Hacking Are my old Gateway 3DS cards (red/blue) still useful for playing .3DS and .NDS ROMs?

[retrospect]

My system boots into EmuNAND via BS9 and Luma3DS and I haven't used Gateway since. Are my old Gateway 3DS cards still useful for playing ROMs? More specifically:

1. Would I just boot into EmuNAND via BS9/Luma then put the red Gateway cart in and tap the game cart?
   
2. Does the Blue card still work for playing DS games in EmuNAND, and would I simply put the cart in while in BS9/Luma EmuNAND for that to work? Any risks with that one?
3. Is there compatible firmware that can let the red Gateway cart play the newest games?
4. Is there compatible firmware for the red Gateway cart which has bootloader write-protection? The last official one I got didn't.
   
5. Are there any additional brick/ban risks associated with using the red Gateway cart?

 

[gohan123]

you can't use the red one unless you make an extra frankenstein gateway emunand. you can use the blue one right away while in luma.

 

[x65943]

My system boots into EmuNAND via BS9 and Luma3DS and I haven't used Gateway since. Are my old Gateway 3DS cards still useful for playing ROMs? More specifically:

1. Would I just boot into EmuNAND via BS9/Luma then put the red Gateway cart in and tap the game cart?
   
2. Does the Blue card still work for playing DS games in EmuNAND, and would I simply put the cart in while in BS9/Luma EmuNAND for that to work? Any risks with that one?
3. Is there compatible firmware that can let the red Gateway cart play the newest games?
4. Is there compatible firmware for the red Gateway cart which has bootloader write-protection? The last official one I got didn't.
   
5. Are there any additional brick/ban risks associated with using the red Gateway cart?

As for question 5, yes just like with Sky3ds, you should not use public headers on games that you play online as there is a ban risk.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

My system boots into EmuNAND via BS9 and Luma3DS and I haven't used Gateway since. Are my old Gateway 3DS cards still useful for playing ROMs? More specifically:

1. Would I just boot into EmuNAND via BS9/Luma then put the red Gateway cart in and tap the game cart?
   
2. Does the Blue card still work for playing DS games in EmuNAND, and would I simply put the cart in while in BS9/Luma EmuNAND for that to work? Any risks with that one?
3. Is there compatible firmware that can let the red Gateway cart play the newest games?
4. Is there compatible firmware for the red Gateway cart which has bootloader write-protection? The last official one I got didn't.
   
5. Are there any additional brick/ban risks associated with using the red Gateway cart?

If you really want to use your GW cart, you'll have to downgrade your emuNAND to 11.2 at the latest. GW wasn't updated to support firmwares beyond that. Which means no online.
It's not really worth the hassle, as converting .3DS roms to CIA only takes a few seconds each with https://github.com/ihaveamac/3dsconv
EmuNAND is not really useful for Luma3DS. So I would suggest moving your emuNAND to sysNAND by following https://3ds.hacks.guide/move-emunand
Otherwise, DSiWare games won't work. DS cartridges (including the GW blue cart) should work just fine though.

 

[retrospect]

It's the time needed to install CIAs that I'm not keen on but I guess I'll continue to tolerate it. Is there a tool to check if a CIA will work on my 3DS before I install it?

 

[Deleted-236924]

If you want to run .3ds roms, Sky3DS or an equivalent is what you want.

What do you mean by "work on my 3DS", though?

 

[BaamAlex]

you should not use public headers on games that you play online as there is a ban risk

lol no? As long as you don't cheat online you are safe. You can update the games via eShop and play them online. I played a ripped zelda triforce heroes online and wasn't banned.

 

[lone_wolf323]

lol no? As long as you don't cheat online you are safe. You can update the games via eShop and play them online. I played a ripped zelda triforce heroes online and wasn't banned.

There is just on using public headers. If you use private ones online play is safe to use.

