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

[SpaceJump]

Guys stop complaining... it would be better for gateway to release a fully tested and working update then be like r4 and release a broken update.

Who is complaining? I didn't see anyone complaining.

 

[Commoner]

TBH I don't care if it takes them a little longer to release 2.0 than they've estimated. They're driving the entire 3DS scene solo right now. Once it's stable and released, all the flash carts will benefit from it, and all the whining will be a distant memory.

Actually there is a good chance this may not be true.

Gateway has stated that Gateway 2.0 will require an FPGA update. Since it has been pretty much verified that none of the Gateway Clone FPGAs can be updated because of the way the JTAG contact pins are terminated at the back of the cart they will either have to come up with a hardware solution or will be on their own in developing an update that does not require an FPGA update for multirom and card 2 NAND saving.

Quite a bit of circumstantial evidence is suggesting that the people behind r4i and mt-card are actually the same. This suggests that r4i has reached the conclusion that the flaw in their cart design will not allow them to introduce the much desired features that are to be included in Gateway 2.0 and have consequently decided to abandon the development for the r4i deluxe gold cart.

The theory goes that they are introducing the new mt-card brand to separate themselves from the r4i deluxe gold which will pretty much become obsolete in a matter of a few short months after is launch. This is in the hopes that they can coax a second purchase from people who may have become distrustful of the r4i brand once they discover that they can not fulfill their launch promises for multirom and NAND saving.

Although this is all really just half substantiated rumors at this point, I would wait a couple of weeks after Gateway 2.0 is released as historically, r4i and the other clones have been able to copy the Gateway updates only a few days after Gateway has released them. If they are unable to release a similar update to Gateway 2.0 shortly after it's release, I would assume that the rumors are probably true.

If the rumors are indeed true then the clones will certainly not benefit from the Gateway 2.0 release although the MT-Card probably will depending on how well they can copy the Gateway 2.0 update. Copying the update might in fact be problematic for MT-Card sine Gateway will likely update through the 3ds itself while MT-Card claims their FPGA will be updated through the micro-usb interface instead.

 

[mr. fancypants]

Uh huh. Nailed it! 2.0 will come when Hell freezes over. Oh yeah, it will be in the early days of January........2015!

you could share your hell freezes with us here in the netherlands its freaking 50 F (10C)

anyway is the MT card not another card from r4i to get more sales?

(maybe not cause it would look like their copying MT later)

 

[Technicmaster0]

you could share your hell freezes with us here in the netherlands its freaking 50 F (10C)

anyway is the MT card not another card from r4i to get more sales?

(maybe not cause it would look like their copying MT later)

There are signs that they are the same and signs that they are not the same. But nothing is proven yet.

 

[JohnnyBlaze1986]

you could share your hell freezes with us here in the netherlands its freaking 50 F (10C)

I need it before you. It's only been between 7-15 degrees over here for most of the past week and a half.

 

[Vahnyyz]

so there hasn't been any real updates. Some speculations, and we're all hoping "early this year" means tomorrow cause saturdays are great days to release stuff. Has anyone gotten any new info from gateway or their ilk?

 

[irondoom]

I dunno man, 3DSLink is pretty confident that it's coming soon, what with their "multi-rom WILL be in our 4.0 firmware." Lol.

TBH I don't care if it takes them a little longer to release 2.0 than they've estimated. They're driving the entire 3DS scene solo right now. Once it's stable and released, all the flash carts will benefit from it, and all the whining will be a distant memory.

"I get all the 3DS games for $80, but I can only play ONE AT A TIME! WAAAH! Hurry up and make everything convenient for me!" Pretty childish attitude. If anything, we can at least hope this teaches you some patience.

I agree, in fact I like single rom because it makes me play games longer than I normally would. If I'm playing ds games on my supercard dstwo I'm hopping around Roms like a rabbit on crack. Not so on gateway. I'm looking forward to NAND saving the most.

 

[Pedeadstrian]

I agree, in fact I like single rom because it makes me play games longer than I normally would. If I'm playing ds games on my supercard dstwo I'm hopping around Roms like a rabbit on crack. Not so on gateway. I'm looking forward to NAND saving the most.

That's great and all for big, 30+ hour games, but some of us like "casual" games, ones where you can play an hour or so at a time. Theatrhythm is fun to play, but since it's not something I'd wanna be doing for long periods of time, it'd be much more enjoyable if I could just select it, play it for however long I want, and then pick another game without having to re-image or get another microSD. That's the main reason I'm excited for multirom.

 

[Xzi]

That's great and all for big, 30+ hour games, but some of us like "casual" games, ones where you can play an hour or so at a time. Theatrhythm is fun to play, but since it's not something I'd wanna be doing for long periods of time, it'd be much more enjoyable if I could just select it, play it for however long I want, and then pick another game without having to re-image or get another microSD. That's the main reason I'm excited for multirom.

