Hacking 3DS Flashcarts - News, Updates, and Support Thread

[dalc789]

I'm surprised no one talks about the newly mentioned real time save feature. I'm curious how they will do this (key combo or in-game menu).

I'm very interested in this as well. I'm guessing a key combo, like most other flash carts.

 

[ground]

I'm surprised no one talks about the newly mentioned real time save feature. I'm curious how they will do this (key combo or in-game menu).

my guess is, ( just a guess) that when gateway noticed it wrote someting on the save adress, it wil start writing to the sd card or somethin

 

[Mr_Pichu]

Writing software to program the FPGA is tricky business, this is where the men will be separated from the boys. Gateway's FPGA JTAG interface is tied to various IO pins on the FPGA its self. So updatability was engineered into the design from the start, other cards appear not to be designed this way. Here is an example of a card that will require a special interface to update:
http://gbatemp.net/threads/3ds-flashcart-clones´s-firmwares.359405/#post-4870962

 

[Xzi]

What model was your old flashcart?

iEDGE. I did have that 3-in-1 slot 2 expansion as well, so that may have given the extra boost needed to emulate those games, although a homebrew SNES emulator seemed widely available for most DS flash carts.

 

[Jean Karlo]

http://gbatemp.net/threads/gbaemu4ds-gba-emulator-for-ds-i-dsi-entry.281715/

Why are we not funding this!?
I didnt knew about it, but still, the user is asking for emulators that do not load.. not games of these emulators..

I'm surprised no one talks about the newly mentioned real time save feature. I'm curious how they will do this (key combo or in-game menu).

I really think they are talking about the Games saving directly into the sdcard . With these we will not have to press home and x to exit games..

 

[kyogre123]

Writing software to program the FPGA is tricky business, this is where the men will be separated from the boys. Gateway's FPGA JTAG interface is tied to various IO pins on the FPGA its self. So updatability was engineered into the design from the start, other cards appear not to be designed this way. Here is an example of a card that will require a special interface to update:
http://gbatemp.net/threads/3ds-flashcart-clones´s-firmwares.359405/#post-4870962

I dont know why it took so long for some who actually knows what he is sayinb to come and explain this. Yes, this is solely related to the electronic design, the way the circuit was implemented. Someone already showed that the clones are not updatable because the external pins of these cards dont make connection to the microprocesor (I think this is hows called).

Edit: I just got a computer and I see you quoted the same posts I mentioned before.

 

[Abcdfv]

iEDGE. I did have that 3-in-1 slot 2 expansion as well, so that may have given the extra boost needed to emulate those games, although a homebrew SNES emulator seemed widely available for most DS flash carts.

Yeah, that would be why.

Why are we not funding this!?
I didnt knew about it, but still, the user is asking for emulators that do not load.. not games of these emulators..

and something about the emulator it can only play homebrew max size 2MB and no original rom (i mean roms whith a save possibility) yet it is runs with about 3fps

Seems like it can't do it without the extra CPU power either.

 

[goober]

Makes me wonder what the Gateway team means with "early 2014 days".. For all we know, it might be a few weeks to months from now . I can't wait for the final release though. It's the only reason why I'm holding back on updating my 3DS (gateway) to the latest firmware.

It does concern me though that a few people around here are talking about "impossible" to update the gateway card's hardware, making a few features they mention impossible without a new card.

To be fair, all gen 1 stuff has limitations and eventually obsolescence. It's not engineered to be so, especially the Gateway, but it's just the nature of the game. Frankly, I'm surprised the Gateway managed to do so much so far.

 

[masterzero]

is emunand NEEDED for playing games with more than 4.5 firmware? or only for entering shop , updating , etc

 

[Skyrider]

is emunand NEEDED for playing games with more than 4.5 firmware? or only for entering shop , updating , etc

As far as I know, only needed for the shop, etc. But that's what I read from other replies.

 

[Mr_Pichu]

To be fair, all gen 1 stuff has limitations and eventually obsolescence. It's not engineered to be so, especially the Gateway, but it's just the nature of the game. Frankly, I'm surprised the Gateway managed to do so much so far.

