Hacking Gateway 3DS - First 3DS Flashcart

[WhiteMaze]

I do not get why people are being so finicky about the Gateway 3DS. I mean, I remember one poster harking to the early days of flashcards that needed technical knowledge to use. (Indeed, GBA Flashcards already had all the memory you could use, some of them only holding one game! Even so, you needed to plug the card into the Parallel Port and load the ROMs using a loader! You even needed Pogoshell for proper memory arrangement! Also, the earliest DS Flashcards required to first use the GBA slot in order to bypass the DS protection, that is, a PassMe. Only later you could flash your own firmware into the DS, that is, FlashMe, yet, even then, you had to crash PictoChat in order to see the type of firmware your Nintendoo DS has! Now, the DS Nitro and DS Lite are protected against the updates of the DSi, having some people gloat over the fact that they have these older systems!) Then again, I remember people hoping that the 3DS Flashcards would not come for a while to let Nintendoo get some money, first!

Also, why is everyone getting so hard on the Gateway 3DS? This is the first 3DS flashcard (Crown 3DS not counting). Of course, they would hit on some kinks along the way! We need to let the Gateway 3DS develop before we get all those advanced features (multiboot, homebrew...)! After all, there was once a time when we actually measured DS flashcards by the amount of ROMs playable by the flashcards! Plus, given how this flashcard can play lots of ROMs, this flashcard pays for itself many times over. $80 is nothing compared to the ~$120 GBA flashcards once upon a time.

Honestly, I am optimistic about this. I am still waiting for GBATemp to review the card, though.

Thank you.

 

[LeSnake]

I'm looking forward to the review. I am however a bit worried, what about the save games? As I've read the save game is stored directly on the flash card itself, making it impossible to just switch games by switching the sd card, without losing the save data that is. Isn't that a huge problem? I haven't seen many of you commenting on that.

 

[Pedeadstrian]

I'm looking forward to the review. I am however a bit worried, what about the save games? As I've read the save game is stored directly on the flash card itself, making it impossible to just switch games by switching the sd card, without losing the save data that is. Isn't that a huge problem? I haven't seen many of you commenting on that.

Actually plenty of people have commented on it, but it has since been buried by tons of the same questions/comments/concerns over and over again.

Yes, it is a huge problem. They are currently working on finding a way to safely save your saves (or so they say). It's also possible that the various save dongles will work with Gateway. We won't know until it's released, though.

 

[LeSnake]

Actually plenty of people have commented on it, but it has since been buried by tons of the same questions/comments/concerns over and over again.

Yes, it is a huge problem. They are currently working on finding a way to safely save your saves (or so they say). It's also possible that the various save dongles will work with Gateway. We won't know until it's released, though.

I see.. I haven't read more than 10 pages back, as it was, as you say, mostly the same stuff that was brought up.

I didn't know about the existence of save dongles (I'm new to the scene), that could be a possibility. It doesn't seem like it's much of a hassle to use a USB dongle or something like that. Well, let's see if they can actually fix the stuff they say they're working on. It feels to me like they're trying to get this out as quick as possible, maybe before alternatives come up, before we get to question their work too much. I hope that's wrong though, I'm very excited for this.

 

[NickTorn]

Just got a reply from Gateway 3DS that seemed like an actual reply to my questions. They state the card wasn't blocked, but it currently does not work on firmware 6.0 and they have to adapt the code for the card to work. The initial shipment is not delayed, but will require an update for it to work on 6.0.

 

[Ryukouki]

Just got a reply from Gateway 3DS that seemed like an actual reply to my questions. They state the card wasn't blocked, but it currently does not work on firmware 6.0 and they have to adapt the code for the card to work. The initial shipment is not delayed, but will require an update for it to work on 6.0.

Can you get an image of the email in particular?

 

[LeSnake]

Just got a reply from Gateway 3DS that seemed like an actual reply to my questions. They state the card wasn't blocked, but it currently does not work on firmware 6.0 and they have to adapt the code for the card to work. The initial shipment is not delayed, but will require an update for it to work on 6.0.

Please provide some evidence of this statement. If that is true, it's huge news.

 

[Riku]

Just got a reply from Gateway 3DS that seemed like an actual reply to my questions. They state the card wasn't blocked, but it currently does not work on firmware 6.0 and they have to adapt the code for the card to work. The initial shipment is not delayed, but will require an update for it to work on 6.0.

does that mean they use some kind of software exploit for Gateway to work? or else why they need to adapt code for new version of system menu?

 

[NickTorn]

My original email:

> Does your team have an eta on when the card will work on the newest firmware?
> I have been keeping up with the GBATemp forums, and the lack of confirmation
> from you guys almost definitely says that you know it is blocked on the newest
> firmware or you would have come out cheering that it still works as it takes 5
> minutse to test this kind of thing. Is this going to delay the initial
> shipments while you guys work on a solution, or are you going to release a
> card that only works on firmwares 5.1 and below?




> Thanks

Reply:

It is not going to delay shipment, and it will be released on a later update.
Nothing is blocked (Nintendo does not know how we get in anyway since no one had
the production unit yet). Just it requires some work to adapt the code, and it
is no ready yet. It might be for launch, otherwise it will be available a bit
later with an update.

