Hacking Will my the 3DS brick?

[Culeak]

Hello!

I've planned to purchase a 3DS and in additon I was looking for flash carts, however some sites claim that the device will brick remotely by Nintendo. Is this true? Can Nintendo do that?

Thanks in advance!

 

[AceWarhead]

Nope. They can't.

 

[EyeZ]

Nah, you'll be perfectly fine.

 

[Culeak]

Okay thanks alot!

Is there any flash cart that is able to play games like Super Mario 3D land?

 

[EyeZ]

Nope!

 

[Parasite X]

There are no flashcarts that play 3DS Roms at least not yet cough crown 3DS.

 

[AceWarhead]

No 3DS mdoe flashcards as of now, only DS mode flashcards

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Just some advice, you could've easily solved both of your questions by reading the stickies

 

[PsyBlade]

Nope. They can't.

So far they have not bricked any 3ds and I don't think that they will do so in the near future.
But they can do it and they already prooved that they are willing to do so (with the wii - error 003).

 

[nukeboy95]

Nintendo will not brick any 3ds (it not in the coding) all tho they might put it in a update

 

[Rydian]

Nope. They can't.

So far they have not bricked any 3ds and I don't think that they will do so in the near future.
But they can do it and they already prooved that they are willing to do so (with the wii - error 003).

That's due to firmware changes, whereas modern DS flash carts don't modify any firmware.

 

[PsyBlade]

That's due to firmware changes, whereas modern DS flash carts don't modify any firmware.

Instead of testing on boot whether the firmware contains the korean key (and refuse boot if it does) they simply test the inserted card.
The list of games emulated by the flashcarts to trick the menu is rather short. They can simply store a checksum of an area later in the rom and check it.
That is probably how they block the carts right now. Only instead of blocking they brick eg by setting some special option in the nand that is checked on boot.
They could even make the firmware to work for two month after the detection to make sure they get as many people as possible.
Thats comparable to how Microsoft does it.

 

[Rydian]

That's due to firmware changes, whereas modern DS flash carts don't modify any firmware.

Instead of testing on boot whether the firmware contains the korean key (and refuse boot if it does) they simply test the inserted card.
The list of games emulated by the flashcarts to trick the menu is rather short. They can simply store a checksum of an area later in the rom and check it.
That is probably how they block the carts right now. Only instead of blocking they brick eg by setting some special option in the nand that is checked on boot.

This is how they do it.
http://hackmii.com/2010/02/lawsuit-coming-in-3-2-1/

And the issue with that is what if it's an actual game cart that's misread? Carts can and do have reading issues resulting in corrupt data if there's an issue with the contacts (lack of proper contact, contact loss when the unit is shifted, dirty contacts, etc.), and while it's more common on flash carts it's seen with well-used game carts as well (a friend of mine had her Pokemon Platinum cart's contacts need a cleaning after a long time).

If the unit bricks on incorrect data, then it'd brick on a misread on an actual cart, and Nintendo's not stupid enough to risk that.

 

[VMM]

They don't have the right to do it!
If they did, there would be tons of people sueing them!

 

[PsyBlade]

And the issue with that is what if it's an actual game cart that's misread? Carts can and do have reading issues resulting in corrupt data if there's an issue with the contacts (lack of proper contact, contact loss when the unit is shifted, dirty contacts, etc.), and while it's more common on flash carts it's seen with well-used game carts as well (a friend of mine had her Pokemon Platinum cart's contacts need a cleaning after a long time).

the flashcart will produce a different checksum, they could verify against a blacklist
or they could repeat the test on many different occasions and brick only if all of them fail with the same wrong checksum
or aditionally analyse the playlog for specific patterns matching the update cycle of the flashcarts
(high amounts playtime of specific games never played before or after, not overlapping each other, in an order matching with the usage of that game by flashcarts)

there are many things they could do that when combined make false positives really unlikely

They don't have the right to do it!
If they did, there would be tons of people sueing them!

You mean like the flood of people that sued them out of existence when they bricked wiis?

 

[VMM]

You mean like the flood of people that sued them out of existence when they bricked wiis?

You know those are different cases, don't you?
You do not modify the hardware or the OS in anyway with a flashcard!

 

[PsyBlade]

You know those are different cases, don't you?
You do not modify the hardware or the OS in anyway with a flashcard!

You don't, but that does not make a difference for anything that matters here.

 

[sentinel5000]

Ive said it before and ill say it again, FORCE people to read the damn stickies, specially if they are new to the site. So that every time someone wants to get in the 3DS forum they have to see the stickies first...

 

[Rydian]

the flashcart will produce a different checksum, they could verify against a blacklist

But it's not what they're doing (which means it's not relevant to the OP's question), they're going the whitelist route to be safe.

You know those are different cases, don't you?
You do not modify the hardware or the OS in anyway with a flashcard!

You don't, but that does not make a difference for anything that matters here.

Um, considering the question is whether the device will be bricked when using a flash cart, YES the difference between how a flash cart interacts with a system (which has caused no bricks) versus softmods for a different system (which have been known to cause many bricks of varying types depending on what was changed), it's entirely relevant to the OP's question.

 

[PsyBlade]

the flashcart will produce a different checksum, they could verify against a blacklist

But it's not what they're doing (which means it's not relevant to the OP's question), they're going the whitelist route to be safe.

You know those are different cases, don't you?
You do not modify the hardware or the OS in anyway with a flashcard!

You don't, but that does not make a difference for anything that matters here.

Um, considering the question is whether the device will be bricked when using a flash cart, YES the difference between how a flash cart interacts with a system (which has caused no bricks) versus softmods for a different system (which have been known to cause many bricks of varying types depending on what was changed), it's entirely relevant to the OP's question.

Actually that is NOT the question here.
My reply was to someone claiming that it would be impossible for nintendo to brick 3ds that use flashcarts.
I simply want to point out that they 1) can in fact pull it of should they ever decide to and 2) already gone through with it in a similar case