The Gateway team did not show their entire hand of cards from the start. So any clones that have come along may not be feature complete with the exception of cards that are totally unique in design. I think Gateway's card design is elegant in that they planned for features that would not implemented from the day one. An FPGA metaphorically speaking is like a blank canvas, anything you can dream up can be painted upon it almost magically. Coming from a background of programming PIC based mod chips, designing with an FPGA is a whole different experience of much greater complexity. I would love to see the logic programmed into the Gateway someday.

Here is a great series of blog posts that take you through the entire process of working with FPGAs:
www.fpgafromscratch.com

 

[masterzero]

is emunand NEEDED for playing games with more than 4.5 firmware? or only for entering shop , updating , etc

Can anyone confirm me this?

ED: not needed anymore, hard but I found my answer

 

[Skyrider]

My email to them:

> Greetings Gateway team.

> I noticed that you've put up the news that the Final 2.0 Firmware has
> been slightly delayed. You've also put up quite a few features for the
> final. My question would be, can we expect all features to be in the
> final release? I'd assume 'early 2014' would be a few days away.

> Regards,
> Skyrider

Their reply:

yes.

Unsure if their reply yes is for the feature set, or the few days away.. or both.

 

[Pedeadstrian]

My email to them:


Their reply:

Unsure if their reply yes is for the feature set, or the few days away.. or both.

Feature set, most likely. 2014 has 365 days in it. Early 2014 can be anytime between now and May.

 

[Skyrider]

Feature set, most likely. 2014 has 365 days in it. Early 2014 can be anytime between now and May.

MT card releases their firmware tomorrow though (so they claim). So I doubt Gateway would be much behind.

 

[Pedeadstrian]

MT card releases their firmware tomorrow though (so they claim). So I doubt Gateway would be much behind.

What makes you think that? How does MT's progress (if there is any) impact Gateway's? It's not like Gateway is at a complete loss, with the release of MT's firmware being just what they needed to complete their own. And I highly doubt they're milking their delay as much as possible.

 

[Skyrider]

What makes you think that? How does MT's progress (if there is any) impact Gateway's? It's not like Gateway is at a complete loss, with the release of MT's firmware being just what they needed to complete their own. And I highly doubt they're milking their delay as much as possible.

Because the way I see it, there's so much going on with the 3DS flash cards.. It's just really hard to see which one is a clone / copy of what. Or if they are the same company, etc. For example, MT-Card was going to release their firmware on Jan 1 as they mentioned. But after Gateway mentioned a delay, the MT-Card was delayed as well until Jan, 3. Either they are working together (MT-Card & Gateway), are the same company, or we can expect a Gateway release as well near Jan 3.

 

[Cyan]

I'm surprised no one talks about the newly mentioned real time save feature. I'm curious how they will do this (key combo or in-game menu).

(I see you already got lot of quotes/reply).
It's not your usual "RTS" features. It's not a "save state" feature.

Real time save here refer to "saving to SD card instead of the SPI".
You don't need to press "Home > X" anymore. It will read/write to SD card "in real time", when the game access the save data it will in fact automagicallly redirect to SD card instead of the cartridge's EEPROM.


I don't know if they will do the same with NAND-saving games. these games could save directly to MicroSD, not to SD. a tool would be needed to extract/inject save data to microSD cards.

 

[Skyrider]

It's not your usual "RTS" features. It's not a "save state" feature.

Real time save here refer to "saving to SD card instead of the SPI".
You don't need to press "Home > X" anymore. It will read/write to SD card "in real time", when the game access the save data it will in fact automagicallly redirect to SD card instead of the cartridge's EEPROM.


I don't know if they will do the same with NAND-saving games. these games could save directly to MicroSD, not to SD. a tool would be needed to extract/inject save data to microSD cards.

Quite deceiving then if you ask me . I'm used to real-time save that you can save at any time and load it up at any time.

 

[justinkb]

Quite deceiving then if you ask me . I'm used to real-time save that you can save at any time and load it up at any time.

they'd have to save every bit of game memory currently in use, each save file would be fairly big then, for a system like 3DS.