Hacking What to do...

[alpha_noj]

So, MH4 now has a solid release date of February 13th (!!!), and I'm worried it will require an update immediately to play online. I'm still sitting on 9.2 with no GW, but I've read I can downgrade using any DS cart (I assume Supcard DStwo will work?) and use CFW for some emunand and other goodies, though there's so much info out there that I'm not even positive on that.

So, worth the risk to downgrade to 4.x, or just stick to 9.2 and see what happens with MH? If any game can get me to update my firmware, this is it. So I would have no qualms about going to 9.4 or whatever to be able to play. Sorry if this is the wrong forum, but seemed right considering this is all revolving around CFW.

 

[sj33]

You've a few options.

The best thing to do is to stick with 9.2 and buy a Gateway. This will allow you to install 9.4 in EmuNAND without losing 9.2 on the console itself. Then you can run MH in EmuNAND.

If you really don't want to do that, you could downgrade to 4.x, install CFW one one SD card, then install 9.4 EmuNAND on another card using the MT Card launcher so you still get 9.4 access.

But I recommend the former because the latter is a pain in the ass.

 

[alpha_noj]

You've a few options.

The best thing to do is to stick with 9.2 and buy a Gateway. This will allow you to install 9.4 in EmuNAND without losing 9.2 on the console itself. Then you can run MH in EmuNAND.

If you really don't want to do that, you could downgrade to 4.x, install CFW one one SD card, then install 9.4 EmuNAND on another card using the MT Card launcher so you still get 9.4 access.

But I recommend the former because the latter is a pain in the ass.

I was thinking the same, just a matter of saving up for the Gateway I suppose. The second option would be much more reasonable, but I've read any saves I've made on 6.x or higher (may be wrong on the exact FW) won't work once I downgrade to 4.x--and that would also be a pain, but I suppose I wouldn't miss TOO much from my old saves. Still not a very good choice. Otherwise I can wait and see what the dev community comes up with and just wait it out...but that could take months/years, of course.

 

[gamesquest1]

yeah, gateway is well worth its money, the CFW lets be honest, is pretty lackluster, if you have the money just buy a gateway and not have to sit there pissing about setting up a cfw that is pretty limited and unstable, you get what you pay for......please don't join the people bickering over how to try scrape basic functionality together by switch launchers, and converting games and begging for fixes.....

just to clarify im not trying to come across all elitist, although reading it back it does seem that way, im just saying if you go the free route, just accept it as it is, its free, there is so many threads popping up with "maybe if we X, or maybe if we Y we can do Z".....the free route is basic, and no devs are supporting it, if you are happy with its features and don't want anything else, go for it no point wasting money on something you don't want any of the extra features of, but the gateway card is well worth its money, and people seem to forget gateway are the only reason they are getting their free fix for not blocking the downgrading to red card owners only which they could of easily done, good luck with whatever route you go down and i completely understand people dont always have the money for cards like gateway and the CFW is a good free alternative

 

[Nollog]

The game won't work at all on CFW 4.5 so I'd advise you to stay at 9.2, get a flashcart if you want.
There's several options, sky, qq which is pretty much the same, and gateway.

Online will require patches, no doubt, so you'd need to get onto the eshop, which would require you to update to 9.4 or higher.
If you don't want to go online, you'll probably be fine with your retail version.

 

[sj33]

As somebody with both Gateway and CFW (running on separate consoles), I really do recommend getting a Gateway if you can.

I get that having to pay for a card is a pain and the Gateway is relatively expensive, but the CFW is really unstable and limited (only compatible with .cia files, limited to 4.5 games etc.). A Gateway would allow you to still run the latest firmware in EmuNAND (essential if you want to play online) without sacrificing 9.2.

I strongly recommend against updating above 9.2 on the console itself, at the very least.

 

[alpha_noj]

As somebody with both Gateway and CFW (running on separate consoles), I really do recommend getting a Gateway if you can.

I get that having to pay for a card is a pain and the Gateway is relatively expensive, but the CFW is really unstable and limited (only compatible with .cia files, limited to 4.5 games etc.). A Gateway would allow you to still run the latest firmware in EmuNAND (essential if you want to play online) without sacrificing 9.2.

I strongly recommend against updating above 9.2 on the console itself, at the very least.

As I said, this is the most likely route I will take...just might take a little while to get the funds together

Thanks for the input all!

 

[thorasgar]

As I said, this is the most likely route I will take...just might take a little while to get the funds together

Thanks for the input all!

Sell some games.

If you do try and sell games consider glyde.com. It is super easy and you can set your price. I have been buying WII U games from them left and right at much better prices than any other pre-owned service. As a buyer I love setting alerts for the price I want to pay.

