Whether Nintendo can or will update earlier units with similar security remains to be seen. Even when using other methods to load code via the save exploits there seems to be no access to the wifi hardware at all – that’s probably dependent on a wifi enabled hybrid game. Nintendo seem to have pre-empted an approach like this in more recent consoles, both the DSiXL and later model DSi units seem to deny write access to the wifi module chip. As an added bonus the wifi uploader also works with a standard DS, everything you need is in the archive. This gave me the motivation I needed to revisit a half finished project I had to upload homebrew to a DS over wifi. After some further testing I confirmed that the wifi module flash chip could be written from DS mode and later read when we use the save game exploits to get into DSi mode. Most interesting of all was the large block of unwritten space between the two but unfortunately the first 64KiB is protected but that still leaves 61KiB writable – plenty for my nefarious purposes. As I expected this was identical to the dump made in DS mode – it contains only the wifi module settings and the user data at the end of a 128K flash chip. One of the first things that I did on getting into DSi mode was dump the DS mode firmware. So anyway, lest I ramble on for several pages with background and random thoughts, on to the meat of this post. I’m still a little undecided on how best to approach the hybrid model – Nintendo seem to be using a system where extra code is loaded in DSi mode from separate binaries in the. Mostly I’ve been updating devkitARM & libnds with a few things needed to allow normally compiled homebrew to use the extra 12meg when run in DSi mode. Since last year I’ve spent a bit of time hunting around DSi hybrid games and playing around with a few ideas I had about how best to utilise the exploits for homebrew. If anyone knows any different, please let me know. Interestingly not one single DSi hybrid game I’ve been able to find since appears to have a name entry – bit odd considering how easy it is to test for and correct buffer overflows for this specific situation. Most people that have done anything at all seem to have been trying to do as much as possible in the 8KiB or so available in each save game. I kind of expected somebody somewhere to pick these up and make them do something a little bit more useful than change the screen colors but it looks like I was a little optimistic on that front. If you're interested in trying out some hobbyist creations then you'll find an exhastive list of NDS homebrew over at the Nintendo DS Homebrew Hive and DS-Xtra.It was about this time last year when I released open source save game hacks for two DSi hybrid games, Cooking Coach and Classic Word Games. There are simply too many homebrew applications to mention ( DSLinux anyone?), with plenty of games and apps for all kinds of users. It is the last word in media playback on the DS. MoonShell supports video in DPG format (which you can convert with the bundled converter or SUPER), a host of audio formats including MP3, OGG, WMA and low bitrate AAC and non-progressive JPEG, GIF, BMP and PNG images as well as plain text files. There's a good possibility your firmware will come preloaded with MoonShell (mine did) or a derivative - if not, download and enjoy. If you want to use your DS as a media device then MoonShell is the app you want. Whilst a lot of homebrew projects appear to have fallen by the wayside, there's still plenty of killer applications that will keep you busy for hours. The Nintendo DS is no exception and has its own fair share of tools and software that vastly enhance the handheld's capabilities. Just to recap, homebrew software is the catch-all term given to fan-made games and tools for platforms that are not usually open to development.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |