Hacking New Sky3ds flashcart

[RayD97]

The SKY3DS+ uses a "gamelist.bin" which is placed on the root of the micro sd. It is the equivalent of a template. You get a new gamelist.bin whenever they update it and replace the old one on the micro sd.

 

[Deleted-19228]

For what purpose? They specifically said you can make your own template now without relying on them.

 

[mashers]

<OT>

Without the sugar, there's no sweet lemons.

That sounds like a Dolly Parton quote
</OT>

 

[dawnbomb]

For what purpose? They specifically said you can make your own template now without relying on them.

templates no longer exist. it is now called other things but serves the exact same purpse

it was named something else so people can tell the difference between those making the list for working with disk writer or not.

 

[Deleted-19228]

I see.

 

[ReDEyeDz]

Is there at least slight chance that it would be possible to play AP games on blue sky3ds? Like patching the the roms or something like that? Sorry, I'm a complete noob in this stuff. I just bought blue sky3ds T_T

 

[qproject]

There's a patched rom for Animal Crossing HHD to bypass AP but that could be fake.

 

[takuyayagami]

There's a site that patches roms for online usage not linking but you can google it

 

[Quantumcat]

Is there at least slight chance that it would be possible to play AP games on blue sky3ds? Like patching the the roms or something like that? Sorry, I'm a complete noob in this stuff. I just bought blue sky3ds T_T

If you email them they say they're working on it, but they say that no matter what you ask. I don't think they can or they wouldn't have produced this new card.

 

[Father Crilly]

The card switches between games faster than the blue card. The blue one takes 8 seconds, the new one takes like 3 seconds.

I WANT THAT SHIT!

 

[RayD97]

The card switches between games faster than the blue card. The blue one takes 8 seconds, the new one takes like 3 seconds.

I know its pretty awesome! Possibly because it uses the usual fat32 instead of diskwriter's format.

 

[Foxi4]

Further impressions before finishing the review (a little sneak peak, since this thread seems lively):

• The Sky3DS+ uses FAT32 to great effect, God bless Team Sky! It's a joy to copy stuff to it, no DiskWriter ever again! Remember, 4GB ROMs will have to be trimmed in order to fit, as is the case with Gateway.
• You can set the cart to create game-specific config files and modify them as you see fit, however creating new templates will require a substantial amount of know-how. Upon examining the config files the cart creates, I've noticed that the previously "Unknown ID" is marked as the 3DS encryption seed, supposedly located at 0x1010 of the ROM. Unfortunately, you need to decrypt the ROM to get to it. Still - good to know, as it will likely allow the creation of templates for the old Sky carts as well (now that we know what it is and where to look for it).
• The cartridge does have a fully functional micro USB slot (as found on Android smartphones or the Dual Shock 4) and it does work in SD Reader mode when connected to a PC, but it's incredibly slow. Transfer rates ranged between 350kbps-355kbps, far too slow for copying an actual ROM over. It's fine for editing config files, but for copying games you'll need an actual SD reader. I've asked the team if this is how it's nominally supposed to work because it seems off to me - perhaps my prototype unit isn't working correctly. It's also entirely possible that it's the firmware's fault as it's still in testing phases and it can be quite tempermental...
  UPDATE: After contacting the manufacturer, I was told that the USB interface is mostly there to update the cart's firmware and while it can be used as a make-shift SD reader for quick edits to the files, it is not meant to be used for copying large files like ROMs. Transfer speeds may improve in future updates, however using a high-speed SD reader is recommended.
• ...speaking of tempermental, the card sometimes has issues detecting that new games were copied over. I had to wrestle with it quite a bit before going the SD Formatter route (Full Erase (Overwrite) + Size Adjust for ultimate cleanliness of your SD's, boys) which seems to have solved the issue. Make sure that your SD's are in good condition before copying games!
• The cartridge is fast as lightning and the Forwards/Backwards tact switch works great - browsing the games is seamless.
• It would appear that the Settings file features an option to change the colour of the LED! I've fiddled around with the settings, but to no effect, so perhaps the feature is not yet implemented in the firmware. Dancing LEDs in the future? I sure hope so!
• The cartridge runs everything I throw at it so far. That being said, I have a queue of Japanese ROMs for testing tomorrow.

Overall, after initial hurdles (which may have been the result of my SDs not being formatted recently, so I can't blame the cart - it works fine now) my impressions are positive. It's the same Sky3DS you all know, but better - a lot better. Expect a review, a guide, full impressions and a compatibility chart tomorrow or the day after, depending on whether or not something unexpected happens!

 

[RayD97]

• ...speaking of tempermental, the card sometimes has issues detecting that new games were copied over. I had to wrestle with it quite a bit before going the SD Formatter route (Full Erase (Overwrite) + Size Adjust for ultimate cleanliness of your SD's, boys) which seems to have solved the issue. Make sure that your SD's are in good condition before copying games!

If I may ask, what cluster size did you find worked the best for your micro sd card? Or just what was the size you used/using? (Thnx for impressions btw!)

 

[Foxi4]

If I may ask, what cluster size did you find worked the best for your micro sd card? Or just what was the size you used/using? (Thnx for impressions btw!)

SD Formatter 4.0 doesn't have cluster size settings, but I believe what was applied was 32kb. Not that it matters much, SD's are Solid State storage anyways, so cluster size won't (or shouldn't) affect access time.

I know its pretty awesome! Possibly because it uses the usual fat32 instead of diskwriter's format.

The old Sky uses RAW data, technically speaking it should be faster on comparable hardware. Chances are that the hardware was just improved or the firmware was re-written and optimized (likely the latter).

 

[RayD97]

Ah I see. Thanks for clarifying. @Foxi4

 

[Deleted-236924]

[*]It would appear that the Settings file features an option to change the colour of the LED! I've fiddled around with the settings, but to no effect, so perhaps the feature is not yet implemented in the firmware. Dancing LEDs in the future? I sure hope so!

Dancing LEDs, dude!

 

[Hopeful Death]

The cartridge is fast as lightning and the Forwards/Backwards tact switch works great - browsing the games is seamless.

Yeah I noticed in the video they put up that it seems to switch to the next game with 3-4 seconds which is faster than my Sky3ds that takes a good 6 seconds. Was wondering if this was a problem with my sd card if the Sky3ds+ really is just faster overall at switching games. The fact that it would take a good 2 minutes to skip through 15 games was one of my main complaints about the Sky3ds

 

[Foxi4]

Yeah I noticed in the video they put up that it seems to switch to the next game with 3-4 seconds which is faster than my Sky3ds that takes a good 6 seconds. Was wondering if this was a problem with my sd card if the Sky3ds+ really is just faster overall at switching games. The fact that it would take a good 2 minutes to skip through 15 games was one of my main complaints about the Sky3ds

I am testing it with two SDs, one peaks at 11,5mbps (Toshiba), the other at 4,7mbps (Sandisk), and the cart works much faster compared to both my Red and Blue Sky3DS'es, so the browsing was definitely optimized or rewritten for the new design.

 

[Iamapirate]

That's awesome news. Hate having to carry two mSDs like a fool.

 

[takuyayagami]

I am testing it with two SDs, one peaks at 11,5mbps (Toshiba), the other at 4,7mbps (Sandisk), and the cart works much faster compared to both my Red and Blue Sky3DS'es, so the browsing was definitely optimized or rewritten for the new design.

My question is the whole region locked games did they bypass that or would we still need cubic ninja