Hacking [Tutorial]How to break the game limit on red button Sky3DS cartridges

[ragepyre]

Kingdom Hearts 3D Dream Drop Distance works without problem with "no"

too bad we cant play eshop games tho

 

[dawnbomb]

too bad we cant play eshop games tho

we can play some games. just major releases, but it can be dumped. sky3ds team sin't gonna add all the eshop shovel ware, but big titles like FF thearhythm / curtain call, fantasy life, and hometown story have been dumped.

also hometown story works, but i did not test saving and loading. (yet)

 

[ragepyre]

pushmo, crashmo, Azure Striker Gunvolt not working, template wont recognize them

 

[warnings]

I can now play 30+ EEPROM YES games on my red button sky3ds ...you DO NOT need the crack tool and you DO NOT need to edit the template.
You will notice that you must format the card for diskwriter to open, once you format it installs a "setup.rar" on your SD.
When you extract this rar it holds the diskwriter you used and the template you used to format the card.

Once I installed my 10 Base games that all worked flawless, I found if I set more games to EEPROM NO they would just say "the game card could not be read".
People on this thread kept saying it's a bad rom...re download, which is not true. 9.9 outta 10 the rom is just fine (especially if u see it 3dsexplorer)
I have got the following 5 roms to work as EEPROM YES in addition to my 10 EEPROM YES base games:

-Kid Icarus Uprising ONLINE.3dz (renamed to .3ds)
-0246 - Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D (U).3ds
-Mario Tennis Open.3ds
-Yoshis new island.3ds
-3DS0474 - Angry Birds Star Wars (Usa).3ds

The above games would NOT work as EEPROM NO games no matter how long I held the button "the game card could not be read".
So this is what I did to prepare SD#2 EEPROM YES using NO crack tool and NO editing the template...
-create a folder on your desktop and name it test.
-download a FRESH COPY of both DiskWriterV104b5 AND template1219 and place in the test folder you created (DO NOT use the ones you have used before).
-create a new folder within the test folder and call it games.
-calculate how many roms will safley fit on SD#2 and add roms to the games folder (you want to do this all in one go...no adding later for this SD#2).
-once added, notice the order in which your roms are listed in the games folder...alphabetical order (important).
-create a new .txt doc within the test folder and name it template.txt (So now you have template1219.txt, template.txt, DiskWriterV104b5, games in test folder).
-In the order your roms are listed in games open template1219 and copy the CTR-P-XXXX section for each game and paste into template.txt
-if you have 5 roms in the games folder, you will have 5 entries in the template.txt (no more).
-delete the template1219.txt (so now you have games folder, template.txt, DiskWriterV104b5 within the test folder.
-format the SD#2 in windows.
-right click DiskWriterV104b5 and run as admin, format the SD#2 as prompted, your template.txt should be there by default (since it's in the test folder).
-write the games to SD#2 in the order they are listed in the games folder (within the test folder).
-play the 10+ games as EEPROM YES on a red button sky.

For the first time EVER...I finally see some value in the red card.

As mentioned above I have 30+ EEPROM=YES games working and saving flawless on my Red Button Sky3ds spread across 3 microSD cards as follows:

-SD#1. Base games, the first 10 games you burn/run on the Sky3ds. Unfortunately this microSD will have no scroll FEATURE...meaning you have to push the red button to cycle through until you find the game you wish to launch.
-SD#2, SD#3, SD#4, Etc...set as EEPROM=YES...Will ALL have the scroll FEATURE...meaning it auto scrolls the Roms on SD, press and hold red button for 5sec press A to launch (providing you have no roms from sd#1) auto-scroll will work seamless.
-ALL MY 30+ EEPROM=YES Games auto save...NO Corruption issues, even between microSD swaps.
-Very simple to backup/restore EEPROM=YES Saves via Diskwriter as .sav files.
-MUCH BETTER than any EEPROM=NO solution, with it's limited game compatibility AND save corruption issues.
-All EEPROM=YES Games Work (Entire USA .3ds library) AND Save Perfect on A Single Red Button Sky3ds.

TIPS:

-Stick to 10 Roms per microSD for easy AUTO-SCROLL.
-DO NOT Import games from SD#1 to other SD#cards (fucks up auto-scroll).
-To be safe, backup .sav files prior to microSD switching via diskwriter...tho not necessary.
-Only tested with DiskWriterV104b5, DiskWriter v1.5 is different and NOT TESTED.

Enjoy Hundreds of .3ds ROMS on your SINGLE RED BUTTON SKY3DS.
L8.

-

 

[viewsat]

warnings did you fix the scroll bug with this? are you certain all the saves are safe?

 

[donkeymilk]

I can now play 15+ EEPROM YES games on my red card ...you DO NOT need the crack tool and you DO NOT need to edit the template.
You will notice that you must format the card for diskwriter to open, once you format it installs a "setup.rar" on your SD.
When you extract this rar it holds the diskwriter you used and the template you used to format the card.

/snip

It would be helpful if someone could verify this routine.
For the first time EVER...I finally see some value in the red card.

Solid testing, man. This could help a lot of people.

