Hacking Ace3ds firmware help

TheZixGamer

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Hello guys :)

I've just bought an "Ace3ds Plus" flashcard from digimartz, and I'm just a little bit confused in regards to what firmware I install on it.

On there website, http://www.ace3ds.com/ace-3ds-download.html there are two zip files "ACE Wood Firmware v1.62" and "AOS v2.13" and I was hoping you guys might be able to tell me which one I'm supposed to use, I'm a complete newbie when it comes to flashcart's so sorry if this is a dumb question!

I have a 3DS v9.2 if this helps!
 

Food

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Wood is a great firmware to use as it supports basically every NDS game out there, as for "AOS v2.13" i wouldn't know what that is sorry.
 

odious

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The wood firmware is just for booting DS roms, AOS is a menu with other apps and features. If you only care about playing DS games, just use the Wood version.
 

Sonic Angel Knight

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I have a ace3ds, sadly it doesn't work anymore. I usually never have good experiences when buying flash carts. First was acekard 2i or whatever is called from china, had to use some cardboard trick to make it work, then is just don't work anymore. After DSI came out, got a R4i SDHC and that seem to never get updates to work. Then got ace3ds with the huge USB cart carring case and it worked for only about 2 months, and that was it. Then i got a more expensive DSTWO which i actually like but oh boy was it expensive. over $40 But it had In game cheats and other useful stuff like save states and game save switching so more than one person can have save data for games like pokemon. It one of the best from my experience but i misplaced it and the 32GB sd card when i decide to play super smash bros on my 3DS and now is been gone ever since.

As much as i like flash carts i just had trouble with them so i been skeptical about buying more. Seem like the ones from china are defective for some reason. Not to mention that DHL delivery service, You will be waiting a whole month to see that cart... if you want free shipping.:glare:
 

odious

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I like this one just fine. Decent build quality. Can boot straight to Wood so I can have a nice clean list of my DS games. And it's not like there are new games to update compatibility for.
 

DeadSkullzJr

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The Ace3DS+ can use two kernels:
- ACE Wood firmware V1.62
- AOS V2.13

ACE Wood firmware V1.62 Details:
This kernel is actually just an unofficial and modified version of Wood R4 (v1.62) that supports microSD cards ranging between 2GB-32GB by normal means (64GB+ using special formatting software). If you were around to see the glory days of Wood RPG/Wood R4 then you'd know right off the bat this kernel is a really good kernel. The only drawback is the fact that this specific version doesn't support RTS (Real Time Saving) features like the more modern, popular, and official Wood R4 flashcart, the R4i Gold 3DS Plus (which also runs the same version essentially, just extra features rendering the 1.64 version).

AOS V2.13 Details:
The AOS kernel merely stands for Ace3DS Operating System, and is essentially the exact same kernel as above, however this one has an extra feature that allows you to boot into emulators directly from the menu of the kernel, rather than hunting down the emulators in the Wood R4 menu like normal. This doesn't provide any edges or extra performance over the kernel above, it functions the same, still lacks RTS features, over all, it's just the same kernel. The emulation functions of this kernel does NOT include anything special, in fact what it does is it looks for the emulators you downloaded and put on your SD card, then when you select one of the emulators, it will then launch the emulator. The results will be the exact same if you launched it with any other flashcart kernel, this means that emulation performance and game compatibility does NOT change, it's exactly the same.

Conclusion:
Both of these kernels are the exact same, one just has the ability to launch emulators directly from the kernel menu rather than you having to manually find the emulator yourself on your flashcart.


Updates for the kernels:
Updates for Wood R4 haven't been done since 2013, however the kernel doesn't really need updates when 99.8% of the games work on it already (the other .2% being games we either don't know or have or likely shovelware titles people likely didn't know existed). If you really wanted to update the kernel then you'd have to have the source code or SDK of said kernel and some knowledge on the flashcart hardware at hand to actually do anything on it. None of which is publicly available, however nobody is stopping your from disassembling it yourself and creating a new source to work with for the public, though I recommend not doing it with this unofficial version of Wood R4, I would go straight to the official version so you get the right content.

