Hacking New M3DS Real Guide

[tguellich]

Version 2.22.08

This is Version 2 of Fatty's Guide to Using the M3DS Real traditional firmware. This firmware is out of date. The new kid on the block is Sakura, so if you want the latest and greatest, go get Sakura. If you still want this firmware guide, go to town! After posting Version 1 I took all your great comments and additions and added them into the guide along with some new knowledge of my own. Hope you learn something new! It is in pdf format so anyone can read it.

My Guide

 

[tguellich]

Please check it out and tell me what you think!

 

[Digital1980]

Very Very nice guide!

I am SERIOUSLY impressed. I just browsed it very quickly and found a lot of infomation new to me! I look forward to sitting down and setting up M3 DS Real on my new memory card with this guide! It has been a lot of trial and error so far but this guide will definitely decrease a lot of that!

Thanks again tguellich!! Very helpful.

Digital

 

[Chrono_Tata]

I don't think you covered the built-in save backup function. Basically, on the game selection screen, if you hit "select", this comes up.

Default -> 1
Default -> 2
1 -> Default
2 -> Default
Blank

Your default save file is the .0 file. If you choose "Default -> 1", the .0 file will be copied to another file with the extension .1. If you choose "1 -> Default" the .1 file will be written over .0. "Blank" will delete .0. Same thing with "Default -> 2" and "2 -> Default", but the extension will be .2. This function is pretty useful when you want to backup/recall your saves without having to connect your MicroSD to a computer. This works on both DS and GBA games.

 

[tguellich]

I don't think you covered the built-in save backup function. Basically, on the game selection screen, if you hit "select", this comes up.

Default -> 1
Default -> 2
1 -> Default
2 -> Default
Blank

Your default save file is the .0 file. If you choose "Default -> 1", the .0 file will be copied to another file with the extension .1. If you choose "1 -> Default" the .1 file will be written over .0. "Blank" will delete .0. Same thing with "Default -> 2" and "2 -> Default", but the extension will be .2. This function is pretty useful when you want to backup/recall your saves without having to connect your MicroSD to a computer. This works on both DS and GBA games.

Thanks, I will add that to the guide in the next revision. I had no idea I could do that, it will come in handy for a few games.

 

[lilaznkilla]

Add the GBA linkage option
Highlighting the GBA rom in GBA, Press Y then start up your nds rom in NDS.

Also pressing Y in teh main menu will change the backlight.

 

[tguellich]

Add the GBA linkage option
Highlighting the GBA rom in GBA, Press Y then start up your nds rom in NDS.

Also pressing Y in teh main menu will change the backlight.

Could you please explain in a little more detail for me? Am I linking two DS's with this feature? Are there certain games that can be linked for bonus content, etc? What is the point of linking a DS and GBA game on the same DS? Or have I missed the point of this feature all togther?

Thanks for the help.

 

[Chrono_Tata]

Add the GBA linkage option
Highlighting the GBA rom in GBA, Press Y then start up your nds rom in NDS.

Also pressing Y in teh main menu will change the backlight.


Could you please explain in a little more detail for me? Am I linking two DS's with this feature? Are there certain games that can be linked for bonus content, etc? What is the point of linking a DS and GBA game on the same DS? Or have I missed the point of this feature all togther?

Thanks for the help.

It's when you have, for example, Advance Wars DS in Slot-1 and Advance Wars 1 or 2 in Slot-2 and you can unlock extra artworks for the AWDS and stuff. More exciting ones include sending Pokemon from the GBA versions to the DS versions. Didn't know the M3 could do this though. Thanks for that.

Here's a link I found for which games work: http://m3wiki.com/index.php?title=GBA_Link...rt_for_NDS_Roms

 

[lilaznkilla]

Like said in the above post, some games that support gba linkage are
Castlevania DoS (Starts game with a extra item and a easter egg)
Gyakuten Saiben (Unlocks cases I think)
Harvest Moon DS (Mineral Town Girls visit the valley)
Megaman ZX (Grants access into certain rooms depending one which MMZ gba game you have)
Pokemon (Extra pokemon in the wild and you can transfer pokemon using palpark)

There are probably more as well.

 

[El Bastardo]

Nice beginners guide. As an owner of one of these I do not really need it but everybody needs to start at some time.


I would include a column about one of the nice features that are "undocumented". I'm talking about the possibility to "autoboot a ROM" when turning the device on by editing the .ini file.

Maybe should also mention the damn anoying UI lag and the UI sensitivity errors ("I try to click on the name column but the device thinks I clicked the first game"... I hate it... but luckily that's the only negative thing to say about the device)!!

