While the Nintendo DSi has been out for a little over a decade and it received its last firmware update in 2012, you could only hack it with a digital-only application (from a store that’s closed) or hardmodding until now. However, things have just changed thanks to the unexpected release of Memory Pit by shutterbug2000!

What was the state of DSi hacking? What is Memory Pit?

If you didn’t have Flipnote Studio, the only way to hack your DSi was via hardmodding (to let you downgrade) but now, that’s changed!

Up till today, hacking a DSi console on the latest firmware was only possible by one of two methods. These are the Flipnote Studio method, which is a digital-only DSiware application previously available on the DSi shop which closed 2 years ago, or through a hardmod (hardware modification).

In other words, this meant that if your DSi didn’t have Flipnote Studio already installed, you were out of luck when it came to hacking it through software and were forced to either hardmod it yourself or take it to a shop that offers hacking services since the process requires soldering skills.

Now, that has drastically changed as shutterbug2000, who also worked on nds-bootstrap, with others just released Memory Pit which is an exploit that makes use of a vulnerability found in the Nintendo DSi Camera application which comes pre-installed on every console. As a result, every DSi can now be hacked to run homebrew and HiyaCFW for free through a softmod since hardmods are no longer required in any situation!

How do I get Memory Pit on my Nintendo DSi?

Hacking your DSi with Memory Pit is pretty easy and the following steps can be followed to quickly run some homebrew on your console:

• First of all, dedicate a few minutes of your time to this and grab an SD card reader
• Download the ‘pit.zip’ file from this link and copy its extracted contents (pit.bin) to “private/ds/app/484E494A” on your SD card
  

  Hacking your DSi with Memory Pit is relatively quick and simple since you only have to copy a few files and open the DSi camera app!

• Download HBMenu and copy over BOOT.NDS from the ZIP file to the root of the SD card
• Put the SD card back into your DSi and open the camera application
• Tap the SD card icon on top and press Album
• HBMenu has now been launched on your device allowing you to run homebrew, install Unlaunch and finally get HiyaCFW

If you want to do more than just run homebrew through HBMenu, it’s recommended you check out the excellent hacking guide provided by ‘dsi.cfw.guide‘ which has already been updated to make use of the Memory Pit exploit.

Conclusion

With the release of this exploit, there’s virtually no reason not to get a DSi if you find one for cheap unless you own a hackable 3DS since you can get CFW on it in under half an hour! After the thrill of getting CFW on it wears off, you should surely check out some DSi homebrew like TWiLight Menu++ (lets you run DS ROMs from the SD card and many emulators including one for SNES and NES), CQuake and DSX86 among others!