Homebrew DSi Nintendo Zone app?

[Chunbe]

Does anyone know how to activate/unhide the pre-installed Nintendo Zone app on a DSi?
I know the app only activates when a special wifi beacon is detected according to the DSibrew wiki but have no clue about the rest. (Such as how to craft and trasmit the beacon)

Managed to find a Nintendo Zone Wireless Distribution Box rom to try my luck there but it needed to connect to the internet first and it gets a access denied error when it does. (Guessing it's due to the Nintendo WiFi shutdown.) No dumps of the other NZone carts (Best Buy) exists to test as well.

Was really curious about this for a while and really wanted to play around with it. (and also have a neat and rare icon on the menu. )

 

[Ryccardo]

Good question (I don't think we know where this is stored even on 3DS...)

Cards that can transmit raw wifi packets, even more so Nintendo's nonstandard format... If you really want to do it this way you could probably look into wifime's documentation (if it even exists),

but I think the most realistic option is having someone skilled in disassembling to hack the Nzone rom to skip the network check (and maybe edit the advertised network name/security mode/password)

 

[dpad_5678]

Bumping this thread, as I'm trying to accomplish something similar.

 

[u12345678]

First time I hear about this.
If it's a NDS title we should be able to have it running and connect on a WEP network and sniff the traffic to see where it's trying to connect (and with some static reversing maybe trick it into thinking it's connected to the server and start the hostpot)

Other way arround, on the 3ds there was something similar, just creating a WiFi network with a certain SSID the hidden app will be triggered and shown, maybe this works the same.

 

[Ryccardo]

Other way arround, on the 3ds there was something similar, just creating a WiFi network with a certain SSID the hidden app will be triggered and shown, maybe this works the same.

No, the DSi doesn't have a preprogrammed list of hotspots, NZone beacon frames are the only way

 

[dpad_5678]

First time I hear about this.
If it's a NDS title we should be able to have it running and connect on a WEP network and sniff the traffic to see where it's trying to connect (and with some static reversing maybe trick it into thinking it's connected to the server and start the hostpot)

Other way arround, on the 3ds there was something similar, just creating a WiFi network with a certain SSID the hidden app will be triggered and shown, maybe this works the same.

Appearently the DSi NZone will be triggered when it sees:

• The beacon sent from the Beacon Cartridge

AND

• The SSID that the Beacon is telling the DSi to look for.

I was experimenting with my DSi/DS + Flashcart + BestBuy Beacon ROM/RPi the other day, but with no luck triggering the NZone icon.

 

[u12345678]

I see, there's more info here -> http://dsibrew.org/wiki/Nintendo_Zone
So as I can see it's basically impossible to trick the NZone to connect to another server.

So the only possible approach seems to be reversing the ROM/DUMP and finding the beacon encryption algorithm and copy/reverse it to create our own hotspot

 

[dpad_5678]

I see, there's more info here -> http://dsibrew.org/wiki/Nintendo_Zone
So as I can see it's basically impossible to trick the NZone to connect to another server.

So the only possible approach seems to be reversing the ROM/DUMP and finding the beacon encryption algorithm and copy/reverse it to create our own hotspot

The BestBuy Nintendo Zone Cartridge does not connect to the Internet, it seems. It just tells the DSi what AP to connect to.

 

[u12345678]

The BestBuy Nintendo Zone Cartridge does not connect to the Internet, it seems. It just tells the DSi what AP to connect to.

Right. Also the beacon fields are documented. It should be trivial to craft one and send it with any WiFi card
EDIT: And encrypt properly ofc

 

[dpad_5678]

Right. Also the beacon fields are documented. It should be trivial to craft one and send it with any WiFi card

This is what @PokeAcer told me:

Well, I read the thread on looking for it, googled what someone said to, and it was in a Pastebin.
If you have a HomePassPi I'm p sure you just set it to "BestBuy" so the DSi can see it and then connect to the beacon

Incase you weren't aware, because people kept it well hidden:
Nintendo Zone for DSi is quite easy to fire up - a 3DS NZone will trigger it. However, the DSi NZone listens out for this cartridge, because it has a DS DLP signal (in Japan at least; you can use DS and DSL on the Nintendo Zones around the place), and does not work without it. So yes, this is a good cartridge to dump.

