Hacking Changing Order of Games in Sky3DS+?

[drfsupercenter]

Pretty much what the topic says.

With the original Sky3DS, I could customize the sort order just by dragging them into the DiskWriter in the order I wanted. First, second, third and so on would be on the card in that order.

Now that it's just using FAT32 it's a bit...erratic. At first I thought it based the order on file write times (so something like FAT Sorter could make them go in alphabetical order, for example) but when I put a couple .3ds files on there without letting the card create its default save data, they were in the reverse order than I thought.

I managed to get four games in the order I want, by putting only one on the card, letting it make the .sav, putting another on and so on. But that seems to be it... I tried to put a fifth game on there and it always shows up in the middle. As #3 of 5. I deleted the file, verified the four were in the order I want, put it back on again, back to #3... whether I have game 1, 2, 3 or 4 mounted when I do it.

I know this card is brand new, but has anyone figured this out yet? It would be handy to know, some of us are super anal about the order their games appear

 

[Redferne]

The order is alphabetical, there is nothing random about it. It doesn't order from the game name but the file name.
So if you your ROMs are named after the game, the order will not be the one you expect.

 

[spkuja]

If you really want to, you could put a number in front of the file name if you want to order the games in a certain way

 

[drfsupercenter]

The order is alphabetical, there is nothing random about it. It doesn't order from the game name but the file name.
So if you your ROMs are named after the game, the order will not be the one you expect.

If you really want to, you could put a number in front of the file name if you want to order the games in a certain way

I would believe you, except for the fact that with four ROMs I have them in this order:

Pokémon Y -> Pokémon AS -> Tomodachi Life -> Super Smash Bros.

T comes after S in the alphabet, so it can't JUST be alphabetical. Granted, I specifically put them on the MicroSD in that order in order to get that order.

The fifth one was Cubic Ninja (starts with C so in theory should be first), but it appeared between Tomodachi Life and SSB. Something's definitely odd.

Edit: and yes, I have the ROMs named simple names, not Scene release names.

So they're literally "Tomodachi Life.3ds" "Super Smash Bros.3ds" and "Cubic Ninja.3ds"

 

[Redferne]

I put my games on my SD card randomly and they appear in alphabetical order in the 3DS...

 

[Roboman]

Granted, I specifically put them on the MicroSD in that order in order to get that order.

Sig material.

 

[drfsupercenter]

I put my games on my SD card randomly and they appear in alphabetical order in the 3DS...

Well, let me ask, did you put a bunch of games on and then put the Sky3DS into your 3DS - having not loaded any of them before? It might resort to alphabetical order if it detects several new games that don't already have config files.

Sig material.

Haha, totally wasn't intending to use the word "order" 3 times in a row...


Anyway, I'm going to do a little testing and report back. I have a theory, but it doesn't fully satisfy my curiosity.

 

[drfsupercenter]

Did some testing with a different MicroSD card.

I find this very peculiar...

So I have these four games

• Pokémon Y
• Pokémon AlphaSapphire
• Tomodachi Life
• Super Smash Bros.

To try to mix things up, I renamed the files like this

• 1. ssb.3ds
• 2. y.3ds
• 3. tl.3ds
• 4. as.3ds

I put them on the MicroSD in that order, one at a time, to make sure they were really in that order.

It seemed to have worked, though they seemed to be backwards (in other words, the button I thought was "next" loaded the previous game, and it went 4,3,2,1 rather than 1,2,3,4) but overall the order was as I specified.


Now that it generated the save files, I figured the order was stored in the internal memory. So I renamed them back to their simple names (Tomodachi Life.3ds, Super Smash Bros.3ds and so on)
But the order changed! Rather than being in pure alphabetical order, it simply reversed Super Smash Bros. and Pokémon Y. So in other words, the first game to load was AlphaSapphire, then Tomodachi Life, then SSB this time and then Y.

Really strange, right?

So it's SORT-OF in alphabetical order... but also not really.

There must be more to this. It isn't simply "date written to the card" or the order wouldn't change with simple renames. There has to be some sort of internal database of them...

 

[Redferne]

No I didn't put all my games at the same time on the SD.
But now this makes me wondering too if it works like I thought. I'll have to test later.

 

[arielp]

Alphabetical in my Sky3DS+

minor glitch with capital:
LEGO AAA
Lego BBB
LEGO CCC

on Sky3DS games will be ordered
LEGO AAA
LEGO CCC
Lego BBB

 

[drfsupercenter]

What doesn't add up, though, is that when I rename the game it changes the order. From what I know about file allocation tables (FAT32 and whatnot), that shouldn't happen.

Anyone else want to do a test? Get these four games (US region)

Pokémon Y
Pokémon AS
Tomodachi Life
Super Smash Bros.

Put them on the MicroSD in that order (Y first, then AS and so on)

They should show up in that order on the Sky3DS+. But that's not alphabetical, S comes before T!

Then get Cubic Ninja, put that on

It'll be somewhere in the middle

So it's not "order the game was put on the SD" either.

 

[Roboman]

What doesn't add up, though, is that when I rename the game it changes the order. From what I know about file allocation tables (FAT32 and whatnot), that shouldn't happen.

Anyone else want to do a test? Get these four games (US region)

Pokémon Y
Pokémon AS
Tomodachi Life
Super Smash Bros.

Put them on the MicroSD in that order (Y first, then AS and so on)

They should show up in that order on the Sky3DS+. But that's not alphabetical, S comes before T!

Then get Cubic Ninja, put that on

It'll be somewhere in the middle

So it's not "order the game was put on the SD" either.

I have an idea
Add some text to the beginning of the file names and keep changing said text until they show up in the desired order.

Or email Sky3ds for customer support

 

[drfsupercenter]

Yeah, it seems to work if I use numbers and keep them that way. (though it's actually backwards with the highest number being first o.O)

so I have

1. Pokémon Y.3ds
2. Pokémon AlphaSapphire.3ds
3. Tomodachi Life.3ds
4. Super Smash Bros.3ds
5. Cubic Ninja.3ds

The numbers are in the filename

But it's gotta be something like "if nothing else, use alphabetical order, but also try to sort by ____"


I've emailed Sky3DS before but they're a bunch of Engrish-speaking vague hackers who don't want to answer technical questions like this. I'm probably on their ignored senders list after I bugged them with the last question, LOL.

 

[MadBob]

Yeah, it seems to work if I use numbers and keep them that way. (though it's actually backwards with the highest number being first o.O)

so I have

1. Pokémon Y.3ds
2. Pokémon AlphaSapphire.3ds
3. Tomodachi Life.3ds
4. Super Smash Bros.3ds
5. Cubic Ninja.3ds

The numbers are in the filename

But it's gotta be something like "if nothing else, use alphabetical order, but also try to sort by ____"


I've emailed Sky3DS before but they're a bunch of Engrish-speaking vague hackers who don't want to answer technical questions like this. I'm probably on their ignored senders list after I bugged them with the last question, LOL.

Mine are numbered 0001, 0002 etc. And (3DS XL) click left goes down towards low numbers click right goes up towards high numbers, no issues here. If you are using 3DS it would feel reversed with cart at the back.

I used a simple batch file to keep a list of them.

dir /b /o *.3ds > contents.txt