Homebrew NSP or XCI converted to CIA or 3DSX?

[Koa_The_Legend]

This is probably a dumb question but I wasn't able to find an answer online about this. Is it possible to convert a NSP or XCI file into something the 3DS system family is able to understand? I was playing Touhou Luna Nights on my switch the other day and rediscovered my 99% complete save file(Missing only 1 ability and 1 trash can) and wondered if the game could be ported to a 3ds. I looked it up online and found something about a guy saying someone was working on porting Touhou Luna Nights to 3ds, however when I clicked the link I was sent to an error page saying "site could not be found". Once this happened I wanted to see if there was a possible way to convert one file type(NSP or XCI) to another(Preferably CIA but 3dsx is good too). I kept looking around but still came up short on answers. Does anyone know a way to do convert these file types or is it just impossible to do?(Also if you know of anyone with a project of porting Touhou Luna Nights to 3ds please link the website!)

 

[Olmectron]

Unless you got the game's source code, you can't simply "convert" a Switch installable file for work on 3DS, or any other console (unless it runs through a Switch emulator, of course).

And the 3DS, obviously, isn't anywhere powerful enough to run a Switch emulator. So, nothing can be done unless you get the game's source code.

 

[Koa_The_Legend]

Unless you got the game's source code, you can't simply "convert" a Switch installable file for work on 3DS, or any other console (unless it runs through a Switch emulator, of course).

And the 3DS, obviously, isn't anywhere powerful enough to run a Switch emulator. So, nothing can be done unless you get the game's source code.

Hey thanks for answering my question, do you know how I can get my game's source code? I own a legitimate copy on my Nintendo Switch(Unmodded) and I think if it is possible to get the game onto a 3ds it would run smoothly(Only uses 1 joy stick or dpad to move around, doesn't user ZR or ZL, and +/- could probably be set to Select and Start).

 

[Olmectron]

Hey thanks for answering my question, do you know how I can get my game's source code? I own a legitimate copy on my Nintendo Switch(Unmodded) and I think if it is possible to get the game onto a 3ds it would run smoothly(Only uses 1 joy stick or dpad to move around, doesn't user ZR or ZL, and +/- could probably be set to Select and Start).

Ask the developer company of the game to give you their source code.

I'm serious. The other way is reverse engineering, and it will last a lot of years.

 

[Koa_The_Legend]

Ask the developer company of the game to give you their source code.

I'm serious. The other way is reverse engineering, and it will last a lot of years.

You're actually serious? I never considered just asking for it lmao(I mean I didn't know I needed source code until now XD). On the likely chance I won't receive the source code, how would you go about reverse engineering it?

 

[susbaconhairman]

That's 100% impossible.

 

[Shadow#1]

Ask the developer company of the game to give you their source code.

That will NEVER happen

 

[Kwyjor]

how would you go about reverse engineering it?

If you have to ask, then you probably can't do it. It's like trying to figure out how a six-cylinder engine works by throwing blobs of wet tissue at it.

You can start by looking at what other people have done. If no one has reverse-engineered a Nintendo Switch game before, then you are probably not going to be the first.

I looked it up online and found something about a guy saying someone was working on porting Touhou Luna Nights to 3ds, however when I clicked the link I was sent to an error page saying "site could not be found".

Why don't you post a link to where you you found this "something about a guy saying"?

It's more likely this person was referring to some other Touhou game, or to remaking the game from scratch (which is often much more feasible than trying to reverse engineer something).

 

[Mikemk]

On the likely chance I won't receive the source code, how would you go about reverse engineering it?

As the person above me said, if you have to ask, you can't. Before you even try, you should learn:

• C/C++
• OpenGL, Vulkan
• ARM assembly
• switch homebrew development.

Even then, it wouldn't help you any, since you'd have to remake much of the code to port it to a lower power system anyway.

 

[Tweaker_Modding]

This is probably a dumb question but I wasn't able to find an answer online about this. Is it possible to convert a NSP or XCI file into something the 3DS system family is able to understand? I was playing Touhou Luna Nights on my switch the other day and rediscovered my 99% complete save file(Missing only 1 ability and 1 trash can) and wondered if the game could be ported to a 3ds. I looked it up online and found something about a guy saying someone was working on porting Touhou Luna Nights to 3ds, however when I clicked the link I was sent to an error page saying "site could not be found". Once this happened I wanted to see if there was a possible way to convert one file type(NSP or XCI) to another(Preferably CIA but 3dsx is good too). I kept looking around but still came up short on answers. Does anyone know a way to do convert these file types or is it just impossible to do?(Also if you know of anyone with a project of porting Touhou Luna Nights to 3ds please link the website!)

this is simply not possible without the source code

 

[The Real Jdbye]

You're actually serious? I never considered just asking for it lmao(I mean I didn't know I needed source code until now XD). On the likely chance I won't receive the source code, how would you go about reverse engineering it?

That is not an easy task.
Have a look at some recent reverse engineering projects:
https://github.com/n64decomp/sm64 (complete)
https://github.com/orgs/zeldaret/repositories (oot mostly complete, others in various stages of completion)
These are huge projects, taking a skilled team years of work to complete.
That is not the only way to reverse engineer a game though. They went for making 1:1 "identical" source code (not actually identical, but functions identically and compiles to an identical ROM)

If you don't care about 1:1 accuracy, then many other projects went the other route, recreating the engine from scratch as closely to the original as possible, but using all new code. This is arguably easier as it includes less reverse engineering work, but risks resulting in having bugs that were not in the original game, not having bugs that were in the original game (might not matter to most but matters to speedrunning folks or those who just enjoy messing around with game glitches), or some things simply not working as expected when compared to the original game, which takes additional work to fix and some issues may never be fixed or there may be missing features.
Examples of this would be NXEngine (Cave Story) https://github.com/EXL/NXEngine, ScummVM (various classic point and click games notably ones from LucasArts), OpenRCT2 (Rollercoaster Tycoon 2), EasyRPG (RPG Maker 2000/2003) or any of the games on this list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_game_engine_recreations

Still, that's no small task either and takes skilled people. And I am guessing you're not a programmer/developer, or you would understand how big of a task this would be. Which means you have no chance of making it happen, you'd have to learn how to code first and practice until you're skilled enough.

 

[Olmectron]

That will NEVER happen

Yeah. Someone asking them? Could happen.

Them handing their game's source code to any random guy? Of course not.

Who said it would work?

 

[Nateman101]

You're actually serious? I never considered just asking for it lmao(I mean I didn't know I needed source code until now XD). On the likely chance I won't receive the source code, how would you go about reverse engineering it?

sure. Companies LOVE giving out source code. In the same way Nintendo helps game preservation