Homebrew [NDS] Forwarder CIAs for your HOME Menu

[MasterCheese]

Did some digging, turns out the card I have (www.r4isdhc.com.cn) is a Gateway Blue Card clone (Same encryption, same DLDI), or they're both clones of the same thing, or something along those lines, the firmware for it is just the patched v1.62 wood firmware that was posted in this thread: https://gbatemp.net/threads/analysis-on-the-gateway-3ds-blue-cart-updateable.357103/

You say in the OP that you can't get it to autoboot a ROM, is that because you can't write the lastsave.ini to the SD card? Because I can get this card to autoboot a ROM when launching it normally by setting "autorunWithLastRom = 1" in globalsettings.ini and creating a valid lastsave.ini file.

EDIT: My bad, got myself mixed up and plugged in the wrong flash cart, this one doesn't autoboot ROMs, sorry >_<

 

[RocketRobz]

Did some digging, turns out the card I have (www.r4isdhc.com.cn) is a Gateway Blue Card clone (Same encryption, same DLDI), or they're both clones of the same thing, or something along those lines, the firmware for it is just the patched v1.62 wood firmware that was posted in this thread: https://gbatemp.net/threads/analysis-on-the-gateway-3ds-blue-cart-updateable.357103/

You say in the OP that you can't get it to autoboot a ROM, is that because you can't write the lastsave.ini to the SD card? Because I can get this card to autoboot a ROM when launching it normally by setting "autorunWithLastRom = 1" in globalsettings.ini and creating a valid lastsave.ini file.

No, I can write to SD card just fine. It's because the .NDS/.DAT file has nothing that says autorunWithLastRom, and typing it in globalsettings.ini and setting a ROM in lastsave.ini has no effect.
Can you send me the .nds/.dat you're using?

 

[MasterCheese]

Yeah, sorry, just edited my post, had the wrong flash cart plugged in, my bad!

 

[veraci_00]

I actually thought you got white screen first, then black screen.

couldn't recall if I replied, but no, it was a black screen. the same thing happened with booting the flash cart directly. the issue was luma. every game I've tried has worked. thanks for helping me.

 

[cyberghost]

I need help please. On step 4 of the guide after I click the folder on the top-right, and find the ROM on the SD Card or flashcard nothing happens. The space where the roms with icons and tids should appear stays on blank. What did I do wrong? Did I used the wrong pack? I used the R4i Gold, R4i-SDHC pack. And this is my card (mine is v1.4 not 1.4.x).

 

[Redferne]

I bricked my R4 SDHC clone last night. I probably did something wrong like using the wrong files.
It worked great for M3 DS Real though.

For anyone interested my R4 was a R4i-sdhc RTS upgrade (2015), the silver one. Web link is www.r4isdhc.in
I'm not blaming anyone except myself I shouldn't have tried it on a clone but since it worked on the M3 I thought what's the risk? Well...

 

[RocketRobz]

I need help please. On step 4 of the guide after I click the folder on the top-right, and find the ROM on the SD Card or flashcard nothing happens. The space where the roms with icons and tids should appear stays on blank. What did I do wrong? Did I used the wrong pack? I used the R4i Gold, R4i-SDHC pack. And this is my card (mine is v1.4 not 1.4.x).

Use the M3 Real template and also, there's a pack for that specific card.

 

[conradcervantes]

Downloaded the latest pack to use with my Acekard 2i, and I am now able to get to the boot screen, where previously I was receiving nothing but white screens. Anything else I can do to help it autoboot, or is that due to a limitation to the cart? The games play fine from the ROM selection screen, but it would be nice to boot straight from the Home Menu.

 

[RocketRobz]

Downloaded the latest pack to use with my Acekard 2i, and I am now able to get to the boot screen, where previously I was receiving nothing but white screens. Anything else I can do to help it autoboot, or is that due to a limitation to the cart? The games play fine from the ROM selection screen, but it would be nice to boot straight from the Home Menu.

Have you downloaded the latest template in Forwarder3-DS?

EDIT: Wait, in Forwarder3-DS, use the M3 DS Real template.

 

[conradcervantes]

Have you downloaded the latest template in Forwarder3-DS?

EDIT: Wait, in Forwarder3-DS, use the M3 DS Real template.

I'll try that now. I assume they were updated already, all the prompt tells me is "Looking for template updates..." before fading off the screen.

Edit: Created and reinstalled the forwarder CIAs with the M3 DS Real template, but no changes, still goes to the ROM selection menu.

 

[RocketRobz]

I'll try that now. I assume they were updated already, all the prompt tells me is "Looking for template updates..." before fading off the screen.

Edit: Created and reinstalled the forwarder CIAs with the M3 DS Real template, but no changes, still goes to the ROM selection menu.

