The Switch Flashcart Thread (Mig Switch/UnlockSwitch etc.)

[DSlite2]

Mig is only really useful imo for a very specific situation, mainly people like me who have a large collection of physical games who want an easy way to play their own legitimate backups of games so I don't have to carry and potentially lose chunks of my physical collection. And, I want to be able to do so while being able to play online.

This is exactly the reason I wanted a Mig Switch for my son. But the more I think about it, the more concerned I get.

He typically carries 10 games in his case plus one in the Switch. If someone stole his Switch and case, the most he would lose is those 11 games. But if I were to put his entire Switch game library on the Mig Switch cartridge, now it puts his entire physical Switch game library at risk because someone will now have a copy of his games and certificates. So if we replace my son's Switch and he goes to play one of his physical copies, we would now have to worry about someone going online at the same time with his stolen Mig Switch cartridge.

At that point, is it worth the risk just for the convince of having all his games on one cartridge for easy access?

I may limit the amount of games stored on it just so I don't have to worry about his entire library being compromised if the Mig Switch is lost or stolen.

 

[choconado]

There are already reports of bans, and even if there weren't yet it would be so incredibly easy for Nintendo to detect that with their telemetry. Just would have to add a new check server side if any certs are detected being used by multiple game IDs. With the telemetry data that's already being sent to their servers, that would only be a change on the server side if it isn't already looking for that kind of thing.

I said using a donor cert. as in, you dump a certificate file from your own physical collection, and copy and rename it for each set of game files you put on the cart. Reports are that that works just fine in offline mode. And since you will be the only one using that donor file, it won't ever show up as being used on two systems at once. Only fools that don't do any research at all are going to be downloading pirated certificates out there as even before these carts started that was the quickest way to catch a ban.

however, it sounds like some people on other sites are getting bans playing online even with the donor method? That's what I was asking about.

 

[DSlite2]

QUESTION:

Is it confirmed safe to rename a dump? One of my games dumped as "gamecard_#####" and I just want to make sure it is ok to rename it without fear of it being a potential ban risk. When I go to rename the folder, I just have to make sure I use the same naming for the files within the folder, correct? Can someone confirm this is safe to do without causing a ban?

EDIT:

It turned out to be a bad dump and that is why it had such an unusual name. I redumped the game and it had the correct name this time around.

 

[TheCyberQuake]

I said using a donor cert. as in, you dump a certificate file from your own physical collection, and copy and rename it for each set of game files you put on the cart. Reports are that that works just fine in offline mode. And since you will be the only one using that donor file, it won't ever show up as being used on two systems at once. Only fools that don't do any research at all are going to be downloading pirated certificates out there as even before these carts started that was the quickest way to catch a ban.

however, it sounds like some people on other sites are getting bans playing online even with the donor method? That's what I was asking about.

Playing online or offline doesn't matter. That information is still sent via telemetry.
Nintendo goes so far as to log and send details like how many times you've ejected cartridges. Which was what I was saying, even with that method of using your own donor cert, it's a huge ban risk as it would be extremely easy for Nintendo to detect multiple game ID's using the same cart. Even if they haven't banned anyone yet for it (which I think it's been reported people have but I need to check specifics), it's highly unlikely they would not start implementing detection of that if it isn't already there

Post automatically merged: Jun 12, 2024

This is exactly the reason I wanted a Mig Switch for my son. But the more I think about it, the more concerned I get.

He typically carries 10 games in his case plus one in the Switch. If someone stole his Switch and case, the most he would lose is those 11 games. But if I were to put his entire Switch game library on the Mig Switch cartridge, now it puts his entire physical Switch game library at risk because someone will now have a copy of his games and certificates. So if we replace my son's Switch and he goes to play one of his physical copies, we would now have to worry about someone going online at the same time with his stolen Mig Switch cartridge.

At that point, is it worth the risk just for the convince of having all his games on one cartridge for easy access?

I may limit the amount of games stored on it just so I don't have to worry about his entire library being compromised if the Mig Switch is lost or stolen.

Frankly with how the Mig operates, I wouldn't put more than 10 games on it anyway. Even with the newer button model it's still a hassle to switch between games and cycle till you get to the one you actually want.

 

[Azrubel]

Nintendo goes so far as to log and send details like how many times you've ejected cartridges.

Do you have a source/more details on that being part of the logs sent?

 

[TheCyberQuake]

Do you have a source/more details on that being part of the logs sent?

It's a well known fact that the telemetry data is logged when the switch is offline and then sends that logged telemetry data when the switch is online again

https://nh-server.github.io/switch-guide/faq/

The Switch comes with a lot of telemetry, and has been called a "telemetry monster" by several prominent developers. As long as the Switch is connected to the internet, Nintendo gets a report about a lot of different actions and states and has the option to log or act on them. Even if the Switch is offline and connects to the internet at a later point, Nintendo still recieves information about what happened while the Switch was disconnected.

As for the fact that it logs cart insertions/ejection, I can't recall the exact source but iirc it was in a twitter thread about the Mig Switch, posted by one of the well established exploit devs for Switch and/or 3DS. That part though is highly unlikely to be used to hand out bans for detecting Mig, as it's far to easy for false flags
Edit: added more info

 

[Blythe93]

Slightly off-topic: Which tool(s) do you use to verify XCI files, to see whether it's been tampered or not? I use NxFileViewer for that but from what I can see it can only do one file at a time. Is there a tool where you can queue up multiple XCI files to check whether signature and hashes are valid?

