Hacking Haven't used 3DS in over a year, could use some help

[broie]

Decided to dust off my 3ds and play a few new games on it, but flicking through the threads here I haven't a clue where to start so many new developments such as CFW since I used it last.

Could someone perhaps point me in the right direction, such as the best setup for me currently and a tutorial to get me up to date?

My current setup is I have a 3ds XL on 4.3 firmware and I have a gateway 3ds that I bought close to when they released, I think the current firmware on that is 2.2.

 

[Quantumcat]

1. Put the newest launcher in the SD card in your console
2. Try to run Gateway, it will want to update, let it
3. Update your emuNAND (through settings, verifying you are in emuNAND, and not exiting until done).
4. Done

If you want to use CFW, you'll be limited to .CIAs (no red cart), and if you want it to autoboot (launching automatically when you turn on your console) you have to update to 9.0-9.2, which you can do with rxTools Devmod and sysupdater. There will be lots of posts about that.

 

[broie]

1. Put the newest launcher in the SD card in your console
2. Try to run Gateway, it will want to update, let it
3. Update your emuNAND (through settings, verifying you are in emuNAND, and not exiting until done).
4. Done

If you want to use CFW, you'll be limited to .CIAs (no red cart), and if you want it to autoboot (launching automatically when you turn on your console) you have to update to 9.0-9.2, which you can do with rxTools Devmod and sysupdater. There will be lots of posts about that.

Thanks for that, what is actually the advantage of using a CFW and CIA over the gateway?

Also do I have to do anything else beside updating the emunand and gateway to play games online?

 

[Tomobobo]

I still prefer to use the gateway card over cfw because it works really well and .cia games can take a millennia to install. First transfer the .CIA to an SD card, fire up the 3ds fire up CIA installer, wait a decade or two and bam all you have to do is reboot unwrap the game and finally play. GW you just put the .3ds on the SD card and play. Cfw has gba injections working though I dunno what gw is doing about that.

 

[Tokiopop]

I still prefer to use the gateway card over cfw because it works really well and .cia games can take a millennia to install. First transfer the .CIA to an SD card, fire up the 3ds fire up CIA installer, wait a decade or two and bam all you have to do is reboot unwrap the game and finally play. GW you just put the .3ds on the SD card and play. Cfw has gba injections working though I dunno what gw is doing about that.

GW drain battery a little faster too.

Are there any faster .cia install methods? I'm sure there's one over network but I think it might be even slower.

 

[Quantumcat]

Thanks for that, what is actually the advantage of using a CFW and CIA over the gateway?

Also do I have to do anything else beside updating the emunand and gateway to play games online?

On CFW you can install gba games to your home menu. Most other things you can do with both. Personally I like not having to have my GW card with me when I travel in case I run out of battery and have to launch GW mode again.