Hacking Noob questions about features of flashcarts and CFW

[2dsUser]

Hello everybody !

So here's my situation : I recently purchased two units of the 2DS for me and my loved one to play with, they are both using the Firmware 9.9 , and I'm currently reviewing my options about flashcards or using CFW.
However, I'm finding it a little hard to get some clear answers on the capabilities of each solution, I guess because I'm quite new to the 3DS scene, so I'd like some clarifications about the results of my research

So, I'm looking for the following features :
-ability to play 3DS game
-ability to play local multiplayer for 3DS games (MarioKart <3 ) ... but I found not info on that for any of the flashcards
-ability to play older DS games
-ability to use homebrews (emulators mostly... using the DS as media player was awesome back in the day, but it doesn't make much sense nowadays)

So I've identified the following flashcards as being interesting :

• Gateway
  • can play 3DS games, although, some sites are saying it can't work with FW >9.2 (so I'd have to downgrade), some sites are talking about higher FW like 10.3. Did I (or the sites) got confused with the "emunand" (I understood it as a cloned system so that the latest games think the console is running more recent FW, but it still requires the console to be <9.2 right ?)
  • can play old DS games via the 2nd cartridge
  • found some mentions of homebrew that would be run on the 2nd cartridge, but not much info about it
• Sky3DS
  • can play 3DS games with FW up to 10.3
  • can't do anything else
• Supercard DS TWO plus
  • can play 3DS games through a "Gateway plugin", so I understood that Gateway limitations about my consoles needing FW 9.2 are still applied, right ?
    • I saw here that one version of the Gateway FW was causing bricking with the DSTWO plus, so is it just an isolated case, but safe the rest of the time ?
  • can play old DS games
    
  • no mentions at all of homebrew, so I guessing no. Although it supports GBA and SNES (why not NES too?) so that's something.

So I guess, I'll have to go for a downgrade to get either the original Gateway or the DS TWO Plus, but I'm apparently picking the wrong time to do it when I see the talks about the FW 10.4 (I don't understand much about these talks as I'm still new to this, but it seems to be problematic for the moment).

And then there's the other option of using CFW ... when looking up information about it I found a lot of guides to install, a lot of talks with quite obscure terms for the newcomer that I am (lots of things with -hax, I'm guessing these are the exploits, to get around the security, also, CIA, and lots of things that I don't remember). BUT, so far I didn't see much about what possibilities it offers.
I'm guessing 3DS games and full homebrew compatibility (since the flashcards seem pretty limited about homebrew, I'm guessing homebrew are targeting CFW).
What about old DS games, and local multiplayer games ?


Well, I guess that's all my questions so far, thanks in advance to anybody who can answer any part of this long post

 

[izy]

Gateway yes requires 9.2 or lower to run and yes the 2nd Cartridge is a DS flashcart so can run old ds HOmebrew and Games (yes it also runs emunand)
Sky3ds Yup pretty much it that and you need a private header to play online or get banned
Supercard DS Two yup basicallly a gateway card that plays DS gba and snes games (but if gateway ever re releases brick code in their firmware again rip consoles)

Yes you would need to downgrade to use a gateway but you may aswell get CFW and a cheap DS flashcard instead for DS games

CFW is Emunand what you get is this.
Ability to run homebrew and install it to menu
Region Free
Ability to run games and install them to menu (flash cards you have to hit a button to swap through or use gateways grid)
Ability to play online with no chance of ban, all ban reports have been with 3DS's involved with flash carts

You can basically get everything you want on CFW that a cart will give you the only downside is takes awhile to install games (you can be on a 10.4 emunand now)

Gateway offers emunand support but if you on a system FW low enough you dont need a GW just CFW Reinand/cakes/rxtools

Btw this applies to alll of the above

Playing Local multiplayer requires you to have a game of the same region

 

[2dsUser]

Gateway yes requires 9.2 or lower to run and yes the 2nd Cartridge is a DS flashcart so can run old ds HOmebrew and Games (yes it also runs emunand)

So the homebrew that I would be able to run with the Gateway are the homebrew for the original DS ?
For the emunand, you mean that the 2nd card can also run 3DS games ... then what is the purpose of the 1st card ?

Yes you would need to downgrade to use a gateway but you may aswell get CFW and a cheap DS flashcard instead for DS games

So CFW doesn't bring the ability to run old DS games ? that's a bit sad. Ok, I'll check more about the R4i and other cheap linkers, I guess bricking related to stealing the code from Gateway will not be a problem if I stay on old DS games.

CFW is Emunand what you get is this. [...] Gateway offers emunand support but if you on a system FW low enough you dont need a GW just CFW Reinand/cakes/rxtools

Oh, so then, using the Gateway doesn't mean it will be easier than using CFW, I would still have to study a lot.

Thanks for the information, I'll check more about the CFW when I come back from work.

 

[izy]

So the homebrew that I would be able to run with the Gateway are the homebrew for the original DS ?
For the emunand, you mean that the 2nd card can also run 3DS games ... then what is the purpose of the 1st card ?


So CFW doesn't bring the ability to run old DS games ? that's a bit sad. Ok, I'll check more about the R4i and other cheap linkers, I guess bricking related to stealing the code from Gateway will not be a problem if I stay on old DS games.


Oh, so then, using the Gateway doesn't mean it will be easier than using CFW, I would still have to study a lot.

Thanks for the information, I'll check more about the CFW when I come back from work.

the 2nd card the gateway came with was for originally enabling the flash cart on older fw and card firmware versions