I was browsing Craigslist looking for some used DS games, and I noticed something...most of the postings for DS stuff are for selling various different "flash carts" which are presumably used primarily to play illegally downloaded DS ROMs. There are even people selling flash carts in a bundle with SD cards loaded with dozens, if not hundreds, of pirated games, all ready for play in any DS.

I had no idea the pirate community was this active for the DS. I know Nintendo has recently taken steps to prevent the sale of certain flash carts on eBay and Amazon, but this seems like putting a drop of water on a bonfire.

It seems like the pirates have won this battle handily. It seems like Nintendo does care, but is there really anything they can do to combat this problem? Do you use a flash cart with your DS to play pirated games? If you do...do you ever even buy any DS games, or do you just download them all?

*Please keep this discussion free of naming or linking to techniques on how to pirate games or how to use these "flash carts."

I use a flashcard, and I don't feel bad about it. It let's me play all the old 8/16 bit titles on the fly, and try out DS games. I really can't justify paying 30£ for...Space Invaders Extreme, when it's just a redrawn version. But I will buy things like Phoenix Wright, because they're excellent.

the fact of the matter is that no matter what system they release it will be pirated but  in the example of the ds its probaly a drop in the sea  the ammount of people who have a R4 and the like is nothing compared to the people who own and actively buy games for the ds. personaly i do have a R4 but i mainly use it as glorifyed demos playing it for a while then buying it and then deleteing

Seeing as the top selling games every month are DS games I think the majority of people aren't actually pirating it. I know one person who uses an R4 cart for pirate games but every else I know who owns a DS (which is quite a lot of people these days) buys their games legitimately.

I had no idea the pirate community was this active for the DS

I don't have one and I have never purchased or downloaded an illegal game.  I just don't care to.  I have been given stuff - not a lot, and I don't really have an issue with that as no money was exchanged, so no-one made a profit from it, plus, they were games I did not intend to buy anyway (and consequently, they barely were played).

I use a flash cart for trying games out or for titles that I will pick up and play for 10 min and put back down; Space Invaders Extreme is a title like that, Metal Slug as well. Any sort of RPG or game that I will invest serious time in I will go out and purchase it.

I really wish I had known about all this DS flash carts before I sold my DS. I would have totally done it.

There were a lot of pirates for GBA games too. Probably even more?

But the point about having all your DS games on a single cart with multiple save file is pretty cool. I agree it is tempting, and I've looked into it. Plus I assume you could play NES/SNES games too if you wanted.

Also, it's not like you can rent DS games really like you can for 360 or whatnot.

I've pirated games and despite this I still buy games.  However, if the game is based on a franchise, I will be more prone to pick up those games within the franchise.  A perfect example of this is post Castlevania: Symphony of the NIght designed games(known as Metroidvania design) and Advance Wars.  When I heard about Castlevania being different from its predecessors, I was turned off from the series for awhile.  After pirating (via emulator) Harmony of Dissaonce, I got back into the series and started buying games from the series.   Before I got into the Advance Wars series, I pirated the game before I could become a fan of the series.  Now I buy Advanced Wars games because I know it is a quality series.

A lot of people here seem to be saying that they pirate DS games because they want to try but not buy (someone explicitly stated there there's "no way to rent DS games") or because they want a way to back up their files. So are DS flashcarts flourishing because of a penchant for piracy, or because DS owners want to use it as a way to download games they're thinking of buying as a way of confirming the purchase? Maybe instead of locking out the possibility of such innovations, Nintendo should go the other way and patent them. It seems like a lot of the folks here would be fine with going the official route to sampling games.

Man, Nintendo should just have everything for download. I'm all for physical media, I love it. But when it comes to portable consoles like the PSP or DS, I hate switching out games all the time. When it comes to portables, all games should just be download only. Bold move, but I'd be for it.

As long as they have discounts on games here and there (like XBLM I guess) it'd be cool. Or maybe they could have some kind of system where if you buy X amount of games you can get a free game. Just as a way for people to save money still, since then used games wouldn't be an option. But for real, who wants to switch out games on a portable console? Even if the games are a size of a tic tac, that's still extra tic tacs i need to bring with me to wherever.

I'm really close to getting one of these.

The only reason I use a flash card is to listen to music and watch videos. I also download all the games that I have purchased and put them on there that way I can have all the games on me at once in an accessible way.

I use a flash card for my DS. Mostly its full of games I own (1 cart versus 20), a couple of "trials" which I cant justify paying for (like Broken Sword, since I own it on PC and have bought it 3/4 times for scratched disks), and lots of homebrew games and applications like Emulators (why carry my gameboy when I can carry a flash card?) and programs to run music files and such (was listening to the bombcast earlier on it).

Flash cards are awesome :)

I buy all my games, but I don't believe we should have to. Some games truthfully just aren't good enough to purchase so in that context... really some games DESERVE to be downloaded. I buy all my games but this is also why my knowledge of the Nintendo DS Library is limited, because I haven't got a lot of money and have to be picky with my selection. So really both sides have a point.

-- God Bless.

Im sure a lot of people download games that are available at retail, but there are also a lot of people that use those carts the right way, like for homebrew games and applications, and for those sorts of things i think R4s should exist. The DS wont have a pandemic until it gets to the same level as what is plaguing PSPs