Gateway3DS Hands On Impression

[Asphalter]

lol. This isn't a crack, or a mod, or an exploit. The Gateway 3DS team hasn't figured anything out about how the 3DS works or how to crack it.

What they've done is take a 3DS cartridge, and substitute the flash for an SD card slot. The ROMs it uses are signed and unmodified full dumps that have to be individually flashed to the SD card so it can pose as the cart's memory. No homebrew can be run on here, not so much as a Hello World.

And hell, it's already been patched out. As a 3DS modding solution, Gateway 3DS is a strikingly limited piece of hardware, and also a complete dead end when it comes to the present and future. If/when the 3DS gets hacked, it will have had nothing to do with this.

Take it you don't have one on order then?

 

[Xenirina]

Spoiler

A picture of both cards in their packaging.
That's our review sample.

 

[mon0]

Thumbs up Devin!

 

[pasc]

And so it came to pass that the 3DS was doomed to failure from piracy. People all over the internet became too lazy to purchase games and just loaded up their 3DS's with pirated games. Game developers ceased support for the console, and the 3DS died many years too young.

Rest in peace, 3DS, the world barely knew ye...
2011-2013

If that were to happen ppl would get their pitchforks out and pay Gateway a visit I believe.

 

[TemplarGR]

Lol. My 3DS is on 4.2 for those who think of sour grapes. And I have plenty of money if I want to buy one. The thing is, this is overpriced. No way you cut it.

Good quality games on 3DS are not that many, and don't cost that much higher than this+memory cards. Plus, you get the genuine deal and don't have to worry about firmware and going online...

As for flashcarts having a place in the world, no they don't. I suppose most aren't bothered because they are used to them from older consoles, but in today's world they have no place, when you can have a softmod and run roms from the SD card.

As for FAST6191's question about Neimod's and Yellow8's job, no it is not their job to provide us with anything. But, they say things in public, and I can discuss what they say in public. This is called free speech and healthy criticism.

So, when they say we are filthy pirates, make fun of us publicly and mock us and say they won't release anything to help piracy, yet a short while later a flashcart appears to help piracy, I have a right to criticize them, don't I?

Plus, it is my belief that one of them sold it to Gateway. My belief, no proof of course. You can believe otherwise if you will, I don't believe in coincidences...

If that were to happen ppl would get their pitchforks out and pay Gateway a visit I believe.

Piracy existed in the world far before gaming began... Older consoles and home computers where pirated to hell and back. Yet gaming wasn't destroyed... It thrived... Strange, isn't it?

Seriously, piracy is no issue. DS was pirated like crazy, yet it did fine, both in hardware and game sales. Same with the Wii. Or the PSP.

Developers love to blame piracy but it is not a major problem in the industry. There are others far more serious problems with it.

So don't count for the 3DS to die from piracy cause it will not happen.

Actually, it will get a serious boost from it...

 

[FAST6191]

lol. This isn't a crack, or a mod, or an exploit. The Gateway 3DS team hasn't figured anything out about how the 3DS works or how to crack it.

What they've done is take a 3DS cartridge, and substitute the flash for an SD card slot. The ROMs it uses are signed and unmodified full dumps that have to be individually flashed to the SD card so it can pose as the cart's memory. No homebrew can be run on here, not so much as a Hello World.

And hell, it's already been patched out. As a 3DS modding solution, Gateway 3DS is a strikingly limited piece of hardware, and also a complete dead end when it comes to the present and future. If/when the 3DS gets hacked, it will have had nothing to do with this.

Clone/1:1 was what was initially assumed -- instead it seems the gateway team use a faked/clone card (though you tend to not want to rock the boat too hard/rewrite everything when hacking so that is nothing all that bad) and a software exploit to get it into a position where they can run stuff. I do not know about the levels of access control the 3ds has that would frustrate the eventual homebrew/hacked ROM front but this setup does not preclude it. No doubt Gateway face a massive struggle to keep it relevant if Nintendo is half as good/enthusiastic as their efforts this last year or so would seem to indicate but you might wish to consider dialling back the negativity a tad.

