My experience with 3DS CFW
Edit: Just a note, this was written in January, before Arm9LoaderHax had become a thing, so just keep that in mind, I now use A9LH + Luma3DS and I even have a New 3DS XL now actually.
I'll be straight with everyone, I love the 3DS. It's pretty much my favorite game console out there right now, even now, in 2016. For the longest time I was running on a 10.1 system, and since October of last year, I got myself a DSTwo, which incidentally turned out to be a DSTwo+, since the late model DSTwo carts were actually just mislabeled + carts. Now, I thought that was pretty cool at the time, I obviously couldn't take advantage of the Gateway plugin at the time, but I still thought it was neat that I had the option on a workable 3DS.
So once this whole downgrade business happened, I knew I was probably going to get myself running rxTools as soon as possible and I thought maybe about using the Gateway plugin but I quickly remembered that Brickway is apparently a thing again, so I dodged that bullet.
Had a successful downgrade biting my nails hoping I wouldn't brick, since it seems it was so absolutely common at the time I did it, and low and behold, everything went well- I thankfully didn't lose my eShop account and NINID and I can still do everything I did before but in a fancy EmuNAND on my shiny new 32gb card, and Big Blue Menu at my disposal for installing whatever I'd like.
Unlinking was pretty nerve wrecking, that's something I'm sure many people can relate to, anyone with a good amount spent in the eShop. (I personally have spent over 400$ in the eShop, so I think Nintendo has enough of my money at this point.) But again, just being paranoid and extra careful, everything ended up fine in the end, I actually had to format my EmuNAND and re-link my ninid then restore the EmuNAND and I thought that was a bit weird, but hey it's all good now.
As of about a week ago, I'm currently running rxTools nightly builds and I couldn't be happier.
My 3DS is full of games to play now, with my DSTwo spearheading my DS games, and my rxTools leading my 3DS side, I can play almost anything I want now, it's pretty cool.
GBA games, SNES games, NES games, Gameboy and Gameboy Color, pretty awesome, I must admit.
A rant on the Gateway.
Now look, this isn't really to get at the throats of Gateway users, its more just to put my thoughts out there and maybe have a discussion. I'm sure there's been lots of mean spirited arguments about this subject before, and knowing how things are here on GBATemp, that's not really a surprise.
Basically, If your only comment is "fuck you gateway is better" then don't even bother to comment, if you do, you'll just get on my ignore list. Anyhow...
My main problem with Gateway in general is that it's a piece of software, that's been obfuscated with hardware. I have no gripes with the Gateway team directly, but I do have a gripe with the way they handle things. For one thing, bricking a user's console for trying to use their software with a clone is outright meanspirited. While I would never be stupid enough to do that myself, many people are or don't know any better and will try to use clones with gateway software.
The typical audience for the 3DS Flashcarts these days is the type of people that just want to download a rom, throw it on a microSD and play it, no hassle, and that means there's probably a good amount of people that will accidentally brick their 3DS trying to save a buck by buying a clone instead of the actual thing. I'd just make more sense for them to make their software break instead of deliberately breaking the user's 3DS.
The other problem I have is that the Gateway actually is a hassle. It's really not much easier than setting up a custom firmware like RxTools. I actually went through the process to set up Gateway Ultra 3.4.1 on my DSTwo+ just to see what the process is like, and the only thing I can hand to Gateway is that they streamlined the process a bit with their launcher, that's literally about it. If you want Gateway EmuNAND with CIA support as well as .3DS / .3DZ support, then it's no harder than getting a custom firmware setup. And you can even use the Gateway Launcher to set up an EmuNAND for CFW if you want, I didn't because I frankly don't trust gateway very much- but it's totally possible, and if you want your 3DS to boot directly into their little Gateway EmuNAND, well, that's not easier either, you still use MenuHax with a boot manager, just like you would with any other CFW.
The main argument for Gateway is convenience it seems. But really, I don't understand that either. I just don't find it very convenient. Importing a flashcart from China at all is the opposite of convenient in many ways, it requires you to wait, it means you need an additional microSD card for the gateway itself, and in addition, the thing isn't cheap, if you buy from the official GBATemp seller like I do (gotta support the temp!) it'll run you $70 USD.
