Homebrew What are some must-have homebrew apps for the 3DS?

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I already have a few: the ones that come with CFW, hShop, TWilighMenu++, nds-forwarder, CTGP-7, 3D Movie Viewer and maybe something else. What are apps that everyone who has a modded 3DS should install. Also, just for the record, I'm using an Old 3DS.
 
ReHID and Checkpoint are two great ones.

The first let's you create custom button mappings, and even simulate touching a specific point of the screen with a button press, amazing tool.

The second is a save game manager, also super useful obviously, for me even more now that I can play some 3ds games on my pc, so I can pass the save files between both devices and play portable or on a big screen whenever I feel like it.

And for that, FTPD is also quite nifty for passing smaller files between pc and 3ds without taking out the SD card.
 
Does open_agb_firm run games well? Because I've heard GBA games run terribly on the 3DS.

gba isn't terribe anymore. gbarunner2 is mostly usable, but imperfect.

For a 3ds, openagbfirm is now the best way to run gba. Almost everything is done at the hardware level. Except only two games that need gyroscope (warioware twisted...), it runs natively. 99% games run perfectly without glitches, slowdowns or anything.
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isn't gba_emulator included into twilightmenu?

twilight menu++ includes gbarunner2. While it has been improved a lot, it has a few defects.

For gba on a 3ds, open_agb_firm is a no brainer, way superior to the other options.
 
gba isn't terribe anymore. gbarunner2 is mostly usable, but imperfect.

For a 3ds, openagbfirm is now the best way to run gba. Almost everything is done at the hardware level. Except only two games that need gyroscope (warioware twisted...), it runs natively. 99% games run perfectly without glitches, slowdowns or anything.
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twilight menu++ includes gbarunner2. While it has been improved a lot, it has a few defects.

For gba on a 3ds, open_agb_firm is a no brainer, way superior to the other options.
when open_agb_firm is superior, why isn't it included in TWL?
 
Random title picker, to pick a random game if you can't make up your mind about what to play.
Netpass, to get streetpass pings from other modded users, will ping you "randomly," depending on what location you set your 3ds to.
Battery mark, to get a somewhat accurate indication of your consoles battery life.
PKSM , for editing your Pokémon save files on the go
Nimbus/Pretendo, a WIP replacement of the Nintendo online features
FourthTube, a simple YouTube player for the 3DS
Artic Base, an application which broadcasts your game to Citra on a PC (will disable the screens of your 2/3DS).
LeafEdit, for editing your Animal Crossing save files on the go
NDSForwarder, to install DS games to the 3ds home screen
TWPatch, to play DS games with enhancing patches
3dsIdent, for more detailed information about your system
 
when open_agb_firm is superior, why isn't it included in TWL?
Twilightmenu++ is a ds/dsi app and thus can only use the dsi processing power. Open agb firm is a 3ds "app". It runs on what's basically a gba built into the 3ds. Twilight menu has no way to access it since it's a 3ds feature.
It comes with limitations (e.g. no real time save) but it is, as others have stated, highly accurate because it's basically running on hardware. You might want to consider 3ds mode emulators like mgba if you want to have more features but with worse performance. Recommending twilight menu for emulation on modded 3ds systems doesn't really make sense.
 
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If I'm not mistaken, LeafEdit is a WIP that hasn't been updated in years and has a significant chance of messing up your save data. Probably better to stick with Vapecord – or just play the game properly.
Sorry. I failed to mention that you should always have a second backup in case things go wrong. I usually double backup, one called 'LeafEdit' and another leaving it at the basic name. If anything goes wrong, which ive never had happen, you should be able to restore your secondary backup just fine.
 
Lots of good options here. I'll add some more.

Bubble 2k's Snes9x, Picodrive, and TemperPCE emulators. I think there are newer forks of those available on Universal Updater.

DosBox 3DS.

ScummVM.

RetroArch for things like NES and handhelds up to, and including, GBC. Ignore the stable releases. IME, if it isn't running on Windows, Linux, and maybe some versions of Mac OS, stable versions aren't actually stable. Better off grabbing nightlies.

I like using the DSi emulators included with Twilight Menu for Atari 2600, Colecovision, Intellivision, and 7800 games. The 3DS counterparts for 2600 (Stella2014 in RA) and 7800 (Prosystem in RA) work pretty well, but aren't as nice as the DS/i emulators.

Any second-gen console with the phone keypad buttons on their controllers are better played on the DS/i emulators. They actually make use of the touchscreen. That is crucial.

Gameyob is useful, too. That's also included with Twilight. You might prefer to play some GBC games with that over Gambatte in RA, or mGBA. Plus it is only emulator on DS family consoles that can use Super Gameboy palettes, which you may want for some games.

Universal Edit: edit text files directly on your 3DS. Easily the best text editor out there atm. You can get this via Universal Updater.
 
Random title picker, to pick a random game if you can't make up your mind about what to play.
Netpass, to get streetpass pings from other modded users, will ping you "randomly," depending on what location you set your 3ds to.
Battery mark, to get a somewhat accurate indication of your consoles battery life.
PKSM , for editing your Pokémon save files on the go
Nimbus/Pretendo, a WIP replacement of the Nintendo online features
FourthTube, a simple YouTube player for the 3DS
Artic Base, an application which broadcasts your game to Citra on a PC (will disable the screens of your 2/3DS).
LeafEdit, for editing your Animal Crossing save files on the go
NDSForwarder, to install DS games to the 3ds home screen
TWPatch, to play DS games with enhancing patches
3dsIdent, for more detailed information about your system
I once tried using TWPatch on my Nintendo 3DS, and it didn’t turn out to be the best experience. I had Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics installed and decided to experiment with TWPatch because I had read that it could improve graphics quality and overall performance for some DS games. At first, everything seemed fine. The game launched faster, the screen looked sharper, and I even felt that the card animations in poker were smoother. However, strange things started happening. While playing Blackjack, the dealer began dealing cards in an absolutely illogical way. Sometimes I would get two aces in a row, and other times the cards seemed to repeat in a cycle. I initially thought it was just a glitch in the game itself and did not pay much attention to it. After the issue occurred multiple times, I decided to switch back to the standard mode without TWPatch. Since then, I have avoided using it, especially in games where proper card distribution and randomness are important.

It actually made me think about how crucial fairness and randomness are in card games, whether in a classic Nintendo DS poker game or real online blackjack. Some modern platforms use provably fair algorithms to ensure that every card dealt is truly random. If you’re curious about how online platforms maintain fairness using RNG systems, I recently came across insightful reviews here that explain how these mechanics work. It’s interesting to see how both digital card games and real-money gaming rely on well-designed systems to create a fair experience.
 
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