Sky3DS, the “out of the blue” 3DS piracy Flashcart
Those of you following the 3DS scene might have known for a while about the Sky3DS, a new type of flashcart allowing people to play 3DS roms on the 3DS, up to the latest firmwares 9.xx.
Information about the device started appearing less than 2 weeks ago, and the SKy3DS is now available for sale on hardware modification sites. The team behind the device also released a piece of software required to copy the roms from one’s computer onto the Sky3ds. Hackers are already busy trying to reverse engineer that piece of software to see if it could help understanding the vulnerability leveraged by the Sky3DS.
The device kind of came out of the blue, and many questions were surfacing in the early days:
In particular, the Sky3DS lets one copy up to 10 roms on a memory card, and play them on any 3DS. What was not clear for a while was the details of that “10 rom slots” limitation. Can the 10 games be replaced to one’s heart content by replacing files on the SD Card? The FAQ of the Sky3DS site seems to be pretty clear at this point though: you get to choose 10 games, copy them, and that’s it, those are the 10 games you will be playing with that cart. If you want to play another game, the 11th one, you cannot, it seems, delete one of the other ones and replace it. Instead, you’ll have to buy another Sky3DS cart, which will let you, once again, copy 10 more games.
The Sky3DS was rumored to be a fake initially, but it appears to now be in stock on several retailers’ websites.
The device sells for prices around $90. This basically means people buying this device pay $9 per pirated game. This is an interesting situation, as this is clearly very expensive for piracy, but also remains less expensive than buying the actual game, so some people will surely be interested in that.
The Sky3DS is of no use for people who are looking for a “region free” 3DS (roms from the wrong region will simply not run. Although their FAQ mentions that a game from the wrong region, copied by mistake, will not count as one of the 10 game slots), and it is also not going to enable homebrews.
For obvious reasons I will not link to that device’s site, but you can see a very long and interesting discussion thread about Sky3DS on GBATemp, as well as on /talk
What do you think? Is that a device you’d buy? What is your take on a device that is openly promoting only “backups” support, and no homebrew?
Note: We have contacted the Sky3DS team several times asking to test the device, but they have yet to respond. As such, we cannot confirm at this point if the device actually does what it claims to.
This is exactly why I’ve always hated the DS hacking community, it’s always been about piracy, nothing else. These cards disgust me, and enforcing their own limitations on them, to make you buy multiple cards if you wanted to play more than 10 games, enforces the idea that you’re paying for piracy. I really hope people will think twice about buying one of these and just support the industry, who’d you prefer to give your money to, pirates, or the company who actually created the game? This is as bad a buying a pirated movie or game off someone, absolutely disgusting.
/rant
Have you ever played games on an emulator? If you have, you have no room to talk.
well, we don’t have to pay for emulators & roms
What emulators are you talking about????buying an original copy of a snes or gba game will not give the money to the developers of the game at this point.pirating current gamesnis like buying used from gamestop.
Paying for pirated games is completely wrong.
Downloading games and putting them on a card is ok as long as its FREE and stays that way.
Forcing people to 10 games only is in the class as paying for piracy so its also not right. Forcing people who want 20 games to buy 2 cards is wrong. If you buy 1 card so the games you downloaded work thats ok but as long as it lets you put on more than just 10, that limitation is stupid and shouldn’t be there. I can see why so maybe they need to say why its limited and explain it clearer.
Well i was thinking nintendo had a limit on the number of games like how sony makes it so there no sound wen playing psone games on the vita. Like how the games have to be from the region of the 3ds. But would have to probly flash the 3dsif u wonted to play more then 10 games and games from any region. I would think the flash card pretty simple ds stuff.
you can justify it to yourself however you see fit, but at the end of the day, it’s still piracy.
you can argue if piracy is a bad thing or not, but you can’t argue about if pirated snes games are piracy or not.
also, don’t tell nintendo that they can’t make money on old nes/snes games still, they’re finding it to be quite profitable
You do realize that if people hadn’t built up collections of ROMs for old systems, those games would legitimately cease to exist.? There is a limited number of physical copies, some of which have internals that are starting to go bad and thus render the game unplayable. Compiling downloadable ROMs is a good thing for the sake of preserving video games into the future.
