Nintendo updates 3DS to block Bannerbomb3 despite eShop discontinuation
3dbrew.org
3dbrew.org
Really shitty of Nintendo to sunset the console and then close the door behind them on the way out. Homebrew communities have been doing their damnedest to keep the 3DS (and its extensive library) alive... but that's Nintendo for ya.
The age of abandonware[0] is over. The promise of future earnings from streaming/downloads means all major content producers will lock down even out-of-print works, like consoles from previous generations.
This is just another casualty of the fight we were having 20 years ago, re: copyright. We lost. It's over.
I guess by cutting off supply of the old stuff, though, they can do re-releases and re-masters charging somewhat similar to the price of a new game, or get people to pay a monthly subscription fee for access.
That said, I 100% believe this is just a way for them to make sure you can't mod second hand 3DS consoles in five years time when they bring 3DS re-releases to the Switch.
There is tons of licensing issues in the gaming industry under the surface that causes problems all over the place. An extreme example would be Sega's mistakes with Sonic.
Sonic 3, despite not having him in the credits, contains some works by Michael Jackson. That has complicated things tremendously in re-releases, so much so, that Sega has re-released that game far less than Sonic 1, 2, and CD. Sonic Origins, the latest re-release, contains redone music from prototypes rather than solve the licensing quagmire.
But that's not the only licensing quagmire. Guess why the Sonic movies don't have almost any soundtracks or sound effects from the game? According to the Directors, it wasn't a thematic choice, but a legal one. Sonic CD's re-release on smartphones had a similar issue with the opening scene having the vocals removed, because they were from an obscure band that went through a series of legal changes, acquisitions, member changes... This is actually a big problem with re-releases in general. Hunting down who actually owns the rights to a series can be a mess when acquisitions are involved; and you'd better hope the new owners at the end of the road are reasonable and not eager for a quick buck.
And to top it all off, just look up the Kenneth W. Penders story, which single-handedly took advantage of Sega's lax copyright protectionism to "steal" almost 200 characters right from under Sega's feet. Nintendo is no doubt looking at that, and the Sonic music issues, and thinking... man, this is why we protect.
Wouldn't this be a work of the federal government and in the public domain? Thinking of all the war movies that used old military footage....
Not necessarily
EDIT: This got prematurely sent and thus was overly terse: contractors and other private parties connected to government test may have been permitted to take photos, and those (even within the scope of work of a government contract) may be subject to copyright. (Also, its theoretically possible that some tests were photographed by people with no formal connection to the test, though the remote locations and lack of announced times make that challenging.)
Others still treat a game like a moderatly long one time performance.
If they ARE using licensed things that are non-perpetual, they should arrange for some way to remove them, if possible.
And it sometimes is impossible, the "Poker Night at the Inventory" games are no longer available because the character licenses expired, and they'd be nothing without them.
Why is this a thing? I've heard of game studios having a movie studio make a movie, but then not allow them to use certain elements from the game. It ruins the movie, IMO, and I've never understood why game studios knee-cap movie adaptations like that.
Second, AFAIK they are running those servers right now with no revenue. They blocked new purchases, but you can still re-download existing purchases. I googled around and it seems like that's still the case. I do not know how long they will maintain that.
There is also the staffing element. Maybe the engineers or product people are interested in resourcing a product with no career growth.
There is a hefty on-going maintenance cost for these stores.
I bet they make more from re-releasing ports of “vault” titles than they would keeping them for sale forever.
Believe me; movie studios and game companies have re-releases down to a science. Disney (arguably) perfected it first with their "Disney Vault" scheme. It increases the value to buyers when it's available for sale; and it also helps the company if there is little new content to offer for the year.
I'm surprised so few people put together that Super Mario 3D All-Stars is actually Nintendo perfectly following the Disney Vault script.
I think they would have. those games are all available on the 2nd hand market easily. I don't mind paying for remasters of games I already own for older hardware, anyway, because remasters are not a big expense for me and by buying remasters I send my vote that I want remasters.
I mean, it's Nintendo's IP. they can do what they want. I think the way they do things is very short-sighted, though.
I don't need it to be perfect.
I think a new port requiring a new purchase seems fair, and there's a target market in that one for those who missed those prior generation of games, or who want it on the switch hardware.
I would GLADLY pay Nintendo for every ROM I want but do not have, if they would only take my money and sell it.
they choose not to sell. so I feel it is, at a minimum, borderline ok to pirate things that aren't sold anymore. I would give my money, but these companies will not take it.
this is where music downloads were in 2002 or so. maybe a bit later. people were pirating like crazy and record companies would not give users what they wanted: the ability to listen to what they wanted where they wanted.
most pirates (those who don't consider piracy itself a hobby, anyway) don't really want to pirate; they want to play a game, or hear a song, or watch a TV show or movie when they want. They want on-demand access to the things they enjoy. they will gladly pay if only the copyright owners would accept the money, but often they won't.
so the users take things into their own hands. I'm ok with it. but I'm no one and no media company will ever listen to me so whatever.
