Hacking What's the point of current flash carts?

[Deleted User]

I've been doing a lot of research on the flashcarts currently out and the features they offer and they all seem like a waste of money.

Years ago for 14$ I got a "fake" r4 that came with a 2gb SD card that can play any rom and the save files could be edited; but the DS was a simple device.

Currently all these flashcarts let you do is give you maybe 10% more functionality than you currently get with the 3ds and feel cool that you're using modded shit.


Yea you can dump data via them, but that's all they're good for, and only people that benefit from that are people that want to further their knowledge of the 3DS.

With 3ds firmwares and update systems, for the average consumer current flashcarts (as of 3/24/14) do not provide much, other than false hope of someday being back to their former glory.

 

[jurassicplayer]

What is the point of this thread? I can't seem to understand it. So you bought a flashcart and decided "shit does what I need I guess...compromise? sure, I'm not losing that much. I'll just console myself that the other shit out there is about the same anyways...no need to go past the quota...I didn't waste those $14."

Just what do you think those flashcarts are for anyways? Homebrew? DS development? Media player on the go? The number of people who think that pretty much range from a number of homebrew devs to a small number of homebrew lovers that don't really give a shit about most of the DS games that are around.

Yes you can dump data...and do...guess what, play games which is pretty much the main point and the selling point of the flashcarts ._.

So far, I can just surmise that what you have said is about the equivalent of saying "Hot damn, I bought one of these wallets some time back and yeah, it holds my money well...but with the new fancy purses and minimalistic money holders of today, the wallets I saw before don't provide much and some seem to be banking on their original quality to get by."

Just what the hell were you expecting from a cheap product that was meant for playing games? For it to do your homework for you? For it to magically get updates and work on newer hardware that wasn't present when it was made originally? Why not just ask computer companies why they can't fucking make computers that auto update their hardware with shit from the future? Otherwise, those products are just banking on former glory to be sold too.

 

[Arras]

You can play pirated games, that's what. And that's enough for most people.

 

[Schizoanalysis]

Kids these days.

When I was young, a flash kit cost over $100... and it could do nothing else than play ROMs. And we were happy with that.

 

[Apache Thunder]

There's a complete and utter lack of home-brew. Piracy is about the only thing they can be used for right now other then a few emuNand related stuff one could also do. DS Flashcarts had lots of homebrew and such because the DS had very poor security. The 3DS however had better security and higher overhead because it has a proper operating system of sorts, thus not very many ways of getting custom code running on it without having to either workaround the security or deal with putting it togther in away the OS will understand as it's access to the hardware won't be as direct as it was with the DS.

The DS had a primitive firmware OS that only really serves to change a few settings, Pictochat, download play, and launch games, but after that the games load up and handles everything. I don't even think the firmware software is even active in memory anymore once a game is launched. There's no middle man getting in the way of homebrew basically.

There's a few out there working on homebrew but nothing is released yet.

Unless you are pirating games flash-carts for the 3DS would not be worth the price they cost right now. Many will say they use it as a backup device.

But the fact is, only one card out there has or will get Multi-rom support (Gateway doesn't have that yet and might never release an update again, MT-Card has it...I think. Not up to speed with what's going on with them. ) and the next card that comes out might support a higher firmware version then 4.5 out of the box if anything in the speculation thread holds true which means any flash-cart you buy now is already obsolete.


Setting piracy aside, as a backup device most of the 3DS flashcards are pretty much s***. You can really only have one rom at a time on a MicroSD card and this means spending a fortune on a ton of MicroSD cards (if your game collection is rather large) plus you had to lug all that along with you if you are traveling. This renders "All games in one" device convenience and MicroSD are tiny and easy to lose. Even old flashcarts back in the days of Gameboy/N64 had some form of multirom file system where you can have more the one game on your storage device to choose from. 3DS Flashcarts are pretty primitive compared to even the legacy flashcarts from yesteryear...

On top of that some of the games being released will support being downloaded from the eShop instead of needing a physical cartridge to play. Pokemon X/Y is one game I think comes to mind. If more and more have this option, then why even have a flashcart if there's no homebrew out there to use it with?

From what I hear any homebrew that does get released likely won't even need a 3DS flashcart other then a old DS flashcart like DSTWO to use the 4.5 mset exploit. (there be rumors of a possible exploit found in 6.0-6.3 firmware, but no one really knows how it works yet or whether it requires a flashcart of some kind to use.)

So yeah, piracy is the only real benefit to having a 3DS Flashcart right now. If you looking to stay legit, save your money for the physical retail carts and eShop downloads.

 

[Deleted member 333767]

I don't think it's fair for OP to compare a second generation flash kit for the DS to a first generation flash kit for the 3DS.....

 

[cearp]

Yea you can dump data via them

you really like to dump data don't you! they are basically just for games...

 

[jrr6415sun]

i'm sure when the 4DS comes out the 3DS flashcart will cost $14 too.

Also you are buying a clone so ofcourse it will be cheaper (and will have less support). Clones do not have to do any work. They copy the code so their only cost in the material and shipping

I'm sure in a year or 2 the 3DS flashcart's price will be cut in half. Any new tech product will be expensive when it first comes out.

 

[Veho]

What's the point of current flash carts?

Free games.

Compared to current DS flashcards it's not much, but compared to not having free games it's free games.

 

[natkoden]

To ruin the system (in more than one way)

 

[Delta517]

Short said: The point is for us to avoid spending money by giving money to shady guys, instead of the developers that makes the games. Now I feel sad for owning a Gateway...