Multi-rom is the main thing I'm looking forward to in GW 2.0. But that doesn't mean I throw a hissy fit every day it isn't released. I guess some people prefer 3DSLink-type support for their flash carts just because it means getting new firmware a week or two earlier. Far from worth it, IMO.

 

[JasonMoh]

What I am interest in 2.0 is "Back up your own game cartridges".

 

[Knoedel]

What I am interest in 2.0 is "Back up your own game cartridges".

hmmm this is something I dont even care about :/
multirom is the important part for me.

 

[Mr_Pichu]

gbatemp is back!!

 

[Habbert]

gbatemp is back!!

Yay!

 

[weatMod]

hmmm this is something I dont even care about :/
multirom is the important part for me.

i am waiting for this too, i cant wait to back up my save data from my carts, guess someone could waste money on a r4 sav dongle or be patient

 

[irondoom]

That's great and all for big, 30+ hour games, but some of us like "casual" games, ones where you can play an hour or so at a time. Theatrhythm is fun to play, but since it's not something I'd wanna be doing for long periods of time, it'd be much more enjoyable if I could just select it, play it for however long I want, and then pick another game without having to re-image or get another microSD. That's the main reason I'm excited for multirom.

Ah yes I see your point, I did not consider these kind of games...it's true that multirom support will be nice here. I still feel that single rom support makes me stick with games longer. I have only 2 8gb sd cards anyway, so even with multirom I will be limited to a few games per card. In any case, 2.0 final holds something for everyone. We must just all wait strongly for gateway team to finish their wonderful work.

 

[Technicmaster0]

Ah yes I see your point, I did not consider these kind of games...it's true that multirom support will be nice here. I still feel that single rom support makes me stick with games longer. I have only 2 8gb sd cards anyway, so even with multirom I will be limited to a few games per card. In any case, 2.0 final holds something for everyone. We must just all wait strongly for gateway team to finish their wonderful work.

I currently only play Bravely Default with my MT-Card because I only have one free 4GB MicroSD card any more (since I destroyed two with the disk imager).

 

[irondoom]

I currently only play Bravely Default with my MT-Card because I only have one free 4GB MicroSD card any more (since I destroyed two with the disk imager).

Yeah for me I like this for example I play shin megami tensei 4 and am almost done with the game. If I had 50 Roms like I have on supercard two I doubt I would have played past the first
Mission before the game really opens up, much less finish it. I would have missed a very good game IMO that I enjoyed playing.

But I think for casual games it will be good, also because the roms are bigger I don't think the problem will be as bad as on supercard. I will just have to load my sd cards smartly

 

[leeksausage]

itching to play pokemon myself!

question (sorry if already asked/answered): how are we going to get the 4gb+ games onto the SD cards with multirom play if its FAT32 drag and drop? Is there a way to split the files, or skim off some of the padding?

 

[bkifft]

itching to play pokemon myself!

question (sorry if already asked/answered): how are we going to get the 4gb+ games onto the SD cards with multirom play if its FAT32 drag and drop? Is there a way to split the files, or skim off some of the padding?

pristine 4GiB roms like Bravely Default will not fit on fat32 as they are 1 Byte (yes, one single frigging Byte) to big for the filesystem.

3DSGuy created a rom trimmer (http://gbatemp.net/threads/3ds-rom-tool-rom_tool.349314/), which will either remove some padding fluff or even the included firmware update . And as every 4GiB game I have come across yet has the update, all of them can be shrunk down below those magical 4294967296 Bytes.

As far as I'm aware of, Ninty designed the 3DS platform for games up to 8GiB, although i believe none of that size have been released yet. If and when that happens splitting akin to Wii usb loaders would be one way (although the flashcarts would need to get support for it first), switching to a different file system for the microSD (WBFS style, although a open fs like ntfs or ext3 would be more prudent) another.

 

[RandomUser]

pristine 4GiB roms like Bravely Default will not fit on fat32 as they are 1 Byte (yes, one single frigging Byte) to big for the filesystem.

3DSGuy created a rom trimmer (http://gbatemp.net/threads/3ds-rom-tool-rom_tool.349314/), which will either remove some padding fluff or even the included firmware update . And as every 4GiB game I have come across yet has the update, all of them can be shrunk down below those magical 4294967296 Bytes.

As far as I'm aware of, Ninty designed the 3DS platform for games up to 8GiB, although i believe none of that size have been released yet. If and when that happens splitting akin to Wii usb loaders would be one way (although the flashcarts would need to get support for it first), switching to a different file system for the microSD (WBFS style, although a open fs like ntfs or ext3 would be more prudent) another.

What about plain UDF file system? They are not limited to just optical medias.