Yarrr matey, no it aint. It has only begone.
Gonna take the eye patch and peg leg out of the mothballs and start putting them to good use.
Having a hard time believing a deluge of generative AI content will keep Mickey Mouse worth anything; even if the AI content cannot be copyrighted why would users pay for Mickey Mouse?
Even with the ornate stable diffusion, mid journey, and all the rest I use, it’s far easier to setup than a Linux project was 10-15 years ago.
A few more iterations on nerfs and the proper porcelain is all it seems like we’re waiting on to me.
If the supply of compatible flashcarts ever dries up, it will definitely get harder, though hopefully there will be more software exploits discovered by then.
> The usage of this exploit, regardless of the flashing method, requires access to a small magnet if the target device is of a folding style (any 3DS family system that is not the old 2DS with a sleep switch). This is because the exploit requires your device to enter sleep mode while still having access to the buttons.
another area of research is many flashcarts are actually obfuscation around FPGA and integrated flash perhaps if there was more interest a design could be produced in the spirit of open-hardware sans Nintendo property.
EDIT: I found a recent GBATemp thread where some research into flashcart design is going on. Maybe something will come of that. Link: https://gbatemp.net/threads/gathering-ds-flashcard-knowledge...
What you're saying makes some sense to me, but I also don't think you can ever truly stop jail-breaking, unless you guarantee the end user is surveilled at all times and can deploy local law enforcement on them the moment they try anything suspicious, even when the device is turned off... Like it would be insanity levels.
I found a video that outlines how and why this is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSTK5Xk9JB0
tl;dr Microsoft provided incentives for people not to even bother trying to jailbreak the console, especially allowing people to buy developer mode for $20, which allows running homebrew applications including console emulators (which had I known sooner, I would have bought an Xbox One ages back so I can emulate old games I have around the house, but dont want to wire up the various consoles I've got, its nicer to just have the one console).
Apple has these with music publishers, especially when the iTunes Store first launched.
Nintendo also isn't giving you a detailed timeline of their upcoming consoles if you're trying to sell games through their console. For all you know, the Switch 2 is right around the corner and signing a distributor contract now will launch your game onto a dead platform.
Vagueness can be good in these cases.
Honestly - Nintendo is the pettiest and shittiest to its incredibly passionate fan base.
Where SEGA hires people who have created great fan content, for instance; Nintendo sends out C&D’s.
Nintendo shut off their own revenue stream by closing the 3DS store.
That was their choice. They could still be making at least a bit of money from the 3DS store, but they chose not to.
So…punish the homebrew devs for their own stupid decision? I have never been able to understand Nintendo’s behaviour, especially having grown up in the ROM hacking and fan gaming scene where SEGA and Nintendo could not be more parallel opposites.
Sega doesn't represent anyone. They are in charge of their own games, and that's it. They feel free to allow, or disallow, people to do whatever they want with them. Also, Sega of Japan actually feels not that much love for Sonic and was surprised by his US success - they don't really care; but if you touched some of their other franchises on their home turf they'd have a little more bite.
Nintendo, on the other hand, has wildly successful IP in Japan and the US; and also represents all of the developers on their platform. All it takes is for one developer to complain that people are pirating their old 3DS game and Nintendo should do something about it, and Nintendo doesn't really need to disagree and cause a 3rd-party developer to be upset. It's an easy enough fix, takes little effort, is a reasonable enough request, and keeps the relationship happy.
Edit: Also, as I elaborate here, Sega has paid a price for lax copyright practices. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36048593
Eh... Not really?
I mean, what are we even complaining about here? That a company did some minor step (in a too little too late fashion) to block their old console, that everyone and their dog already hacked?
And even still, how does it impede the homebrew people? Plenty of emulators for every Nintendo console available anyway.
And let's not pretend like this is not going to be bypassed as well. I would be surprised if in half a year there is not a new way to just hack it anyway.
It's almost ironic. Blizzard tried multiple times (and failed) to create some title that made a breakthrough in the e-sports scene.
Nintendo on the other hand had something without even trying, and could have monetized it to no end. But they decided to keep away from it, and took some effort to shutdown the usage of their IP for it.
I can sort of understand the rationale. They are very careful with how their brands are used. Contrary to other videogame companies, Nintendo lives and dies on their brands and IPs. It's their biggest asset, and the only thing ensuring they remain meaningful.
Lol hello again. I stand corrected.
Looks like people are still playing MK7 online from a quick google so I assume the servers are still up.
Like many other gaming consoles, you can only run software that is approved by the manufacturer on it. To run your own software ("homebrew"), one has to exploit flaws in the OS and use them to remove these restrictions. One side effect of homebrew is that it often leads to piracy of approved software.
One of the most common step-by-step guides that help users install homebrew uses an exploit called Bannerbomb3 to run the installer. [0] By inserting a malformed DSiWare application onto the SD card, the System Settings app can be crashed in such a way that facilitates arbitrary code execution. The loaded program is then used to install custom firmware.
