Fun with the R4 adaptor

If you are throwing a fun pottery party for your child’s birthday, or just because you want to, these adaptors can help keep all the children at the party entertained for hours afterwards, while you pack up the cups and plates you have created and get their party food ready. You will of course need DS, DS lite or DSi consoles to use with the adaptor, maybe an extra birthday present idea, although they are a popular machine with kids already, so some may already own one. There are games made for the consoles of course, but the R4 adaptors give you many more options, including multiplayer games, to keep them amused. How about an exciting bomb dropping game where they attempt to wipe each other out, to release their aggression and high spirits in a harmless way? This game can be played with up to eight people at once.

There are also more traditional games available, such as the old favourite battleships and a tetris-style brick dropping game. For older children there is a multiplayer spot the difference game, where they can compete against each other to see who can find the most differences between two nearly identical photographs. The R4 adaptor package comes complete with everything you need to load and play these games on the consoles. The actual adaptor looks the same as a standard game card, and goes in the same slot. In the top of it is a space to insert a small micro SD memory card, on which you can load the game programs you wish to play. You load them by putting the memory card in a USB reader, plugging the reader into your computer and dragging and dropping the game files from your PC. A quick search on the internet will turn up dozens of different options.

The memory cards that come with the R4 are exactly the same as the small micro cards in mobile phones, and are available in various different sizes. You can choose from two, four, or even eight gigabyte versions, giving you plenty of space for games that take a long time to finish and need to save program data in between playing sessions. You can also take advantage of this capacity to load your children’s favourite films and music files, for them to watch on the consoles. Older children can use the R4 to run instant messenger clients, so they can chat to their friends online, without having to sit at a computer, or use yours! There are also programs available with a slimmed down version of the Linux operating system that let you load many games on the one card and play them without having to swap between cards, as you have to do with the standard game cartridges. There are games that are suitable for all ages that you can load on your R4 adaptor, some, like BubbleWrap which can be enjoyed by children as young as two, so nobody needs to feel left out.