 

[angela18]

Short said: The point is for us to avoid spending money by giving money to shady guys, instead of the developers that makes the games. Now I feel sad for owning a Gateway...

You don´t have to use it

 

[Aglae Pheryl]

For a guy like me (who buys many many retail games having quite a few kids at home), those cards (Gateway in this case) are a great way to not only test but enjoy games that I could not afford to buy. Eventually it comes down to buying the legit stuff in the end when I (my kids) like what the game brings (well provided ther's a little money left. So in my opinion thses cards do serve a purpose and a great one... They give not so fortunate people the chance to play games, they give some (not so well known) companies money (from time to time when buying legit suff) and they also bring money to the gaming industry from people that in the end would never have spent a penny on games or consoles. Of course there will always be people who never buy a single piece of game... but frankly I don't believe there are many of them... So in the end IMHO, it's all good for the industry.

 

[Deleted User]

For a guy like me (who buys many many retail games having quite a few kids at home), those cards (Gateway in this case) are a great way to not only test but enjoy games that I could not afford to buy. Eventually it comes down to buying the legit stuff in the end when I (my kids) like what the game brings (well provided ther's a little money left. So in my opinion thses cards do serve a purpose and a great one... They give not so fortunate people the chance to play games, they give some (not so well known) companies money (from time to time when buying legit suff) and they also bring money to the gaming industry from people that in the end would never have spent a penny on games or consoles. Of course there will always be people who never buy a single piece of game... but frankly I don't believe there are many of them... So in the end IMHO, it's all good for the industry.

I'd agree with you if it was as good as the R4; but with the gateway, arn't you only able to have 1 game at a time and isn't it like 60$+ shipping when 3ds games usually got for ~30

If it was as good as the good ole r4 we would never have half the threads in this section

 

[IronClouds]

If it was as good as the good ole r4 we would never have half the threads in this section

It seems like you're not taking into consideration a few fundamental reasons. If by "good ole R4" you mean the version for a Nintendo DS, then you're not considering the 3DS' presence in the scene as a factor on its price range. Secondly, you fail to consider the sheer amount of information known by these teams on the DS. The DS has been out a long time -- more than enough time for teams to have discovered enough vulnerabilities for it to be considered more "open" than the 3DS. This is why the price range for DS flashcarts is where it is today. Did you know that the price range for DS flashcarts was around this price range when as much was known about the console back then as is known about the 3DS now?

If you're talking about the R4 for 3DS being better in functionality than the Gateway, then you have not done enough research. The only thing the R4 for 3DS has over the Gateway is the price, which is lower than Gateway.

Overall, I think you'd benefit from doing a little more reading on the state of the 3DS scene, and different flashcarts that are currently out. Honestly, the 3DS flashcart scene is very much in its infancy, whereas the DS flashcart scene is worlds ahead in terms of maturity.

 

[Deleted User]

It seems like you're not taking into consideration a few fundamental reasons. If by "good ole R4" you mean the version for a Nintendo DS, then you're not considering the 3DS' presence in the scene as a factor on its price range. Secondly, you fail to consider the sheer amount of information known by these teams on the DS. The DS has been out a long time -- more than enough time for teams to have discovered enough vulnerabilities for it to be considered more "open" than the 3DS. This is why the price range for DS flashcarts is where it is today. Did you know that the price range for DS flashcarts was around this price range when as much was known about the console back then as is known about the 3DS now?

If you're talking about the R4 for 3DS being better in functionality than the Gateway, then you have not done enough research. The only thing the R4 for 3DS has over the Gateway is the price, which is lower than Gateway.

Overall, I think you'd benefit from doing a little more reading on the state of the 3DS scene, and different flashcarts that are currently out. Honestly, the 3DS flashcart scene is very much in its infancy, whereas the DS flashcart scene is worlds ahead in terms of maturity.

That's exactly what I said, they're basically in their alpha state (well they claim beta); they're an important tool for research but for the general consumer they're not all that convenient. Trust me I lurk these forums a lot and soak in a lot of information.

edit: Development would've went 100x faster if at least one popular 3ds flashcart company would make their firmware opensource; but ofcourse that's never going to happen. Just like powersave's is keeping their XORkey to themselves.

 

[IronClouds]

That's exactly what I said, they're basically in their alpha state (well they claim beta); they're an important tool for research but for the general consumer they're not all that convenient. Trust me I lurk these forums a lot and soak in a lot of information.

edit: Development would've went 100x faster if at least one popular 3ds flashcart company would make their firmware opensource; but ofcourse that's never going to happen. Just like powersave's is keeping their XORkey to themselves.

Fair enough. I seem to have missed that point.

 

[Deleted User]

Fair enough. I seem to have missed that point.

No worries man <3

 

[tbgtbg]

The point is to play gaems.

 

[Reecey]

What is the point of the meaning, the point!

What is the point of flashcards like the DSTwo, Gateway & MT-Card:-

The point is, the point of making these cards is to make sure the point is pointing towards the point of what these cards do and the point is exactly why the point is to point in the rite direction of the exact point to make sure you choose the rite point in time in ordering a flashcard and point towards the web to point yourself in the correct direction of ordering and receiveing in the post, that making the rite point in the day to open the parcel at the rite point of the package and point it towards your 3DS/XL and use your 3DS pointer in the home menu to install the card! That is my point exactly on the subject