Nintendo DSi Homebrew Block Cracked

[Nathan Meunier]

Nintendo DSi Homebrew Block Cracked

Tweaks to the new DSi may have temporarily put the kibosh on homebrew applications, but hackers have developed a new flash device to work around the problem.


In a move to thwart pirating, tech adjustments implemented in Nintendo's updated DSi handheld Acekard 2i [http://gizmodo.com/5072713/nintendo-dsi-blocks-pirated-flash-cards] manages to break on through to the other side.

When it comes to stopping a thriving gaming hardware hacking community, resistance is futile. The Acekard 2i [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33q1y0UN4cA&eurl=http://www.wikio.com/video/655992] does indeed work on the Japanese DSi, but it's hard to say whether or not Nintendo will bother tweaking the handheld's guts a little further to block out the flash device for the DSi's North American release next year.

Flash carts are widely used to play pirated software; but they also greatly expand a handheld's usability, by providing independent developers a platform for their homebrew applications. Nintendo and other major game companies don't like software piracy, and they go to great lengths to stamp it out. The problem is the homebrew development community takes a hit each time new anti-piracy measures are put into play. Flash carts are sort of a gray area, since the line between using them for illegal game piracy and using them for legitimate homebrew applications is so thin.

What do you think? Are flash carts encouraging piracy or are they making the world a better place via homebrew applications? Discuss below.


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[Odjin]

Simply put: yes they improve. Things like DSLinux, DSOrganize, MoonShell and many others are just a must have turning this machine into more. And if you are a hacker ( not a cracker... people mix up the terms all the time U.=.U ) like me it's interesting to code for this guy.

That said most people use it for playing games. You can misuse anything on this world. Hell even a pencil can be use to do bad things yet it's not illegal to own one, right?

 

[shatnershaman]

Nintendo shouldn't bother with tweaking. They always find a way around it, just look at the DS's competitor the PSP. Its too bad since while Flash Carts allow homebrew it will just be exploited to pirate games.

 

[Skrapt]

It's simply something that was intended for legal uses, such as 3rd party homebrew applications and games, that was misused for something nefarious and therefore labeled as such. It's basically gone the same way as P2P downloads, started as something 'for the users' and turned into something nefarious and labeled as such that almost no one remembers its original purpose.

 

[fix-the-spade]

This is excellent news.

I us the homebrew ap Colors to do sketches when out and about, it's a pretty indispensible piece of kit for my job. If the DSi had resisted flash carts persistently I wouldn't be buying one.

Any word on how the workarounds for the M3 cart is coming along?

 

[stompy]

Don't try and fight hackers. They will eventually break through your defences... it's only a matter of time.

 

[Battlefrank]

This reminds me of PSP homebrew!
I remember back when Sony resisted it so much, making me hate them, adding to the amount of times Sony seriously pissed me off to 3(right there with having to return a PS2 with what I think was a misaligned optical drive or somthing and suing a gaming stores for fucktons.) I guess you could add blu-ray to that(want to write to a blu-ray disc? pay $4000...). All I can say is there is something wrong with society when a company can make it to the top by being dicks and shitting all over everyone and ruining everything.

 

[sleeping_forest]

where i live in canada, i see that the majority of ppl using DS lite currently all use flash cards. Nintendo can argue that the flash cards are making them lose business but its not true. those ppl who are just playing with flash cards would not buy a ds system if they had to pay for games. so by having the flash cards, they'll be willing to go buy a system. therefore nintendo is still making money off them =.=;;

 

[Wolfman775]

The only Reason you need a homebrew cart for the DSi is so that companies can make money, Nintendo has practicaly Built in a homebrew card, Right into the side of the DSi, all someone has todo is decompile an offical DSi game they downloaded fron the DSi store then see why it can be booted from the SD card and then coders like Shaun Tailour (DSOrganize) can start coding in the same way, then not even a Firmware upgrade can stop us, because anything nintendo tries todo to stop us will result in offical game not functioning properly, and then people cant run ilegal game in this way without de-compiling them and then re coding them and re compileing again. the hard part is de-compiling the game, but if you think about it all DS programs are compiled ito (i dont Know what kind of processor the DSi has so Ill use arm7(the DS lite proccessor) as an exaple) arm 7 macine code - no matter what language it was written in and therefor can be de-compiled into any language.

 

[sirdanrhodes]

That freaking worked...

 

[Wolfman775]

siranrhodes: What worked?

 

[Zer_]

So far there are no known ways to hack the PSP 3000, so yeah. But I do agree, you can't fight the hackers, they find a way eventually.

 

[secretskull]

Most people will not see any use other than pirating games but the people who develop applications and homebrew should not be punished. Nintendo could learn a lot from the xbox scene right now. They face the very same problems microsoft had to overcome with the 360. The original xbox was heavily hacked and with the 360 they incorporated the features the hackers had used in xbmc on xbox1. Microsoft offers another service where users can create xbox 360 games so they support homebrew to some extent and can successfully limit piracy because less people would want to hack the system if the don't need to and xbox live checks for hacks. When I saw the DSi I wasn't really that impressed but now I am starting to like it. My first thought wasn't what are game developers going to do, but what is the homebrew scene gonna come up with. DS homebrew is awesome! Can't wait to hear more cool stuff about it...

 

[Citrus]

Hackers will figure it out anyway. The only thing Nintendo would be doing is making it harder on the creators of homebrew apps.

 

[megapenguinx]

Most people will not see any use other than pirating games but the people who develop applications and homebrew should not be punished. Nintendo could learn a lot from the xbox scene right now. They face the very same problems microsoft had to overcome with the 360. The original xbox was heavily hacked and with the 360 they incorporated the features the hackers had used in xbmc on xbox1. Microsoft offers another service where users can create xbox 360 games so they support homebrew to some extent and can successfully limit piracy because less people would want to hack the system if the don't need to and xbox live checks for hacks. When I saw the DSi I wasn't really that impressed but now I am starting to like it. My first thought wasn't what are game developers going to do, but what is the homebrew scene gonna come up with. DS homebrew is awesome! Can't wait to hear more cool stuff about it...

Yeah and all that homebrew basically made developers wary of publishing on the PSP for fear that their games would get cracked and stolen. Also, wow this thread is old :/

 

[megapenguinx]

EDIT:Terribly sorry about the double post

 

[ZenoTheStoic]

Hi, I was debating on whether I should trade my DS Lite in for a DSi, so happened upon this article. The only reason I am considering the change is because I use homebrew to read pdfs (image viewers like ComicBook DS)and the like, and the larger screen of the DSi would be more efficient.

If they block the flashcarts, I will not buy this. I only consider buying this on the basis of using homebrew in a more efficient setting.

That is, DS could come up with a pdf viewer and ereader (not the 100 Books Collection) of its own. But, they haven't and I am not sure why, so I need the homebrew.

 

[AceDiamond]

It's simply something that was intended for legal uses, such as 3rd party homebrew applications and games, that was misused for something nefarious and therefore labeled as such. It's basically gone the same way as P2P downloads, started as something 'for the users' and turned into something nefarious and labeled as such that almost no one remembers its original purpose.

I agree with this, which is really a shame because I was always fascinated by the DS homebrew community and now they'll just have ridiculous amounts of trouble due to pirates making use of their methods.