Artic Base, an open source tool for broadcasting games from your Nintendo 3DS to an emulator, has been released! Artic Base allows playing your owned collection of 3DS games, physical or digital, on a compatible emulator without having to dump them first. Furthermore, the tool syncs the save data, so you can resume your progress at any time from the console. Below is the list of features this tool provides, coming from the Artic Base Server github repository.

Features​

• Play games from your console without having to dump them.
• Sync the savedata/extdata of the broadcasted game during the play session.
• Load shared ext data and NCCH archives from your console.
• Remove the need to dump AES keys, as the decryption is done by the console's OS.

Advantages over playing on real console​

• Play your games at higher resolutions.
• Use external controllers that may better fit your playstyle.
• Switch between playing on your PC at home and your console on the go.
• Reduce e-waste by reusing partially broken consoles to broadcast your games to your PC.
• Allow museums or non-profit game preservation organizations to have a centralised database of preserved games, while using an Artic Base Server + a compatible emulator to do research as needed.

As the tool author claims, Artic Base aims to help players enjoy their collection of Nintendo 3DS games with several advantages, such as being able to play at higher resolutions, switch between playing on a 3DS on the go and and a PC at home, and using their preferred external controllers. Furthermore, it helps reducing e-waste by allowing the use of partially broken consoles to act as a server instead of having to toss/replace them. The tool also removes the need of having to deal with classic emulator shenenigans, such as having to dump games or getting cryptographic keys. Keep in mind however that due to the network speed of the 3DS, slower loading times may be experienced.

At the time of writing, the only emulator supporting Artic Base is a forked version of the former 3DS emulator Citra, maintained by PabloMK7.

A demonstration of Artic Base was posted to PabloMK7's YouTube channel a few days ago, showcasing Shovel Knight being broadcasted to a PC.

​

What do you think? Will you do another playthrough of your collected 3DS games using this tool? Leave your thoughts in the replies!

Artic Base Server (3DS application)
PabloMK7's Citra fork with Artic Base support

 

[MaxiBash]

*reads this tool's post*
*looks up Nintendo's definition of emulators in the Yuzu lawsuit*

"Pirated" video games, now playing live straight from the original cartridge. My ass, Nintendo. My ass.

 

[Reploid]

That's the weirdest idea I ever heard. it's... COOL tho.

 

[Axido]

That's the most convoluted yet most lawful way of playing roms. Thanks for coming up with this middle finger towards Nintendo.

 

[Naotoku]

hey man whenever i try to use artic on citra it keeps crashing after my 3ds connects ive tried several downloads do you know any fixes

 

[vchang]

docked 3ds. super cool

 

[Ampersound]

While having options is great, and I always love seeing more homebrew being developed,
dumping your games is super easy, I'd just use Citra the regular way and don't get the worse loading times.

If this tool could send over inputs to the emulator to play back, I'd be more interested.
That way you could play 3ds games and stream them in high definition via the emulator, automatically recording and executing all the inputs you make on the console.

If it wasn't easily possible before, having your save data synced on emulator and console is pretty neat however!

 

[Purple_Shyguy]

What?

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Seems like something a modded system would do that lets you view the games on pc or some monitor... but with the enhancements of emulation. Can't tell if it's better than like... cloud streaming a video to the system or using one of those modded systems for video output to a tv.

 

[PabloMK7]

hey man whenever i try to use artic on citra it keeps crashing after my 3ds connects ive tried several downloads do you know any fixes

Can you post an issue in the github repository along with the log?

 

[SquidHominid]

All the people saying they don't get the point of this, something to consider.

In the future, if modern video game consoles ever are given a DMCA exemption or the DRM provisions of the DMCA are otherwise no longer relevant and it becomes fully, defensibly legal to homebrew them, this could provide a legal software framework for libraries to allow people to play library-owned legal copies of games. Imagine a farm of 3DS 'servers' all with legal copies of games, and people able to play them on the library computers, 1:1 to the library's owned copies.

This is basically a more physically localized, video game equivalent of controlled digital lending. And, tbf as long as people are fine with longer load times, I don't think it necessarily needs to be localized to within the library, either. So like, this is basically just a framework for CDL for video games instead of books. This is HUGE.

 

[TheIrishBub]

A demonstration of Artic Base was posted to PabloMK7's YouTube channel a few days ago, showcasing Hollow Knight being broadcasted to a PC.

Whoa, Hollow Knight was on 3DS? Cool!
/s

 

[smilodon]

The lengths pirates go not to admit they are pirating...

 

[SquidHominid]

The lengths pirates go not to admit they are pirating...

I don't understand. If the games are pirated, this doesn't make a difference in that regard. But if they're owned legally,
I don't see how this is piracy. At worst it's a violation of the DRM provisions of the DMCA, but in that case that's an entirely different thing to piracy, and that part of the DMCA applies just as much to homebrew and CFW in general as it does to piracy since video game consoles don't have a DMCA exemption like smartphones do.

 

[HarveyHouston]

it helps reducing e-waste by allowing the use of partially broken consoles to act as a server instead of having to toss/replace them.

"Oh, no! I just threw my broken 3DS in the trash!" says any random guy who doesn't really care at all about recycling, and lives a normal life... hold up.

 

[AkikoKumagara]

This is really niche, I think, but as a game streamer this is amazing.

 

[DragonMals]

A great tool, yet my 2DS likes to not make things connect to it (FTP, Artic Base, anything). I don't know how to fix this.

 

[MarkDarkness]

A great tool, yet my 2DS likes to not make things connect to it (FTP, Artic Base, anything). I don't know how to fix this.

All 3 of my different gen 3DS's are like that. It's just a console that sucks at connectivity.

 

[nWo]

This is the greatest 3DS project I have seen in a good while, no disrespect to the others, but this sounds almost like a dream back in the day!! Going to try it as soon as possible.

Dumb question: say, we pair everything etc. Now, the 3DS is sold or its memory is wiped out. The emulator can keep up with all the data on its own in the future? Or is forcibly a symbiotic functionality?

 

[CMDreamer]

This can improve 3DS emulator develpment in a huge way!