Where would I start to devise a solution to the 3DS?

Kai Beginner Joined: 18 Feb 2013 Posts: 3

So I'm a huge MH junkie and I'm finishing my third year of studies in computer science, networking is a huge object for the classes I'm taking and I wanted to know just how would I go about trying to figure out how the 3DS works and ticks in terms of its (non-wi-fi) wireless connectivity.

Is there any tinkerer out there that can give me some starting tips? I'm not planning to create a competing software out there, but perhaps just start the ground works to make a solution to the 3DS's solitary status.

Apologies if this makes little sense, I'll be willing to elaborate any questions anyone has because I definitely would be up for messing with this.

Nintendo Specialist Joined: 23 Jun 2004 Posts: 1889

Before you post, use the search function: http://www.teamxlink.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=42467

Kai Beginner Joined: 18 Feb 2013 Posts: 3

See but that's not answering my question. I'm not waiting hands open for someone to do this. I'm going to do it myself. It's not impossible, it's not easy, but it's certainly doable.

Anyway, this will be even easier now that there has been something confirmed to allow 3DS to Wii-U connection to the internet, which means wireless emulation is just going to be a bit more direct.

Team XLink Administrator Joined: 03 May 2004 Posts: 2075

I'm not sure whether or not things have changed with the 3ds but years ago the XLink founder TheDaddy experimented with the regular DS in an attempt to get intercept DS to DS transmissions by tunnelling the transmission over the net and rebroadcasting on the other end. Basically, the same thing Kai does for all supported consoles.

What he found, if memory serves, was that the DS used proprietary transmit protocols. That is, not TCP or UDP. In fact, I believe they used their own wireless protocol as well; meaning not one of the 802.11 type standards. As we have no in house radio expertice and no way of offering a turnkey solution without a proprietary hardware addon, the project was abandoned.

Now, if the 3ds uses a regular UDP or TCP transmissions when connected to a wifi router it would be theoretically possible to sniff transmissions and rebroadcast over the net. Some experimenting with wireshark will answer that question.

If you do some experimenting and find you are able to capture 3DS data, we can add their NIC identifier and attempt a game over Kai.

-p

Nintendo Specialist Joined: 23 Jun 2004 Posts: 1889

Alot of the old posts about the ds and 3ds could be found my searching because every so often there are new users who saw it via google.

there was a certain wifi chipset that was only available for import that could even see the packets. the testers dubbed it "Ni-Fi" because it was proprietary and anything at the big box stores couldnt sniff out the packets. the DS and 3ds now uses IR to establish the initial adhoc link for offline multiplayer or at least thats how the pokemon games are. testing with mario 64 ds we were able to get to the first multiplayer screen, which was buggy and laggy due to all the dropped packets but of coarse that was 8 or so years ago so their might be hardware now that can pick up the packets but extensive testing would be needed.

But with the internet boom multiplayer gaming is very popular so most multiplayer games on the handheld will be online enabled whether its the NWC or the new Nintendo network but u being a MH player, it would be something to try again but like the testing team learned, it was alot of work for no forward progress. I was appart of the testing team back then.

The first step i would take is to learn and compare parts and manufacturing of the cards and dongles on the market with what the DS, 3ds has inside. u could also try disecting the NWC dongle that nintendo sold in the early days of the ds. it allowed standard wifi connection for ds and wii but it excluded other hardware devices that were not manufactured by nintendo to connecting to it too.

So it will be ALOT of work. Enough for someone to dedicate id say 40 hrs a week to R&D the project but most of us cant sacrifice that time Sad

if someone had the old chipset information then the comparison would be easier but the old forum was deleted.

Nintendo Specialist Joined: 23 Jun 2004 Posts: 1889

Narolf learned u can use that nintendo dongle for psp:

http://www.teamxlink.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=39809&highlight=nintendo

heres a blog of a guy who was testing the ds wifi project on his own: http://blog.akkit.org/2006/04/24/at-long-last-the-wifi-lib-release/#comments

the person to ask would be TheDaddy but hes left xlink:

http://www.teamxlink.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15849&highlight=nintendo

all these found by taking a few mins to search and read :p

Kai Beginner Joined: 18 Feb 2013 Posts: 3

Thank you for your responses, backhanded hints aside. I'm no wizard at this, but I sure as hell have the will to do something about it. I'll see what I can find out through experimentation. I have a 3DS that I'm completely willing to put under the knife to find out how the bits work.