 

[deSSy2724]

If you really want to use your GW cart, you'll have to downgrade your emuNAND to 11.2 at the latest. GW wasn't updated to support firmwares beyond that. Which means no online.
It's not really worth the hassle, as converting .3DS roms to CIA only takes a few seconds each with https://github.com/ihaveamac/3dsconv
EmuNAND is not really useful for Luma3DS. So I would suggest moving your emuNAND to sysNAND by following https://3ds.hacks.guide/move-emunand
Otherwise, DSiWare games won't work. DS cartridges (including the GW blue cart) should work just fine though.

Its still possible, only way to use GW online is to keep it on 11.2 and do a franken firmware update to the latest firmware and dont update the whole firmware.

I know because I still dual boot GW and latest Luma3DS (online works on both but I choose to use Luma3DS for online nowadays instead, I seperated/unlinked them).

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Its still possible, only way to use GW online is to keep it on 11.2 and do a franken firmware update to the latest firmware and dont update the whole firmware.

I know because I still dual boot GW and latest Luma3DS (online works on both but I choose to use Luma3DS for online nowadays instead, I seperated/unlinked them).

I avoided mentioning frankenfirm because it's not worth it or recommended and has a risk of bricking your emuNAND like it did mine.

 

[deSSy2724]

I avoided mentioning frankenfirm because it's not worth it or recommended and has a risk of bricking your emuNAND like it did mine.

Since the beginning I have a hardmod installed on my 3DS but used it only for backing up my sysnand over and over again throughout all the years since I own the 3DS console and even backing up my whole nands if I made some minor save file backups/edits lol (I was paranoid to the death for some reason, yeah...), at the beggining I used GW emunand online normally with DS Profile exploit, later on I switched to menuhax, after some time started using franken firmware method (ofc after the GW team abandoned its users after the 11.2 update) and now finally switched to B9S/Luma3DS and still never deleted my GW emunand (created a new one after I transfered the original to Luma3DS).

The funny thing is I have dozens of backups but I actually never bricked my 3DS console, not a single time (hardmod never actually helped me lol).........I even did some unnecessary testing like making multiple emunands I never used, relinking nands/creating different Nintendo 3DS folders etc) and I have never been banned (I never used cheat/hacks in online games).

My point is, I was extremly careful and GW emunand on latest firmware is still possible (but still, my advice is still to do backups just in case).... if I was not sure, I researched and avoided doing anything to my 3DS until im 100% sure that I know what Im doing.

BTW As a side note.... Im not really sure I will be so lucky with my Switch which I got only recently....

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Since the beginning I have a hardmod installed on my 3DS but used it only for backing up my sysnand over and over again throughout all the years since I own the 3DS console and even backing up my whole nands if I made some minor save file backups/edits lol (I was paranoid to the death for some reason, yeah...), at the beggining I used GW emunand online normally with DS Profile exploit, later on I switched to menuhax, after some time started using franken firmware method (ofc after the GW team abandoned its users after the 11.2 update) and now finally switched to B9S/Luma3DS and still never deleted my GW emunand (created a new one after I transfered the original to Luma3DS).

The funny thing is I have dozens of backups but I actually never bricked my 3DS console, not a single time (hardmod never actually helped me lol).........I even did some unnecessary testing like making multiple emunands I never used, relinking nands/creating different Nintendo 3DS folders etc) and I have never been banned (I never used cheat/hacks in online games).

My point is, I was extremly careful and GW emunand on latest firmware is still possible (but still, my advice is still to do backups just in case).... if I was not sure, I researched and avoided doing anything to my 3DS until im 100% sure that I know what Im doing.

BTW As a side note.... Im not really sure I will be so lucky with my Switch which I got only recently....

I went through all that only I also went through both A9LH and B9S while continuing to use GW just to avoid having to move all my games and saves over. Just by using the v2gw.bin to load the launcher.dat from A9LH and later from B9S by using BootCTR9 as a proxy to load .bin payloads in B9S. But I don't recommend anyone do what I did, it was more hassle than it was worth.

