Hacking Gateway 3DS - First 3DS Flashcart

[Etheboss]

It is already confirmed real...and on the official website the suggested price would be near 65 euro...for comparison, if you buy a DSTwo in my country the price at the moment is 40/45 euro..i don't think that is bad..
Maybe that is not really a fair comparison...depends on the hardware that is used in the Gateway, but that is the card I would buy if it comes to DS games. And 20 euro is not a big difference...

But i prolly wait untill the first wave is sold...before i maybe buy one.

 

[Pedeadstrian]

Now, I don't know much about anything (especially technical stuff), but assuming that this doesn't run any unsigned code, wouldn't it be impossible for an update to allow any kind of GUI for multiple ROMs? I'm guessing we'd need an entirely new card for that function, and possibly have to wait for the keys to be found and released, which may be a very long time.

 

[SifJar]

Now, I don't know much about anything (especially technical stuff), but assuming that this doesn't run any unsigned code, wouldn't it be impossible for an update to allow any kind of GUI for multiple ROMs? I'm guessing we'd need an entirely new card for that function, and possibly have to wait for the keys to be found and released, which may be a very long time.

Without running unsigned code, it is impossible to have any sort of GUI, or custom code of any kind for that matter, yes. But that's not to say it's impossible for a software update to allow running unsigned code. If someone (probably not anyone affiliated with this warez card) finds and releases an exploit for running unsigned code, depending on the nature of the exploit it is plausible that a software update for this card could be issued to make use of it. There is nothing inherent about the card that should prevent that. Of course, the groups behind these cards aren't necessarily the most moral individuals and probably wouldn't be above creating a new card for this so idiots will buy a second card from them.

 

[Pedeadstrian]

Without running unsigned code, it is impossible to have any sort of GUI, or custom code of any kind for that matter, yes. But that's not to say it's impossible for a software update to allow running unsigned code. If someone (probably not anyone affiliated with this warez card) finds and releases an exploit for running unsigned code, depending on the nature of the exploit it is plausible that a software update for this card could be issued to make use of it. There is nothing inherent about the card that should prevent that. Of course, the groups behind these cards aren't necessarily the most moral individuals and probably wouldn't be above creating a new card for this so idiots will buy a second card from them.

Yeah, I wouldn't put it past them to make a Gateway 2.0.
"Gateway 2.0! Now with a graphical user interface! (In really fine print: This new graphical user interface can easily be achieved through a free patch.)"

 

[Naridar]

Yeah, I wouldn't put it past them to make a Gateway 2.0.
"Gateway 2.0! Now with a graphical user interface! (In really fine print: This new graphical user interface can easily be achieved through a free patch.)"

As long as it can be done with a free patch, there will be someone who puts up an online tutorial/files necessary to do so. Pirates want to avoid paying for games, no matter if they're not-paying to game corporations or the Gateway makers.

 

[Arkangelshadow]

Do you know what is needed to be a reseller ??

 

[DiabloStorm]

Do you know what is needed to be a reseller ??

$2500 supposedly

 

[how_do_i_do_that]

Minimum order of 500 units likely. Since that seems to be the "in stock" number sites that advertise the numbers they have in stock when something comes in.

 

[DiabloStorm]

Minimum order of 500 units likely. Since that seems to be the "in stock" number sites that advertise the numbers they have in stock when something comes in.

pong told me minimum 50, so *shrug*

 

[Pedeadstrian]

As long as it can be done with a free patch, there will be someone who puts up an online tutorial/files necessary to do so. Pirates want to avoid paying for games, no matter if they're not-paying to game corporations or the Gateway makers.

True, but not everyone will think to look for alternatives.

 

[BlueStar]

Could there be some jiggery-pokery involving DS mode for the GUI, or would the 3DS cart nub lock that out? Flick a switch on the cart (hey, guess you could click the nub in or out), boot in DS mode, run some kind of hardware or software partition manager, copy a game rom from a secondary sd partition into a primary partition, correctly sized for the cart, flick the switch back, boot in 3DS mode using only the primary partition? Or even have different games set up on different partitions, and have a DS-mode program change which one is primary? While rooting my Nook at one point I ended up with my 4gb SD card only appearing as a 64mb card in Windows, with various stuff like back-up images in a hidden partition that was only viewable through partition managers, got me thinking about how Gateway might be planning on addressing the issue.

 

[Pedeadstrian]

Could there be some jiggery-pokery involving DS mode for the GUI, or would the 3DS cart nub lock that out? Flick a switch on the cart (hey, guess you could click the nub in or out), boot in DS mode, run some kind of hardware or software partition manager, copy a game rom from a secondary sd partition into a primary partition, correctly sized for the cart, flick the switch back, boot in 3DS mode using only the primary partition? Or even have different games set up on different partitions, and have a DS-mode program change which one is primary? While rooting my Nook at one point I ended up with my 4gb SD card only appearing as a 64mb card in Windows, with various stuff like back-up images in a hidden partition that was only viewable through partition managers, got me thinking about how Gateway might be planning on addressing the issue.