Updates to the flashcart flash (aka firmware):

None are needed because these flashcarts work on any firmware of the DSi or 3DS systems, with or without custom firmware.
 
Last edited by DeadSkullzJr,

s1aught3r

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The Ace3DS+ can use two kernels:
- ACE Wood firmware V1.62
- AOS V2.13

ACE Wood firmware V1.62 Details:
This kernel is actually just an unofficial and modified version of Wood R4 (v1.62) that supports microSD cards ranging between 2GB-32GB by normal means (64GB+ using special formatting software). If you were around to see the glory days of Wood RPG/Wood R4 then you'd know right off the bat this kernel is a really good kernel. The only drawback is the fact that this specific version doesn't support RTS (Real Time Saving) features like the more modern, popular, and official Wood R4 flashcart, the R4i Gold 3DS Plus (which also runs the same version essentially, just extra features rendering the 1.64 version).

AOS V2.13 Details:
The AOS kernel merely stands for Ace3DS Operating System, and is essentially the exact same kernel as above, however this one has an extra feature that allows you to boot into emulators directly from the menu of the kernel, rather than hunting down the emulators in the Wood R4 menu like normal. This doesn't provide any edges or extra performance over the kernel above, it functions the same, still lacks RTS features, over all, it's just the same kernel. The emulation functions of this kernel does NOT include anything special, in fact what it does is it looks for the emulators you downloaded and put on your SD card, then when you select one of the emulators, it will then launch the emulator. The results will be the exact same if you launched it with any other flashcart kernel, this means that emulation performance and game compatibility does NOT change, it's exactly the same.

Conclusion:
Both of these kernels are the exact same, one just has the ability to launch emulators directly from the kernel menu rather than you having to manually find the emulator yourself on your flashcart.


Updates for the kernels:
Updates for Wood R4 haven't been done since 2013, however the kernel doesn't really need updates when 99.8% of the games work on it already (the other .2% being games we either don't know or have or likely shovelware titles people likely didn't know existed). If you really wanted to update the kernel then you'd have to have the source code or SDK of said kernel and some knowledge on the flashcart hardware at hand to actually do anything on it. None of which is publicly available, however nobody is stopping your from disassembling it yourself and creating a new source to work with for the public, though I recommend not doing it with this unofficial version of Wood R4, I would go straight to the official version so you get the right content.

Updates to the flashcart flash (aka firmware):

None are needed because these flashcarts work on any firmware of the DSi or 3DS systems, with or without custom firmware.
I have a DSi with a Ace3ds + cart with the latest kernel on it yet it still is blacklisted on my DSi.. do you maybe know a solution to this since the flashcart firmware not needed to be updated?
 

DeadSkullzJr

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I have a DSi with a Ace3ds + cart with the latest kernel on it yet it still is blacklisted on my DSi.. do you maybe know a solution to this since the flashcart firmware not needed to be updated?
That doesn't sound right, it shouldn't be blacklisted considering the Ace3DS+ was designed to run on the latest firmware of the DSi and 3DS (which means you did something wrong with the flashcart).
 

AnotherMuggle

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That doesn't sound right, it shouldn't be blacklisted considering the Ace3DS+ was designed to run on the latest firmware of the DSi and 3DS (which means you did something wrong with the flashcart).
Sorry to reply to an aging thread.

I have two Ace3DS+ carts that looks almost identical from the outside. Inside the PCBs are very similar but not exactly the same.

I have a DSi on latest firmware and a DSi XL on a slightly older firmware (I have to check which). One of the Ace3DS+ carts works on both systems. The other cart would not work on the DSi with the latest firmware - you get the typical "an error has occurred" message.

Since installing unlaunch on the DSi with the latest firmware both carts work on both systems. It seems not all Ace3DS+ carts are created equal :S
 

AnotherMuggle

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Did the non working one show as atlantis squarepantis, or a different game?
It actually might be! The working one is Metroid Prime Hunters First Hunt Demo. I'll have to dig the other cart out my drawer to check and post.