In March 2023, Nintendo shut down the eShop, the digital software storefront for the Nintendo 3DS, effectively ending most support for the console. After this happened, many people started advocating homebrew-ing 3DSes to allow pirated software to be installed on them, since purchasing software digitally could no longer be done.
Now, 2 months later, Nintendo has decided to issue a firmware update that patches the Bannerbomb3 exploit, preventing new 3DS systems from being homebrewed in this fashion if they are on the latest firmware. (It should be noted that there are many, many more exploits for the 3DS [1], so I'm not sure why they've decided to fix this exact one.)
Homebrew on Nintendo consoles has always had a really interesting scene but it really took off with the Wii and everything after it. Hackers would keep finding ways to get into everything and Nintendo would hastily patch it up in a sort of live cat and mouse game. The exploit that Nintendo patched just recently is not hard to do, but older exploits were even easier. One of the earlier 3DS exploits was to simply drop a modified audio file onto your SD card and play it in the 3DS audio player. You would own the whole device in ten seconds flat.
(and the whole gog crowd, me included as well)
That map sent me in a rabbit hole of Doom modding that I simply was not even aware that existed and was active.
(1) Your average Nintendo gamer isn't into the modding scene whatsoever; they just want to play the latest version of Mario Kart.
(2) Their games really are good. So good people will bend over backwards to mod them (or, in the case of older titles, even just play them), despite the challenges. Particularly for games they grew up on.
It's not a mod, per se (and to some extent it's tacitly tolerated by Nintendo), but the Pokemon Showdown[1] battle simulator is one of my favorite examples of a fan-made gaming project.
Competitive Pokemon follows a couple different formats: there's the official Nintendo-sponsored format, known as VGC, which is played on physical game cartridges and uses rules set by Nintendo itself; and then there's Smogon, which is a community-led format with dozens of different metagames and tiers. Players (usually) vote on rules and bans in any given format, and games themselves are played on Pokemon Showdown's browser-based battle simulator.
What makes this so cool is that Pokemon Showdown is a 1:1 replica of how player-vs-player battles function on physical game cartridges—including random glitches and quirks from earlier generations. (Gen 1 Hyper Beam, anyone?) Nintendo hasn't brought down the hammer because Pokemon Showdown is no replacement for actually playing a full-blown Pokemon game, but it's an amazing way to preserve competitive formats from generations past. The DS and 3DS may be dead, but BW OU's weather wars live on...
They market to children/toddlers who have no concept of corporate mascots. Their fans have nostalgia toward childhood characters/stuffed animals.
Have a good day, I'm closing this tab.
Until said fanbase is gone (which is almost never), Nintendo can effectively do whatever they want to modders & homebrewers, with the fanbase continuing to buy Nintendo's products without question.
Someone here even said they felt personally betrayed by Nintendo because they bought a Wii U and then Nintendo never released a Zelda title exclusively on that console. That's pathologic.
> Someone here even said they felt personally betrayed by Nintendo because they bought a Wii U and then Nintendo never released a Zelda title exclusively on that console. That's pathologic.
Nevertheless, they still buy their games & consoles. Such criticisms have near-zero value if said fans keep buying Nintendo's products.
Does this update install automatically? Should I do something to prevent it?
So I would add custom firmware first if that's something you want to do to it in the future.
If you haven't and still plan on doing so, keeping the console offline is your best bet. Deleting the WiFi network is the easiest way to make sure it doesn't update. I don't think 3DS online services are still popular but your son can probably tell you that.
Hacking the thing took me two or three hours in total, with no hardware modification using the guide on https://3ds.hacks.guide/. Most of that was me being careful while reading the instructions and making backups, I'm pretty sure the entire process can be done in twenty minutes. Now that the eStore has been abandoned, it's the only way to play some eStore only titles so it's worth doing if you want to preserve that history.
It could even be like how Nintendo is doing the Game Boy last year, with basic Game Boy on the standard plan and GBA with the Expansion pack. Basic DS games would be on the general Online plan, and newer 2DS/3DS games with the Expansion Pack.
Which coincidentally was also how I modded my WiiU: https://github.com/smealum/haxchi
For example, a switch port of Link Between Worlds is more valuable if you can’t easily buy a used 3DS and pirate it.
But it is probably just Nintendo being protective of their IP and means nothing.
Could see the final year or two of the Switch having a bunch of them tbh, similar to some of the bizarre late period 3DS ports (e.g. Bowser's Inside Story)
Unless they prove me wrong and we finally get Mother 3.
Thing is though, nothing will be as pleasant as using it on the actual hardware. If it isn't on an actual DS/3DS, I don't see the point in playing at all personally unless they radically change the controls to a rereleased game.
Nope. Online multiplayer games still work. They only removed the feature to buy new games from the eShop.
Personally, I think it's rather likely that Nintendo did this specifically to prevent their customers from installing custom firmware on devices they purchased, rather than because Nintendo wanted to fix a bug for any sort of perfectionist or altruistic ("user security") reasons. It can just be dressed up as a security issue, so that's what they do if they feel the need to justify it at all.