 

[adelsmud]

does that mean they use some kind of software exploit for Gateway to work? or else why they need to adapt code for new version of system menu?

Possibly means code for the Programmable Logic (FPGA)?

 

[LeSnake]

My original email:

> Does your team have an eta on when the card will work on the newest firmware?
> I have been keeping up with the GBATemp forums, and the lack of confirmation
> from you guys almost definitely says that you know it is blocked on the newest
> firmware or you would have come out cheering that it still works as it takes 5
> minutse to test this kind of thing. Is this going to delay the initial
> shipments while you guys work on a solution, or are you going to release a
> card that only works on firmwares 5.1 and below?




> Thanks

Reply:

It is not going to delay shipment, and it will be released on a later update.
Nothing is blocked (Nintendo does not know how we get in anyway since no one had
the production unit yet). Just it requires some work to adapt the code, and it
is no ready yet. It might be for launch, otherwise it will be available a bit
later with an update.

Very interresting, thank you!

 

[WhiteMaze]

My original email:

> Does your team have an eta on when the card will work on the newest firmware?
> I have been keeping up with the GBATemp forums, and the lack of confirmation
> from you guys almost definitely says that you know it is blocked on the newest
> firmware or you would have come out cheering that it still works as it takes 5
> minutse to test this kind of thing. Is this going to delay the initial
> shipments while you guys work on a solution, or are you going to release a
> card that only works on firmwares 5.1 and below?




> Thanks

Reply:

It is not going to delay shipment, and it will be released on a later update.
Nothing is blocked (Nintendo does not know how we get in anyway since no one had
the production unit yet). Just it requires some work to adapt the code, and it
is no ready yet. It might be for launch, otherwise it will be available a bit
later with an update.

YAY!!

 

[Riku]

Possibly means code for the Programmable Logic (FPGA)?

my point is, if they use 1:1 hardware emulation and nintendo doesn't implemented new checks in 6.x, why they need to adapt code for it? it may make sense if they use some exploit and there's different offsets or timings in new firmware required to trigger it.

 

[Pedeadstrian]

Just got a reply from Gateway 3DS that seemed like an actual reply to my questions. They state the card wasn't blocked, but it currently does not work on firmware 6.0 and they have to adapt the code for the card to work. The initial shipment is not delayed, but will require an update for it to work on 6.0.

Maybe I'm a newb, but how does "it will require an update for it to work on 6.0" not equal being blocked? Unless they meant permablocked?

 

[adelsmud]

my point is, if they use 1:1 hardware emulation and nintendo doesn't implemented new checks in 6.x, why they need to adapt code for it? it may make sense if they use some exploit and there's different offsets or timings in new firmware required to trigger it.

Ah yes, I would guess it's certainly blocked. Perhaps Nintendo got wind of it and looked in the area to see if they could add additional checks - and they did.

 

[LeSnake]

Yeah well.. I guess you're right, it's blocked as of now. They however make it sound like a solution is in fact on its way, and that this is not impossible. I think that's reassuring.

 

[Lakerfanalways]

My original email:

> Does your team have an eta on when the card will work on the newest firmware?
> I have been keeping up with the GBATemp forums, and the lack of confirmation
> from you guys almost definitely says that you know it is blocked on the newest
> firmware or you would have come out cheering that it still works as it takes 5
> minutse to test this kind of thing. Is this going to delay the initial
> shipments while you guys work on a solution, or are you going to release a
> card that only works on firmwares 5.1 and below?




> Thanks

Reply:

It is not going to delay shipment, and it will be released on a later update.
Nothing is blocked (Nintendo does not know how we get in anyway since no one had
the production unit yet). Just it requires some work to adapt the code, and it
is no ready yet. It might be for launch, otherwise it will be available a bit
later with an update.

Very interesting news, I will give them the benefit of the doubt and wait and see what happens. I have not updated my 3DS XL yet and will not til this is resolved

 

[nordini]

Meh, I just got my 3DS XL and its only on V4.0, but i'm going ahead and updating anyways. I have faith they will get it working on 6. And if not, it's not worth it if I can't play Animal Crossing.

 

[enigma85]

My original email:

> Does your team have an eta on when the card will work on the newest firmware?
> I have been keeping up with the GBATemp forums, and the lack of confirmation
> from you guys almost definitely says that you know it is blocked on the newest
> firmware or you would have come out cheering that it still works as it takes 5
> minutse to test this kind of thing. Is this going to delay the initial
> shipments while you guys work on a solution, or are you going to release a
> card that only works on firmwares 5.1 and below?




> Thanks

Reply:

It is not going to delay shipment, and it will be released on a later update.
Nothing is blocked (Nintendo does not know how we get in anyway since no one had
the production unit yet). Just it requires some work to adapt the code, and it
is no ready yet. It might be for launch, otherwise it will be available a bit
later with an update.

I knew that nintendo couldn't have blocked it before it was released lol That's just nearly impossible to figure out how their system was exploited before they even knew where to look,

 

[pyromaniac123]

I knew that nintendo couldn't have blocked it before it was released lol That's just nearly impossible to figure out how their system was exploited before they even knew where to look,

Yes because it's not like people lie or anything like that.