Obviously this claim does not apply for games that were inherently distributed in digital format…
You seem to have a pretty narrow view reaper. A view that deals with absolutes is never good (eg “always” and “never”)
but… A view that deals with absolutes is never good (eg “always” and “never”) is an absolute…
what if he had, but now he’s not?
Yes, but I own the consoles and the games, so I have plenty of room to talk.
If you legally own a copy of that game and use it to play via an Emulator (which has the distinct advantages of filters/rendering at higher resolutions) youre not “wrong” in any sense. You’ve paid for the software, you can play it any way you wish. Your statement is only valid when you download something you don’t own or haven’t paid for.
As hacking becomes harder it will always be about money, and the best way to make money is piracy. The homebrew community get nothing in return for their investment. DarkAlex is not a millionaire – he is a poor man just like everyone else. All he got out of his efforts is that people remember his online name, in real-life he got absolutely nothing.
So you have to ask yourself; does one make money and get called a scumbag, or do you cater to the homebrew ethical hippies and have them praise some made-up name while you live in a shoe box – barely making the weekly rent?
How do you know this he could be rich and done it for the heck of it.
another moral *** or either a troll.. Go rant at nintendo forums not here..
Yeah, please continue to kill the community that you love by pirating games.
the day Devs and creators of games ,movies,consoles etc give proper pricing to their products,then piracy will reduce,otherwise paying $80 for games and pay extra for online and dlc is ridiculous
It probably came because of piracy/lack of sales. $80 is cheap. Have you ever bought a *** sofa? $1000 for four pieces of wood slapped together. I wish I could pirate that instead.
I bought my r4i 3ds gold card from http://www.r4is.com/r4i-gold-3ds-rts-best-r4i-3ds-card-for-3dsdsids-lite-p-1.html almost a year ago, however, I use it as a handy e-books reader
Yet here you are on Wololo’site talking *** about how pirates disgust you, you are a *** hypocrite man.
Will the investigation(hacking) of sky3ds let poor gamers get fake cards cheaper or even lead to the hacking of the 3ds?
probably NOT
I’d rather get R4. It’s the best one in my opinion, and it’s very cheap.
Works like any other flash cards, has cheats like the rest as well.
R4 does DS games, this does 3DS games so completely different system.
Actually sky3ds does ds and 3ds
Oh wow, really?! Too bad that doesn’t matter at all because this was about 3DS games and R4 does not play 3DS games.
Well maybe if u guys stop messhing with webpages like usa gov maybe u guys can actuly hack the 3ds full jailbreak so nintendo can actuly have fun with the hacking sceen instead of jus dealing with a flash card that works like the rest of the flash card. Well having a ds that flash with windows or linux would be boss. But then i no *** about computer.
I would like to get one of these but 10 games only sucks. I’ll wait for the card that lets you have 10 at a time and lets you change games not forces you to buy another card.
And the price, no thanks. Half that and I’ll be interested.
If you have not heard yet guys, cfw for the 3DS has been leaked this past week. It only needs a compatible ds flash card and it should make homebrew for 3DS much easier. Right now you need 4.x ofw but it will be interesting to see if this new flash card or smealum’s exploit can install the cfw. Once the cfw sees some improvements, it will most likely make these flash card useless.
@Wololo, I have a question. I’ve been hearing about the R5 and how it is able to play backup 3DS games without the limitations of Sky3DS. Based on your expertise, does this seem to be a fake or the real thing
http://www.r5sdhc.com/
http://www.r4gateway.com/r5sdhc-3ds-flashcard-supoort-3ds-roms-on-all-3ds-system-version-p-43.html
Actually if you read all the features on R5sdhc’s site, it says that there is a 10 title limit, though it does not say if you can’t change them later.