 

[xtrem3x]

Slightly off-topic: Which tool(s) do you use to verify XCI files, to see whether it's been tampered or not? I use NxFileViewer for that but from what I can see it can only do one file at a time. Is there a tool where you can queue up multiple XCI files to check whether signature and hashes are valid?

I'd like to know this too... Would be nice to have one which you can just point to a folder and it scans all of them including sub folders

 

[TheStonedModder]

I'd like to know this too... Would be nice to have one which you can just point to a folder and it scans all of them including sub folders

Some group would need to make a database of the checksums before that would even be possible I think

 

[Azrubel]

It's a well known fact that the telemetry data is logged when the switch is offline and then sends that logged telemetry data when the switch is online again

I'm not questioning that some data is being logged, but just your statement regarding the details on what data is logged and sent to Nintendo's servers. Atm, no one has broken through Ninty's encryption, so everything publicly stated regarding the logs is, at best, an educated guess. The funny thing is that, once the Mig Switch came out, a lot of people decided to share those guesses as facts throughout the web.

 

[4d1xlaan]

Slightly off-topic: Which tool(s) do you use to verify XCI files, to see whether it's been tampered or not? I use NxFileViewer for that but from what I can see it can only do one file at a time. Is there a tool where you can queue up multiple XCI files to check whether signature and hashes are valid?

nx game info

 

[TheCyberQuake]

I'm not questioning that some data is being logged, but just your statement regarding the details on what data is logged and sent to Nintendo's servers. Atm, no one has broken through Ninty's encryption, so everything publicly stated regarding the logs is, at best, an educated guess. The funny thing is that, once the Mig Switch came out, a lot of people decided to share those guesses as facts throughout the web.

There's plenty that's known, just because you don't know and haven't bothered to look doesn't mean anyone sharing info is "making guesses".
For example, this was posted by SciresM in just the first year of the Switch.


Most of what people generally mentioned getting sent via telemetry is information given by people like SciresM. When you are someone who has decomped and rewritten a good chunk of HOS like him, it's usually safe to believe the info he shares. And there are a few other devs with similar skill and knowledge who have also shared some of the various random things telemetry sends. You don't need to break encryption when you can decomp and see what the console is trying to log before being sent. Because end of the day the telemetry data doesn't just get pulled by Nintendo, the Switch itself has to send it and at some point that data is raw.

 

[leon23]

Just interested, if anyone has already dumped and tried Pikmin 1 & 2 with the mig switch card.

Asking, since this game is on one cartridge, but two separate games, when inserting into the switch.
Should it not be possible to have something similar with the migswitch?

 

[Blythe93]

Should it not be possible to have something similar with the migswitch?

It's been already answered in this thread at some point. Anyway, the problem is that you can't used modified XCI files as they'll fail on signature checks or something similar. Therefore only official XCIs will work.

 

[TheStonedModder]

Just interested, if anyone has already dumped and tried Pikmin 1 & 2 with the mig switch card.

Asking, since this game is on one cartridge, but two separate games, when inserting into the switch.
Should it not be possible to have something similar with the migswitch?

Multi game carts work without issue

Including pikmin

 

[Azrubel]

There's plenty that's known, just because you don't know and haven't bothered to look doesn't mean anyone sharing info is "making guesses".
For example, this was posted by SciresM in just the first year of the Switch.


Most of what people generally mentioned getting sent via telemetry is information given by people like SciresM. When you are someone who has decomped and rewritten a good chunk of HOS like him, it's usually safe to believe the info he shares. And there are a few other devs with similar skill and knowledge who have also shared some of the various random things telemetry sends. You don't need to break encryption when you can decomp and see what the console is trying to log before being sent. Because end of the day the telemetry data doesn't just get pulled by Nintendo, the Switch itself has to send it and at some point that data is raw.

I don't think you understood what I said. As I said before, I'm not questioning what is logged on the Switch, but what is actually sent to Nintendo's servers. Just because something is logged it doesn't mean it will be sent every single time the Switch goes online (specially when most of the logs are just your constantly changing variables necessary for a functioning electronic device).

Thanks for posting the Switch crash reports though.

 

[superfiege]

I still dont get it why somebody should buy this thing...

 

[Lumpofcoal]

I still dont get it why somebody should buy this thing...

For folks don't want to lug around that many catridges. For this, it's actually true what they advertise it as.

In terms of piracy, it's something of a last resort for those who are unwilling or unable to get their switch modded for whatever reasons.

 

[Mnemosynex]

Got my mig switch in yesterday and I set it up today and anytime i add a game and put in switch i just get the game card could not be read error

What site did you buy it from? I'm interested in getting them but not sure which site is legit.

Post automatically merged: Jun 15, 2024

Got my mig switch in yesterday and I set it up today and anytime i add a game and put in switch i just get the game card could not be read error

Which site did you buy it from? Looking for a legit site to get em from. I click mig switch site and my browser said it's malicious so lil worried to buy there.

 

[TheStonedModder]

Heres an SVG of the dumper logo/sticker without the plane and other junk.

Had to zip the file since SVG files are blocked but I also attached a preview image. I'll be uploading another dumper lid STL to be printed with this exact logo embossed in it as well shortly