Artic Base, an open source tool for broadcasting games from your Nintendo 3DS to an emulator, has been released! Artic Base allows playing your owned collection of 3DS games, physical or digital, on a compatible emulator without having to dump them first. Furthermore, the tool syncs the save data, so you can resume your progress at any time from the console. Below is the list of features this tool provides, coming from the Artic Base Server github repository.

Features​

• Play games from your console without having to dump them.
• Sync the savedata/extdata of the broadcasted game during the play session.
• Load shared ext data and NCCH archives from your console.
• Remove the need to dump AES keys, as the decryption is done by the console's OS.

Advantages over playing on real console​

• Play your games at higher resolutions.
• Use external controllers that may better fit your playstyle.
• Switch between playing on your PC at home and your console on the go.
• Reduce e-waste by reusing partially broken consoles to broadcast your games to your PC.
• Allow museums or non-profit game preservation organizations to have a centralised database of preserved games, while using an Artic Base Server + a compatible emulator to do research as needed.

As the tool author claims, Artic Base aims to help players enjoy their collection of Nintendo 3DS games with several advantages, such as being able to play at higher resolutions, switch between playing on a 3DS on the go and and a PC at home, and using their preferred external controllers. Furthermore, it helps reducing e-waste by allowing the use of partially broken consoles to act as a server instead of having to toss/replace them. The tool also removes the need of having to deal with classic emulator shenenigans, such as having to dump games or getting cryptographic keys. Keep in mind however that due to the network speed of the 3DS, slower loading times may be experienced.

At the time of writing, the only emulator supporting Artic Base is a forked version of the former 3DS emulator Citra, maintained by PabloMK7.

A demonstration of Artic Base was posted to PabloMK7's YouTube channel a few days ago, showcasing Shovel Knight being broadcasted to a PC.

​

What do you think? Will you do another playthrough of your collected 3DS games using this tool? Leave your thoughts in the replies!

Artic Base Server (3DS application)
PabloMK7's Citra fork with Artic Base support

 

[SecureBoot]

You're basically playing your 3DS as usual but the game appears on the emulator rather than on the 3DS's screen.

ROFL moment

No that would be a tool like snickerstream. From what I can tell, this streams the assets required for the game to your computer in real time. This means the computer is running the game which allows for things like upscaling and controller support

 

[AlamosIT]

Me, realizing that "Artic" is "Citra" backwards

 

[BlusterBong]

Yeah... No, this should have been how pretty much every emulator should have be doing things to ensure complete and total legality and it took a lawsuit from a multi-million dollar company for someone to try this.

 

[floragatodev]

The concept of this is super cool and works with a game like Shovel Knight, but trying out 3D Land and Alpha Sapphire, more complicated games are basically unplayable

 

[FanNintendo]

Me, realizing that "Artic" is "Citra" backwards

View attachment 436952

Artic also is the area around the North Pole not to be confused with the Artctic too

Post automatically merged: May 13, 2024

Save states don't work with artic base currently. There is some state in the server side that cannot be saved.

In any case, I didn't experience a single server crash, and you can connect your console to the PC hotspot so you never lose connection.

I have ran on 2.4 ghz and 5 ghz wifi and keep saying 'An error has occurred whilst communicating with the Artic Base Server.' with new update Artic Base. Also i tried with my Tab S9+ and it came with same result with laptop and tablet.

Post automatically merged: May 13, 2024

@PabloMK7 I just figured out and got it working on both laptop and tablet! Great job and Im loving it!!

 

[PabloMK7]

The concept of this is super cool and works with a game like Shovel Knight, but trying out 3D Land and Alpha Sapphire, more complicated games are basically unplayable

I've tried 3D Land and it's perfectly playable, the loading times are even faster than the average, no idea what you are talking about. If you have a potato computer that's not powerful enough to do emulation that's another story...

Please send the log as it's also posible something is not properly configured, the log can be found by going to File -> Open Citra Folder and then going to the logs folder.

 

[SDA]

No that would be a tool like snickerstream. From what I can tell, this streams the assets required for the game to your computer in real time. This means the computer is running the game which allows for things like upscaling and controller support

I know. Only that you use the 3DS as a controller like you would do on a Wii U.

 

[linkinworm]

Not tried this yet, but this would have been useful a while ago when i was shiny hunting without having to mess around moving saves around.

 

[FanNintendo]

Just finished C-3 Roadhouse Brawl Level in Luigi's Manison - Dark Moon with Artic Base. it is still awesome with PS4 controller better than using NTR CFW with Slipstream.

 

[CoolMe]

That's the weirdest idea I ever heard. it's... COOL tho.

For once i agree with you..
Weird idea, but hey, not complainin' as long as the 3ds homebrew community is still alive and well

 

[Reploid]

For once i agree with you..
Weird idea, but hey, not complainin' as long as the 3ds homebrew community is still alive and well

For once you right kek

 

[gnmmarechal]

That's kinda cool to be honest

Post automatically merged: May 13, 2024

Me, realizing that "Artic" is "Citra" backwards

View attachment 436952

ngl that hadn't occurred to me at all, gigabrain moment

 

[xsdfr]

this seems like a really cool piece of software, but i don't really understand the purpose of it? streaming game data directly from the 3DS seems kinda inefficient as opposed to just dumping the game onto your PC.

 

[PhoenixUp0]

Could you add this to universal updater?

 

[eigenvector]

This is amazing for streaming. Thanks for sharing

 

[fvig2001]

Testing it out more and DLCs don't seem to work. I tried out smash and it behaved like there was no DLC installed.

 

[OfcaTBS]

The concept of this is super cool and works with a game like Shovel Knight, but trying out 3D Land and Alpha Sapphire, more complicated games are basically unplayable

The problem with the Pokemon XY games (and perhaps ORAS) is that you need an HLE AAC Decoder for proper emulation. Unfortunately, all links to download this are no longer active. I have not been able to find any working link. Perhaps someone will put it online again soon.

My colleague tested Pokemon Ultra Sun on it and said that the game works very well. I myself have tested Pokemon X (indeed it works badly), Super Mario 3D Land (works very well) and Shantae (also works very well).

 

[arceus]

put the letters of that word in reverse order and see what happens

oh ok

 

[linkinworm]

this seems like a really cool piece of software, but i don't really understand the purpose of it? streaming game data directly from the 3DS seems kinda inefficient as opposed to just dumping the game onto your PC.

basially makes your 3ds, switch like, so you could play on a bigger screen at home, then if you need to go out and have chance to play while out you don't have to mess with moving saves and files around

 

[TinchoX]

Cool and all... but I was hoping I could use this to "stream" TwilightMenu++ to my PC, too ambitious, not how it works I know...
Still, not a bad thing to have around and mess with from time to time.