The Gateway team is making bank off Flashcart sales, their only concerns for the people is getting their cart running on as many 3DS's as possible, and while they do add features from time to time, it's not exactly a common occurrence, it seems.
3DS/3DZ support is a nice feature, sure- but it requires an additional microSD card and since you can't have anything in the 3DS other then the Gateway Red Card while it's in use or else it will lock you out, you can't use DS flashcarts or any other physical games you have with Gateway. CFW, on the otherhand, you can play legit 3DS games with it, and you can even run a DS flashcart like the DSTwo through EmuNAND and if you're using a good CFW like the latest rxTools for example, that part will work too.
As for .3DS rom support itself, it's convenient enough, but the method for booting them is through a very hacky feeling menu that you bring up with a button on the 3DS menu itself, and it's not exactly intuitive to navigate, and it takes a few seconds to load the roms up too.
The primary way to play 3DS games in CFW is through installing a CIA with a CIA importer, like Big Blue Menu or FBI for example. Many many games are already available on that one ISO site in CIA format, and the ones that aren't are in .3DS format, which you can convert to CIA fairly easily as long as you have a method to generate xorpads for them, which I use rxTools for. No delay for booting a game, once it's been imported, you manage it like any other application you download through the eShop. Because you can convert 3DS files to CIA, you can even play games that aren't released on the eShop this way.
On top of that. CFWs are often open source as well, which means anyone with technical knowledge can make some cooler stuff happen if they want, it's just a matter of time.
Anyway I guess that's all I have to say on the matter.
This kind of feels like the old WODE vs USB Loader argument back in the day I had with some people on another certain ISO site, probably not the one you are thinking of though.
Anyhow if you sat through all this, I'd like to thank you for reading.
I don't have any gripes with people that use gateway for the record.
The only gripes I have with people are the ones think their shit doesn't stink.
Keep on keepin' on everyone. Enjoy your games.
Edit: Just a note, this was written in January, before Arm9LoaderHax had become a thing, so just keep that in mind, I now use A9LH + Luma3DS and I even have a New 3DS XL now actually.
I'll be straight with everyone, I love the 3DS. It's pretty much my favorite game console out there right now, even now, in 2016. For the longest time I was running on a 10.1 system, and since October of last year, I got myself a DSTwo, which incidentally turned out to be a DSTwo+, since the late model DSTwo carts were actually just mislabeled + carts. Now, I thought that was pretty cool at the time, I obviously couldn't take advantage of the Gateway plugin at the time, but I still thought it was neat that I had the option on a workable 3DS.
So once this whole downgrade business happened, I knew I was probably going to get myself running rxTools as soon as possible and I thought maybe about using the Gateway plugin but I quickly remembered that Brickway is apparently a thing again, so I dodged that bullet.
Had a successful downgrade biting my nails hoping I wouldn't brick, since it seems it was so absolutely common at the time I did it, and low and behold, everything went well- I thankfully didn't lose my eShop account and NINID and I can still do everything I did before but in a fancy EmuNAND on my shiny new 32gb card, and Big Blue Menu at my disposal for installing whatever I'd like.
Unlinking was pretty nerve wrecking, that's something I'm sure many people can relate to, anyone with a good amount spent in the eShop. (I personally have spent over 400$ in the eShop, so I think Nintendo has enough of my money at this point.) But again, just being paranoid and extra careful, everything ended up fine in the end, I actually had to format my EmuNAND and re-link my ninid then restore the EmuNAND and I thought that was a bit weird, but hey it's all good now.
As of about a week ago, I'm currently running rxTools nightly builds and I couldn't be happier.
My 3DS is full of games to play now, with my DSTwo spearheading my DS games, and my rxTools leading my 3DS side, I can play almost anything I want now, it's pretty cool.
GBA games, SNES games, NES games, Gameboy and Gameboy Color, pretty awesome, I must admit.
A rant on the Gateway.
