Gaming Can a CFW N3DS do anything the DS Lite can do without the need for flash carts?

[intromission]

I ask because here's my situation:

I have a CFW N3DS, my son has a N3DS XL (without CFW).

On my end I had been wanting to play Spirit Tracks (DS), Chrono Trigger (DS), and FFVI (GBA). On my son's end, he has been asking to take his console to school with him in the mornings when he gets dropped off early. Because I was concerned about damage and theft (he's 11), I thought maybe it would be wiser to get a back-up console and enable it for roms/emulation.

Last week Gamestop had a ridiculous sale on refurbished DS Lites for $14.99 so I picked up 2.

In my case, was this even needed? My intent was to get the DS playing roms of GBA and DS games for myself. I don't really trust that cartridges with save files would not be corrupted. I didn't realize however, that separate flash cards would be needed for GBA and DS games-So that's more money than I'd really want to invest if I can just put the roms on my CFA N3DS. Would there be any advantage to keeping things separate? I could've sworn I read something about save files with GBA injection being weird on the 3DS or something.

And in my son's case, should I get him the proper flash cart to enable all emulators? Is it true there are inferior copies of R4 cards for example, that don't last very long?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Lydos]

Hey intromission, yout don't need a second (Slot 2) Flashcard for the NDS to emulate GBA and/or SNES,
if you buy a Flashcard with integrated CPU like the SuperCard DSTwo. The only drawback, if you use on of those Cards,
is that the battery will be drained a bit faster cause of the CPU that needs power. I use mine since the days of the DSi.

I hope this might help you.

 

[aerios169]

why just not hack the n3ds ??, it can do everything emulate gba,ds etc.

 

[intromission]

why just not hack the n3ds ??, it can do everything emulate gba,ds etc.

At the time I didn't because he had accidentally updated to 11.1.0-34U and it didn't seem as easy to roll it back. Is it different now? I have Luma3DS on mine, but my version was lower when I did the process. This may just be the best way, though I heard there was a recent ban wave that made me nervous.

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Hey intromission, yout don't need a second (Slot 2) Flashcard for the NDS to emulate GBA and/or SNES,
if you buy a Flashcard with integrated CPU like the SuperCard DSTwo. The only drawback, if you use on of those Cards,
is that the battery will be drained a bit faster cause of the CPU that needs power. I use mine since the days of the DSi.

I hope this might help you.

Thanks, $60 is probably more than I'd like to spend.

 

[MrMcTiller]

At the time I didn't because he had accidentally updated to 11.1.0-34U and it didn't seem as easy to roll it back. Is it different now? I have Luma3DS on mine, but my version was lower when I did the process. This may just be the best way, though I heard there was a recent ban wave that made me nervous.

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Thanks, $60 is probably more than I'd like to spend.

You can install CFW using this guide here. https://3ds.guide/get-started-(new-3ds). Enjoy!

 

[Meteor7]

If you're going to be playing GBA games heavily, then you'll definitely want to use a DS/lite with a Slot 2 cart of some sort. The Supercard DSTwo can emulate GBA games, but the instances of heavy lag and dropped frames make the experience pretty terrible. The 3DS can emulate GBA games as well through the Virtual Console injections, but the ever-present bugbear of input lag is there, and it's enough to make me recommend against that method as well. With a slot 2 solution, it's all native without any emulation, and it's genuinely the only way I'll play GBA games.

 

[wormdood]

In my case, was this even needed?

no

I didn't realize however, that separate flash cards would be needed for GBA and DS games

thats not true DSTWO PLUS - SuperCard Team

that's more money than I'd really want to invest if I can just put the roms on my CFA N3DS.

yes and no you can inject your saves into gba .cia versions or the gba roms . . . and some ds roms can be played via ndsbootstrap (compatibility is very low)

I could've sworn I read something about save files with GBA injection being weird on the 3DS or something.

never heard that

At the time I didn't because he had accidentally updated to 11.1.0-34U and it didn't seem as easy to roll it back. Is it different now? I have Luma3DS on mine, but my version was lower when I did the process.

11.3 and lower can be hacked for free

This may just be the best way, though I heard there was a recent ban wave that made me nervous.

its not likely and the process of loading homebrew apps while running cfw (the assumed reason for the bans) has been updated to hopefully combat detection

 

[intromission]

If you're going to be playing GBA games heavily, then you'll definitely want to use a DS/lite with a Slot 2 cart of some sort. The Supercard DSTwo can emulate GBA games, but the instances of heavy lag and dropped frames make the experience pretty terrible. The 3DS can emulate GBA games as well through the Virtual Console injections, but the ever-present bugbear of input lag is there, and it's enough to make me recommend against that method as well. With a slot 2 solution, it's all native without any emulation, and it's genuinely the only way I'll play GBA games.

Ok, thanks. So in the case of FFVI I may be better off going with SNES emulation then. I'm guessing that game will have slowdown as a GBA title.

Quick question: When you say native, you mean the rom duties are performed by the flash cart itself right? It has its own RAM correct?

 

[zfreeman]

GBA flashcarts: SuperCard Mini SD, EZ Flash IV
DS flashcarts: R4i -SDHC -Gold -Dual-Core etc., Aliexpress= search "DS custom game"
R4 GBA emulators:
gbaemu4ds https://gbatemp.net/threads/gbaemu4ds-gba-emulator-for-ds-i-dsi-entry.281715/
GBARunner2 https://gbatemp.net/threads/gbarunner2.451970/
Bypass R4 time bomb: https://gbatemp.net/threads/retrogamefan-updates-releases.267243/

 

[wormdood]

Aliexpress= search "DS custom game"

ewwww

 

[Meteor7]

Ok, thanks. So in the case of FFVI I may be better off going with SNES emulation then. I'm guessing that game will have slowdown as a GBA title.

Quick question: When you say native, you mean the rom duties are performed by the flash cart itself right? It has its own RAM correct?

At least with what I use, an EZ Flash 3-in-1, yes.

 

[intromission]

Man, it doesn't seem like there is any easy way of emulating FFVI on the go effectively (GBA, DS, or 3DS) aside from owning the cartridge, which like I said, I"m nervous about because of corrupted saves on such an old cartridge.

 

[element6]

Even with a 3DS on CFW, there are DS games you won't be able to play just from an SD card in the console itself.

TWLoader is the best option for that practice, but my suggestion is to just get an R4 3DS Gold card (the latest one). Cheap, simple solution.

For example, I wanted to play Age of Empires - Mythologies on my 3DS on CFW.

• There is no virtual console edition of the game, so I can't download it from the eshop or create a custom CIA.
• TWLoader will not run it from an SD card in the 3DS (see 3DS SD card compatibility list here)
• Therefore, the best solution is to run it from a 3DS compatible R4 cartridge.

I prefer being able to access my complete library from a clean, easily accessible interface, and would rather not carry around "extras" just to accomplish that. A 128GB internal microSD in the N3DS and an R4 3DS Gold let's me keep all the 3DS and VC games installed on the home screen, and I can enter the R4 3DS menu to access all of the non-VC DS games. Better that than using TWLoader with limited library compatibility.