| R6 Gold Review | ||||
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I'll be reviewing the R6 Gold, a Slot-1 flashcart developed by the Neoflash team. Unfortunately, the Neoflash team has been known to make poor quality flashcarts in the past. Hopefully this flashcart doesn't continue to lower the team's reputation! 
The R6 Gold flashcart offers support for Micro SDHC cards, a built-in motion-sensor, built-in LED light, a complimentary Rumble pack, GBA support, and more. The Neoflash team also developed an R6 Silver, which is identical to the R6 Gold except that it lacks a few features. Don't be mistaken, though, they are different flashcarts. What's unique about the R6 Gold flashcart is that it has a built-in motion sensor, allowing you to utilize the motion function of some homebrew games. It also has a built-in blue-light which makes it stand out from most of the Slot-1 flashcart crowd. We'll be covering aspect of the R6 Gold flashcart in this review. Get ready to find out how it stands up to the other Slot-1 flashcarts on the market! Here we've got the official R6 Gold features list, straight from the back of the flashcarts box. As you will see, the information on the back of the box isn't written in very good English and is hard to understand. Official Feature List:
The R6 Gold comes in a black box. It's a flimsy, cardboard box. My R6 Gold box came in rather beat up, as you can see. It has the R6 Gold logo on the front, and contains a feature list on the back of the box (which you can read about above). Other than that, there's not much more to say about it. 
Inside, you'll find a plastic try containing the R6 Gold flashcart, a Rumble pak, a Phat DS adapter for the Rumble pak,and a Micro SD/SD reader. The Neoflash team no longer include the Mini-CD ROM with the package, so newer batches won't include one. Box Contents
As you can see, the package contains two freebies.
The R6 package comes with a Rumble Pak.
The R6 Gold is a cheaply-made, plastic flashcart. There are no screws, so it just has plastic clips holding it together.
The flashcart is flimsier, and it has the half-circle dip at the top of of it (where you insert the Micro SD or SDHC card). It's worth mentioning that it's much easier to take apart the R6 Gold cart than it is the commercial cart. 
Setting up and using the R6 Gold isn't very hard, as it's all drag 'n' drop - no software needed. The R6 Gold supports Micro SD and Micro SDHC memory cards. So, first, connect your Micro SD or Micro SDHC card to your computer (the R6 Gold package includes a Micro SD reader, you can use that if you wish). Now you'll need to format your Micro SD or Micro SDHC to either FAT16 or FAT32. You need the system files to place on the Micro SD or Micro SDHC card, now that it's been formatted. So, I've downloaded the necessary files for the R6 from the Neoflash website. I suggest you download the latest version from the Neoflash website as the files in the mini CD-ROM are most likely outdated. Once you've download the latest R6 Motion Menu, you'll find the files come inside a RAR - so you'll need WinRAR or a similar program to extract the files inside. Included in the R6 Motion Menu RAR is an instructions text document, which shows you how to quickly set up your R6 and also includes a guide for using different controls in the GUI. But since it really is simple to set up, just continuing reading this section of the review. Once you've download the RAR and have extracted the files, you simply just copy all of the files except 'HOW TO USE.txt,' 'instructions.txt,' and 'r6boot-2.0070-selfburn_for R6.nds' files (they're pretty much useless on your memory card and not needed for setting up) to your Micro SD or Micro SDHC. You can also now add your NDS backup ROMs, homebrew ROMs, and any other media you wish to have on your memory card. It's really simple to set up, and if you didn't understand the paragraphs above, then I'll break it down easier for you: 1. Connect your Micro SD or Micro SDHC card to your computer (you can use the included Micro SD reader if you want) 2. Format your Micro SD or Micro SDHC card to either FAT16 or FAT32 3. Download the latest R6 Motion Menu files from either the Neoflash website 4. Extract the files from the R6 Motion Menu RAR file 5. Drag and drop all files (except the 'HOW TO USE.txt,' 'instructions.txt,' and 'r6boot-2.0070-selfburn_for R6.nds' files) to the root of the Micro SD or Micro SDHC card 6. Drag and drop all NDS ROMs and media files to the Micro SD or Micro SDHC card 7. Place the Micro SD or Micro SDHC card inside the R6 Gold, place the R6 Gold inside the Nintendo DS That pretty much wraps it up. It's really just a task of copying files from your computer to your Micro SD or Micro SDHC card. GUI (OS) When you boot up your Nintendo DS with the R6 Gold inside the Slot-1 cartridge, you'll come to the main DS menu. You'll see the R6 Gold logo and information displayed on the menu (like a normal, commercial Nintendo DS Slot-1 game), so select the icon to boot up the R6 Gold. 