Now look, this isn't really to get at the throats of Gateway users, its more just to put my thoughts out there and maybe have a discussion. I'm sure there's been lots of mean spirited arguments about this subject before, and knowing how things are here on GBATemp, that's not really a surprise.
Basically, If your only comment is "fuck you gateway is better" then don't even bother to comment, if you do, you'll just get on my ignore list. Anyhow...
My main problem with Gateway in general is that it's a piece of software, that's been obfuscated with hardware. I have no gripes with the Gateway team directly, but I do have a gripe with the way they handle things. For one thing, bricking a user's console for trying to use their software with a clone is outright meanspirited. While I would never be stupid enough to do that myself, many people are or don't know any better and will try to use clones with gateway software.
The typical audience for the 3DS Flashcarts these days is the type of people that just want to download a rom, throw it on a microSD and play it, no hassle, and that means there's probably a good amount of people that will accidentally brick their 3DS trying to save a buck by buying a clone instead of the actual thing. I'd just make more sense for them to make their software break instead of deliberately breaking the user's 3DS.
The other problem I have is that the Gateway actually is a hassle. It's really not much easier than setting up a custom firmware like RxTools. I actually went through the process to set up Gateway Ultra 3.4.1 on my DSTwo+ just to see what the process is like, and the only thing I can hand to Gateway is that they streamlined the process a bit with their launcher, that's literally about it. If you want Gateway EmuNAND with CIA support as well as .3DS / .3DZ support, then it's no harder than getting a custom firmware setup. And you can even use the Gateway Launcher to set up an EmuNAND for CFW if you want, I didn't because I frankly don't trust gateway very much- but it's totally possible, and if you want your 3DS to boot directly into their little Gateway EmuNAND, well, that's not easier either, you still use MenuHax with a boot manager, just like you would with any other CFW.
The main argument for Gateway is convenience it seems. But really, I don't understand that either. I just don't find it very convenient. Importing a flashcart from China at all is the opposite of convenient in many ways, it requires you to wait, it means you need an additional microSD card for the gateway itself, and in addition, the thing isn't cheap, if you buy from the official GBATemp seller like I do (gotta support the temp!) it'll run you $70 USD.
The Gateway team is making bank off Flashcart sales, their only concerns for the people is getting their cart running on as many 3DS's as possible, and while they do add features from time to time, it's not exactly a common occurrence, it seems.
3DS/3DZ support is a nice feature, sure- but it requires an additional microSD card and since you can't have anything in the 3DS other then the Gateway Red Card while it's in use or else it will lock you out, you can't use DS flashcarts or any other physical games you have with Gateway. CFW, on the otherhand, you can play legit 3DS games with it, and you can even run a DS flashcart like the DSTwo through EmuNAND and if you're using a good CFW like the latest rxTools for example, that part will work too.
As for .3DS rom support itself, it's convenient enough, but the method for booting them is through a very hacky feeling menu that you bring up with a button on the 3DS menu itself, and it's not exactly intuitive to navigate, and it takes a few seconds to load the roms up too.
The primary way to play 3DS games in CFW is through installing a CIA with a CIA importer, like Big Blue Menu or FBI for example. Many many games are already available on that one ISO site in CIA format, and the ones that aren't are in .3DS format, which you can convert to CIA fairly easily as long as you have a method to generate xorpads for them, which I use rxTools for. No delay for booting a game, once it's been imported, you manage it like any other application you download through the eShop. Because you can convert 3DS files to CIA, you can even play games that aren't released on the eShop this way.
On top of that. CFWs are often open source as well, which means anyone with technical knowledge can make some cooler stuff happen if they want, it's just a matter of time.
Anyway I guess that's all I have to say on the matter.
This kind of feels like the old WODE vs USB Loader argument back in the day I had with some people on another certain ISO site, probably not the one you are thinking of though.
Anyhow if you sat through all this, I'd like to thank you for reading.
I don't have any gripes with people that use gateway for the record.
The only gripes I have with people are the ones think their shit doesn't stink.
Keep on keepin' on everyone. Enjoy your games.
