Bootleg overwrite potential

[SylverReZ]

I'm planning on using reproduction cartridge shells if I do go the N-Card route, so it might turn out completely fine in that regard but I guess it's a pretty easy fix that can be entirely covered by the label if that does turn out to be the case ^^;

Reproduction cartridge shells are a hard find. I did, however, find an eBay listing from a US seller who are selling replacements (see here). But, they are incredibly overpriced. I suppose you could go with the route of creating your own with a 3D printer perhaps?

 

[LunarPurin]

Reproduction cartridge shells are a hard find. I did, however, find an eBay listing from a US seller who are selling replacements (see here). But, they are incredibly overpriced. I suppose you could go with the route of creating your own with a 3D printer perhaps?

This does sadly just seem to be the price they are. It might prove cheaper to just buy a copy of brain training and harvest the shell unless I want a full custom cartridge shell like that listing and a similar etsy listing provide.

It's not the cheapest project but it's one I kind of want to do anyway for the sheer novelty.

 

[Apache Thunder]

Yeah and I still have a transparent shell that came from that lot of aftermarket shells. (The label half I used to repair my MaxMediaDock slot-1 cart). I did test the fit of the N-Card PCBs ... and not quite. The sram chip and battery kinda keep the PCB from laying flat. I noticed even the underside shell has thinned out parts where the chips are which the retail shell design wouldn't have.

Though I suppose you could use n-card shells for retail pcbs...haven't really tried that. But would be a huge waste to sacrifice a n-card for it's shell. Please don't. They are an endangered species. Poaching of n-card shells is illegal and punishable by death....


Just kidding obviously.

 

[SylverReZ]

Though I suppose you could use n-card shells for retail pcbs...haven't really tried that. But would be a huge waste to sacrifice a n-card for it's shell. Please don't. They are an endangered species. Poaching of n-card shells is illegal and punishable by death....

"For $5 a month, you could be saving thousands of cheap e-waste being disposed of. Please, adopt an N-Card today."
Thank you for listening to my TED talk. (Was joking, but it would be an interesting talk to watch and listen to.)

Yeah and I still have a transparent shell that came from that lot of aftermarket shells. (The label half I used to repair my MaxMediaDock slot-1 cart). I did test the fit of the N-Card PCBs ... and not quite. The sram chip and battery kinda keep the PCB from laying flat. I noticed even the underside shell has thinned out parts where the chips are which the retail shell design wouldn't have.

They are a pain to fit on pre-existing carts, though. Wish they were universal for other PCBs. :sigh:

 

[LunarPurin]

Yeah and I still have a transparent shell that came from that lot of aftermarket shells. (The label half I used to repair my MaxMediaDock slot-1 cart). I did test the fit of the N-Card PCBs ... and not quite. The sram chip and battery kinda keep the PCB from laying flat. I noticed even the underside shell has thinned out parts where the chips are which the retail shell design wouldn't have.

Though I suppose you could use n-card shells for retail pcbs...haven't really tried that. But would be a huge waste to sacrifice a n-card for it's shell. Please don't. They are an endangered species. Poaching of n-card shells is illegal and punishable by death....


Just kidding obviously.

I think I've found my candidate for a first project. As I predicted, the cheapest option is a £3.47 500 in 1 multicart I found on Aliexpress which is a re-skinned R4.

 

[SylverReZ]

I think I've found my candidate for a first project. As I predicted, the cheapest option is a £3.47 500 in 1 multicart I found on Aliexpress which is a re-skinned R4.

The multicarts you see nowadays are reshelled Ace3DS+ carts with a microSD card filled with a bunch of copyrighted Nintendo ROMs. Not worth the money if they go for about £10 or £15. The microSD cards are fake, according to many, and also do not last for long after 2 months or so. Its best to buy an Ace3DS+ cart or other clone (i.e., R4i-SDHC or r4isdhc.com.cn), slap a new label onto it and place a working, genuine microSD card in.

 

[LunarPurin]

The multicarts you see nowadays are reshelled Ace3DS+ carts with a microSD card filled with a bunch of copyrighted Nintendo ROMs. Not worth the money if they go for about £10 or £15. The microSD cards are fake, according to many, and also do not last for long after 2 months or so. Its best to buy an Ace3DS+ cart or other clone (i.e., R4i-SDHC or r4isdhc.com.cn), slap a new label onto it and place a working, genuine microSD card in.

To be honest I had thought about buying them without SD's and buying the cheapest official micro SD's I could find.
It just worked out better in every way to do it that way

 

[AkikoKumagara]

You can do this with a DS or DS lite.

https://github.com/nflsilva/nds-gbabf

Is this better in any way than Burn2Slot (another tool that has a similar function, maybe more chips supported)?
Asking as a curious person who hasn't used either one yet but plans to in the future.

 

[anotherthing]

Burn2Slot might be better, I'm not sure. You look through the source code of it, and even though it says it supports all those different types of chip, there's only two methods based on a chip signature and then a generic method. But that's relying on about five minutes of skimming through the source I did a month ago. I didn't look at the actual methodology on the three different types, and might not even understand what I'm reading, nor do I know how similar all those chips are to one another.

 

[TheStonedModder]

Reproduction cartridge shells are a hard find. I did, however, find an eBay listing from a US seller who are selling replacements (see here). But, they are incredibly overpriced. I suppose you could go with the route of creating your own with a 3D printer perhaps?