Are you using the files from the Acekard 2(i) folder from the pack? Also, in the 3DS SD Card, did you rename "nds" to "_nds"?

 

[conradcervantes]

Yes, and the "_nds" folder was named as such when I unpacked the files.

 

[RocketRobz]

Yes, and the "_nds" folder was named as such when I unpacked the files.

Did you have "Games are on SD Card" checked, and that you were loading the ROMs to the app from the flashcard, not outside it?

 

[MasterCheese]

Did some more research on the cart (I got bored). Seems that it's a common clone, the following cards are (essentially) the same cart:
EX4DS, R4iLS, Ace3DS Plus, Gateway Blue Card, all r4isdhc.com.cn cards. There may be other clones, but I haven't bothered looking, there are way too many out there.

Because they're all EX4 clones, the WoodEX4 from here will run: https://gbatemp.net/threads/waio-v1-16-repacked-v3-0-ck3.287935/. This does have autorun support, you can use stock firmware to boot the .nds, and then the autorun will kick in. Unfortunately, because the last ROM you ran was the woodex4.nds, and both versions of Wood use the same __rpg folder, it throws itself into an infinite loop of launching itself, but proof of concept! Seems to be doing all its loading via an external ex4loader.nds, which is just another copy of Wood, I believe, this is kind of where my current knowledge runs out.

Unfortunately, all of this is based off of a very old version of Wood so compatibility would be garbage. I have no idea if any of this info will be useful to you, but I wanted to at least get it all written down, in case it helps anyone. Let me know if there's any more info I might have that could be of use

EDIT: http://leafmoon.users.sourceforge.net/xenonnds/files/ - The waio125g.7z file here has all the patches and such that WAIO uses to make all the loaders for WAIO. Hopefully this also comes in handy!

 

[conradcervantes]

Did you have "Games are on SD Card" checked, and that you were loading the ROMs to the app from the flashcard, not outside it?

No, since I'm assuming you're referencing the 3DS' SD card and not the flashcart's. All my ROMs are on my flashcart's mSD card.

 

[RocketRobz]

No, since I'm assuming you're referencing the 3DS' SD card and not the flashcart's. All my ROMs are on my flashcart's mSD card.

No, it's referring to the selected card. If "Games are on SD Card" is checked, it'll set the path to where your ROM is at in the selected card.

 

[conradcervantes]

Ah, gotcha. I thought that was in reference to homebrew apps that users wanted to run from their system's SD cards. I'll recreate the CIAs again then.

Edit: And autobooting. Thanks for the assists!

 

[RocketRobz]

Hello Ace3DS Plus and Gateway Blue Card users!
Thanks to @MasterCheese, I now made a pack for these cards. It's in the OP. And for making the CIAs, use the R4iTT template.
After the Wood menu appears, select "Continue Forwarding", with the blue "Play" icon.
Let me know if it works!

EDIT: Forgot to edit "/_wfwd/globalsettings.ini" to autoboot the ROM. Please redownload the pack.

 

[ShadowOne333]

Hello Ace3DS Plus and Gateway Blue Card users!
Thanks to @MasterCheese, I now made a pack for these cards. It's in the OP. And for making the CIAs, use the R4iTT template.
After the Wood menu appears, select "Continue Forwarding", with the blue "Play" icon.
Let me know if it works!

EDIT: Forgot to edit "/_wfwd/globalsettings.ini" to autoboot the ROM. Please redownload the pack.

Well it does work.
Choosing the "Continue Forwarding" NDS file does boot the correct ROM that the forwarder shows.
Just two things:

• If you exit the forwarder and go back to it, it doesn't autoboot the ROM, but it sends you to the Wood menu again to select the Continue forwarding ROM.
• I tried with three ROMs (Mario Kart DS, SM64DS and NSMB) and only SM64DS booted up just fine while the other two didn't seem to be getting past the initial screen with the Nintendo trademarks and such.

That's all I could see right from the get go, if I find anything else I'll let you know!

 

[RocketRobz]

Well it does work.
Choosing the "Continue Forwarding" NDS file does boot the correct ROM that the forwarder shows.
Just two things:

• If you exit the forwarder and go back to it, it doesn't autoboot the ROM, but it sends you to the Wood menu again to select the Continue forwarding ROM.
• I tried with three ROMs (Mario Kart DS, SM64DS and NSMB) and only SM64DS booted up just fine while the other two didn't seem to be getting past the initial screen with the Nintendo trademarks and such.

That's all I could see right from the get go, if I find anything else I'll let you know!

You extracted the "_nds" folder to the 3DS SD Card, right?

EDIT: I read wrong. That's strange. Yep, game compatibility is kinda crappy. I'll try and fix it.
EDIT2: Redownload the pack and replace "/_wfwd/ex4loader.nds" in the flashcard with the one in the pack.