Hacking why must we gateway users home button quit to save?

[alpha_noj]

Going to give the card 1 to 2 a shot later. Anyone try it on MH4U or Zelda MM? Just wish I could carry my retail saves over.

 

[JustPingo]

Going to give the card 1 to 2 a shot later. Anyone try it on MH4U or Zelda MM? Just wish I could carry my retail saves over.

It works with Majora's Mask.

 

[tony_2018]

Is it a hassle for most to do this? Or is it a misunderstanding on how it works? I have no issues with shutting down my 3ds to conserve battery. Its not that big of a deal to do the exploit all over again.

 

[XDM]

Going to give the card 1 to 2 a shot later. Anyone try it on MH4U or Zelda MM? Just wish I could carry my retail saves over.

im about to try now, but my Mh4u rip is trimmed...i wonder if it will ever work.. and

PS with some moderate work you can carry over all your saves

 

[XDM]

EDIT card1to2 app does not work for monster hunter 4, both untrimmed or trimmed version result in black screen ex unexpected error occurred hold power button.

i guess i have to get the cia version of that too -__-

 

[tony_2018]

All this work because you don't want to just go back to the home screen? Damn...

 

[XDM]

All this work because you don't want to just go back to the home screen? Damn...

its because i lost A LOT of progress in MH4 yesterday and now im paranoid
if we had latest emunand id just play with the damn cart -__-

 

[alpha_noj]

Well that's unfortunate it doesn't work for mh4u. How do you convert the save though? Everything I'm reading says you can't for 7.X encryption save games...

 

[VinsCool]

its because i lost A LOT of progress in MH4 yesterday and now im paranoid
if we had latest emunand id just play with the damn cart -__-

I thought the game worked with 9.5 emunand.

 

[hsdubb19]

i have this problem with xenoblades.

So much of my progress was lost when my n3ds crashes on me during the game.

 

[Cyan]

So many wrong things in the thread...
Everybody tells what he think is right, without giving the full information.


First, Card1 and Card2 are different.
Card2 are saving in Real time inside the ROM. You will never lose your save.

For Card1: AlbertoSONIC is almost right.
Gateway has and is still working the same way since the first release !
Nothing has changes regarding savegames management.


When you launch a game, the SPI chipset is initialized using this algorithm:

If you launch the SAME game than the last played game, the SD card .sav file will not be copied to SPI.
If you launch a DIFFERENT game than the last played game, the SD card .sav file of the NEW game will be copied to SPI overwriting the previously played savegame.

If your battery runs out, DO NOT LAUNCH a different game.
Run the same game that you last launched and you will continue your game where you last saved. the SPI is keeping your progress as long as you launch the same game.
To create a backup of the SPI chipset to SD card, you need to exit the game (Home+X, Power+Shutdown, Home+load another title, etc.)

It doesn't prevent game crashing and losing save progress.
If the game crash while the SPI is actually accessed it could corrupt it.



Pseudo code for launching game

if(Exit game)
{
	if(SPI not empty)
		Copy SPI titleID to TitleID.sav on SD
}
else if (Launch game)
{
	if(launched TitleID != SPI titleID)
	{
		if(launched titleID .sav file exists on SD)
			copy TitleID.sav to SPI
		else
			Initialize SPI
	}
	Launch game
}

Something they could implement : saving SPI at game launch instead of game exit.
But if current SPI is corrupted it would overwrite your good save backup.

if(launched TitleID != SPI titleID)
{
	if(SPI not empty)
		copy SPI TitleID to TitleID.sav on SD
	if(launched titleID .sav file exists on SD)
		copy launched TitleID.sav to SPI
	else
		Initialize SPI
}
launch game

keeping multiple .sav would be better (for example with backup datetime in the filename instead of overwriting the existing .sav)


Gateway is probably using the SPI as a method to prevent flashcart detection by the games.
games often have chipset check routine (type, size, etc.) to determine if the card is genuine or a copy.
if they redirect saves to SD card in realtime it could create compatibility issues and also save speed issues. SPI is probably faster than SD card access.

 

[Arkansaw]

because waitway teaches you the virtue of patience

 

[Ericss]

Thank you for the detailed explanation, Cyan! Does this mean that one could exploit the way GW handles saves to quickly transfer a save between multiple 3DS? Play the game whose save you want to transfer, close it, eject the GW, and finally insert GW into second 3DS and play the same game on it.

 

[JustPingo]

Thank you for the detailed explanation, cyan! Does this mean that one could exploit the way GW handles saves to quickly transfer a save between multiple 3DS? Play the game whose save you want to transfer, close it, eject the GW, and finally insert GW into second 3DS and play the same game on it.

I don't think so, because Gateway uses a FPGA that basically looses every not saved information when unpowered.

 

[xBleedingSoulx]

Why would anyone not close the game after they're done with it anyway, I don't understand? I do this even for retail carts so I don't see the problem.

 

[Ericss]

I don't think so, because Gateway uses a FPGA that basically looses every not saved information when unpowered.

Well, did you read Cyan's post? It seems the save in the SPI is kept until being overwritten.

 

[JustPingo]

Well, did you read Cyan's post? It seems the save in the SPI is kept until being overwritten.

Yes, but if you cut down the energy input, doesn't it clear it?

 

[Purple_Shyguy]

Sometimes after a particularly lengthy game sesh I get the dreaded black screen of doom "Gamecard has been removed"

Gotta save and quit the game regularly to not lose progress.

 

[Cyan]

no, it doesn't clear if you shutdown your console, battery runs out of power, eject your card, etc.
You don't lose your save progress on retail card when you shutdown your console, or eject the card, it's the same type of memory in the flashcart.


And to answer the "switching the console" question :
I don't really understand why you would like to switch the console, but it's possible as long as your ROM is using the same header.
if your ROM has a different header and/or you switch from .3ds/.3dz then your game will not recognize the save data in the SPI and will tell you it's corrupted.
But If you keep the same MicroSD, then yes it will work and you can overwrite the save data on Target console by launching the game and exiting. it will keep your SPI data and copy the SPI to SD card.


If what you want to do is share your save to someone else, you can also:
- exit game to write .sav file
- copy .sav file on target console's SD card
- be sure the target user had the same ROM header info if using .3dz format
- launch a DIFFERENT game if your last played game is the one you want to import (to not use the SPI data for that game).
- Exit the different game, now launch the game you want the save to be imported.

 

[XDM]

I converted my save to cia and I actually like it better,because have a fast class 10 micro SD the game loads and saves lightyears faster now lol, in a I'll write a guide about converting any saves, theirs already a couple but there all over the forums. I'll try to put it all in one place plus some extras that I did to make it easier