Hey guys this is my first time posting something like this and I'm thinking of starting a blog to post to also. I know for sure you guys will like this more than the gbatemp community since most of you like me better lol. If a mod finds this helpful enough please sticky it.
Known Issues With the Gateway 3DS Flashcart
CFallenleaf(gbatemp)
Cameron(Maxconsole)
DSGAMERWORLD Reviewer
First off I would like to say if this is not posted in the correct area please let me know and I will repost in the right area.
My sponser DSGAMERWORLD has asked me to write an article on the known issues on Gateway and how to trouble shoot them. The Gateway 3DS is one of the few Nintendo 3DS flash carts. It is probably the best of the available flashcarts available right now. It is the first to update and has new features before the other. However the gateway does come with its own issues. In this article I will outline all the issues that I have seen or read about. Some Of my information will come from me and some from various other sources. I will give credit to these sources as I quote them. I will be addressing issues that are across all versions at the end except the blue card issue which will be addressed under version 1.0 and say continues to this day.
Please note Gateway only works on 4.1-4.5 firmware 3DS systems.
In version 1.0 of Gateway the card really had no known bugs. Some people had issues installing the exploit and this has continued to this day. This isn't due to any faulty coding but rather due to faulty blue card construction. Like most flashcart makers Gateway has their products made in China. Since flashcarts are a grey zone in law there isn't to much that can be done about the shoddy construction of the blue card by gateways builders. However if you have a DS mode flashcart that works on your 3ds or you have a friend who does you can still install the exploit.
In Version 1.1a Region spoofing and system menu version spoofing was added. however if the rom you were using tried to utilize both of these at the same time the games banner was not displayed.
In version 1.2 they added hardware diagnostic mode and support for China and Taiwan. They also fixed the game banner not showing up when you used region and firmware spoofing at the same time. They are no known bugs during in 1.2.
Version 2.0b1 was introduced next. This update added significant updates to the card but being a public beta also had many bugs.
Things introduced included SDK5+ support which in laymans terms means that except for Pokemon and Animal Crossing New Leaf Gateways compatibility was at 99 percent. Emunand which allowed us the ability to access eshop. Emunand classic which allowed us to boot original 3DS cartridges while in Gateway mode. This meant that, like roms, game carts were now region free and firmware spoofed. A GUI menu was added by holding down L while booting into Gateway mode. This allowed easier access to diagnostic mode, it allowed us to back up our nand easier and was the only way to format emunand. Emunand in 2.0b1 could be used up until 6.3 emunand firmware with no problems.
Like I said earlier 2.0b1 also added a lot of bugs. Region Free and firmware spoofing would not work on 4.1 system firmware consoles. The console started randomly freezing when entering Gateway mode. The console also started freezing when exiting a game resulting in save game data loss. the last and most frustrating(other than losing your save data) though was perhaps the fact that any change you made in emunand copied itself to sysnand. ANY CHANGE.
Version 2.0b2 was perhaps the best and worst release of Gateway to date. The freezing happened less, things ran smoother and 7.1 emunand was supported with no issues what-so-ever. The 4.1 bug was fixed. A bricking code was added to make the gateway uncopiable and we could use system transfer now!
Bugs included the brick code affecting legitimate Gateway users. Gateway tried to deny any responsibility for this saying that it happened because they used an unofficial gateway firmware modded by someone else. This happened when entering diagnostics. YouTube app no longer works due to new encryption by Nintendo. Because of the brick code many people have now installed or have had installed a hardware mod to be able to flash their old nand back in case of an accidental update or brick.
Omega 2.0 info is going to be taken word for word from gbatemps gateway wiki. all credits to the wiki page and its contributors. The reason for this is that I did not use this update as it was not a public release but a private one that got leaked.
Version 2.0 (OMEGA BETA) (2014-03-29)
ATTENTION: This version updates your internal Flashcart's FPGA firmware. You can't use any previous version of Launcher.dat anymore.
