Hacking Why hasn't Nintendo blocked the Sky3DS yet?

[mrolive]

They patched one of the ninjahax exploits incredibly fast and I've yet to see the same response for the Sky3DS card. Is it just that they can't patch it via a software update?

Excuse the age-old question but I don't want to end up buying something that get's patched a month later.

 

[Arras]

All I'm going to say is don't assume it can't be blocked, because according to people who know what they're talking about, it can. Why Nintendo hasn't done so yet, only Nintendo knows.

 

[Romsstar]

Because the Sky3dS is not an exploit. It merely emulates a real 3DS card. Nintendo focused on the real treat.

 

[mrolive]

Because the Sky3dS is not an exploit. It merely emulates a real 3DS card. Nintendo focused on the real treat.

So would it be more likely a hardware exploit? Because if it is, then I don't care if they release another 3DS model that fixes this as long as the older ones are fine.

 

[Oxybelis]

It's harder to block Sky3DS reliably without side effects. So solution takes longer to do.

 

[Romsstar]

So would it be more likely a hardware exploit? Because if it is, then I don't care if they release another 3DS model that fixes this as long as the older ones are fine.

It's Hardware Emulation. Which is why it takes so fucking long to switch between games on the Sky3DS and why there's no region free either.
Any exploit can be fixed. Any exploit can be used as long as you don't update. But there is an end of the line for Sky3DS: Once it's blocked they won't find another solution.
Staying on an older firmware is an option but only for as long as you don't want to play newer games. I doubt Sky3DS will survive till the launch of Majoras Mask 3DS and by that time we'll eventually see who wins, Gateway or Sky3ds. Gateway has emunand after all.

 

[Jayro]

Nintendo might add an additional hardware signature check to future game carts they release, to make playing any newer-ish games on Sky3DS impossible. Or at least, that's what I'd do if I were Nintendo... Since the Sky3Ds wouldn't have the additional signature needed to "fake" the cartridge the ROM belongs to, the ROM will refuse to load.

 

[lebad]

Maybe Nintendo do not want to block all the way to hack them
Do you know what has done the success of Sony PS1 (yes "personal backup" )
They want to sell all the Old 3ds stocks before launching the New3DS in our markets.
Games Editors want to sell their Games software and Nintendo wants to sell Hardware.
And what Nintendo will say to Ubisoft and other Editors : "We do all we can do to do not let them steal you !" And behind that Nintendo will continu to get benefits until they estimate that it is enough and will launch a new update (or other menaces)

 

[NeoRegia]

Until recently, Nintendo did not have a serious reason to block sky3ds.
just think flash card that costs almost $ 100 and can be used only once to play not more than 10 games. for the next 10 games we had to have another flash card so another $ 100. Only recently Nintendo got a major reason for blocking sky3DS, the new version without game limit and with possibility to remove old games and put new ones.

 

[Essometer]

Until recently, Nintendo did not have a serious reason to block sky3ds.
just think flash card that costs almost $ 100 and can be used only once to play not more than 10 games. for the next 10 games we had to have another flash card so another $ 100. Only recently Nintendo got a major reason for blocking sky3DS, the new version without game limit and with possibility to remove old games and put new ones.

Even one game would be reason enough to block the card.

 

[tony_2018]

It's Hardware Emulation. Which is why it takes so fucking long to switch between games on the Sky3DS and why there's no region free either.
Any exploit can be fixed. Any exploit can be used as long as you don't update. But there is an end of the line for Sky3DS: Once it's blocked they won't find another solution.
Staying on an older firmware is an option but only for as long as you don't want to play newer games. I doubt Sky3DS will survive till the launch of Majoras Mask 3DS and by that time we'll eventually see who wins, Gateway or Sky3ds. Gateway has emunand after all.

Someone was saying NO ITS NOT HARDWARE EMULATOR, ITS A HARDWARE EXPLOIT. Really? Hardware exploit?

 

[mechagouki]

I don't know which game hardware SKY3DS emulates, but I do know that my Supercard DSTwo still shows as Alex Rider: Stormbreaker and still works on DSi and 3DS. I'm guessing that Nintendo can't remove retail cartridge IDs from their whitelist for legal reasons, breach of EULA or something like that.

