Hardware Need advice on buying a 3ds

[Lunatics]

I used to have a 3ds and sold it before the flashcarts and everything starting coming out for them once I beat Zelda. I'm interested in picking one up again with a flashcart, but I'm not sure which to buy.

Is there any benefit of getting an XL version? Do they run the same firmwares, are both equally "hackable", are there hardware differences aside from the size? Are all firmwares able to use flashcarts at the moment, or is there a risk I may buy one and not be able to do anything with it?

I am looking to pick one up from a local Game Exchange or buy one on ebay but I would like some advice first. The local shop has a few older original 3ds's and some XL ones, a pokemon red one and a mario/luigi one both kind of interest me. Would I be better off trying to buy one from a store? If so would I be better off getting an older original one or will a new one still be able to run a flashcart? I plan on getting a Gateway as that seems to be the best overall card right now.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

[cdoty]

I'd give you a short answer, but you really do need to read up on this.

Currently, there is no guaranteed way to find a 3DS that will work with flashcards. If you do, you still may have to find a game to upgrade the firmware to 4.1-4.5. There's a lot of information to understand.

Buying from a used game store is probably the best option. but you need to check the firmware version. The age of the system doesn't guarantee the firmware version. The person that sold it could've updated it to a newer firmware. The 5.0 firmware was released over a year ago.

EBay is another option. Someone listing the 3DS as having firmware 4.1-4.5 knows that it's worth more than a normal 3DS, so it's probably going to be more expensive. Not to mention, that's where buyers are also looking to find these systems.

New ones are the most risky, unless you can find one that's been setting on the shelf for a long time. That's how I found mine, Radio Shack was clearancing some of their stuff, and had what was probably a launch 3DS.

 

[Lunatics]

So essentially it can only be on 4.1 to 4.5 to work with a flash card and almost any of them could have the right FW on it or be higher?