 

[pasc]

Piracy existed in the world far before gaming began... Older consoles and home computers where pirated to hell and back. Yet gaming wasn't destroyed... It thrived... Strange, isn't it?

Seriously, piracy is no issue. DS was pirated like crazy, yet it did fine, both in hardware and game sales. Same with the Wii. Or the PSP.

Developers love to blame piracy but it is not a major problem in the industry. There are others far more serious problems with it.

So don't count for the 3DS to die from piracy cause it will not happen.

Actually, it will get a serious boost from it...

I woudln't believe this applies to any and all cases.

Renegade Kid I think mentioned specially that they'd discontinue futher 3DS Developement when Piracy would arise.

Guess Dementium 1&2 and Moon didn't sell too hot ?


Good news is that as long as Gateway won't work on anything higher than 6.x it won't bother Nintendo "that" much, since newest (and probably those more in need of good sales) games will be unaffected.

It feels quite good to actually buy games.

I for example bought me some Nanoassault, Zelda and Kingdom Hearts for DDD and have been enjoying them.

Go figure.

Back when I was able to "obtain" games like I wanted I often cast aside games I couldn't finsih/didn't feel like in favor of "newer/better" ones.

If you buy them you cherish and play them, its much different.

 

[FAST6191]

The thing is, this is overpriced. No way you cut it.

Good quality games on 3DS are not that many, and don't cost that much higher than this+memory cards. Plus, you get the genuine deal and don't have to worry about firmware and going online...

As for flashcarts having a place in the world, no they don't. I suppose most aren't bothered because they are used to them from older consoles, but in today's world they have no place, when you can have a softmod and run roms from the SD card.

As for FAST6191's question about Neimod's and Yellow8's job, no it is not their job to provide us with anything. But, they say things in public, and I can discuss what they say in public. This is called free speech and healthy criticism.

So, when they say we are filthy pirates, make fun of us publicly and mock us and say they won't release anything to help piracy, yet a short while later a flashcart appears to help piracy, I have a right to criticize them, don't I?

Plus, it is my belief that one of them sold it to Gateway. My belief, no proof of course. You can believe otherwise if you will, I don't believe in coincidences...

----


Piracy existed in the world far before gaming began

On overpriced. 1) Something is only worth what someone will pay for it, if someone is willing to pay for it then to them it is not overpriced. It might be more than you want to pay for it but that does not make it overpriced in a general sense.
2) There is nothing to compare it against and thus it can not be considered overpriced until there is something that can go up against it. If something of equal functionality and equal quality came out from an equally likeable/future proof team for $10 then it might be considered overpriced. Pending something like that or just something that might be argued to represent a better deal then it can not be considered overpriced.

"don't have to worry about firmware and going online"
The issue comes then in what does that cost for the would be user. As the method is simple (is there compatibility with the firmware in question -> if no then do not update, if yes then consider if updating is worth the effort) that is not such a cost, newer games might not hold much appeal if you have a back catalogue to plunder and what if the person cares little for online functionality.

"Flashcarts in the modern world". That was not really what I was going for but I will address it anyway -- though technically speaking there may be little difference in terms of latency and read/write times there could still be a whole technical minefield in terms of memory addressing, read protocols and even the likes of AP preventing the hypothetical simple SD card reading softmod from working with commercial games. Until such a thing is disproved it would be unwise to discount flash carts.

"Neimod's and Yellow8's job"
Are you deliberately misreading things? I asked if it was Neimod's and Yellow8's job to prevent 3ds games from being run in a manner Nintendo might not care for though it was something of a rhetorical question (though hacker to security consultant/paid to stay away is a well worn path I am not sure it happened here). But anyway the later stuff appears to be speculation with no evidence whatsoever. You are of course free to believe that series of events, there is even some historical precedent for such a thing, and it is not up to me to create moralistic logic for you but pending actual evidence everybody else is quite free to ignore your rantings there/call them out as the baseless speculation that they are.