This is moronic. $90 for a cheap piece of plastic with a cheap PCB. It probably cost $3 to make, and then they request you buy more? These idiots need to have their cart and software reverse engineered. Remove the 10 game limit and I would concider it for $90. This is more expensive than cobra and tru blue dongles, and I stayed away like the plague from them too. Boo sky3ds you guys suck.
that’s “trade secret” for you.
if you’re a legit consumer then these kind of stuff won’t bother you. LMAO
i bet you’re one of those people who want free piracy :p
I honestly never understood why you would pay for pirated stuff…. I either get a pirated game/movie/song for free or if I like it I buy the thing from the store. I would never pay money for something illegal.
I don’t own any DS, I just feel this is ridiculous. I wouldn’t consider buying a cart or dongle for piracy. I have always been about running unsigned code, period.
***, that’s exactly what I was hoping for. I hope someone reverse engineers it and creates one that isn’t damn expensive, and doesn’t have that stupid 10 game limit. This is a dirty money grab.
Why are my comments being moderated?
I had to put stricter rules in place for comments. The system is automated, and it does not mean your comments have a problem, just that they were flagged for review, sometimes for no good reason. You can read details about why I increased the moderation here: http://wololo.net/talk/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=40473
3DS doesn’t faze me even with homebrew, easy to pirate, pokemon, mario and zelda ***… i won’t buy one. FYI it’s not money problem :p
one word ,gateway 3ds more than roms 😉 the only limitation is 4.5 system firmware
Where does it say that you can’t delete one of the games and replace it with a different one?
“The FAQ of the Sky3DS site seems to be pretty clear at this point though: you get to choose 10 games, copy them, and that’s it”
Wow… it is… hard to … read content… of post!
I think he read that part and asked where is says so on the sky3ds site. Given the crappy english in the FAQ, I can understand people get confused about that.
From their site.
“Q: What’s that mean – “ten 3DS games maximum per SKY3DS card”?
A: You can choose to copy any 10 games into your microSD card at the first time, Sky3DS will “remember” them and you can only play those 10 games no matter if you change the microSD card or not. You do need another SKY3DS card if you want to play more 3DS games anyway.”
So no one is interested in buying the R5 then? I heard it eliminates the limitations of Sky3ds.
from the site you posted on here… “(7). 10 games slot limited for a R5SDHC.”
My guess it is a rebranded Sky3DS card.
So like u no how the 3ds can have only have a small ammount of games downloaded from the nintendo store.even.if u have like a large sd card this is like the same thing. my bad on the obvious.
alguien sabe como poner el nat 2 en el psvita .Ya cambie en el pc datos el router dicen otros.
como cambio del router
And when it gets broken your $90 goes the way of the True Blue lolz think any support will last ???
what about skyTV
a settop for montage in the basement next to the modem
one that takes in tv signal analog and hd and internet for hd
and sends out dlna iptv dhcp signals of live channels
and recordings …
a 4tb 2.5inch sata hdd or dual 2TB
and streamlined like a ps2 slim
now at the moment they come with a tv hd settop box from the provider
but no cast4me on them
only live tv on the tv etc …
dream out of the box
If you pay for piracy then you are not a pirate lol…you are a dumb ***.also to all the people complaining about this $90 ***,nobody is focing you to buy it.the creators dont need to give it to you for free since its their work and they decide what to do with it.
Well how the flashcard woks was jus commen sense if u ask me well my idea of how to get games runiing on the 3ds was rather a simple one i thought of after watching a video on yputibe that compared the ds to the psp.
Please, anyone that complains about this as being the example of why the 3DS scene is all about piracy and sucks is full of themselves, you hate the 3DS scene because its all about MONEY, not PIRACY. The Nintendo handheld hacking scene has always been about money, every single iteration has had tons of “pay to piracy” carts and programs.
In an environment where hacking leads to paying for stuff, there is no incentive for homebrew. The piracy is inconsequential, if all the groups gouging people for money disappeared homebrew would more then likely flourish.
