How the R4 shapes up

If you have a large event to organise and have landed the job of making sure all the seating arrangements run smoothly, using a games console to help you might not be the first thought that springs to mind. Given the name, it stands to reason that most people assume they are good for one thing only, playing games. They are of course very good at that, but with a DS console, an R4 adaptor gives you access to loads more software on the internet, usually for free. You can find applications to retrieve your emails, messenger software, map reading applications for when you are out and about and lots of other programs. With seating arrangements you could use the simple spreadsheet programs to run through your figures. Personal organiser software can help you keep to a schedule running up to the big event. If you end up having to wait around for people to turn up you can watch a film or listen to music with software you can load on your R4 adaptor too.

For the ultimate chill-out weekend, you can hire some bean bag sofas for competitors and hold a gaming contest. For those who crash out early, an area with Zen lounger bean bags is great to sit and commiserate with each other and get ready for the next round. There are several different styles of lounger to choose from for gamers and they are easy to get comfortable in so you can concentrate on your technique. To get the competition started, transferring files that you find on your PC, to the memory card of the R4, is a simple task. Firstly, you place the memory card in the USB reader that comes with the package. Then you plug the reader into any free USB port on your computer. After that you can just drag and drop the software files onto the memory card and then replace it in the slot on the adaptor when you are finished. You then slot the adaptor, with the memory card already slotted into it, into your console, where the games cartridges normally go.

Normally you run one program at a time from the adaptor, but there is software you can install that will allow you to save and use multiple programs from the one R4 card. A good supplier will pre-install the necessary operating system files on the memory card, and test it before sending out to customers. These files are available for free on the internet but it is always nice to have the whole thing ready to go when you receive it. If you happen to run your own website, you can maintain it with the free FTP client that you can run on your console from the adaptor. Its screen size and build make it more comfortable for viewing information on the internet than the tiny screen you often get on mobile phones. The R4 adaptor comes with memory cards with two, four and eight gigabytes of storage capacity.