I got rid of my GW emuNAND personally as I exported all my saves with JKSM and got them transferred to the CIAs so I saw no point in keeping it there taking up space, which I have precious little of with all the games I have installed on my 64GB card. But I suppose there is still some use for it if you like to cheat since a lot of the saves you find online are in Gateway format and still require having a working GW emuNAND & red cart to export them with JKSM to a format that can be imported to the CIA versions.

As far as bans go I wasn't careful at all. I had homebrew set as my favorite title (still do), never disabled any of the data sending options (but they don't protect you from being banned anyway), ran plenty of CIA homebrew while online, and cheated to get free plays in Badge Arcade until people started getting banned for it and I got paranoid and stopped. The only thing I didn't do was play the leaked Pokemon games (or other leaked games) online ahead of release, but I had wifi enabled while playing them.

 

[deSSy2724]

Yeah, I agree..... I dont recommend using GW anymore, doing all that back and forth is not worth it that much. In fact, if I need to repeat all the steps mentioned above (from the very beginning), I would definitively fail this time around and mess something really badly..... I just cant believe I actually never bricked (both HW and SW) my 3DS console and I really dumped/injected the nands (both sysnand/emunand) many many times, at the same time seeing all the different threads on all the different forums/sites/blogs with people asking for help because they screwed something up lol (thats probably the reason I was so much paranoid in the first place).

 

[Deleted-236924]

If anything, it's an interesting piece of history, which is always nice to have.

 

[retrospect]

Now that the 3DS has been discarded by Nintendo, it seems like a good time to make a permanent franken firmware. Is it possible to make a franken firmware that can run all games, including as .3ds files off my old Gateway cart? Would it need to be done as SysNAND or EmuNAND? Are there any guides for this? Both my NANDs are on 11.4 but I have backups of 9.0 for both which I imagine could be restored via BS9.

I think it could be a worthwhile one-off project (and a useful guide to exist online). It's not that I want to waste a load of time getting .3DS files to work, it's that I'd like to save a load of time avoiding bad CIAs

Am I right in thinking that BS9 makes the 3DS unbrickable - because you can always restore a NAND backup?

 

[Ryccardo]

Am I right in thinking that BS9 makes the 3DS unbrickable - because you can always restore a NAND backup?

Yes and no - B9S is just the ability to sign custom kernels (aka arm9 homebrews, same thing) to the extent required by the bootrom, but you have to combine them with another thing (deducing kernel partition encryption via a known installed kernel, or for that matter figuring it out beforehand, or ntrboot) to be able to run it on a nonbooting system...
...and for that matter you never needed any of the above to restore a nand backup, hardmod has been an option for longer than those

Is it possible to make a franken firmware that can run all games, including as .3ds files off my old Gateway cart?

No, at least in theory - for the same reason you just can't update everything: gateway's CFW doesn't support the newest kernels, which (along with other drivers that may or may not work if updated separately, as you may know at least the "friends" one does) are responsible for compatibility

Would it need to be done as SysNAND or EmuNAND?

Wouldn't matter if gateway's CFW had proper kernel installation disabling patches (which it lacks), then again if someone really wanted to they could apply that patch directly to the kernel in ctrnand and hope the cfw still works...

it's that I'd like to save a load of time avoiding bad CIAs

All titles (whether originally physical or digital) I created legal backups of with GM9 are good dumps, at least to the extent of properly installing and running
So are the ones anyone could download, until august 2018, directly from Nintendo using any PC

 

[retrospect]

Hm, maybe I won't bother with the Gateway anymore then. Gateway added some deliberate bricking code to [something] a while back. Do I need to be cautious of putting the red card in now that I have a different hack?

...So are the ones anyone could download, until august 2018, directly from Nintendo using any PC

What's this about? You could download ROMs of eShop purchases directly via some trick?

 

[Ryccardo]

Do I need to be cautious of putting the red card in now that I have a different hack?