 

[i_am_jon]

Nice guide much better than the one on the M3 site.

Would be great it include some of the more advanced stuff as well such as:
- Different save files
- GBA linkage
- Moonshell
- How to order ROM's by default
- Gameboy emulator

I got my card last week and looked round for a good guide but found myself piecing the info together from different places. Sure theres still loads of useful tricks i don't know about. I didn't know about GBA linkage and haven't worked out the different save files yet.

A few of my findings seem to differ from your info:
- Not sure folders are case sensitive? Mine are SYSTEM & PDADS.
- I found a lot of homebrew files want to be in the root directory e.g. DSOrganize, doom, moonshell and lemmings...???
- The MS firmware plays gameboy files in the GBA folder using goomba, not sure if it supports NES or SNES emulation.
- I found the M3 player doesn't seem to work with some .dpg files, so i use moonshell instead.

 

[g.crow]

dont need no guide, but its good to have on for the total noobs

 

[harrypotter]

Nice doco. In addition, It would be nice to add the tips about how to hack the firmware to change the ugly font to a nicer one which I've seen posted by an user somewhere in this forum.

 

[tguellich]

New Version 2.0 of the guide is ready. Please take a look.

 

[Satangel]

Tnx for all the work, I'm reading it right now.

 

[Digital1980]

Wow! Keep the good work coming!

I am constantly learning from solid information like this.

Thanks again!

Digital

 

[tguellich]

Does anyone know how to make this sticky so it will stay at the top so more people can make use of it?

 

[Satangel]

Only the staff can do that, if they decide this guide is good enough.
You could always mail one of them, and maybe they will do it.

 

[El Bastardo]

Hey lol @ tguellich:

You are now mentioning the auto boot feature I talked about in your updated guide but do not describe how it works.
I thought it's a known one but if not I can describe it and you can use this information in your guide.


--------------------
Preamble: The "auto boot a ROM from your M3DS Real when turning power on"-feature works but only that. It's seems not fully developed yet.
In you use it the chosen ROM starts automatically when turning on the power of your NDS. If you want to play another game you have to redo the editing process.

How it works: Easy - just copy your "boot.ini" from your SYSTEM folder to your HDD, open it and add the path to any ROM on your flash card. The ROM can be in any subfolder you just have to point at it.

At the beginning it looks like this:
-------------------------
[BootType - G6DS/PASSCARD/GBA]=G6DS
[DirectRun]=

-------------------------
For example if your ROMs are in a standard folder called "NDS" and you want to autoboot a ROM called "2002 - Professor Layton and the Curious Village (U)" just type in the whole path after the equal sign (without the quotes as always):

"/NDS/2002 - Professor Layton and the Curious Village (U).nds"

So in general:
"/[Foldername]/[Filename]"
---------------------

Copy the modified boot.ini back in your SYSTEM folder and voilá when you switch on you will see a new screen with the word "waiting" and the known loading bar at the bottom.



I already opened a thread to this topic some time ago with questions that have not been answered yet (any maybe never will be).

http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=67112

Here are these questions I asked in december 2007:
1. If you want to not load the file sometimes and want in the game menu, how do you do that? - Maybe hold down some buttons?
2. What parameters does the boot.ini unterstand resp. what else can you use in the boot.ini??
3. I read somewhere when you hold down a specific button (e.g. or [Select]) the card dows something. Can I find a chart where are all the boot possibilities are listed??
4. Is it possible to store the save files in a different folder that in the NDS folder??
5. Can you use subfolders in the NDS folder to divide a larger amount of files??
I tried to make subfolders within the NDS folder BUT when you switch to one of these you can not switch back to the NDS folder.
Click in the down left corner and select a subfolder within the NDS folder it will work BUT then try to select the NDS folder itself again... it won't work!!

 

[tguellich]

Like I said in the beginning of the guide "*Some additional information has been contributed by GBAtemp forum members in the spirit of a more complete guide-Thanks everyone for your additions and never-ending help." I added it like I said I would but there was no documentation to explain how it is done. Also, I didn't waste too much time looking because I just don't see how that could be worth doing. Once you rewrite the file it will always boot to that rom and you cannot get to the rest of the cart unless you rewrite the file again. That is just like having the one game and nothing else. It just seems like it is defeating the purpose, spirit, and usefulness of the M3DS Real. Am I wrong or is this the way it works? Do you use it if you are just focusing on one game at the moment and want to get to it right away without anything else in your way?