Hacking Gateway 3DS - First 3DS flash card?!

[Rydian]

can SD cards be formatted in multiple partitions like hdd? if so then one large sd card could be used for any game with a ROM partition save partition and rest unpartitioned.

Assuming that the cart understands the entire concept of a partition table and such in the first place...

 

[Pong20302000]

Care to elaborate why? Read up some FPGA systems (like some retrogaming computers reproduced in FPGA) and you can see that the FPGA can load whatever it wants from SD and turn it into whatever it needs to.

The SRAM (there needs to be one) chip stores the save till you reset in DS mode, then the manager dumps the save from the chip, saves it in .sav format, and empties the SRAM chip for the next game.

the 3DS rom will need to be in its own Format (NCSD .CCI) on the MicroSD formatted as such

the save dumper DS mode could indeed work but why do that when they can charge more for hardware to do that, but we dont have much info apart from they have 1 save chip that doesnt write to any form of external card

 

[str8mjed]

*Grabs popcorn*

 

[KazoWAR]

Assuming that the cart understands the entire concept of a partition table and such in the first place...

i didn't mean to imply that it would just work, just trying to say that a sd card for each rom size might not be the only option for what we seen in the video.

 

[how_do_i_do_that]

but you cannot store ANYTHING ELSE on the MicroSD that isnt the 3DS Rom
there would have to be another place to save the data, how do you plan to get that to work without power to the card itself, if its in the slot its accessing the Game data chip (aka the MicroSD) & the Save data, it would need to be done without being connected to the 3DS unless you take it out, switch to DS Mode, then place it back in then run the FPGA

Early DS flashcarts use the buffer method to transfer saves. The N5, DSOne, G6 used this buffer method to transfer the saves to the microSD. The problem with this method is that it requires a micro battery to keep the save data alive before transfering it to the microSD and the buffer used had a fixed size that would make it unable to save when games used save sizes that exceeded the buffer. The problem with is that save sizes only got bigger, later flashcarts got around this by writing to the microSD directly.

 

[raulpica]

the 3DS rom will need to be in its own Format (NCSD .CCI) on the MicroSD formatted as such

the save dumper DS mode could indeed work but why do that when they can charge more for hardware to do that, but we dont have much info apart from they have 1 save chip that doesnt write to any form of external card

And there's a reason for that, or you like to think it should be like that?

 

[Pong20302000]

Early DS flashcarts use the buffer method to transfer saves. The N5, DSOne, G6 used this buffer method to transfer the saves to the microSD. The problem with this method is that it requires a micro battery to keep the save data alive before transfering it to the microSD and the buffer used had a fixed size that would make it unable to save when games used save sizes that exceeded the buffer. The problem with is that save sizes only got bigger, later flashcarts got around this by writing to the microSD directly.

DS Flashcards dont come into this really tho

DS flashcards could use unencrypted Data because a method of Signing the data was available
that is not yet possible with the 3DS because we have no keys that work on retail units

And there's a reason for that, or you like to think it should be like that?

because thats what the 3DS reads (same reason Wii had to be in WBFS)
the .3DS roms we see are already in .CCI format, they where just renamed to .3DS for scene reasons

 

[how_do_i_do_that]

DS Flashcards dont come into this really tho

DS flashcards could use unencrypted Data because a method of Signing the data was available
that is not yet possible with the 3DS because we have no keys that work on retail units



because thats what the 3DS reads
the .3DS roms we see are already in .CCI format, they where just renamed to .3DS for scene reasons

I'll let you know how this 3DS flashcart is managing the saves when I get my grubby mitts on this flashcart.

 

[Pong20302000]

I'll let you know how this 3DS flashcart is managing the saves when I get my grubby mitts on this flashcart.

its obvious how it does, it just has a internal save chip that the 3DS writes to and thats it
so if you swap the game without dumping it, the new game notices its not its game so goes "oh this isnt what i want, going to wipe it so its right" and deletes the old data unless you flash a previous save you created to it

 

[how_do_i_do_that]

Actually it is not. Just from the video of the flashcart, we saw nothing about if they had to reformat the microSD into a "WBFS" type drive, all we saw was just microSD swapping. That part is still unclear. Other than that I really don't care if your right or if I am right on save mechanics.

 

[Terenigma]

Im not sure im excited about this. On the DS, i had access to so many games using flashcarts that i never REALLY played any of them, now that im paying for games, im finding im really spending a good decent ammount of time with each of them and the Eshop having demo's for most (if not all) the games iv thought about buying is perfect for a try before you buy.