Well i like the flash card fo the ds jus cuz the ds had game slots for the gameboy games. Always wonted a ds that i could.stream games to my 3ds so i could play gameboy games on a 3ds or transfer pokemon from a gameboy version to a ds version then to a 3ds version. Jus so i can get missing nom on to the 3ds pokemon game cuz missing nom was a boss pokemon.
i wonder if smealum’s exploit has anything to do with this… just asking….
nope, it doesnt
I used to pirate games a lot when I was younger, especially DS and PSP games, so even though I typically avoid pirating things, I’m not exactly justified if I were to say flash cards are scummy. However, what is scummy is designing the device to squeeze money out of the consumer. If you’re going to open up some hardware to the world of piracy and homebrew for the first time, at least don’t be an *** about it.
Well folks whats the problem… a new FC
dont tell me you never payed for Piracy
There where times people buy movies on burned CDs
Yes I buy Flashcards.
But I also buy much games cause I´m a collector.
So the best thing on a FC like GW or MT is I can play US, JP and EUR games on one console.
I love Harvest Moon and cant wait for the EUR release and eather for the ROM so I bought it and play the US retailcard with my GW. So dont tell me its ALL about piracy.
@Wololo
Try asking a shop not the producer.
I got my Sky 3ds for free, for writing the german review and guides at our community.
bei welchem shop?
at a shop who sells it and need someone for a good review.
You also need a name in the scene or some references that prrof that you are a reviwer tester youtuber or else.
So i can play pokemon x.Think i would get this flash cart but it is a bit pricy compared to outher price cards. Worth it i guess since i wont a flash card for my 3ds. Hope it has like action replay cuz i wana get some custume pokemon had a mew that had thunder fire pysic and recovery. Thinking about the 3ds scene emulaters would be cool. A windows xp on a 3ds would be cool with wifi. always wanted to have games on the sd card but ds games cot alot. Was wondering know the games r like account lock but cant i jus buy the games from the nintendo shop and have the games on a bunch of 3ds that registerd to the same account. Smart of nintendo having a game limit. Wy not jus make like an eggplant. i would have thought the 3ds would have been hacked by now like a android fon. But i jus would have to have a custume os. i still wont a wii u so i can use the wii remote like a 3ds. Or have the wii remote as a media server for my 3ds.
over priced, region locked and, worst of all, limit to 10 games and ONLY those 10 games per card FOREVER. if you wanted to play any different games that is not those 10 games then you’ll have to buy more sky3ds carts. forget this thing.
As crappy as this thing looks, it’s the only way to pirate games on FW5.x+, and that’s why someone somewhere will buy it, sadly.
Pirating should be (as close to being) free as possible, flash cart manufacturers must die in a fire.
Leaking CFW, as controversial as it is, is still a step in right direction.
To tell the truth i’d be happy to pay 10~20 bucks for the r4 in order to play ds games(even on the 3ds), but this whole 3ds hack(bussines) is ridiculous. The gateway costs 99 dollars, and now come these *** who try to make big money with these absurd restrictions. Screw that, i’m gonna wait till things get a little better. Oh, and about this whole ds/3ds hacking…, as we all know the dual screen console just like the psp makes use of a memory stick. So why cant we use that, Just like the psp? I’m by no means a hacker and don’t know much about it but i’m pretty sure the way to do that exists, and it’s not being introduced, because some people just like to make money. As i said before 10~20 dollars is understandable at some point but still 99 is a little…
@Wololo setup a petition for them to GIVE you a device to test, post the link on your site and we will sign it. If Wololo says no, we ain’t bothering with it.
lol, no…
I think everyone is misunderstanding the 10 game per card limit. Like when gate way 3ds first came out, t was 1 game per micro sd card. This will most likely be the same, just a limit of 10 on each memory card.
nope,sky3ds currently only supports ten 3ds games,not a limit of 10 on each memory card,but i belive the official team will fix this problem sooner or later. I have ordered one from official distributor http://www.modchipwarehouse.com, ETA 2 days later and hope it will let me down.
