Hacking Please help the technophobe

[grafton]

I'm sorry to bother with this risible beginner's query, but I'm stuck and in BIG trouble with my 7yo son. I bought him an acekard 2.1 for Christmas for his DS and, um, I still haven't worked out how to use it. I think I've managed to download the (is it called?) firmware. But I bought the acekard because I thought that I would be able to put the 16 DS games he owns onto it. I can find all sorts of advice as to how to download games online, but these don't seem legal. All I want to do is put on the DS card all the games we have paid for so that he doesn't have to carry around (and lose) what amounts to quite a costly outlay.

Am I misguided in my belief that this is possible? If it's not, and I am only able to download games from the internet, how do I do this legally? Will I have to buy all over again the games we own? And, please, feel free to speak to me like I'm a four year old.

Thanks in advance from a spectacularly out of favour Mum...

P.S. You would not believe how long it has taken me to register and work out how to post this question. Not cool.

 

[obito]

hi there! first of all, how big is your microSD card? It will have to be at least 4gb to fit 16 games.

and secondly, it should be legal to download the 16 games that your child owns from the internet, because they will count as "backups" since you legally own the original DS game cartridges. i'm not entirely sure though since I'm not familiar with UK law

and a side note, just so you know it is against the rules to ask for rom sites here. so you will have to do find one yourself.

search for 'nintendo ds roms' on the internet to find the games. 'roms' are the DS games.

best of luck.


edit: almost forgot. Your son won't be able to play his saved data from his original DS cartridges on the backup games on the acekard. you will need to read up on a program called "savsender", which sends the saved data from your sons original games to the acekard. this requires a wifi connection to the DS. but this might be a little complicated. if it is, he'll have to start all over again on the backups on the acekard.

best of luck. again.

hope you can understand, its as simple as I can get.

 

[ProtoKun7]

Actually, you should only back up the games you own, rather than download copies. There are backup tools available, which should also back up the save data.

There's a tool that uses WiFi to back up to a computer using FTP; a guide for which Another World uploaded here from another site, which you can download and contains a copy of the software you need.
There may be newer tools that do the same thing, but this is what I've used in the past.

http://filetrip.net/f5328-NDS-Backup-Tools-WIFI-Guide.html

It stands to reason that it's possible to back these games up somehow, considering that other people have been able to upload copies for others to download (though you could argue that they could use specialised equipment, and maybe they do, I don't know) but this way you can back up your own games which is more legal.

 

[obito]

Actually, you should only back up the games you own, rather than download copies. There are backup tools available, which should also back up the save data.

ah. Never thought of that.

 

[blairsville]

No it's not legal to back up your own games.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/games...mes-controversy

But morally I'm ok with it.
If your having trouble registering and posting, backing up your own games may be a couple of weeks
of trial and error anyways.
Downloading the games would be way easier to start , we'll never tell

 

[Hakoda]

No it's not legal to back up your own games.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/games...mes-controversy

But morally I'm ok with it.
If your having trouble registering and posting, backing up your own games may be a couple of weeks
of trial and error anyways.
Downloading the games would be way easier to start , we'll never tell

I believe that applies to pirates who don't buy what they download. In what ProtoKun7 suggests, there is no downloading involved, simply carrying what you already own and paid for on a single cart.

 

[Depravo]

I believe that applies to pirates who don't buy what they download.

Apparently not. To qualify as a backup you have to physically back it up yourself, otherwise it's just an illegally distributed copy.

 

[CannonFoddr]

IIRC If the 'terms and conditons' state 'No Digital reproduction is allowed' then ANY backup of ANY type is strickly prohibited & is considered a 'Pirate copy' .......HOWEVER

....[IMHO] creating a copy of something you have already paid your money for will not be any real cause of alarm. You are just creating something in case anything goes wrong with the original

I cannot see Nintendo (or any other company for that matter) actually sueing a single person for making 'backups' of their own stuff - they are more concerned in cracking the 'Pirate Rings' that do multiple copies - perhaps even 'selling' or distributing such copies for profit (such as those '100 games in one' game cartridges I often see abroad - which are clearly just R4 clones cards with the ROMS installed)

 

[ProtoKun7]

In some places the law also says not to make any backups. I don't mind though, and I used the phrase "more legal" in that it's probably not as bad as downloading another one.

 

[grafton]

Thank you, everyone. I'm very grateful for all the advice and the attempts to put it into layman's for me.

As Blairsville put it so diplomatically, if I can barely register and post, then acting on what you've advised - while perhaps/hopefully not completely beyond me - might take some time.

I'm going to try to digest all that you've said and will probably come back with some queries, if that's ok. In the meantime, I need to go lie down now.

 

[Evo.lve]

If you have a Mac, there is a thread about it. It's stickied in Flashcarts and Accessories.

If you don't you can probably do much the same thing anyway.

 

[iluvfupaburgers]

using backup copies is already illegal. one cant tamper with the product bought since it is still property of the company. you already buying a flashcart for the means of playing backup roms is illegal, so i dont see the reason of not downloading roms, even if you dont own them

unless you use the flashcart only for playing homebrew. then it is illegal using it.