Its still good to see that they've managed to do it, just shows that anything can be broken and hacked eventually.

 

[Pong20302000]

Actually it is not. Just from the video of the flashcart, we saw nothing about if they had to reformat the microSD into a "WBFS" type drive, all we saw was just microSD swapping. That part is still unclear. Other than that I really don't care if your right or if I am right on save mechanics.

clearly you dont read what i say
the format is "NCSD" also
the Micro SD is effectively acting as the Game Chip

Spoiler

the big one in the midde

the Micro SD has to mirror it Perfectly Meaning it must be in NCSD Format, and contain the .CCI Rom file which will need to be flashed to the MicroSD in NCSD format

 

[TheRedfox]

Actually it is not. Just from the video of the flashcart, we saw nothing about if they had to reformat the microSD into a "WBFS" type drive, all we saw was just microSD swapping. That part is still unclear. Other than that I really don't care if your right or if I am right on save mechanics.

I don't think the microsd is formatted, and we'll need to write the roms 1:1 to the microsd(dd/win32imagewriter)

Edit: Pong: you ninja

 

[raulpica]

because thats what the 3DS reads (same reason Wii had to be in WBFS)
the .3DS roms we see are already in .CCI format, they where just renamed to .3DS for scene reasons

So the microSDs inserted in DS-flashcards should be formatted in .nds format?

WBFS has been replaced by FAT and NTFS since a long time. It was a format created by Waninkoko from scratch, nothing made by Nintendo.

.CCIs are just raw dumps of 3DS cartridges, just like .NDS files are.

Electronic engineer by any chance?

Just got a big passion for it

 

[how_do_i_do_that]

I am basing what I said on the fact that we went from WBFS drives with games to WBFS image files with 1 game stored in each image file.

Your discounting everything that came afterwards and base-lining this flashcart on how Wii hard drives worked then.

 

[Pong20302000]

So the microSDs inserted in DS-flashcards should be formatted in .nds format?

WBFS has been replaced by FAT and NTFS since a long time. It was a format created by Waninkoko from scratch, nothing made by Nintendo.

.CCIs are just raw dumps of 3DS cartridges, just like .NDS files are.

the MicroSD's in NDS cards can be windows Format due to the fact that Nintendo DS's Can run unsigned code so just placing the .nds files work

with the 3DS they will need to be flashed to the MicroSD in the correct format (as the .CCI is like a packaged version of the chip)

i was using WBFS as an example showing that it needed to be in a specific format to work with the extracted files from the dumped images

I am basing what I said on the fact that we went from WBFS drives with games to WBFS image files with 1 game stored in each image file.

Your discounting everything that came afterwards and base-lining this flashcart on how Wii hard drives worked then.

THERE ISNT A 3DS HACK, SO EVERYTHING AFTER WONT WORK!!!!
DS FLashcards, Use HACKS and EXPLOITS
this 3DS FLASHCARD DOES NOT USE ANY HACKED OR EXPLOITS, IT ACTS AS RUNNING A CLONE OF AN OFFICIAL CARD

 

[raulpica]

the MicroSD's in NDS cards can be windows Format due to the fact that Nintendo DS's Can run unsigned code so just placing the .nds files work

with the 3DS they will need to be flashed to the MicroSD in the correct format (as the .CCI is like a packaged version of the chip)

i was using WBFS as an example showing that it needed to be in a specific format to work with the extracted files from the dumped images

Filesystem support (NTFS, FAT32) can be directly implemented in the FPGA. Yet again, refer to the numerous repro-systems made in FPGA around the internets (MSX, Minimig, etc).

No need for unsigned code.

 

[dragonmaster]

well i will wait a bit prior buying it as i know the scene is running very fast in updates ,a clone market will emerge soon with more abilities but for me this is the first step toward hacking i was following 3ds brew for a while as i believed that cfw was the perfect option but i know now that what we will see is flashcards ,maybe some will be able to create snes and gba emulators for it and soon we will have a perfect ecosystem of apps.
ah i know what will happen too soon the story will be piracy killed the 3ds ,but for my point of view thats not true.

 

[Pong20302000]

Filesystem support (NTFS, FAT32) can be directly implemented in the FPGA. Yet again, refer to the numerous repro-systems made in FPGA around the internets (MSX, Minimig, etc).

No need for unsigned code.

but the 3DS game chip doesnt use NTFS or FAT32 it uses NCSD

 

[raulpica]

but the 3DS game chip doesnt use NTFS or FAT32 it uses NCSD

And?