 

[NeoRegia]

Someone was saying NO ITS NOT HARDWARE EMULATOR, ITS A HARDWARE EXPLOIT. Really? Hardware exploit?

why not? its not something new hardware exploits are as old as computers here you have MAC/PC example
http://arstechnica.com/security/201...uters-badusb-exploit-makes-devices-turn-evil/

 

[DCG]

Nintendo might add an additional hardware signature check to future game carts they release, to make playing any newer-ish games on Sky3DS impossible. Or at least, that's what I'd do if I were Nintendo... Since the Sky3Ds wouldn't have the additional signature needed to "fake" the cartridge the ROM belongs to, the ROM will refuse to load.

This is my guess as well.
From what I can see the Sky3Ds is merely fooling the 3Ds by giving it a valid game ID and (probably) showing the 3Ds the matching storage space, format and game size (thanks to emulation).

I'm assuming Nintendo didn't give every game a unique ID at the moment, but if they will with future games those games can be blocked in either two ways.
1: Nintendo blacklists ID's which have been "leaked"
2: Nintendo implements always on DRM which checks the Nintendo server if a game that is being started is already running somewhere else in the world.

The second option is probably the least likely, as we're speaking about a handheld, which might be used in a area without wireless internet and they would get a lot of angry customers if they block games when there is no internet. If they only check when internet is present, you can circumvent it by turning off the wifi :/

The first option would be the most viable, though also have it's drawbacks.
Each firmware or AP update would include the new leaked ID's and block them.
Though it could bloat the updates as more ID's get leaked. These could also be avoided by not updating the system.

So Nintendo has got to come up with quite a nifty way to block these things :/

 

[abaddon41_80]

Until recently, Nintendo did not have a serious reason to block sky3ds.
just think flash card that costs almost $ 100 and can be used only once to play not more than 10 games. for the next 10 games we had to have another flash card so another $ 100. Only recently Nintendo got a major reason for blocking sky3DS, the new version without game limit and with possibility to remove old games and put new ones.

I really don't think Nintendo takes the price of the cart into account when they decide whether they should block it. If it cost $200 for 10 games, Nintendo should still want to block it. That is still cheaper than it would be to buy 10 retail games. Nintendo blocks flashcarts because they are illegal, or at least used for illegal purposes.

 

[migles]

I don't know which game hardware SKY3DS emulates, but I do know that my Supercard DSTwo still shows as Alex Rider: Stormbreaker and still works on DSi and 3DS. I'm guessing that Nintendo can't remove retail cartridge IDs from their whitelist for legal reasons, breach of EULA or something like that.

simple. doesnt emulate a single game. in case you didn knew, the 3ds will show the game selected.

it emulates the game card that you selected.

it's like a music CD, you press next (switch) and it will give you the next track (rom)

 

[gamesquest1]

and every game does have its own uniqueID.....but with gateway its easy to dump hundreds/thousands of uniqueID's.....that would be a cat & mouse game.....i dont think nintedo would want to go down that route unless it was a last resort, what would be ingenious for them to do, would be to trick people into updating, basically in the next update have the software to block the card, but not activate it for a while say 1/2 weeks after its released, and once triggered it stays so no changing the clock to unblock it.....if they where really smart they would do something like that, not only blocking the cards, but tricking users into updating as its confirmed working initially

but nah i think its most likely just them wanting to do more than a quick patch and needing to make sure it wouldn't effect any legit users

 

[tony_2018]

and every game does have its own uniqueID.....but with gateway its easy to dump hundreds/thousands of uniqueID's.....that would be a cat & mouse game.....i dont think nintedo would want to go down that route unless it was a last resort, what would be ingenious for them to do, would be to trick people into updating, basically in the next update have the software to block the card, but not activate it for a while say 1/2 weeks after its released, and once triggered it stays so no changing the clock to unblock it.....if they where really smart they would do something like that, not only blocking the cards, but tricking users into updating as its confirmed working initially

but nah i think its most likely just them wanting to do more than a quick patch and needing to make sure it wouldn't effect any legit users

mmm.......more like look for another checkpoint that all other cards have and block the old one.

 

[tozevleal]

The sky3ds is making the same thing has the dstwo made on dsi! A powerful hardware emulation (im not sure if the sky3ds have got a cpu like the dstwo)

 

[NeoRegia]

if each game has its unique ID the key is to find algorithm that Nintendo use to generate them. thinking logicically Nintendo cant provide every software update with complete list of every valid ID that will eat up all available memory just for that kind of database.
Having that kind of algorithm may enable flashcard to generate valid ID each time when 3DS ask for it and N cant do anything about it

I don't know much about how current gen flash cards work but i know that N. has plenty other ways to check for flashcard then stupid game ID...