Nah (though of course it won't do much except waste power - think of it (correctly) as not a flashcard but some arbitrary slot-1 accessory requiring software support) (there were some failed experiments at creating a 3rd party cfw supporting it, many years ago)

What's this about? You could download ROMs of eShop purchases directly via some trick?

You could freely (ie, without supplying a signed ticket to the server) download contents/NCCHs and tmds, which after adding a ticket (and most cfws long allowed for unsigned tickets, which in their simplest form could be made out of titleID and titlekey) are all you need to create a cia!

No reason it couldn't be done today, however there has been no such effort to create an exchange of original tickets (which could theoretically be individually banned, as with gamecard headers), nor for that matter of CDN downloaders capable of sending a ticket for login

 

[mikefor20]

My system boots into EmuNAND via BS9 and Luma3DS and I haven't used Gateway since. Are my old Gateway 3DS cards still useful for playing ROMs? More specifically:

1. Would I just boot into EmuNAND via BS9/Luma then put the red Gateway cart in and tap the game cart?
   
2. Does the Blue card still work for playing DS games in EmuNAND, and would I simply put the cart in while in BS9/Luma EmuNAND for that to work? Any risks with that one?
3. Is there compatible firmware that can let the red Gateway cart play the newest games?
4. Is there compatible firmware for the red Gateway cart which has bootloader write-protection? The last official one I got didn't.
   
5. Are there any additional brick/ban risks associated with using the red Gateway cart?

So, the truth is the GW is still useful if you take the time to get it running and realize it is only for offline games. It requires you to use a fraken-firmware to play the latest games or just a stock 11.2 EmuNAND if you are willing to stick to games that require 11.2 and below on your Red Cart. Just play the online games and 11.3+ games on Lume. The point is to get an EXTRA SD FOR ROMS.

The Franken-firmware is 11.6 (maybe higher now, it's been a bit) but it has 6 titles downgraded to 11.2 so GW works. I would just keep your existing EmuNAND. Then use GW only for offline gaming, and stick to older games.. No need for Franken dickery. IF you want to try the Franken firmware to make newer games compatible in GW, there is a pack on that site to install with sys updater. Makes it easy. Last I checked there was only 20 games or so that didn't work with 11.2. so it don't mean much. Luma for those once again.

Answer your questions.

1. When you set it up properly you will get a multi boot, you will select GW at boot. Or have it set as a button during boot and Luma as default. Like hold L during boot for GW <-- My setup
2. Use the blue cart freely in GW or Luma. Works awesome. I use the multi-kernel to get a bit more functionality like emulators on the Blue Cart
3. Last I knew GW can boot the newest games on Franken firmware but, once again, use Luma for the good stuff, GW more like an archive or to test games you've never played before without install. Its also to easy to let multiple users have their own micro SD for GW. My nephews each have their own cart with different games, for example.
   
4. I don't think so but it's not an issue for me. You don't live in GW anymore. You go in, play a ROM and go back to Luma. You will find Luma to be easier, faster and more convenient when its set up.
5. Yes and yes. GW lacking the protections and updated firmware compatibility is a ban risk and a brick risk. If you don't dick around, play offline games, in EmuNAND, never install things in GW mode and only play .3DS files then you will have no issues. My preteen Nephews can navigate it fine and play my 3DS frequently with no issues.

I say use the blue GW. It's great. And set up the Red Cart for the games that you already finished, never play, want to have just in case and things like that. I used franken firmware for a while on 1 3DS but my other 2 i just skipped the step in the 3ds guide where you delete the EmuNAND after you copy it to SysNAND. On 11.2. Then unlinked them and totally cleaned out the GW EmuNAND for a small footprint and have a big SD in the GW red cart for the archives. I run Luma in SysNAND current firmware. Online, unbanned. You can even have a second EmuNAND for Luma if you like.

Also, with FBI and Boop you can do batch CIA installs over you network from your PC. Takes the sting out of installing a ton of CIA files. Set and forget.... Just FYI

 

[Deleted-236924]

nor for that matter of CDN downloaders capable of sending a ticket for login

This exists.