First off, there are s many comments, I apologize if it was already clarified, but there is a mistake in the article. 10 roms period.
If you purchase this device, do not attempt an out of region rom. unike the misinformation here, IT WILL BURN YOUR SLOT EVEN IF IT DOESN’T WORK!
Quote from the FAQ:
Q: What’s that mean – “ten 3DS games maximum per SKY3DS card”?
A: You can choose to copy any 10 games into your microSD card at the first time, Sky3DS will “remember” them and you can only play those 10 games no matter if you change the microSD card or not. You do need another SKY3DS card if you want to play more 3DS games anyway.
Q: What happens to this limit if someone put a rom (by error) from a different region into the MicroSD? Does it still count as 1 used slot even if the rom cannot be launched?
A: It doesn’t matter if put the wrong region games into your microSD card, SKY3DS won’t count it in total, you can even copy more than 10 games into microSD card, anyway SKY3DS still only remember those 10 games in the first place.
Translation: First 10 games period. don’t copy a game unless you are sure about it. period. Don’t attempt a region free solution. Period.
Now for my opinion. This is the worst solution one can have as a pirate. I don’t support piracy with an exception for the people who truly want to try a game for a few hours or days before purchase, or want a temporary solution (instant gratification) until they are able to purchase the game due to lack of funds, availability, etc.
This could even be a great solution to homebrew development, as we saw with the DS flash card capabilities.
But they flat out put a 10 rom limit. This encourages financial gain to them, though as a plus, helps prevent excessive piracy. It may be a hardware limitation, but from the looks of things, it isn’t. Even if the limitation was a white knight attempt, it is not by any means going to provide a significant enough barrier for loss due to piracy, as one could buy another cart.
The money sent on this cart may be a smaller amount in the long run, but one would be better off being patient and supporting the developers by purchasing the real games. After all, with a 10 rom limit, eventually you will make up the difference, and chances are you wont play all 10 as frequently as say 2-3 games, in which the money could have supported the developers.
Ultimately, it peaks my interest in how they managed to bypass the security. I am curious as to simply how it works. The device its self is interesting, and hopefully can be RE to the point that not only is the 10 rom limit removed, but could possibly be used as a means to further exploit the system giving us other options like the coveted coin setter and dev menu. I would love to be able to manipulate this system to its full potential rather than something stupid like blatant piracy. This cart may be a good start. Smea’s exploit is right around the corner, and is another good foundation to really bring about this devices full potential.
People need to stop focusing on piracy, and focus on improving the device and showing Nintendo what we really want in a hand held device by taking matters in our own hands.
Also, the “scene” should stop pulling *** moves, and work together. years from now, no one will give a *** who exploited the device, they will simply be grateful that the hackers worked hard to make it a reality.
I say that as fact as many of my friends and I cannot even name the guys who made the wii scene a reality, but we are forever grateful for the awesome mods these people brought that are achievable to this day.
Edit, I was mistaken. Still be careful to copy only the 10 roms you truly want. you will regret burning your slots later if you copy a game you do not like.
And according to our user, if you download the 11th game into the card, you can never switch games, so it may be the reason for 10 games limitation.
I think now SKY3DS and R5SDHC all can run more than 10 roms now!
VIdeo here for R5SDHC to run more than 10 roms:
R5SDHC breakthrough features 10 limit and description:
1. do not need to make any changes to the software or hardware;
2. supports an unlimited number of game programming;
3. erasable;
4. normal archiving, networking;
5. The need Pull plug, a similar principle of operation of the mechanism of the initial DS PASSME;
6. crack operate personal behavior, if you try to cause any hardware or software failure, I shall not be responsible.
I don’t know why this would even be appealing with the new Gateway 3ds FW coming out. It seems like others no about this exploit as their team just announced they will be releasing an update for 9.x.x. Also, its region free, no game limit, and homebrew works really well on it
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