Hacking Gateway 3.4.1: using backup savegames

[onepiecefreak]

Hello there,

it might sound like a silly question, but let me explain my problem.
I backuped all my retail games and savegames for them. I renamed the games to "[gamename].3dz" and my saves to "[TitleID].sav".
If I start the backuped games in the gateway mode, nearly all games erase the backuped saves on my SD-Card and creates a fully new one.

To check the situation, these are all my games:
Luigi's Mansion 2
Mario & Luigi: Dream Team Bros.
New Super Mario Bros. 2
One Piece Unlimited Cruise SP
One Piece Unlimited Cruise SP2
One Piece Unlimited World R
Paper Mario Sticker Star
Pokemon AlphaSapphire
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity
Pokemon OmegaRuby
Pokemon X
Professor Layton 5
Professor Layton 6
Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright
Rhythm Thief
Spirit Camera
Super Mario 3D Land
Super Pokemon Rumble
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D
The Legend of Zelda: Majoras Mask 3D

The only 3 games that are workin' are:
Mario & Luigi: Dream Team Bros.
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity
Super Pokemon Rumble

I can't figure out an scheme, when a game isn't going to use the backuped save. The so named X- and Y-Key encryption (I only heard of that) mightbe troublesome. But I'd read that the X-Key encryption is "proper". On this base, games like Spirit Camera have to work. But they don't.

Pls enlighten me.

Thx and greetings

 

[Aroth]

Any game released after FW 6.0 will not work this way. Period. At least one game on that list fits this criteria, and I would guess several of them do. That said there are a few I recognize that should have been released before 6.0 so they should work just fine.

 

[onepiecefreak]

Yeah, but I tried all of them. Like Mario 3D Land, Zelda Ocarina of Time and Spirit Camera. These are games released in 2011, 2012 maybe. But not later.
And after all I thought Mario & Luigi is one of those 6.0+ games. But this does work very well

 

[Queno138]

New Super Mario Bros. 2
Super Mario 3D Land

If you backed these games up from retail carts using Gateway's backing up function and they don't work, I know why.
It's because their save files are smaller than 512, whereas Gateway only recognizes saves that are of 512 and larger.

In essence, what you need to do is:

(0. backup everything you have on your SD card, and probably get another SD card)
1. Run a CFW that allows your to use Savedatafiler (SDF) to back up retail carts
2. Back up the respective saves, remember the time/date stamp correlates to which game
3. Copy paste the (SDF) backups to GW, and then inject to CTR or to .cia (I recommended getting the .cia of those games)


More detailed steps are here:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/transfe...-save-data-transfer-tool.379420/#post-5304170
and
https://gbatemp.net/threads/transfe...data-transfer-tool.379420/page-2#post-5454234

(it's first page has more details on other saves too. what I linked is direct information to your situation)

 

[onepiecefreak]

Ok. You're nearly right. Majoras Mask has 512 too, but I think the problem there is the encryption?

But another question to this. I want to use these saves over the SD Card. I didn't want to install a cia for every of this games. Can I use the saves, backuped with SDF, with Gateway over the SD Card?

 

[VerseHell]

You need to follow this : https://gbatemp.net/threads/tutoria...v-to-eshop-3ds-3dz-with-savedatafiler.380246/

That part : Export Retail Card with CFW and SDF:

For the cfw, you can use rxTools + sdf on your current sd card.

 

[onepiecefreak]

Ok, I looked into the matter. The savegames that were backuped from gateway have to be >512kb. Gateway backuped the most of those saves with <512kb.
Why is that so? Is this the "real" size of the savegame? But why can't I use it then? Is there a possibility to "enlarge" the backuped savegame to >512kb that I can use it?

P.S: I can proper reattach the backuped saves into the original cartridges and they work fine... so btw

 

[VerseHell]

There is only one way, and I posted it just above.

 

[onepiecefreak]

Ok, I wasn't aware that all I asked in my last post will be answered if I do this. I'm a little bit angry, that my console isn't workin after that ^^

And I thought SaveDataFiler only extracts Card2 Type saves.

 

[onepiecefreak]

I'm too silly to get such an CFW to work. Only to close it at this point, because others may got it to work and my question helped them.
I stuck at the point of loading the CFW. It "loaded" and then there was nothin'. It seems like it is the normal Home Menu. Maybe it was not, but I can't prove that and I can't install CIA's through this run.bat. But my 3DS has internet and I have the right IP.

 

[VerseHell]

I told you : you don't have to use that obsolete cfw, just use rxTools.

 

[onepiecefreak]

Uhhh.... I feel very silly now, you know that? The whole time I thought you meant I have to follow this point to install the CFW and then use rxtools and sdf to get it to work properly for my needs.
Can you forgive my dumbness?

 

[onepiecefreak]

Ok, over the last 2 days I setted up a fresh emuNAND. Now I have a more common knowledge about the technical details of the NAND and emuNAND. I backuped the savegame of Super Mario 3D Land with Savedatafiler from rxmode. Then I tried to reattach it with Savedatafiler over Gatewaymode. I want to import it to the CTR Card (I know there isnt really one but the all other methods didn't look plausible for my needs and maybe it switch it to SD Card... whatever) but he doesn't do anything. If he "imported" the savegame, it doesn't change anything. No new files on SD, no savegame in the game itself. Can anyone help?

If we can solve this, this topic is finally closed.

P.S: All in all I want to know how I can create a .sav file from the normally exported savegame from savedatafiler. And the method from the given thread a few posts above didn't work really.

 

[VerseHell]

You didn't read everything, you're supposed to do som renaming after the save import.

 

[onepiecefreak]

VerseHell... that you can still answer to my silly questions. You're the perfect user. I got it to work, finally.

This topic is CLOSED.

Thx to VerseHell.

 

[MelonGx]

Conclusion:

GW's savegame backup is outdated.
The following backed-up saves are never readable:

- 128KB saves
- FW 6.0+ game saves

You have to install rxTools or other CFW + SaveDataFiler to re-dump those game saves. Otherwise they will never work.

For FW 6.0+ game saves, you should upgrade your SysNAND over 6.0 (9.2 is recommended). Otherwise the SaveDataFiler will never recognize the game cart save.

 

[Spork Schivago]

I want to do something similar as to what the OP asked. I have questions though about the custom firmware. Should I ask here or start my own thread? I don't want to be hijacking a thread but I want to do exactly what the OP is doing, use savegames that I currently cannot use with the Gateway. Thanks.

 

[onepiecefreak]

To close it up. I could use EVERY savegame from the games named above. I don't know about the encryption methods that are in use for now, but I know that the Pokemon games have a newer encryption that may be troubling in some points... I heard. But I could backup all savegames from all 21 named games above, then created and edited things like in the Thread linked from VerseHell and the savegames were all 512kb in size and are fully read- and usable. If you want to use it on the named Pokemon games than don't worry in one point. For these games the savegames are included INTO the ROM. That means for Pokemon X/Y and OmegaRuby/AlphaSapphire (and maybe others) the saves aren't in a .sav on the SDCard but in the ROMs itself.

Hope I could help. If this wasn't an answer at your expectations, create a new thread with what you want exactly.

And thy again VerseHell, the saves are working like a charm. Really... ALL.