EDIT: I checked and the other cart is Alex Rider Strombreaker, not Spongebob :)
 
Last edited by AnotherMuggle,

BigOtaku2118

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So, I just had one of my SD cards on a cart crash and I'm COMPLETELY new to this... I installed AOS on the SD card and put all my ripped ROMs on the card (luckily, I save backups of everything elsewhere). How would I install the cheats onto it like the old card had?
 

lifehackerhansol

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So, I just had one of my SD cards on a cart crash and I'm COMPLETELY new to this... I installed AOS on the SD card and put all my ripped ROMs on the card (luckily, I save backups of everything elsewhere). How would I install the cheats onto it like the old card had?
Download `usrcheat.dat` from this post here: https://gbatemp.net/threads/deadskullzjrs-nds-cheat-databases.488711/

Then place it in the `__rpg/cheats` folder.

Oh also, I slightly repacked the AOS loader with updated emulators and other utilities if you want to check it out: https://github.com/DS-Homebrew/flas...n/Ace3DS+_R4iLS/Ace3DS+_R4iLS_Wood_R4_1.62.7z
 

eSJayBee

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Download `usrcheat.dat` from this post here:

Then place it in the `__rpg/cheats` folder.

Oh also, I slightly repacked the AOS loader with updated emulators and other utilities if you want to check it out
Hi. I got a 208-in-1 flashcart off Amazon the other day after reading your helpful review on it on Reddit from 9 months back. Who would have thought that scam-looking thing is an actual flashcart?

You mentioned that it works OOTB because of the Ace3DS+ kernel in the provided SD card. Is it the latest Wood on it or should I replace it with "ACE Wood Firmware v1.62" from the link in this thread's OP (or even the repacked one from your review and above post "Ace3DS+_R4iLS_Wood_R4_1.62.7z")?
 

lifehackerhansol

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Hi. I got a 208-in-1 flashcart off Amazon the other day after reading your helpful review on it on Reddit from 9 months back. Who would have thought that scam-looking thing is an actual flashcart?

You mentioned that it works OOTB because of the Ace3DS+ kernel in the provided SD card. Is it the latest Wood on it or should I replace it with "ACE Wood Firmware v1.62" from the link in this thread's OP (or even the repacked one from your review and above post "Ace3DS+_R4iLS_Wood_R4_1.62.7z")?
I would a) get a new SD card, because they bundle such a horrible SD that it dies in like a month, and b) I'd download my repacked version here (the one on the official website is fine if you don't want AOS. If you want AOS, I highly suggest my repacked version.)

https://flashcard-archive.ds-homebrew.com/Ace3DS+_R4iLS

You can read the README.txt to see which file is which.
 

eSJayBee

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I would a) get a new SD card, because they bundle such a horrible SD that it dies in like a month, and b) I'd download my repacked version here (the one on the official website is fine if you don't want AOS. If you want AOS, I highly suggest my repacked version.)



You can read the README.txt to see which file is which.
Ah! Thank you for the super prompt reply!

Yes, I actually have a fresh SD card ready now with one of the downloaded kernels already on it.
 

Rhodian

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Hello all

I got a 482 in 1 card from Amazon for my 3DS. Sadly it doesn't work. It shows an icon of SpongeBob but console crashes when I start to run it and asks for a long press on power button.

My 3DS has a 11.15.0-something firmware. Do I need to change the firmware of the card? Is it the flash card that is crappy and I need a different one?

I assume that the 3DS card is an ACE one as there is a ace3ds_sd.dldi file.

Any thoughts?
 

lifehackerhansol

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Hello all

I got a 482 in 1 card from Amazon for my 3DS. Sadly it doesn't work. It shows an icon of SpongeBob but console crashes when I start to run it and asks for a long press on power button.

My 3DS has a 11.15.0-something firmware. Do I need to change the firmware of the card? Is it the flash card that is crappy and I need a different one?

I assume that the 3DS card is an ACE one as there is a ace3ds_sd.dldi file.

Any thoughts?
Unfortunately due to recent events in their product line, some of the batches in the multi carts cannot run without custom firmware.

You will need to install CFW. https://3ds.hacks.guide
 

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