When you boot up the R6, you'll see a temporary white screen. If there is no Micro SD or SDHC card present inside the R6 Gold flashcart, you'll be presented with this on the touchscreen: 
On the left side of the screen, you'll see four tabs. The tabs are there to show you what save hardware is inside the R6 Gold. The point of this menu is that older Neoflash carts (like the Neo3) can use this hardware from the R6. For example, if you'd want to play homebrew using the motion sensor, you'd press the B button and it would boot the Neo3 while activating the motion sensor. If you would want to play a commercial rom on your Neo3, you'd press the Y, X or A button to select the correct save type and boot the Neo3. This is because Neoflash carts can't save directly to the MicroSD card; they need to save to Slot-1. From the right side of the screen you're able to boot your Slot-2 flashcart (yes, the R6 Gold has a built-in PassMe - which is quite common among Slot-1 cards, I might add). You will also be able to boot up the main R6 Gold menu (the Micro SD or SDHC must be in the R6 flashcart, though), by selecting the Slot-1 selection. When the Micro SD or SDHC card is present inside, you will boot up into the R6 Gold's main menu. On the bottom screen you'll find the file browser. Displayed here are all the folders and ROMs you have on your Micro SD or SDHC card. The bottom screen is displayed in a blue theme (with the Neoflash logo in the background), and you can scroll up and down the list using the d-pad. To select a game, simply press A. You will be presenting with a quick flashing screen that writes the save, then you'll be presented with a white screen. It can take up to 45 seconds for a ROM to load up. The reason behind the slow loading is because the R6 has to prepare the save file. Regardless, it's still a let-down that it has such great ROM compatibility (see Performance section below for more information) yet the ROMs load so slowly. It's strange that you can't browse and select in the menu using touchscreen controls. What's the point of putting the menu on the bottom screen if you're just going to be allowed to use the D-pad to control it? That's a let-down and con, in my opinion. On the menu, when selected, ROM files have their icons and save sizes next to their filename. Displayed on the top screen is the Neoflash logo and a "bubble." This bubble moves around the screen when you move the DS (they don't call it "Motion Menu" for nothing!). It's neat that the Neoflash team integrated the motion feature into the R6 Gold GUI. There's more to the motion-GUI integration - if you turn the Nintendo DS to the side (so that the screens are facing vertically up), the menu will turn to it's side too! You can hold the screen vertically left or right - it will follow you! 
Overall, the R6 Gold has a decent GUI. It's disappointing that there is no touch-control (unless the Micro SD or SDHC card is not present inside the flashcart) and you're unable to skin the menu. Worth mentioning is that there is no soft-reset function, which is a let-down. Also, I will stress that the time for loading ROMs takes a rather long time. The motion-integration is a nice, neat touch, though. Below you'll see exactly how well the R6 Gold performs. The Neoflash team claim that the R6 Gold can run many problematic ROMs without having to apply any sort of special patch to them. That seems to be the case, as the ROM compatability so far has been absolutely perfect. All tests were done with a Japanese 4gb Kingston Micro SDHC card and R6 Motion Menu v3.1.1958. ROM Compatibility PASS: Game plays just as it should on a real game card. FAIL: Game doesn't even load or freezes before game play. PROBLEMS: Game works but with issues.
As you can see, the R6 has almost perfect, if not perfect, ROM compatibility. Download Play / Single-cart Multiplayer I added the Download Play compatibility list to the ROM compatibility list above. As you can see, the Download Play support for the R6 Gold is decent. All homebrew was unpatched, so we can see how well the auto-DLDI patch function works as well as the generally compatibility with homebrew ROMs.
When changing the Rumble Pak from the Lite shell to the Phat shell, you'll notice that there's a bit of sticky residue giving the Lite shell a bit more reinforcement (it's also held together by a small screw). This means you'll have to give it an extra pull to remove the Lite shell, after you've removed the screwdriver.
The Phat Rumble Pak shell fit flushly, like the Lite shell does. 
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Media To be honest, the R6 Gold doesn't stand up very well compared to most Slot-1 flashcarts on the market. Sure, it offers built-in motion and near-perfect homebrew support - but that barely makes up for its poor quality. The boxing isn't so bad, it's quite what you'd expect from a flashcart's box. It's plastic and flimsy, like most other flashcart boxes. It comes with a Rumble Pak (fit for both for a Nintendo DS Lite or regular Nintendo DS) and a Micro SD/SD reader. Freebies are always a good thing! The actual R6 Gold cart is flimsy and cheap. It's held together by plastic clips - the team should have added a screw for reinforcement. It is good that there are no protruding chips, but it's still a tough fit inside your Nintendo DS slot. Setting up the flashcart is really simple - it's a task of formatting your Micro SD or Micro SDHC card and then just dragging 'n' dropping the files to your card. The flashcart's GUI is pretty neat. You're not able to skin it, but it integrates motion into it - which is cool feature. I'm impressed that the ROM compatibility is that high, seeing how as commercial ROM support was not originally intended to work on R6 Gold flashcarts. The Download Play results were quite impressive, too, I will add. Homebrew support was near-perfect, from my testing. Loading ROMs is extremely slow! Waiting long moments for a ROM to load up is not pleasant. It's got most features you'd expect a Slot-1 flashcart to have, and the built in motion feature (which makes it stand out from any other Slot-1 flashcart on the market). The R6 Gold doesn't stand up to the other Slot-1 flashcarts currently on the market. For less of the price you pay for an R6 Gold, you could get a flashcart like the CycloDS. I recommend the R6 Gold to those who want excellent ROM compatibility (yet are patient with loading times) and those who would enjoy using the flashcart's motion feature. Pros + Motion integrated into GUI + Decent ROM compatibility + Decent Download play support + Package includes freebies (SD/MicroSD reader and Rumble Pak) + Homebrew Compatibility almost perfect + auto-DLDI patching + PassMe feature + Motion feature Cons - Flashcart only available in white - Cart is flimsy - Extremely long ROM loading time - Cannot skin GUI - No soft-reset feature - Expensive
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 08 January 2009 08:31 ) |
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