Some savegames created with Gateway 3DS v1.2 WILL NOT WORK ANYMORE. Try your game with v2.0b1 first to see if your save is compatible with 2.x before updating FPGA firmware, because you can't downgrade to v1.2 after the update.
Official changelog
100% Game Compatibility (supports Card2 type with NAND saving)
Multigame Support (FAT32 with split games and ExFAT)
Game Card Dumper
Gateway FPGA Update
MD5: 84a17fd6a781a3aacdc4f82a3b3c4c87
SHA1: 11643d26705b920641d733964eefe14ceb449f2d
Real changelog
FPGA updater integrated in the launcher.dat. Updates directly on 3DS console from the Gateway menu on first launch.
Supports Card2 type games using NAND saving (untrimmed only). Card2 savegame data is located inside the .3ds file, not stored as a separate .sav file.
Added Real Time Save support for Card2 (Direct savegame file access). Reads/writes the savegame data directly into the Card2 type ROM located on microSD card when the game access it. Exiting with Home + X is still needed for Card1 type ROM to backup the save on SD card.
Added MultiROM support (press Select button to choose/change game)
Supports microSD in FAT32 format, with split ROMs
Supports microSD in exFAT format
Supports microSD in image format (ROM written to microSD with Win32DiskImager)
Supports microSD cards up to 128GB
Requires the Gateway 3DS Flashcart inserted to boot into Gateway mode.
Added region free for cartridges in EmuNAND classic mode (Classic mode doesn't require the Gateway 3DS flashcart inserted)
Added Card dumping feature (not a clean ROM)
Unknown changes
Brick code still present?
Known bugs
Updated Youtube channel doesn't work due to new encryption method used by Nintendo. The original (not updated) channel works fine. The update is currently available only on USA eShop.
The bug that occurs when switching to 3D in the menu still occurs, one of the two screens will just display a light brown background.
FPGA update sometime fails.
Sometime, games are not recognized on FAT/exFAT MicroSD card.
Sometime, the console freeze when entering in Gateway mode.
Things to note
The games aren't sorted alphabetically, but using FAT order.
The last played game isn't memorized on the integrated menu.
Features
ROM support: YES, MultiROM support: YES, Cartridge support: YES, (with EmuNAND Classic) Homebrew support: NO, eShop dump support: NO, Region free ROM: YES, Region free Cartridge: YES, Update partition spoofing ROM: YES, Update partition spoofing Cartridge: NO, Games SDK5+: YES, Card2 type ROM: YES, Card2 type Cartridge: YES, Online ROM: NO, Online Cartridge: YES, EmuNAND: YES, eShop: YES (with EmuNAND Normal/Classic) (not working anymore since May 13th, 2014. System version 7.2.0-17 using new encryption method)
Latest fully working EmuNAND System version: 7.1.0 (Online is working as long as you don't need access to eshop)
Compatible EmuNAND System version: 7.2.0 (Launch, but with limited features: System Settings, NNID Settings and eshop are not working)
Omega 2.1 was an exciting update. Not only did we have Multi-Rom now we also had the ability to play dumped eshop games. The FPGA was updated making the card more stable and making it harder for clone cards to update. After updating you can no longer go back to the older firmwares version.
Bugs included were some 1.2 saves were no longer recognized and some people had to start their games over yet again. YouTube still doesnt work. The FPGA update has a chance to fail. This is thought to be the result of poor card to pin contact or poor soldering on the FPGA. The console started freezing a little more and sometimes games on a fat or exfat formatted micro sd were not recognized. This release is compatible all the way up to 7.2 but you can no longer access settings or eshop.
Omega 2.2 made a lot of people very happy. We now can play roms online by changing the name to .3dz and injecting a header or dumping a legitimate copy of the game which would include the header. We got a save game dumper and restorer which is nice, they also improved the game card dumper. Oh yeah... we also got homebrew support.