"Piracy existed in the world far before gaming began"
That is an interesting discussion actually and ignoring piracy perhaps being applied to other forms of copied IP that may not be the case -- software as an abstract concept in IP from the computer itself is a newer one than programmable computers themselves and one that might not fall before what are recognised as the first games made for computers.

 

[beta4attack]

It feels quite good to actually buy games.

I for example bought me some Nanoassault, Zelda and Kingdom Hearts for DDD and have been enjoying them.

Go figure.

Back when I was able to "obtain" games like I wanted I often cast aside games I couldn't finsih/didn't feel like in favor of "newer/better" ones.

If you buy them you cherish and play them, its much different.

That's the exact case for me. Nothing feels like buying your own game, it just has this awesome feeling and the fact that you can admire its boxart and put as part of your collection. Also, you don't have to worry about losing features or the game freezing on you or the save corrupting for whatever reason. And you also get to play the most out of it, not the pirate syndrome games where you just never go beyond half anything. Nice Shuichi Akai avatar, btw.

 

[59672]

Someone might want to clarify with nds-card.com that gbatemp doesn't have 3ds roms for download as they've said on the gateway page.

edit:
Still so much hate for this card after people so spoiled with nds, psp, wii, etc modding. It could have been much worse and much more tedious to play backups. This isn't that bad for price and "difficulty" compared to the past.

 

[mlooty]

this is awesome
can't wait to see the full review

 

[Bladexdsl]

This thing has come too late; it can only play games that don't have 6.0 on them and every game worth playing from now on will have 6.0 on it with a mandatory install of it to play. The gateway will never be updated to play 6.0 games. Plus it's not region free so it's only useful for people who haven't played ANY 3ds games so far.

So if you're thinking of getting one to play 3ds games like smash bros and link between worlds from now on you're going to be out of luck.

 

[FAST6191]

That's the exact case for me. Nothing feels like buying your own game, it just has this awesome feeling and the fact that you can admire its boxart and put as part of your collection. Also, you don't have to worry about losing features or the game freezing on you or the save corrupting for whatever reason. And you also get to play the most out of it, not the pirate syndrome games where you just never go beyond half anything. Nice Shuichi Akai avatar, btw.

If that is how it works for you then great I guess, it might not be the best for your wallet but that is not really the concern of most around here.

As for freezing on you and corrupt saves -- typically hacked consoles when I have done it tend to get more reliable and afford more functions as far as save backup goes. Similarly I have had many original games corrupt a save on me or otherwise render themselves unplayable without starting the game over.

This thing has come too late; it can only play games that don't have 6.0 on them and every game worth playing from now on will have 6.0 on it with a mandatory install of it to play. The gateway will never be updated to play 6.0 games. Plus it's not region free so it's only useful for people who haven't played ANY 3ds games so far.

So if you're thinking of getting one to play 3ds games like smash bros and link between worlds from now on you're going to be out of luck.

I would be shocked too if the games did not carry minimum version requirements and updates to match. The rest though is up in the air and still entirely within the realms of possibility.

 

[deathking]

This thing has come too late; it can only play games that don't have 6.0 on them and every game worth playing from now on will have 6.0 on it with a mandatory install of it to play. The gateway will never be updated to play 6.0 games. Plus it's not region free so it's only useful for people who haven't played ANY 3ds games so far.

So if you're thinking of getting one to play 3ds games like smash bros and link between worlds from now on you're going to be out of luck.

You have no clue if they cannot patch roms in the future or make it think the 3ds has been updated.

 

[pasc]

That's the exact case for me. Nothing feels like buying your own game, it just has this awesome feeling and the fact that you can admire its boxart and put as part of your collection. Also, you don't have to worry about losing features or the game freezing on you or the save corrupting for whatever reason. And you also get to play the most out of it, not the pirate syndrome games where you just never go beyond half anything. Nice Shuichi Akai avatar, btw.

