Nintendo 3DS: Revisiting the Retro Dimension

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The Intro

There’s no denying that the Nintendo Gameboy Advance was a true game-changer (HA!) for the masses, drastically expanding on the graphical capabilities of the OG GameBoy Color to bring an exciting and addictive console gaming experience right to the palms of our hands. There was even a way to play those GBC and GBA games on your home GameCube console too (the Game Boy Player, shown left)!

Then, Nintendo did it again. Better resolution, more powerful processor, TWO SCREENS with one of them even including TOUCH RECOGNITION. Holy crap, WIFI CONNECTIVITY and even SD card storage capability!

The Nintendo DS made the scene, initially creating some confusion over the radical departure in design, but the catalog of titles grew quickly and garnered plenty of interest in this funky little device.

However, that initial consumer confusion seemed to motivate Nintendo to go looking for a variation in the design that clicked better with the fans. Thus, came the DSi and DS Lite, followed by the 3DS, introducing a gimmicky 3D effect that added a unique aspect to games that were designed to take best advantage of it.

Personally, I feel like they finally tackled the biggest issue with the console: the small screen sizes. The DSi and 3DS were released in new XL sizes, featuring larger screens that made the gaming more fun while keeping that pocket-friendly form factor that seemed to be one of the focus points of the design throughout the Game Boy line.

The Lineup

  • Nintendo DS (2004-2009)
  • Nintendo DS Lite (2006-2014)
    • Slimmer, brighter, and more attractive
  • Nintendo DSi (2008-2014)
    • A major upgrade, implemented a camera, MP3 player, voice recording, and a dedicated shopping application
  • Nintendo DSi XL (2009-2014)
    • Bigger screens!
  • Nintendo 3DS (2011-2021)
  • Nintendo 3DS XL (2012–2021)
    • Bigger screens, more powerful
  • Nintendo 2DS (2013-2021)
    • Cost-cut 3DS, without the 3D feature, and the case did not fold.
  • New Nintendo 3DS (2014-2021)

So here we are today, and the online store that backed the DS has been sadly shut down, leaving the devices essentially orphaned from a big part of what made them special (at the time, at least). Of course the cartridge games still work fine, but it’s now impossible to buy new additional content, backup your Pokemon, or restore old saves from the cloud.

Welp, guess they’re done taking money for these things; time to break one out of its shell (figuratively speaking, this time), and put an end to the reliance on piles of physical cartridges! Collectors love putting together all of the physical components that serve to honor the original experience, but my focus is on the games, man. The GAMES. The ones I didn’t get to play when they were still being actively created and sold new.

Yep, we’re gonna mod the best of the bunch: the 3DS XL, or at least, the Japanese version of it, known as the 3DS LL.

Wait, why the Japanese version? Simple: Nintendo is first and foremost a Japanese company (Nintendo of America is primarily a marketing division) and the DS –especially the Japanese models- are still trading like freaking hotcakes. There are piles of the damn things on eBay, and if you keep an eye out, you can get one pretty cheap. There are plenty of US devices trading too, but by now, let’s just say that anybody selling one of those feels like “they know what they got”, and are asking a premium for their unit, which they’re mostly selling because they don’t even want it anymore, but looking to make a profit anyway. There are lots of pre-modded devices too, but you’ll pay a premium to shortcut a just little bit of reading and fiddly effort. The LL version has the initial language barrier issue, but because the differences are all in the firmware -which we’ll be replacing- we’ll be able to switch regions and convert it to an XL model.

We clear? We cool? Okay good, that’s the score, you’ve been duly advised. So let’s gather up what we’ll need, starting with-

Gearing Up

Hardware

The console (I mean, not to be rude but, duh..)

Nintendo 3DS LL (yeah yeah I know that’s an image of the XL, same diff)

Now you’ll need a SD card, or micro SD card with adapter. If you have one available, use a big one, around 64GB and up, i if you’re looking to build a large library. The card will be used for the hack files (some of which will stay onboard afterward), and the remaining space will be storage for the game dumps.

Note that 64GB is a good middle ground between space and performance. 32GB will allow the device to boot faster, but if you’re willing to forgive a few extra seconds of black screen, you can use 128GB without concern.

Getting the Hack On

Now pop a new tab here: https://3ds.hacks.guide/
The site is a very clear step-by-step guide on how to perform the hack itself, depending on which model and firmware version you have in your hands.

Read the thing through, will ya? You need to understand what’s being done, how, and why. If you don’t know these things, you can get lost quickly.

The first actionable branch in this high tech Choose Your Own Adventure journey is to select your device and firmware version

From here, you can follow the guide faithfully, like a bloodhound on the trail. Keep your nose to it and follow everything carefully. It’s not hard, just a bit fiddly with many steps involved. The guide is very well assembled and addresses a lot of common pitfalls as well.

When you’re done, CONGRATS! Now let’s go swap out the region so it’s a little easier for English-speaking folks to use, huh? You don’t have to do this, because the system will play all games from all regions now, but you will need to perform these last few steps if you expect the console UI to be in your language, too.

Go here: https://3ds.hacks.guide/region-changing

Just a little more file downloading, transferring, clicking and launching, and you’ll be all set to start dropping ROMS on the system!

All done? AWESOME! You are now fully hacked, patched and ready to rap! Now for the good part.

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