 

[alpha_noj]

Another question I forgot to ask--I realize (by reading the save/NAND sticky at the top) that retail games over FW 6.x won't work on older firmware due to a new save system. However, I just realized sj33 said I can keep CFW 4.x on one SD card and emuNAND 9.4 on another...would the emuNAND 9.4 card allow me to continue playing those retail carts, or is it still using the keys from 4.x? Hopefully my question makes some sense, but I'm not seeing that particular scenario in the sticky.

 

[gamesquest1]

Another question I forgot to ask--I realize (by reading the save/NAND sticky at the top) that retail games over FW 6.x won't work on older firmware due to a new save system. However, I just realized sj33 said I can keep CFW 4.x on one SD card and emuNAND 9.4 on another...would the emuNAND 9.4 card allow me to continue playing those retail carts, or is it still using the keys from 4.x? Hopefully my question makes some sense, but I'm not seeing that particular scenario in the sticky.

you can play them fine, but if you started the games already on 6.x+ you will loose your save

 

[alpha_noj]

you can play them fine, but if you started the games already on 6.x+ you will loose your save

So basically I lose my saves if I downgrade no matter what, correct? I've played most of my games on 9.2, so I suppose I would lost all of my saves. But what I was thinking was only using the retail carts on emuNAND 9.4 or above. So that won't work, correct?

 

[gamesquest1]

So basically I lose my saves if I downgrade no matter what, correct? I've played most of my games on 9.2, so I suppose I would lost all of my saves. But what I was thinking was only using the retail carts on emuNAND 9.4 or above. So that won't work, correct?

well its not all games, its only games released with 6.x+ on them......but granted that's like all recent games, if you get a gateway card, and stay on 6.x+ using the web exploit for entering gateway mode, you can use 6.x saves in classic mode fine

 

[thorasgar]

Sell some games.

So basically I lose my saves if I downgrade no matter what, correct? I've played most of my games on 9.2, so I suppose I would lost all of my saves. But what I was thinking was only using the retail carts on emuNAND 9.4 or above. So that won't work, correct?

Emunand has two modes. "Classic" for playing retail carts and "Gateway" mode for roms(.3ds, 3dz, .cia). What you are not realizing is that the system will use the encryption method of whatever version of sysnand is first booted into when you power on the system. Downgrade to 4.x sysnand and emunand 9.2 will still use the old encryption. Sysnand is 9.2 and emunand uses new (7.x) encryption.

I have not thought it all through but I suppose you could develope a system to constantly upgrade the sysnand to 8.1 and then downgrade to 4.x every time you want to switch between roms or carts. What a royal pain in the ass. You want to play games not putz with this crap.

 

[gamesquest1]

Emunand has two modes. "Classic" for playing retail carts and "Gateway" mode for roms(.3ds, 3dz, .cia). What you are not realizing is that the system will use the encryption method of whatever version of sysnand is first booted into when you power on the system. Downgrade to 4.x sysnand and emunand 9.2 will still use the old encryption. Sysnand is 9.2 and emunand uses new (7.x) encryption.

I have thought it all through but I suppose you could develope a system to constantly upgrade the sysnand to 8.1 and then downgrade to 4.x every time you want to switch between roms or carts. What a royal pain in the ass. You want to play games not putz with this crap.

or he could live with the gateway +web exploit on sysnand 6.x+, this would allow retail games with 6.x save encryption to work, but also use gateway....only problem is that you need the browser exploit rather than NDS profile.....but for people with a android phone there is no real drawback, except needing to switch on tethering on your phone and starting the app....although any phone with tethering capabilities would also work.....there is also the much discussed and not confirmed to work wifi access SD card that could be a completely untethered web browser exploit tool

 

[thorasgar]

or he could live with the gateway +web exploit on sysnand 6.x+, this would allow retail games with 6.x save encryption to work, but also use gateway....only problem is that you need the browser exploit rather than NDS profile.....but for people with a android phone there is no real drawback, except needing to switch on tethering on your phone and starting the app....although any phone with tethering capabilities would also work.....there is also the much discussed and not confirmed to work wifi access SD card that could be a completely untethered web browser exploit tool

Is there a difference between staying on 6.x and upgrading sysnand to ( in his case) 8.x or 9.x?

 

[gamesquest1]

Is there a difference between staying on 6.x and upgrading sysnand to ( in his case) 8.x or 9.x?

not much really if you have a gateway card, if you dont have a gateway card you can only boot up to 7.1 in classic mode, and cant run any 7.x encrypted games

 

[alpha_noj]

Ok, thanks for all the info folks! Still looks like Gateway using the web exploit is the best method for the moment, as I'd like to keep from completely updating my 3DS in case a larger exploit comes along (something like Homebrew channel and still being able to update would be amazing). As I said, if there is any game that could get me to update though...it will be Monster Hunter