There are no actual known bugs in this release other than the ones present in all versions, notice where i have put no known bugs throughout this article. Its not exactly true there are maybe one or two that are present in all versions.
Persistent bugs since 1.0
So I really don't know whether or not to call this a bug or hardware issue. Maybe its a little of both. When you are playing you Gateway it tends to drain your battery a little faster than normal. This is not the issue, its only to help highlight the issue. This is one indication if you don't know much about flashcarts that your flashcart has its own seperate cpu which makes it use extra power. This CPU can overheat and cause your console to freeze. If this happens in the middle of a game being played all your saved data, since the last time you exited via home and x or turning the system off, will be lost. This also happens if you accidentally eject the cart. Save States are not the same thing as real time saves and Gateway does not yet support save states.
To this day starting Gateway mode continues to freeze your system every now and then. Simply power down and retry.
Gateway card not showing up after starting gateway mode? Well if your on 2.1 or 2.2 you NEED to push select for your games to show up.
Some people see white squares when they open the rom select screen. This is due to one of two things. A) You have a fake micro sd card. Test to confirm with the software on gateways website. If its fake you can only use however much storage is really there or buy a new card. B) Your rom is really fragmented. You have two options. (If you have any card 2 roms on your micro sd you need to back up the save or move the rom to your computer.) Delete all the roms that showed up white and put them back on one at a time. Or format your micro sd card and put your roms on one by one. Why one by one? Well.... that's next.
Fragmentation errors..... Simply put your rom is fragmented beyond use. Two options again. New rom or delete the rom from sd card and put back on. See when you transfer multiple roms or delete a rom that shows up before another one and then put a bigger rom on it fragments. This is because you rom fills up the space you deleted first then goes to another space that is empty.
Blue Card wont work? Your blue card is probably faulty and needs to be replaced. You can use and DS mode flashcart that works on the 3DS to install the gateway exploit.
Gamecard was removed or an error has occured or black screen after loading game. There are a few reasons for this. First Card Removed. Get a new rom. If that doesnt work then try wrapping some tape around the card to hold it in place better or try the paper trick. This can sometimes work with SPI errors. You can also very carefully look inside the card slot to see if any of the connectors are bent. Error has occurred either happens with a bad rom or a game thats not compatible with gateway. Alternately if everything loads then you select a game and it says Nintendo 3DS and stays there or goes to a black screen the game is not yet compatible.
SPI errors are fixable by tapeing around the cart or changing your card 1 games to card 2 games. You can find Gamesquest1's video by typing his name and spi quick fix on google(tape trick). For the Card 1 to Card 2 conversion look up solution for spi fails maxconsole. There is a tool by Snailface that automate this process for you.
FPGA errors. I don't personally know of any way to fix an FPGA error. I had thought at one point I had read that the tape trick will sometimes work but I can't confirm this because i can't seem to find the post.
Mostly the best advice for SPI and FPGA fails is to contact your reseller and find out about any warranty offered by them for your cart and exchange it. If your warranty is out well you can try the above methods or buy a new cart.
Oh... one last BIG issue. Lately there have been a ton of "4.5" 3DS consoles being sold on ebay and various places. Some of them are not 4.5 consoles. They are console that were 4.5 but have been partially updated. If the console has a Miiverse Icon it is not 4.5. The Miiverse Icon is 3 little green guys on the upper right hand corner of the touch screen. Please always ask for pictures of the 3DS home screen before buying.
Thanks for reading, if I've left out anything important please let me know.
CF
Credits to: Gamesquest1, for his awesome contributions to the Gateway Community as a whole. Keep up the good work buddy.
Snailface for his tool I mentioned earlier.
DSGAMERWORLD for taking a chance with a little known guy. Hopefully soon there will be a new cart for me to review for you guys.
GBAtemp and MAXCONSOLE for putting up with me
And the Gateway Community as a whole
(Also Anyone else I didn't mention!)