Thanks, I also love my ava

 

[beta4attack]

If that is how it works for you then great I guess, it might not be the best for your wallet but that is not really the concern of most around here.

As for freezing on you and corrupt saves -- typically hacked consoles when I have done it tend to get more reliable and afford more functions as far as save backup goes. Similarly I have had many original games corrupt a save on me or otherwise render themselves unplayable without starting the game over.

Well, I know that it means less games for me due to my limited allowance, but surprisingly having the original game makes me spend more time on the console than having to play pirated copies, so yeah, I don't really mind having less games if I will enjoy them more. And it will put more use to my allowance since I didn't need to buy anything with it back then bit now I will be buying games with them, so works for me.

As for the freezing thing, not a single original game ever did that for me, only pirated ones, tbh, but maybe that's just me.

 

[FAST6191]

Well, I know that it means less games for me due to my limited allowance, but surprisingly having the original game makes me spend more time on the console than having to play pirated copies, so yeah, I don't really mind having less games if I will enjoy them more. And it will put more use to my allowance since I didn't need to buy anything with it back then bit now I will be buying games with them, so works for me.

As for the freezing thing, not a single original game ever did that for me, only pirated ones, tbh, but maybe that's just me.

If it is the way you get things done it does not seem an objectionable one at all, can not say it applies to me and mine though.

Freezing, yeah it tends to happen more with dirty/dying devices or when playing at the bleeding edge of piracy but get good pirate methods going on and it is not really a problem. Saves on the other hand have corrupted on several occasions either generally or through various bugs (damn prince of persia tower glitch), if I have set things on the hacker front I just get to restore backups, maybe lose an hour or two and move on with life.

 

[Tattorack]

YESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[TobiasAmaranth]

Weird glitchy site o.o Not sure I wanna use them. I go to check out as a guest and I get THIS as the pay screen. No, that's not me. Weeeeird. *Tries again*

Ship To:
Email Address: [email protected]
First Name: Victor
Last Name: Borges
Phone Number: +55 81 3491 1774
Address Line 1: R. Sergio Godoy de Vasconcelos
Address Line 2: Number 534
City: Olinda
Country: Brazil
State/Province: Pernambuco
Zip/Postcode: 53140-110
Memo:

In Stock Shopping Cart Summary
Products List
Quantity
Price
Subtotal
R4i GOLD 3DS + 4GB Micro SDHC Card for 3DS
R4i GOLD 3DS+4GB|r4ids.cn|New|Unconditional return|In Stock, Shipped out within 1 workday|Free shipping, 100% tested before shipping
1
$25.99
$25.99
HongKong Air Mail (No Tracking#), Shipping cost:
$0.00
Total:
$25.99

Edit: Got the order placed and paid with Paypal, but no email confirmation yet. :X Here's hoping everything gets handled okay.

 

[medoli900]

lol. This isn't a crack, or a mod, or an exploit. The Gateway 3DS team hasn't figured anything out about how the 3DS works or how to crack it.

What they've done is take a 3DS cartridge, and substitute the flash for an SD card slot. The ROMs it uses are signed and unmodified full dumps that have to be individually flashed to the SD card so it can pose as the cart's memory. No homebrew can be run on here, not so much as a Hello World.

And hell, it's already been patched out. As a 3DS modding solution, Gateway 3DS is a strikingly limited piece of hardware, and also a complete dead end when it comes to the present and future. If/when the 3DS gets hacked, it will have had nothing to do with this.

GATEWAY 3DS UPDATE

11/07/2013
1) Yes, we are exploit based (Yay !?) and therefore very dependent on console firmware version: Our current plan is to release for firmware version 4.5 while continuing work on a solution for 6.x + after release. (please see note below)

Source: gateway-3ds.com

 

[ahjuang]

Can it play animal crossing?