Hacking a 3DS - Going through the Process

 

With the closure of the 3DS eShop, there’s not too much to worry about with the online services (Maybe Pokemon Bank and Home). This does mean though that they’ll be getting cheaper as the older models become more plentiful in second-hand shops. There are people out there who will do this whole process for you. You are paying them for their time, expertise, and likely some equipment costs (SD card, 3DS mostly if not provided). But at the end of it, you have a portable machine of moderate power that can run a number of games. More importantly, between the DS and 3DS library, you have access to some amazing games. Honestly, there is a reason why I make sure I’ve always got my Tetris DS with me!

 

Getting Starting: A Word of Warning

This is important to say when you’re starting this process. At this point, it’s not that hard to hack a 3DS and get homebrew enabled. There is a non-zero chance of any method bricking your 3DS, rendering it inoperable. If this is a risk you’re willing to take, then let’s get started.

 

Resources:

https://3ds.hacks.guide/

This website is highly recommended to go through the process. All the information in one place. It has the links to get to the needed files for the entire process. Read the pages carefully and it’ll save you a lot of trouble. 

 

Required Items:

3DS

SD Card 2 gb up to 32gb

SD Card Reader for a laptop/Tower PC

 

Getting started

I’m going through this process with my old 3DS. I bought it ages ago and until I got my 3DS XL, it did okay. It has its quirks, but that’s normal for tech of a certain age. Since most of the data is stored on the SD card and not the system memory, I have very little to worry about.

*This 3DS has a tendency to lose the Date and Time.

General tech note. This is meant to be a record of me going through the process, learning about it. This is not a replacement for the guide I’m follow that I provided a link to.

 

My Equipment:

3DS (Old Model)

4 gb SD card (32 gb microSD Card)

 

Beginning the process

The very first thing is getting the system version. Just go into System Settings and look on the top screen in the bottom right corner to get the system information. This will tell you what method you are most likely going to go through. I’m going with Bootstraps.

 

The Seed Mining

With the System version number, you want to turn off the system and eject your SD card. Access that SD card and go into the Nintendo 3DS folder. You are looking for a folder that has a long name (32 characters). If there is a private folder, just ignore it. Instead, copy that file name to a text document for later. Keep this folder in mind for later though.

 

Without the SD card in your 3DS, power it on. If there are complications, it’s because of a ban on the account or something else.

 

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This part of the process has you getting internal codes for the 3DS and then getting the exploits in place to crack it open. This has you using a few websites to get the codes and then build the necessary structure.

With the second one, you will be putting things into place to actually start the process on your 3DS. Here is where methods can vary.

 

For me, owing to a problem with a shoulder button, I can’t complete a step, so I need to take an alternate approach. The SD card goes in and I start trying to access some of the software. This immediately hits another snap because a file is missing, but a few minutes on the FAQ and I have everything I need to try again. Another failed attempt and a careful rereading of things points out a file I didn’t place properly. That explains the failures easily. With everything in place, I get the screen I was looking for. I tell the software to perform its dump and the system reboots. Time to power the 3DS down again and pull the SD card. More computer work!

Again, do what I didn’t do until later and double-check that you’ve downloaded all the support files. I missed a few, so had to stop for a moment to grab them. Made very good use of different tabs to get everything. With all that loaded into the SD card, it was time to move it all over to the 3DS! I pop the SD card into the 3DS, go through almost the whole process, and 1 misclick sets me back to couple steps. But it’s easy to realize what I did wrong, go through the steps again in only a minute or two. 

 

The Final Steps

With the custom firmware installed to system memory (and hopefully just there now), it’s time to add in the final parts: Custom themes, and the loaders I’ll need to get a lot of the various utilities and games actually running. This continues the trend of moving the SD card between the 3DS and my computer. I also create a back-up which has a good chance to undo the unlikely (or unfortunate) case of the 3DS getting bricked.

 

Going Custom

With the software running, it’s time to start taking advantage of this. With the programs loaded, I can now make copies of my 3DS and DS games. If there was a game I lost, I can load the game onto the SD card. The problem here can be the space, since you will need space for the installer and the game itself. But after the install you can just delete the installer and you’re golden. I mostly intend to load up a game I lost as well as seeing about getting Secret of Mana running on it. Maybe Doom if I want to.

 

I can now also load in custom themes. There are some nice official ones, but fans tend to have a lot more creativity (and copyright is less of a concern).

 

Why do all this?

With the 3DS eshop closed and a minimal need for both my 3DS’s to be online, I can spare one that can just do the more out there stuff. This enables a lot more options in terms of modifying games. There are numerous romhacks available that do improve the games’ functionality, or just change it around completely.

 

Having to Recover

And then computer trouble strikes. My SD Card reader caused an error with a file that seemed to corrupt the whole card. I couldn’t format it, and it wouldn’t read any more. However, the primary changes were on the 3DS itself, so there wasn’t much to worry about. 1 fresh 32gb  (micro) SD card, a few programs loaded onto it and everything is ready to go again! With just a little effort, I’ve got the emulators running.

 

Loading Games

One of the biggest things that I can now do is create a digital back-up of any of my 3DS or DS games. While I’m working with a limit of 32 gb, that’s a lot of space that I put a number of my games on. Being able to tote around 10+ games without having to bring the cartridges is a great boon. It is a bit of a progress, but very much worth it. Getting the games on is a simple drag and drop process.

 

Emulators

With the homebrew ready to go, there are 3 emulators I want to get running (or have the ability to run the installs of): Gameboy Advance, Super Nintendo, and the Nintendo DS. Maybe Playstation, depends on how I feel and how well it runs. Have a second playthrough as the Master of Lockpicking to do at some point. So, these I’ll be going more into detail since its not covered in the guide I was following

 

Instead of going with Retroarch, I opted for something else. I took a different path and decided to go with TWiLight++ to have the games running differently. It has a lot of useful emulators, and mostly works pretty well. It does seem to have more of a limit (maybe 40 games). It’s also a lot more fickle, but almost any retro-game that can be emulated, it can be done.

 

The other options can be a bit easier since you can now use QR codes to quickly get the install process going. It does help to cut down on the back and forth that I had to do a LOT of to get the homebrew installed. Just a little effort got me to where I wanted. Just go into a the Homebrew Launcher/FBI, navigate it and running the install through.

 

GBA Games

Taking a moment to talk about this. I tried running GBA through the emulator to okay results. Instead, I read about installed the game via a CIA file. The game in question is one of my favorites: Metroid Fusion. By installed the game, it’s running the game in a virtual console. This is a great way to actually playthrough the game. I got it running and was able to get my most recent playthrough of this game. Just after a clear, not 100%. But it is worth the effort to get the file going. It really was just converting the dump of my game to the CIA file and then running an install of that. Also, go for a written guide opposed to a video guide. Especially if the person who did the program offers it.

 

Conclusions

Getting through this process, I can recommend it. If you have an old 3DS, it’s definitely worth it to get Homebrew running. If you only have one, it’s a maybe. There’s almost no reason not to. A new 3DS or XL is going to be able to do a lot more than what my old 3DS can do. Homebrew is now the way of the 3DS with the loss of the eShop.

 

Remember, you can make digital back-ups of your own games. That is 100% legal. Roms are in a grey area. Emulators are legit.

*GameShampoo doesn’t endorse the use of ROMs and strongly encourages getting the game for ripping/dumping purposes.