 

[warnings]

warnings did you fix the scroll bug with this? are you certain all the saves are safe?

Saves are safe per SD, scroll bug came with icarus, if I remove it scroll bug is gone.
I prefer the scroll bug, wish it would work on my SD#1 Base games.

 

[dawnbomb]

I can now play 15+ EEPROM YES games on my red card ...you DO NOT need the crack tool and you DO NOT need to edit the template.
You will notice that you must format the card for diskwriter to open, once you format it installs a "setup.rar" on your SD.
When you extract this rar it holds the diskwriter you used and the template you used to format the card.

Once I installed my 10 Base games that all worked flawless, I found if I set more games to EEPROM NO they would just say "the game card could not be read".
People on this thread kept saying it's a bad rom...re download, which is not true. 9.9 outta 10 the rom is just fine (especially if u see it 3dsexplorer)
I have got the following 5 roms to work as EEPROM YES in addition to my 10 EEPROM YES base games:

-Kid Icarus Uprising ONLINE.3dz (renamed to .3ds)
-0246 - Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D (U).3ds
-Mario Tennis Open.3ds
-Yoshis new island.3ds
-3DS0474 - Angry Birds Star Wars (Usa).3ds

The above games would NOT work as EEPROM NO games no matter how long I held the button "the game card could not be read".
So this is what I did to prepare SD#2 EEPROM YES using NO crack tool and NO editing the template...
-create a folder on your desktop and name it test.
-download a FRESH COPY of both DiskWriterV104b5 AND template1219 and place in the test folder you created (DO NOT use the ones you have used before).
-create a new folder within the test folder and call it games.
-calculate how many roms will safley fit on SD#2 and add roms to the games folder (you want to do this all in one go...no adding later for this SD#2).
-once added, notice the order in which your roms are listed in the games folder...alphabetical order (important).
-create a new .txt doc within the test folder and name it template.txt (So now you have template1219.txt, template.txt, DiskWriterV104b5, games in test folder).
-In the order your roms are listed in games open template1219 and copy the CTR-P-XXXX section for each game and paste into template.txt
-if you have 5 roms in the games folder, you will have 5 entries in the template.txt (no more).
-delete the template1219.txt (so now you have games folder, template.txt, DiskWriterV104b5 within the test folder.
-format the SD#2 in windows.
-right click DiskWriterV104b5 and run as admin, format the SD#2 as prompted, your template.txt should be there by default (since it's in the test folder).
-write the games to SD#2 in the order they are listed in the games folder (within the test folder).
-play the 10+ games as EEPROM YES on a red button sky.

It would be helpful if someone could verify this routine.
For the first time EVER...I finally see some value in the red card.

i would just LOVE to remind people that the entire purpose of this thread is to COMPLETELY AVOID EXACTLY WHAT HE IS TELLING YOU TO DO. remember guys, we have to do things this way because if you keep putting eeprom = yes then eventually ALL OF YOUR EEPROM = YES SAVES WILL CORRUPT.

for anyone really wanting to know, before we have referred to EEPROM as having '10 saves slots' of its own. this isn't exactly true. just like any other computer like chip, it has a max memory, like how a USB can hold say 8GB of data, the chip inside the cart can hold X amount of data. additionally, save data has diffrent sizes. the '10 slot limit' is based on using 10 games with the biggest memory required to save. examples are pokemon x, and animal crossing new leaf. now while you may be able to get more then 10 saves on eeprom for sure, just remember every time you add one more game, you right corrupting and losing all your saves for every EEPROM save you have. this is because once EEPROM hits it max data, it just keeps writing to places it thinks are empty and unused, but were actually being saves by other games sale slots for data the game hasn't gotten around to yet, and then everything starts corrupting and getting lost.

the problem was never in getting games to write while saying EEPROM YES, it was to keep the saves intact. if you browse around the forums, you'll find conversations of people talking and testing this.

now..if you do corrupt all your games already, there is ofcorse no problem in just corrupting your eeprom anyway and just doing testing using all games as eeprom no from that point on, then your all technically free to test this all you like. (as long as you seriously don't mind losing your save files for these games. and before anyone forgets, when EEPROM = yes the save is not saved on the microsd into the rom, so you cannot use backup rom to make backups of all your saves either, so when i say you will lose your saves, i mean, you WILL lose all your saves. its just a matter of how long it takes / how far you push the limit.)

PS you said those games wouldn't work nomatter what you tried. you could have just looked at my compatibility chart for some of those games. as i already did the working in finding out those results. i'll add the ones i didn't personally test onto the chart tho. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZUSaCSxa8M-wPfvHtnlnJGAqjRsxkPa4hsuNCIjkLOE/edit#gid=0

 

[Arithmatics]

Not that your findings were bad, they were really good but as dawnbomb mentioned, it's more about being able to preserve your saves. EEPROM doesn't work like hdd or flash memory. It's more of a "if that slot hasn't been used in a while, i'll just rewrite and use it again" hence the whole save corruption fiasco.

Nevertheless it is progress on a certain degree. I'll add it as a new method with a new disclaimer on the potential it has to corrupt saves.