Some people, like yellows8, have their own NZones without all the DS-specific stuff, but ofc yellows8 won't share it :3

 

[Chunbe]

Have anyone tried to set the AP to the settings to the ones shown in the cart?
SSID: BestBuy
MAC: Made a mistake, see edit
Wifi channel: 1

Not sure if there's security on the wifi or any other settings we need to change (Not sure what IFLAGS mean), also not sure if we need the Power Control gba cart that I'll found included in some auctions of this cart to get this to work as well.
Assuming the cart even transmits DSi beacons and not 3DS beacons as the 3dbrew page says they're both different though similar in format.

"The NZone beacon encryption is same as before, except some unknown fields in the cleartext was changed where 3DS will only "detect" NZone /w NZone icon blinking/enabled when the beacons' fields are set this way. DSi will not detect these beacons. 3DS can use DS(i) NZone, but only if the NZone title is already enabled. With DS(i) beacons, 3DS connects to Internet but the NZone icon will not blink. However the NZone title will still work once launched."

EDIT: Looks like the MAC address displayed is just the DS mac address, the mac address I posted earlier was just Desmume's default one because I've tested the rom on it. Also, a pic of the power control cartridge and the Nintendo Zone DS which could also be needed for it to work?

 

[blckshrk]

Have anyone tried to set the AP to the settings to the ones shown in the cart?

I did, but nothign showed up. Well my DSi is EUR, maybe it won't work with BestBuy or other US NZones?

Assuming the cart even transmits DSi beacons and not 3DS beacons

The cart activated the NZone App on my 3DS.

 

[Deleted User]

I did, but nothign showed up. Well my DSi is EUR, maybe it won't work with BestBuy or other US NZones?


The cart activated the NZone App on my 3DS.

You think that if I try this with an American DSi, will it work? I'll try to get a flashcard and put the ROM on it, then use my relative's iphone to make a hotspot with these settings. If all goes well, I'll tell you how to do it as well.

 

[dpad_5678]

I'd actually love to see this working. It would be really cool to have that Nintendo Zone icon on my DSI, since most people probably don't have it.

 

[Deleted User]

I'd actually love to see this working. It would be really cool to have that Nintendo Zone icon on my DSI, since most people probably don't have it.

I'd like to see what we could try to load up, as well as get this version up and running on the 3ds. I've seen some pictures online of people doing this, and I'd like to try it out for myself.

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Has there been any other DSi NZone ROMs besides the BestBuy one that someone's uploaded? If so, I don't want to know where it is, I'll find it on my own.

Just an FYI: I spent like half an hour yesterday in the morning looking for the ROM online. Good thing I had a delayed opening for High School. It was funny actually, searching for it, cause I was trying to search the day before but searching for specific key words didn't pop up in my head. Well, it's about time for me to go to sleep. I'll ask someone if they have an R4 tomorrow!

 

[Deleted User]

Is there any emulator out there that supports connecting to a real DS? If so, I could try my luck with one of those. I have Desmume and No$GBA, but they do nothing when loading up the ROM.

 

[Deleted User]

Look who found the cia!!!

To find the cia, since I can't tell you how I got it, I'll tell you where a tutorial is and how to do it:

*snip* - Tutorial

There's more DSi System Apps with Visible CIAs on 3DS, which means you can now load the DSi Nintendo Zone viewer!

Glad to see it can still be opened up on a DS after all these years!

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But if only we were to move that file somehow back to the DSi and have it running from there... I'm pretty sure that wouldn't work out.

 

[myanpezi]

afaik you can extract the file from the cia i read it in some thread but i forgot where

 

[Deleted User]

Is there any other ROM out there besides the BestBuy one? Pretty sure we'd have WAY more luck with one of those...

 

[JoycieC]

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