R4 card for New Nintendo 3DS XL?

[Anamul11]

Hi,

New to this form. I recently purchased 2 x New Nintendo 3DS XL for myself and my child. One runs version 11.6.0-39E and the other version 11.14.0-46E. I want to purchase an R4 card to run ideally .3ds roms. Is this possible? I don't really want to mod/jailbreak the devices. Worse case if not able to run .3ds roms, then which cards best to run .nds roms on these devices given the firmwares I have listed.

However, the preference is to run .3ds roms. If possible, what size SD card needed. I've read somewhere not get more than 32GB SD card but is that the same if running .3ds roms?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Dionicio3]

An R4 cannot run .3ds ROMs. In fact, to my knowledge, no cartridge can run .3ds ROMs on the latest firmware. The only way you'll be able to is to hack your 3DS, you'll be able to run .3ds ROMs (once converted to .cia), and you'll be able to run .nds ROMs via nds-bootstrap.

https://3ds.hacks.guide/

I know this isn't the solution you want, but it's the only one

Post automatically merged: Dec 6, 2022

If you still don't wanna mod the console itself and just want .nds stuff, almost any modern flashcart will do, the size of the SD card in your 3DS will not matter for this. I'd get something off nds-card.com.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

An R4 cannot run .3ds ROMs. In fact, to my knowledge, no cartridge can run .3ds ROMs on the latest firmware. The only way you'll be able to is to hack your 3DS, you'll be able to run .3ds ROMs (once converted to .cia), and you'll be able to run .nds ROMs via nds-bootstrap.

Sky3DS+ should still work. After all it emulates retail games accurately (as far as I know) – not much Nintendo could do against this… and they don't care for the 3DS anymore.
Yes, everybody just mentioning a 3DS mode flashcart gets tared and feathered on GBAtemp.
100% correct is that a simple, cheap R4 close is just a DS mode flashcart.
====

I personally advise against 3DS mode flashcarts as well, but I'm more for tolerance than forcing people to anything. Reasons why Sky3DS+ and Stargate3DS are inferior compared to just installing free custom firmware:

• Very expensive and not worth the money for what you get. Way more expensive than an R4 (which is mostly also not needed anymore thanks to TWilight Menu++/nds-bootstrap)
• Limited to retail 3DS games from the same region as the console (no eShop-only games, no out-of-region, no romhacks, no homebrew)
• The ever present fear of online bans: Without private headers, Sky3DS+ can lead to online bans, where "B9S+Luma3DS+installed CIAs" doesn't
• Navigating through a big game collection isn't convenient with the two buttons on the cart.
• No support/help on GBAtemp in case of problems → I would try to provide support, but I couldn't get my hands on a Sky3DS+ myself yet

The only small advantages I can think of:

• Sky3DS+ doesn't require any installation on the console. "No hacking required" (Not that 3ds.hacks.guide would be any complicated to follow)
• Take your game collection in a second to another console

 

[Dionicio3]

No support/help on GBAtemp in case of problems → I would try to provide support, but I couldn't get my hands on a Sky3DS+ myself yet

This is the main reason people don't mention 3DS flashcarts anymore, and why I didn't mention them either. It'll just lead the user to be frustrated when an issue arises, and of course, the sense of buyer's remorse. If there was actual support and *something* exclusive that was actually beneficial, yeah that would be different.

 

[ber71]

If you happen to possess a sky3ds+ from the pre-cfw era, it's still very convenient to *test* games. If you like a game, by all means install it.
In addition, it can serve as a source for installation. No internal sd swapping anymore. Just start godmode9 and install from the cart slot.