Tell me about 3DS hacking

How is it today? What can I do? What do I need?

Need a decently sized SD card (8 GB worked but isn’t that much space), some way of connecting that SD card to a computer, and about 2-4 hours of time. Plus some patience for moving your SD card out of the 3DS and PC like 100x.

You can then run homebrew and “backup” games. You can download your “backup” games directly onto your 3DS using this piece of homebrew:

You can also go online with these “backup” games since they are installed right on to your SD card, just like a Nintendo game. It’s all pretty foolproof, seemingly.

Homebrew scene is okay I guess?? The old 3DS isn’t powerful enough to do much interesting IMO, but the new 3DS can run SNES games which is cool. Probably the best way to play Game Boy games and NES games, stuff like that.

https://wiki.gbatemp.net/wiki/List_of_3DS_homebrew

also apparently someone worked out a way of putting gba roms into the emulator for the 3ds ambassador gba games. i haven’t looked into it yet, but i’m told this method plays almost everything pretty much perfectly, while the homebrew gba emulator is a bit crap.

2 Likes

it’s good
there’s a lot of work involved initially but then it’s fine
seems like a lot of translation work has been done on jp only titles too

hey @VastleCania is ciangel better than freeshop?

Oh good, Plailect’s guide.

Anyone been following it know if it’s faster than it was about 6-8 months ago? When I did mine, I remember it taking MANY solid hours

Dunno! I only used CIAngel. It worked just fine though, really easy, just type in a name and download away.

It took me about 2 hours but I had a few hiccups. Just pay special attention when extracting zips and renaming bins. Once you’re good with CFW, install some of that SNES/GBA .cias with FBI and really live the life.

What would be the SD card to get if I wanted to use one for this and use it later to expand the capacity of the Switch when I break down and buy one?

This 3ds hack is so deep I can still like use the eshop right? I would really just like to not buy a 2nd 3ds for the 3-4 JP games we didnt get.

Like any reports of nintendo banning accounts?

you can use the eshop, you even can apply system updates

I bought my New 3DS before hacking was popular and I bought a TON of digital games and will never hack mine. Really really annoys me that there are GBC/GBA/SNES games not on the eShop that I can’t play.

I’ve done this now the guide is good. I am not 100% certain what all i’ve done. But now I guess I am going to Akiba to buy a 3ds game? Probably the terrible Game center CX game.

Lol

so really, what they’re doing is banning people with hacked 3dses from using the eshop legitimately so now they have to pirate, even if they weren’t before

Nah researching it you can still buy games. You just can’t play online or use any online services. The gbatemp thread was 160 pages last I checked.

does nintendo actually think this is some kind of punishment?

Pokémon battling can be a good time.