Throughout the Nintendo Switch's life, we've seen modchips and softmods aplenty. What has been missing in the Switch hacking scene, though, is a flashcart; and if rumors are to be believed, one might be coming soon. A user by the name of After Time X shared on Twitter that they have exclusive information regarding testing of a flashcart that will work on all models and revisions of the Nintendo Switch. A video of "proof" was shown, of someone cycling through rom backups, and loading the games to play on their Switch OLED unit. According to the rumor, these flashcarts will begin shipping as early as next month.

Source
Discussion thread

 

[CY_39]

If it can play games online without a ban then it would be huge.

 

[Bladexdsl]

nintendo is watching this as we speak their eyes bulging with rage

 

[PopcornSweetie]

YES! A R4 for the switch?
I am all in for it.

 

[zoogie]

Guess I'll repost this juicy scuttlebutt for the new thread



SOON is back!
Cue up another dubbed El Risitas video

Post automatically merged: Dec 23, 2023

@2Hack

 

[KingVamp]

DS Flashcarts are what led me to GBATemp, in the first place.

 

[Magnus87]

The arrival of a "Flashcard" at the end of a console's life doesn't seem bad to me. It is true that Switch has been easily compromised, however this can be good for selling even more hardware since there are many people who prefer not to modify the console.

 

[masagrator]

If it can play games online without a ban then it would be huge.

If game will require installed update to play online, then you can forget about it.

 

[ZeroFX]

Eh, interesting.

 

[BaamAlex]

it reminds me of Sky3DS in a Switch form.
Pretty sure there will a new version out soon that has buttons to switch games like Sky3DS have

Hopefully not like the very first revision of the sky3ds. That thing was a real bummer.

 

[HtheB]

Hopefully not like the very first revision of the sky3ds. That thing was a real bummer.

Well, it's probably gonna be about the same with this one. You need to keep re-inserting the cartridge to switch to the next game. Pretty sure a button version will be released soon after this one. (First blue, then an orange one like Sky3DS? )

 

[Marc_LFD]

Gotta love the white gloves in the video... It's either megaaaaaa precautionary or it's Mario himself!

That gloves shit always creeps me out and it's cringey, too. If I see an unboxing video like that, I just skip it.

 

[Jayro]

This is exciting, I can hardly wait for the cat and mouse game of firmware updates between Nintendo, the cart makers, and Atmosphere.

(it's gonna be a convoluted shit-show real fast, and I'm here for it.)

 

[supermist]

If it could somehow spoof the cart id, it would be interesting. Otherwise, just kinda redundant with CFWs being around. Less work for the end user though I guess

The NDS flashcart I used for my dsi did exactly this so there would be an advantage.

 

[Purple_Shyguy]

T̶e̶a̶m̶ ̶X̶e̶c̶u̶t̶o̶r̶.... I mean, umm... "After T(ime)X" is back baby!

 

[RupeeClock]

If game will require installed update to play online, then you can forget about it.

Updates aren't written to the game card though; they're stored on the Switch system's internal storage or SD card.
If the Switch system believes it has a legitimate physical game card inserted, you're permitted to download the update data for that game without issue. You'll still have to buy any digital DLC on offer.

It's also worth mentioning that the contents of the game card can include:

• The base application (or multiple, in the case of multi-title cartridges)
• Updates to the base application (which may be overridden by a newer update distributed digitally)
• DLC (which may either be a ticket that says "you can access this content present in the update", or the actual content)
• A firmware update for the Switch hardware

A typical complete XCI dump will contain all of these where applicable,

A small thing about the multi-title cartridges. iam8bit recently released a cartridge that has a whopping 12 titles on it. Previously, I think the Final Fantasy I-VI Pixel Remaster collection was the record with 6 titles on one cartridge.
I'm curious how this flashcart would handle that. Probably no differently from any other multi-title cartridge, as an XCI dump will store all of that anyway.

 

[HellGhast]

Could be useful for Lite and Oled owners who don't have the soldering skills to attach a modchip.

 

[Morricorne]

I suspect it will be damn expensive and Nintendo will release an update to the Switch soon. Until it is priced at around 50 euros maximum. The game is not worth the candle. Because for 100 euros I have a beautifully installed and configured RP2040. But an interesting alternative

 

[DuoForce]

Who's gonna spend money on a flashcart when atmosphere is free? NSP files exist and there's really no reason to get a flashcart when you can just get a bigger SD card

 

[tech3475]

Who's gonna spend money on a flashcart when atmosphere is free? NSP files exist and there's really no reason to get a flashcart when you can just get a bigger SD card

It will be those who can't softmod, don't want to hardmod and only want backups/warez.

 

[cearp]

Not sure if anyone's mentioned, but hopefully this will work on the switch successor, since that is supposed to be backwards compatible right?
so if switch pro / switch 2 is slow to hack, we have this!

but, this may get patched and need to remain on or below a certain fw.
we'll see when it's out - cool