _rpg folder. It's really that simple. Two: The compatibility list is just saying what games will for sure work clean with the firmware. Any games released after may not work without a patch, they may not need a patch. It entirely depends on the game. Three: There are no known cheat file issues to date. The issue with the original firmware is that it had a cheat limit. When it hit that limit and went past it, everything would start going wonky. This isn't an issue on Wood R4 at all. Cheats will always be there when you need them. I renamed all (50 or 60) of my saves to .nds.sav with the very first version of Wood R4 with absolutely zero issues with any sort of corruption. In fact, I don't believe it's even a common issue. It only seems to happen to very select people.
Woops, had to do a bit of a quick edit there after snooping around and finding an answer to the my previous 1st question--thanks anyway though for answering that. Well glad to say that this looks like it for me, I'll probably try this out sometime. I know I've said this quite a few times already, but I really do appreciate the help on clarifying all this! Hopefully this will also aid anyone else who is new to this. But before I go I gotta say, the romulation community is really quite something to be this quick, comprehensive, and helpful. Honestly I'm a bit surprised considering how the internet usually is and to discover a no bs community that does so much for something tricky to find is good to know. Cheers.
Go with Wood R4 it has great compatibility (more than YSmenu) and you can connect to Wii and the GUI is nicer to look at with skins
wood r4 is better its very simple to use and setup. ysmenu is difficult to setup its very technical so using woodr4 would be the way to go.
it depends on what flashcart you're using, if its a original r4, use wood, since it looks neat, and it has great compatibility, but if its a clone r4, use ysmenu, since it has great compatibility with games and its being updated everytime