Unless anyone wants to take it upon themselves to test and see if/when save corruption occurs?

Awesome work guys. We will slowly crack this flashcart.

 

[dawnbomb]

nice triple post

but yeah, be aware that before you even test this, testing this is iffy. as once EEPROM is corrupt, it can never be fixed, short of opening your cart and removing your eeprom and using a different one, or ordering a EEPROM reader online to plug it into your pc.

 

[donkeymilk]

So then what's the strategy to back up game saves?

 

[dawnbomb]

So then what's the strategy to back up game saves?

i'm not sure you CAN back up eeprom yes games at that point. if eeprom gets corrupt, i don't think you can restore any saves to it, everything will just corrupt some more.

 

[viewsat]

thank goodness for sd saving eprom =no. but i pray for when a simple method to reprogram the original ten is released.

 

[dawnbomb]

thank goodness for sd saving eprom =no. but i pray for when a simple method to reprogram the original ten is released.

thats literally not possible, ever. but they can just make it so the compatability of games when eeprom = no is the same as when its yes. it'll take time and work, but its doable.

PS noone would be corrupting or testing or otherwise their EEPROM if we couldn't save to the micro sd, otherwise all testers would most likly just make their cards unusable. people are only testing now, because they know they won't lose their 90$ card because of it.

 

[Keylogger]

What is (are) hardware differences between the red & blue button cards?
Is the EEPROM chip bigger in the blue button card?

 

[donkeymilk]

What is (are) hardware differences between the red & blue button cards?
Is the EEPROM chip bigger in the blue button card?

Not 100% sure, but I think the blue card has the EEPROM chip disabled or possibly not even on the board.

I'll test mine later today, but from what I've seen, it looks like a better setup.

 

[warnings]

nice triple post

but yeah, be aware that before you even test this, testing this is iffy. as once EEPROM is corrupt, it can never be fixed, short of opening your cart and removing your eeprom and using a different one, or ordering a EEPROM reader online to plug it into your pc.

Not true, the game will tell you the eeprom save is corrupt and ask you to create a new one. and yes you can restore eeprom saves by backing up and restoring in diskwriter.
Infact eeprom no saves corrupt way more often.

 

[Keylogger]

Not 100% sure, but I think the blue card has the EEPROM chip disabled or possibly not even on the board.

I'll test mine later today, but from what I've seen, it looks like a better setup.

Hmmm if there is no eeprom chip, I don't know how EEPROM=YES roms can work with this card...

Not true, the game will tell you the eeprom save is corrupt and ask you to create a new one. and yes you can restore eeprom saves by backing up and restoring in diskwriter.

But you have to backup your saves very often to avoid loosing them...

 

[warnings]

But you have to backup your saves very often to avoid loosing them...

Wait until you install your next eeprom no game and you get the 0mb bug...then we'll see who's crying.
I've only ever backup saves when switching cards, I don't even do that anymore.
I don't even think the saves ever go to eeprom, a switch or ticket goes to eeprom but the saves are in the rom.

 

[Keylogger]

Wait until you install your next eeprom no game and you get the 0mb bug...then we'll see who's crying.
I've only ever backup saves when switching cards, I don't even do that anymore.
I don't even think the saves ever go to eeprom, a switch or ticket goes to eeprom but the saves are in the rom.

Not sure...I think saves ARE in the eeprom (if you have EEPROM=YES roms) cause you will have the savegame corrupted message if you play with more than 10 roms

 

[dawnbomb]

Not true, the game will tell you the eeprom save is corrupt and ask you to create a new one. and yes you can restore eeprom saves by backing up and restoring in diskwriter.
Infact eeprom no saves corrupt way more often.

you can restore them, but they will get corrupt again over time. again you thinking this is a simple space hardware like a USB, but its not.

Hmmm if there is no eeprom chip, I don't know how EEPROM=YES roms can work with this card...

the blue card doesn't run eeprom yes ever. remember, as i've said before, a game only takes up a eeprom yes save slot, when it actually saves. the blue card uses this to its advantage, and you write the games to the micro SD as yes games. then during the games boot up when your starting the game, the cart modifies the rom to be EEPROM NO and runs it. because it runs in eeprom no, it both saves and loads from the micro sd.

so its still technically using the eeprom no compatibility chart, but it bypasses most of all the bugs. alot of the compatibility bugs, are the game can't be run because its invisable / corrupts when you run it. but if the game is written as yes, it always shows up, and it always runs the game. so the blue cart is only affected by template bugs that cause the rom to bug AFTER your already ingame. most bugs would likely be assumed by most players to be a bug with the rom itself at that point even if one occurred. so only bug with saveing are considered actual bugs for the blue card users. sadly the only blue card users i have spoken to have been very ignorant about how the blue card is perfect, so they never admit anything, even when there is a problem. only once did i speak to a user who admitted a problem with his rom saves, and he STILL said blue card is perfect. ugh.

however, (hearsay here) one user said a game didn't work online. it was fixed it a more recent template for that game, but thats another example of blue cards still being affected by bugs. they just have to be in game bugs, of that there are very, very, VERY few. once the red card gains more compatibility, it will be just as useful as the blue card.