Hacking 3ds where do you start

[insyder]

Hi,

Just picked a 3ds for my son. its updated to 3.0.0. From what i read, the 3ds roms are imposible to load. Can you load older roms and how far back can you go? Is the Supercard the best way to go? Would you buy that, load a few roms in it and go from there? anything else I should consider?

appreciate all the answers

 

[gameandmatch]

Based on what I have read, you can still play any ds roms on the 3ds by most flashcart that have an 'i' (R4i gold, cyclodsi (or whatever it is called), etc.) behind it. When you said Supercard I am taking that you you mean the SupercardDSTwo which can still be run on the 3ds if you have the latest firmware on it and have load it on a normal ds or a 3ds that is not on latest ofw. After that, you should be fine. I hope that this helped.

edit: SupercardDsTwo: Expensive but has many functionality.
R4i Gold: Cheap, not that much in functionality but does what it needs to do.

 

[s4mid4re]

1) Indeed, there's no way to load 3ds back-ups, yet. There's some projects going on right now (the Crown 3ds thing...), but I find it highly dubious. Oh well, only time will tell.

2) From "how far back can it go?" I'm assuming you're talking about emulation. Since flashcarts only run in ds mode, the performance of flashcarts do not change, thus there's no difference in the capability of emulating systems, unless the flashcart has an on-board cpu. NES, SNES, GB/GBC are among the popular systems emulated, but there are a few more that can be emulated. GBA emulation on a 3ds can only be done by certain flashcarts that have on-board cpu (like the SuperCard DSTwo). Since the dsi and 3ds lack a slot-2 (the slot for gba games), slot-2 expansion (such as the EZ flash 3-in-1 expansion pack) cannot be used on them; without expansions, flashcarts that don't have on-board cpu can't emulate GBA games.

3) DS/DSi flashcarts do run on the 3ds, but cannot run in 3ds mode, since it hasn't been hacked yet. Aside from the iEvo, none of the flashcarts can run in dsi mode, either (although dsi mode is only useful on a couple of games that uses the extra ram + the camera). Flashcarts are still able to run nds back-ups on 3ds, through ds mode. Here are some recommended flashcarts to run on a 3ds:

• acekard 2i: supports the latest dsi/3ds firmware. High compatibility to games using akaio (an unofficial firmware), and bootstrap updates are released when the flashcart gets blocked by nintendo's firmware updates. Contact issues are usually more wide-spread among ak2i's, so beware for them.
• r4i Gold 3ds (from r4ids.cn): supports the latest dsi/3ds firmware. Pretty much the same as ak2i, but it uses wood r4 firmware instead of akaio. Ditto on bootstrap updates, as well. Contact issues aren't so severe.
• SuperCard DSTwo: basically the same as the other two, but with more functions (native gba emu, special homebrews, real time save/guide, etc...). Quite a few contact related issues, iirc, but not as severe as ak2i.

If you want to be hassle-free, I recommend the r4i Gold 3ds because it barely has hardware problems, which are usually stressful. Also, if you're going to use micro sd cards, always format using the sd formatter. The sd formatter gets rid of unneeded fragments that slows down the msd card, making it faster. Before formatting, though, make sure you back everything up to your computer because it will erase all data in your micro sd card!

 

[Opiepop123]

I go the r4i gold card in today. Whit a bit of trouble. Would not go past the load screen. I came here for help. O boy. I got help. I update the card and was playing game befor I know it.

 

[Rydian]

All DS games (that don't need a special GBA-slot accessory) should run fine on a modern flash cart.

 

[insyder]

thanks for the help, it clarified a lot. so basically the flashcarts can load any game that has the nintendoDS logo on the side of the package, but none of the ones that have the nintendo3ds logo. Are the roms for these games just being done in preparation of something to come? also, will the flashcarts work with European titles?

Any recomendation where to get the r4 quickly and safely?

 

[Opiepop123]

Yes they will work.

 

[Rydian]

Any DS game will work from any region (US, EU, JP, AU, whatever). DSi-only games will not work, but there's not that many of them and they usually state on the package that they're DSi-only. And yes, ROM dumping is for more than just piracy, so even if piracy for a system is not widespread ROMs will still be dumped.

As for a place to get a flash cart quickly, a US/CA shop is your best bet. Many shops you'll find, even if they use a .com, will ship out of China, and it can literally take a month or more... though people often order from them because they're a lot cheaper.

If you're going to get an R4i Gold, make SURE it's one from R4iDS.CN or R4iDSN.COM, others are unlikely to work well (or often stop getting updates after a while).

Do NOT just get anything with "R4" in the title.
http://gbatemp.net/t290097-which-flash-cart-should-i-get

 

[insyder]

Any DS game will work from any region (US, EU, JP, AU, whatever). DSi-only games will not work, but there's not that many of them and they usually state on the package that they're DSi-only. And yes, ROM dumping is for more than just piracy, so even if piracy for a system is not widespread ROMs will still be dumped.

As for a place to get a flash cart quickly, a US/CA shop is your best bet. Many shops you'll find, even if they use a .com, will ship out of China, and it can literally take a month or more... though people often order from them because they're a lot cheaper.

If you're going to get an R4i Gold, make SURE it's one from R4iDS.CN or R4iDSN.COM, others are unlikely to work well (or often stop getting updates after a while).

Do NOT just get anything with "R4" in the title.
http://gbatemp.net/t...rt-should-i-get

a bit complicated still, all the sites have like 10 versions of the gold card. I was thinking of going with this one http://lightake.com/detail.do/sku.Newest_R4i_Gold_Revolution_for_3DS_DSi_DSL_NDS-36776

 

[rockstar99]

Get the DSTWO is you have enough cash otherwise Acekard 2i is great.
R4i gold is alright but just avoid that, there are too many clones

 

[Rydian]

a bit complicated still, all the sites have like 10 versions of the gold card. I was thinking of going with this one http://lightake.com/...i_DSL_NDS-36776

That appears to be the right one.

 

[knexkid]

I just got an Acekard2i and Supercard dwtwo from realhotstuff.com. Ships from New Jersey, got here in about 4 days. I've read that in the past they've had counterfeits but I can confirm that both the cards were legit

 

[insyder]

I went for a supercard this morning, at about $40. Website said they ship from texas. A quick question connected to this. do you load as many roms as can fit in the mircosd card, or is there a limitation? What kind of setup is required for the card to work?

 

[s4mid4re]

I went for a supercard this morning, at about $40. Website said they ship from texas. A quick question connected to this. do you load as many roms as can fit in the mircosd card, or is there a limitation? What kind of setup is required for the card to work?

Here's a detailed guide by Terminator02 on setting up a dstwo. As for your other question, the limitation would be the capacity of your micro sd card (1gb, 2gb, 4gb.... 32gb). You don't have to fill it up.

 

[Rydian]

You need to have the card's software (EOS) on the MicroSD, other than that just make folders and store your ROMs. I usually just make a ROMs folder in the root and then categorize things from there (games, homebrew, alphabetize, stuff like that). There might be a per-folder limit (some carts will only see up to a certain number of games in a folder), but I don't think that applies to the DSTwo... I've had ~100 ROMs on mine, on an 8GB MicroSD (DS games are relatively small).