Gateway doesn't even have a GUI to begin with. All that happens is that you insert an SD card into the flash cart, insert the flast cart into the 3DS, and click on the game. If Gateway (or any future flashcart) were to have a GUI, then chances are that you wouldn't even need to consider any kind of partition tomfoolery, because you'd be able to switch inside the GUI. I'm sure, by the time they develop a GUI, they'll develop the ability to switch ROMs.

 

[Snailface]

Could there be some jiggery-pokery involving DS mode for the GUI, or would the 3DS cart nub lock that out? Flick a switch on the cart (hey, guess you could click the nub in or out), boot in DS mode, run some kind of hardware or software partition manager, copy a game rom from a secondary sd partition into a primary partition, correctly sized for the cart, flick the switch back, boot in 3DS mode using only the primary partition? Or even have different games set up on different partitions, and have a DS-mode program change which one is primary? While rooting my Nook at one point I ended up with my 4gb SD card only appearing as a 64mb card in Windows, with various stuff like back-up images in a hidden partition that was only viewable through partition managers, got me thinking about how Gateway might be planning on addressing the issue.

The 3ds nub is completely inert -- they could've put DS mode in if they wanted to but it seems they elected against it (by their own admission in the faqs). I guess it was to avoid a cost that would offer no worthwhile sales gain.

 

[Quicksilver88]

Just because it doesn't support unsigned code and likely won't run a gui menu.....doesn't entirely mean they couldn't do some sort of trigger feature....which I mentioned as a possibility is an early post. So the hardware looks for a button to be pressed on power on or a left/right shoulder press and boots a different rom accordingly. Seems like something like this might be possible, or hell why not just have it every time you power cycle the card, if their are multiple roms on it, it cycles to the next rom. I know this could be done as it would be totally in the hardware. Seeing that most of us rarely turn off our 3DS it would stay on the same ROM until a power cycle then proceed to the next one. Not ideal, but still would give you the ability to have several ROMs per SD card.

Honestly my bigger question/concern is how they are going to handle the save game backup/restore. The least favorable method will be some type of USB R4 save reader/writer that they include with the cartridge. This would sort of blow because you would have to go to your pc anytime you wanted to change games. The better method would be to have the card just mirror the EPROM save data to the sd card any time a write is done to the cartridge save memory it is mirrored to the sd card and anytime you boot a game it just pulls the mirror from the sd card from the sd to the EPROM. I would think something like this could be done totally with hardware so the 3DS is unaware it is happening and it just sees the standard EPROM save data it is expecting.

This issue is really the most crucial thing they need to answer because one game per SD is not that bad and swapping it out is no harder than swapping a standard cartridge, if they don't have a reasonable save system then changing games is not really a portable soution. One other possibility is they could use a multiple bank EPROM and give you like 4 banks or something so that atleast you can swap a few games on the road and then use a PC app and USB reader to manage and backup/restore the banks.

Who knows but can't wait to get more info.......

 

[Pedeadstrian]

Just because it doesn't support unsigned code and likely won't run a gui menu.....doesn't entirely mean they couldn't do some sort of trigger feature....which I mentioned as a possibility is an early post. So the hardware looks for a button to be pressed on power on or a left/right shoulder press and boots a different rom accordingly. Seems like something like this might be possible, or hell why not just have it every time you power cycle the card, if their are multiple roms on it, it cycles to the next rom. I know this could be done as it would be totally in the hardware. Seeing that most of us rarely turn off our 3DS it would stay on the same ROM until a power cycle then proceed to the next one. Not ideal, but still would give you the ability to have several ROMs per SD card.

I think that'd be a pretty bad idea. I'm sure there are a bunch of people that spam A to skip any of the developer/publisher credits, and they could easily erase their save data just because they turned on their 3DS and it automatically switched to the next ROM. Sure, that would mostly be the end user's fault for not paying attention, but everyone's capable of being distracted, and losing dozens (possibly hundreds, depending on game) of play hours is a pretty strict punishment.

Personally, I'd rather have it the way it is than how you suggest. It's a good idea in theory, but not for people with A.D.D. like me.

 

[michael18]

I don't know what is going on with this site but they say that they have it in stock and reveal the price
http://www.3ds-flashcart.com/gateway-3ds-flashcart-1st-support-all-3ds-roms-games-p-261.html

 

[Devin]

I don't know what is going on with this site but they say that they have it in stock and reveal the price
http://www.3ds-flashcart.com/gateway-3ds-flashcart-1st-support-all-3ds-roms-games-p-261.html

Eh the Gateway 3DS people said not to preorder until they say so. Plus that site isn't even on the official list of resellers.

 

[how_do_i_do_that]

It is a preorder item, the add to cart button is disabled and a "sold out" message is in it's place. So they are like the rest, they can't start selling any until they get them in stock like everyone else selling it.

 

[LurkerA]

Is this one another gateway 3DS official site: http://gateway-3ds-flashcards.com ?! Looks like a fake one..

 

[Zaide]

Is this one another gateway 3DS official site: http://gateway-3ds-flashcards.com ?! Looks like a fake one..

I'm sure that's fake. When you click "Where To Buy" it takes you straight to a single page instead of a list of pages to buy from.