3DS Devkit on Ebay

[frosty]

Hackers salivate over 3DS devkit posted on ebay.

Looks like some dark days are around the corner for Nintendo’s 3DS, as a dev kit was found up for auction on eBay.

The unit, which will allow its future owner to muck about in the devMenu program specifically made for developers, spells some grim things in terms of potential piracy. News of the auction has already spread through various 3DS hacking forums.“Do you guys know what these means? Looks like we won’t have to wait any longer until the first 3DS Flashcart is revealed,” posted one person interested in the device.

Flashcarts, for those uninitiated in the Nintendo DS hacking process, allowed users to load ROMs of DS games on a micro SD chip in order to play them on a legitimate DS.

On the actual auction the seller asked that potential buyers not ask about its hacking or possible ability to load certain ROMs. Doing so would only get those people added to a “do not sell” list.

As of right now, the system is selling for $430.00 USD – nearly $200 above the suggested price for a retail version.

It will be interesting to see how Nintendo reacts to this news as the day continues. We will keep you updated on any new information regarding the auction.

[Viper]

Won't do much without the latest Nintendo flashcart to match it with and Nintendo cycles through viable flashcarts with updated firmware. So even if they get a hold of older official Nintendo flashcart it's unlikely it would even work together anyway.

They have a pretty good security system in place that mixes software and hardware making it pretty damn hard to come up with a hack for it.

[masteratt]

of course its a matter of time before its hacked and can be pirated (oh, sorry, "homebrew"ed) easily. these stories are just filler really. real news is when it happens.

[Luis]

How is that even allowed?

Anyway, 3DS widespread piracy is bound to happen soon.

[Viper]

Fellas, I just told you how it's much harder to pirate on the 3DS than the DS was. Piracy may be possible in short bursts if a pirate can somehow get a hold of a corresponding Nintendo flash cart but by the time they start using the new carts, the old code won't work anymore or will only work with those games developed using that Nintendo flash cart.

[freeman2]

Fellas, I just told you how it's much harder to pirate on the 3DS than the DS was. Piracy may be possible in short bursts if a pirate can somehow get a hold of a corresponding Nintendo flash cart but by the time they start using the new carts, the old code won't work anymore or will only work with those games developed using that Nintendo flash cart.

Being difficult to hack means little, alot of people want a 3DS flash card - that demand will produce a usable updatable flash card. Saying that I have no knowledge of the underlying 3DS security.

I do know that DS flash cards are working on the 3DS.

[Viper]

Yes, DS cards work but not 3DS. That's what I'm trying to say. The cartridge security itself is different. Combine that with the regular system security and it's never a constant target to crack. It's constantly changing. You might be working on a crack based on cartridge chips from 2 weeks ago but a new cartridge chip is already being sent out with a firmware update and white listing and your security crack is now invalid. You can't roll back the firmware or reset to factory default either.

[Dralor]

I'm sure you can. Or more specifically Nintendo can as it'd be very bad for them not to be able to. However if someone gets a hold of that it could cause issues like the one's the PS3 had for a while.

[Segitz]

Yes, DS cards work but not 3DS. That's what I'm trying to say. The cartridge security itself is different. Combine that with the regular system security and it's never a constant target to crack. It's constantly changing. You might be working on a crack based on cartridge chips from 2 weeks ago but a new cartridge chip is already being sent out with a firmware update and white listing and your security crack is now invalid. You can't roll back the firmware or reset to factory default either.

You oversimplify this here a bit. You look at it like the MPAA though BDROM was "unhackable" because they could change keys. And still BDROM isn't safe, when the upper security layer is broken once. Nintendo (and neither Sony) can't ultimately stop piracy this way. Sony couldn't change PS3 copy protection just like that, because it would endanger the runability of older games. There are ways and Sony took them, but it's just a matter of time until the hackers find another way in...

And, in my opinion, they should rather provide incentives to buy games instead of making it hard for the customers like they did on PC... we all know what happened there. I have little problem with the way PS3 handled the protection (it made no difference to me as a consumer), but on PC it's getting pretty ugly... single player games which need to stay online (Assassin's Creed) are UGLY things. And if this trend continues "registering your game" will become a standard on consoles too.

[frosty]

it'll just mean a push for cloud based gaming where you don't own physical media at all. i'm not looking forward to that. i like being able to hook up my ps3 to a generator after a hurricane and still be able to play it, even if we don't have an internet connection.