Hacking A few *very* technical questions for you Sky3DS wizards out there...

[hama364]

Hey Sky3DS wiz,

I have
- regular 3DS with OFW 9.8.0-25E
- Sky3DS (blue button) bought recently when their website stated "works with 9.8.0-25E"
- DiskWriterV202b1

So far works well... But I have some thoughts which make me wonder if

1. does the Sky3DS have any upgrade function? If I upgrade the 3DS to 9.9.0-26 will the Sky3DS still work or do I have to buy a new one which can play with 9.9.0-26?

2. my Sky3DS version has supposedly no limit in number of games which can be "installed" on MicroSD card. I read however somewhere there is a limit of a total 95 games (could be across several MicroSD cards) which can be installed with DiskWriterV202b1. Can anyone confirm?

3. if 2 is correct is there any way of circumventing, e.g. use a new version of DiskWriter and start to install to a new MicroSD card...? or deleting a game via DiskWriter so the counter of games goes down?

Thanks in advance for your info (or pointing to the right post)

*******************************
I have a follow up question, I add it to the initial post, I hope that is a good way to add a question...

4. How about online play with Sky3DS? I read one need to modify the ISO with a private header as otherwise Nintendo will block one as they know when many people are online with the identical header, that those people use a flash cart

I also read that people buy/ sell private headers. Does this mean that a private header must come from a real 3DS cart and must be unique? Or is there any way to generate a private header without having a original Nintendo cart, or for example a tool which can spoof an exceptable header?

 

[duwen]

1. So far there's no way Nintendo can block the Sky3ds, so it currently works with all fw
2. The old red button cards used to have a limit of 10. The new blue buttons technically have no limit, but I've found it only lets you have 31 games installed on it (but you can have more in the 'reserve')
3. You can use as many different sd's as you want!

 

[hama364]

Ok, I see. I understood the old red button had the 10 game limit but also did not allow to uninstall a game. Meaning the "counter" would not go down. Means that once 10 games were installed one would stuck with exactly those 10 games... Is that the same with the 31 games for the blue button card?

 

[duwen]

No, you can add add and remove games as you wish

 

[DSpider]

Man, when you said " *very* ", I expected some questions about the PCB or chipset used, or some questions about advanced detection calls from the 3DS firmware or something.

1. There isn't any "upgrade" function. If Nintendo blocks it tomorrow with a new update, then you need to stay away from that update. Sky3DS is detectable, btw; it doesn't behave exactly like a legit cartridge and answers to system calls that normal cartridges do not.

2. I heard 31 games at a time, but the rest of the games you can stuff in the "reserve" partition that DiskWriter 2.02 crates. But I don't know, since I'm still using DiskWriter 1.6 because 2.02 gives me a bunch of .NET framework errors, and I'm not sure how that works. Other than that limit, there aren't any, or any "counters" (like that "10-game" limit with their shitty red button attempt).

3. Like I said, use the reserve partition that DiskWriter creates. But you don't wanna have more than, say, 4-5 games on your microSD anyway. It's a real fucking PITA to scroll through them. A 8-16 GB microSD card should be enough.

Cheers.

 

[andrew weeks]

1. So far there's no way Nintendo can block the Sky3ds, so it currently works with all fw
2. The old red button cards used to have a limit of 10. The new blue buttons technically have no limit, but I've found it only lets you have 31 games installed on it (but you can have more in the 'reserve')
3. You can use as many different sd's as you want!

Well i wouldn´t underestimate Nintendo. Just because they sell very low spec hardware does not mean that they are computing noobs

 

[hama364]

Man, when you said " *very* ", I expected some questions about the PCB or chipset used, or some questions about advanced detection calls from the 3DS firmware or something.

3. Like I said, use the reserve partition that DiskWriter creates. But you don't wanna have more than, say, 4-5 games on your microSD anyway. It's a real fucking PITA to scroll through them. A 8-16 GB microSD card should be enough.

Cheers.

My apologies for the "exaggeration" ... but it worked, I got your attention ...

3. yeah, that's exactly my plan, buy a bunch of 16GB for the big games and 8GB for smaller and keep it to 4-5 games.
Thanks for the tips.

 

[DSpider]

My apologies for the "exaggeration" ... but it worked, I got your attention ...

3. yeah, that's exactly my plan, buy a bunch of 16GB for the big games and 8GB for smaller and keep it to 4-5 games.
Thanks for the tips.

Probably not a good idea to have too many. The flashcart looks pretty cheap. I haven't opened mine yet, but I kinda doubt that they have a sturdy enough microSD port or even a quality ROM switch button to hold up to constant switching of cards or ROMs. It may shorten its life considerably. And it would be a pity, really. The thing is way overpriced, IMO.

 

[hama364]

Probably not a good idea to have too many. The flashcart looks pretty cheap. I haven't opened mine yet, but I kinda doubt that they have a sturdy enough microSD port or even a quality ROM switch button to hold up to constant switching of cards or ROMs. It may shorten its life considerably. And it would be a pity, really. The thing is way overpriced, IMO.

Absolutely agree it's massively overpriced. In my opinion the actual materials (chips, small PCB etc) cost them probably just a few bucks like 3-5. It's just the monopoly and the demand from people like me to want to play ROMs and not buy original games which keeps the price so high...

 

[andrew weeks]

Absolutely agree it's massively overpriced. In my opinion the actual materials (chips, small PCB etc) cost them probably just a few bucks like 3-5. It's just the monopoly and the demand from people like me to want to play ROMs and not buy original games which keeps the price so high...

Same as the console.Its incredible that it has the same price that vita or some android mobiles given its hardware.

 

[hama364]

I have an additional question and have added it in the original post above, thanks...

 

[gamesquest1]

*******************************
I have a follow up question, I add it to the initial post, I hope that is a good way to add a question...

4. How about online play with Sky3DS? I read one need to modify the ISO with a private header as otherwise Nintendo will block one as they know when many people are online with the identical header, that those people use a flash cart

I also read that people buy/ sell private headers. Does this mean that a private header must come from a real 3DS cart and must be unique? Or is there any way to generate a private header without having a original Nintendo cart, or for example a tool which can spoof an exceptable header?

yeah its best practice to only use a private header, although bans seems to have dried up, either nintendo decided to hold off on the banning for a while, or maybe just maybe most people heeded the warning and got a private headers for their sky3DS

as for where private headers come from, yeah they are ripped from a legit game, there is no way to generate a valid header short of sheer good luck randomly generating one which is pretty unlikely, and i guess trying hundreds/thousands of bad headers before finding a working one would probably be enough to flag you for a ban too (not to mention ridiculously time consuming).....fairly pointless especially seeing as people sell them for like £5 or you can get your own from a £2 game if you have access to a 9.2 or lower 3DS for a few mins

 

[The Real Jdbye]

By the way, 3DS doesn't have ISOs, unlike what a certain site would have you believe

There was a ban or two reported not long ago, so there's still a chance of being banned if you use the Sky3DS template without adding a private header.

It seems like they might have figured out how to detect the Sky3DS now, Fire Emblem If does not work on it at all unless the Sky3DS is used from a CFW. Might just be a bug in the template file, but if not, expect a new Sky3DS model soon.