Hacking $80 Gateway card worth it?

[RchUncleSkeleton]

It can be worth it but I think for this to be practical it needs to allow multiple roms on a single micro sd card...or else the only other practical solution is to buy a microsd card for each game and keep them all in a case with the card/system, but then how do you know which game is on which card? Yeah, I'll go ahead and say I'm not bothering with anything like this until there is a loader that allows for multiple games....guess I won't be trying out as many games this generation but as long as I can buy and play the ones I really want it doesn't really bother me.

 

[Foxi4]

I think we'll figure that out when Devin pops one of these open, chinese factories are pretty versatile, I don't see why they wouldn't be able to just make slight adjustments to enable them to pop out gateway 3ds's simple design.

We don't really know whether it's a simple design or not - all we do know is that it mimics an original cartridge. There could be anything on that board from SoC's to multilayered PCB's to save space, we don't know how it's made (yet) so like you said, it's best not to be too judgemental, remain relatively sceptic and wait until the cartridge is reviewed and confirmed "real".

 

[DiabloStorm]

We don't really know whether it's a simple design or not - all we do know is that it mimics an original cartridge. There could be anything on that board from SoC's to multilayered PCB's to save space, we don't know how it's made (yet) so like you said, it's best not to be too judgemental, remain relatively sceptic and wait until the cartridge is reviewed and confirmed "real".

How much could they possibly add without the 3DS rejecting it? As far as I know all they did was desolder the rom chip and replace it with an sd slot.

 

[Foxi4]

How much could they possibly add without the 3DS rejecting it? As far as I know all they did was desolder the rom chip and replace it with an sd slot.

...yeah, that's not gonna work. You need to:

• Analyze the communication between the 3DS and the cartridge
• Find a compatible memory module alongside a memory controller
• Include an FPGA/Microcontroller which will deal with communications between the SD slot and the "fake" FLASH memory accurately

If it was as easy as putting an SD slot in place of the ROM, we'd have flashcarts since Day 1.

 

[DiabloStorm]

...yeah, that's not gonna work. You need to:

• Analyze the communication between the 3DS and the cartridge
• Find a compatible memory module alongside a memory controller
• Include an FPGA/Microcontroller which will deal with communications between the SD slot and the "fake" FLASH memory accurately

If it was as easy as putting an SD slot in place of the ROM, we'd have flashcarts since Day 1.

Yep, probably.

 

[how_do_i_do_that]

How much could they possibly add without the 3DS rejecting it? As far as I know all they did was desolder the rom chip and replace it with an sd slot.

You mean something like this?

There is more involved when you have to deal with removable media.

 

[DiabloStorm]

You mean something like this?

There is more involved when you have to deal with removable media.

Is that something that works in 3DS mode?

 

[how_do_i_do_that]

That was what people did back in the days of GB and GBC sudo flashcart hacking.

 

[DiabloStorm]

That was what people did back in the days of GB and GBC sudo flashcart hacking.

Well that's not really relevant, we're talking about the 3DS which seems to be a very picky bastard.

 

[how_do_i_do_that]

Sure it is, I can give you the 3DS equivalent of that. The Ace3DS Pro.

 

[DiabloStorm]

Sure it is, I can give you the 3DS equivalent of that. The Ace3DS Pro.

Okay, so that much of a difference in hardware and the 3DS wouldn't mind, eh?

 

[KazoWAR]

if its possible to use the same cart for ds and 3ds mode(basically is all down to sending the correct information to the 3ds when it asks stuff) then a romloader and save backup would be quite easy to implement.

 

[how_do_i_do_that]

It just depends on how the gateway flashcart is programmed to work. That, as of the moment, can't be answered until it gets into the hands of people that can poke around it to tell how it works to the rest of us.

 

[DiabloStorm]

if its possible to use the same cart for ds and 3ds mode(basically is all down to sending the correct information to the 3ds when it asks stuff) then a romloader and save backup would be quite easy to implement.

By using DS mode to move the 3DS roms around, I assume?

 

[how_do_i_do_that]

If it relied on the DS mode to do the 3DS swapping, it would eventually be blocked by the size limit of the exploit needed like the AK2i or the other flashcarts.

 

[Foxi4]

You mean something like this? There is more involved when you have to deal with removable media.

Yep, that's a butchered retail game with a FLASH module soldered onto it, and as we can see it's pretty complex to make, albeit doable even these days... except the Game Boy had little to no Anti-Piracy - imagine how a 3DS equivalent would look like when one chip "hides" various components inside of it and commits suicide if decapped incorrectly. You practically need a factory environment and precise machinery to even begin considering making one that'd fit inside a 3DS game slot.

If it relied on the DS mode to do the 3DS swapping, it would eventually be blocked by the size limit of the exploit needed like the AK2i or the other flashcarts.

Technically you could stack those two cards together on one PCB - all it takes is more layers and putting chips on both sides of the PCB, then bridging the two to interface with each other when in DS Mode, and if done right, it'd be updatable so firmware updates wouldn't render it useless. That being said, it's going the extra mile, overcomplicating things and generally causing a mess on the PCB when the exact same thing can be done with a PC. Hell, you could even swap ROM's on the SD card using a smartphone, which is something I often did, actually - you don't need a zillion SD cards, just one device that's capable of reading them and managing content.

 

[DiabloStorm]

If it relied on the DS mode to do the 3DS swapping, it would eventually be blocked by the size limit of the exploit needed like the AK2i or the other flashcarts.

didn't those use internal memory? just make one that accepts sdxc cards, no?

 

[how_do_i_do_that]

Do you see the Supercard team sharing that information to other groups? Flashcart makers tend to not share that type of information.

 

[Rydian]

It's not that the people who make cheap flash carts don't know how to bypass the bootloader size issue, it's that they prefer the way they do it normally since it's way cheaper. Most of them don't care (and in fact benefit) if a customer has to purchase their new model 6-8 months down the line when the bootloader on the old one can't hold all the response data needed.

 

[GamerzHell9137]

No