Homebrew Brand new to 3ds homebrew, forgive my ignorance

RanchoBurger

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Hey folks. Got a NN3DS a couple months ago, got my hands on an r4i gold card the other day. Promptly loaded the newest wood kernel and a bunch of ds games onto it. Very pleased with that so far. I really like the idea of classic emulators on my 3DS. I found a SNES emu that runs well but both the genesis ones I've found seem less than stellar. Picodrive runs poorly and there's no sound. Jenesis, while running well, doesn't show the entire screen. I realize there's no true work around for this, something to do with the aspect ratio or pixel amount differences between genesis games and 3DS screens. I think it was a thread here that I read that, actually.

Now I've found out today about retroarch. I was looking at the thread here: https://gbatemp.net/threads/retroarch-emulation-thread-nightly-builds-included.400913/ trying to figure some stuff out. I hate feeling helpless and ignorant but I'm wondering if I can even use retroarch on my 10.3.0-28U 3DS using a gold card. Is there a link in that thread that details installation and setup? I absolutely don't want to have anyone hold my hand through the whole process. I enjoy learning new things and knowing how to do things for myself but I'll admit I find this a little overwhelming at the moment.

I appreciate the time anyone may take to point me in the right direction.
 

sj33

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For starters, your R4i card is actually a DS flashcart. This of course runs on the 3DS, but as a DS game. You cannot use 3DS homebrew on your flashcart because it is a DS flashcart.

As a first entry into 3DS homebrew, I recommend starting with the Homebrew Launcher, using the webbrowser hack and home menu hack.
http://smealum.github.io/3ds/

You can actually downgrade your machine to 9.2, which means you can install a CFW... but one step at a time.
 
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RanchoBurger

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Huh, I saw elsewhere that downgrading was impossible. I'll look into that. Checked out the smealum link and it seems pretty easy. At least at the onset. So, since my 3DS is 10.3, I assume that means I would use browserhax. I'll give that a go when I get back to work later and have a little free time.

Really appreciate the replies so far. If anyone has more tips or things I should know, that'd be cool. But I'll be diving into all the stuff I have so far later and should be able to learn some new things. Thanks again.
 
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Giantblargg

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Huh, I saw elsewhere that downgrading was impossible. I'll look into that. Checked out the smealum link and it seems pretty easy. At least at the onset. So, since my 3DS is 10.3, I assume that means I would use browserhax. I'll give that a go when I get back to work later and have a little free time.

Downgrading is impossible on 10.4+. But you're still on 10.3, so if you can get access to smealum's userland homebrew (through the browser or otherwise) you should be able to downgrade.
 
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RanchoBurger

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Ooooook, so I got the files on my microsd. Used browerhax to load up the homebrew launcher, installed menuhax so I can now hold L when I turn on my 3DS to go directly to homebrew but I hit a snag. So I downloaded the latest retroarch file from here: http://buildbot.libretro.com/nightly/nintendo/3ds/. The 105MB file for 03/05/2016. I moved everything from that 7z file into the root of my microsd card and made a folder for Genesis roms. But when I load up the Homebrew Launcher, none of the emulators show up. Just the standard stuff that was in the starter zip file. Any ideas? Did I download the wrong retroarch file?
 

RhythmCat

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Ooooook, so I got the files on my microsd. Used browerhax to load up the homebrew launcher, installed menuhax so I can now hold L when I turn on my 3DS to go directly to homebrew but I hit a snag. So I downloaded the latest retroarch file from here: http://buildbot.libretro.com/nightly/nintendo/3ds/. The 105MB file for 03/05/2016. I moved everything from that 7z file into the root of my microsd card and made a folder for Genesis roms. But when I load up the Homebrew Launcher, none of the emulators show up. Just the standard stuff that was in the starter zip file. Any ideas? Did I download the wrong retroarch file?
I believe you have to put it in the ''3ds'' folder, not in the root of the SD card.
 
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RanchoBurger

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Ah yeah, that worked. And I needed a different file from buildbot. I'm now playing Landstalker on my 3DS. Thank you guys again for all the help.

One last question, if I get a new microsd card for my 3DS and just straight transfer everything I have now over to the new one, will it all still work the same? 8 gigs will do for now but I'm sure I'll need more eventually.
 

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