Im currently working on something like that for the supercard dsTwo. I plan on sharing the CAD files so maybe someone can modify it to work for this project as well

Its got a long way to go still though since I'm still learning to model objects, and and have done something this tiny with such tight constraints. It at least clicks into my system and reads currently however

 

[SylverReZ]

Im currently working on something like that for the supercard dsTwo. I plan on sharing the CAD files so maybe someone can modify it to work for this project as well

Its got a long way to go still though since I'm still learning to model objects, and and have done something this tiny with such tight constraints. It at least clicks into my system and reads currently however

View attachment 408310View attachment 408309

Could be improved regarding the contacts. But well done.

Burn2Slot might be better, I'm not sure. You look through the source code of it, and even though it says it supports all those different types of chip, there's only two methods based on a chip signature and then a generic method. But that's relying on about five minutes of skimming through the source I did a month ago. I didn't look at the actual methodology on the three different types, and might not even understand what I'm reading, nor do I know how similar all those chips are to one another.

GBxCart RW IMO is better than Burn2Slot honestly. Support for newer flashcarts and its easy to create your own flash templates. Burn2Slot hasn't been worked on for over a year.

 

[Apache Thunder]

The New Super Mario Bros DS bootleg came in for me...and it's not an N-Card or is a ancient varient of it that isn't compatible with the newer N-Card stuff like udisk and what not. No idea what would have been used to flash these. I assume those USB dongles the really old N-Cards used?

 

[AkikoKumagara]

The New Super Mario Bros DS bootleg came in


View attachment 409079View attachment 409080

Sorry my comment's a little off-topic, but it's funny how it uses the USA product code and the PEGI rating on the same label. Love when bootlegs have dead giveaways without opening them.

 

[Apache Thunder]

Indeed the regionally confused label was a dead give away. I have another bootleg arriving with a similar error. Though I suspect it will be the same type of hardware as this one. The shell design was really close to official. And the markings on the backside were really close...if only they didn't blow it with the label.

I did a rom dump it was indeed the Europe rom the cart contained. So at least 90% of the label did correspond to the version of the game the label indicated it was.

This cart boots on my 2DS XL by the way. Assuming the rom is 1 to 1 to the Europe release it probably passes DS Cart white list checks too and will boot on non CFW'd consoles...Though I currently do not have any to test that on.

EDIT: Here's a photo of the backside. If it weren't for the label you'd have to look pretty closely to tell it was a fake.

 

[SylverReZ]

Indeed the regionally confused label was a dead give away. I have another bootleg arriving with a similar error. Though I suspect it will be the same type of hardware as this one. The shell design was really close to official. And the markings on the backside were really close...if only they didn't blow it with the label.

I did a rom dump it was indeed the Europe rom the cart contained. So at least 90% of the label did correspond to the version of the game the label indicated it was.

This cart boots on my 2DS XL by the way. Assuming the rom is 1 to 1 to the Europe release it probably passes DS Cart white list checks too and will boot on non CFW'd consoles...Though I currently do not have any to test that on.

EDIT: Here's a photo of the backside. If it weren't for the label you'd have to look pretty closely to tell it was a fake.View attachment 409105

I've noticed that you've bought the Dora one too.

 

[Apache Thunder]

Yeah received that the other day. Turned out to be an N-Card clone. Used a 2G (128MB) nand with 128k sram. Battery still got a good charge to it surprisingly. Already have it reflashed to be a standard N-Card.


Updated the xulumenu repo with modified udisk installers:

https://github.com/ApacheThunder/XuluMenu/releases

One of them can be used to install udisk to a bootleg version of N-Card clone. Note though you have to boot the updators from the cart via xmenu/udisk. Currently that requires booting udisk.nds from DSi SD via Unlaunch and hold start+select on boot to do a format. Then use GodMode9Nrio to copy xmenu files to the cart. Then you can run the installer to convert your bootleg to a working N-Card.

I also included a modified version of usbnds for those who have a second n-card and the slot2 usb device. You can boot into usb safe block mode via a normal n-card by holding L+R+A+B+DPAD UP on boot then cart swap to your bootleg cart. (recommended to do this before connecting USB cable). Then flash udisk or xulumenu to cart with the app.

 

[SylverReZ]

I also included a modified version of usbnds for those who have a second n-card and the slot2 usb device. You can boot into usb safe block mode via a normal n-card by holding L+R+A+B+DPAD UP on boot then cart swap to your bootleg cart. (recommended to do this before connecting USB cable). Then flash udisk or xulumenu to cart with the app.

Demonstration can be seen here.

 

[Archeychen]

Hello, just fo.und this. can it turn the card to "single title mode"?

Like I just want to play one ga.me, and want my ca.rd look like a a sing.le gam.e, with the same icon

 

[SylverReZ]

Hello, just fo.und this. can it turn the card to "single title mode"?

Like I just want to play one ga.me, and want my ca.rd look like a a sing.le gam.e, with the same icon

What does your flash cartridge look like?

 

[Apache Thunder]

There was an older USB dongle thing used for these N-Cards that could flash a single game to them and change their icon I believe. (DSFlash2 was a variant that used one) But they are super unobtainium rare. In theory we can do the same via software on DSi/3DS but the DLDI driver/write commands haven't been reverse engineered yet so at the moment we can't do that yet.