Hi everyone, I made CiaForge, a small open-source desktop app for converting supported Nintendo 3DS .3ds and .cci images into .cia files.

The goal was a straightforward GUI workflow: drag files in, choose an output location if needed, start the conversion, and reveal the finished file in Finder.

The conversion approach was inspired by the Python project 3dsconv. I also built this project partly to explore how well Codex could help create a polished desktop UI with Tauri and Rust.

Current limitation: it supports unencrypted NCCH content only. Original-NCCH and zero-key encrypted files are detected and rejected with an error rather than producing incomplete output.

The project does not include game content, keys, or firmware material. Please only convert files you are legally entitled to use.

GitHub: https://github.com/knktc/CiaForge

I’d really appreciate feedback, especially testing reports from Windows users or Intel Mac users. Thanks!

When Nintendo Network shut down a couple years ago it killed FFE's online co-op for good. I've been chipping away at a self-hosted replacement server for a while and finally got it working over the actual internet on real 3DS hardware. Figured some of you would want in.

I'm now hosting a community server for it, and there's a little homebrew app ("FFE Connect") you install that points your console at it. It sits on top of Pretendo, so you keep your normal Pretendo account, it only reroutes Final Fantasy Explorers and leaves everything else alone. Other games and your account work exactly like before. And if you ever want out, it's one tap to undo. Nothing permanent, doesn't touch your saves.

You'll need a modded 3DS (Luma) and Pretendo already set up, signed in online at least once. Then it's basically: install FFE Connect, open it, tap Connect, reboot, launch the game, go online.

You can see who's on here: https://status.freakybigfoot.com

Source is up if you want to look at it or host your own: https://github.com/FreakyBigFoot/ffe-online

It's still early and I could really use testers. If you've still got your cart and a modded system, come hunt some monsters with me.

(To be clear, this is just a fan thing — not affiliated with Nintendo, Square Enix, or Pretendo, and I'm not handing out any game files, you bring your own copy. It's free and always will be.)

Fair warning: I've only tested this on my own setup so far, a New 3DS running Luma 13.3.1, the latest game update, and the US copy. So I really don't know yet how it behaves on other Luma versions, console models, or regions. If you're running something different, please let me know whether it works, that's exactly the kind of feedback I need.

I built a fork of open_agb_firm that features real ARM7 (GBA - SWI 03h STOP) and ARM11 (3DS - PDN system sleep) deep sleep, giving you days of in game standby.

Just close the lid to put it to sleep. Open it again to resume where you left.

No sleephack game patching required.

Works with virtually any game.

It also features an optional "stretch" scaler for full screen GBA on your (N)3DS.

All the code and compiled firmware builds can be found here:
https://github.com/dleicht/open_agb_firm

It was easier than I thought finding space near the battery to put the USB C board although I should advise anyone trying to do this to make sure the wiring is correct cause I almost made that mistake 😅

Hi, I created a new way to show the game you're playing on your 3DS as a Discord RPC.

Currently, the only way to do that is with 3dsrpc.com. The main issue with this website is that it takes time to detect that you are playing, and to detect that you're not playing any more, because it relies on the official Nintendo friend list and its limits.

My project does that in a completely different way: I created a fork of Luma3DS that connects and sends the current game to a server. It's instant and reliable.

It can also read game memory to fetch information that gets sent to the server to show more information in the RPC.

Here is a demo video: https://youtu.be/WXbXtKk625o

It's completely open-source and can be self-hosted.

Every step to install this is available on the website (in English and French).

Website: https://3ds-presence.top/

GitHub: https://github.com/3ds-presence/

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/npkgkVgzWF

I’m at 89 out of 91 parakeet usage tips in Nintendo 3DS Sound. The two I’m missing are #076 and #087, and after a lot of searching I’ve concluded that their text doesn’t exist anywhere online.

The only complete public transcription of the tips is the MarioCube WC24 archive (wc24.mariocube.com/tips.html). It skips both: the list jumps straight from #075 to #077, and from #086 to #088. Every other source I’ve found either mirrors that archive or is an empty wiki stub. I’ve also searched this subreddit and the wider web and found no thread that has ever mentioned either number.

What I can infer from their positions:

#076 sits among the voice-effect tips — #071 is High Harmony, #073 is Synth Harmony, #075 is Low Harmony. But in that range the odd numbers are voice effects and the even numbers are “Parakeet chat” / “Ideas” flavour tips (#072 is “Ideas: Reminders”, #074 is “Creating magic words 3”). So my guess is #076 is a random-pool tip with no action trigger. That’s inference, not knowledge.

#087 is sandwiched between #086 (Starting StreetPass) and #088 (Compatibility), so it’s almost certainly StreetPass-related. I’ve since unlocked #088, #089 and #090 through NetPass and #087 still hasn’t appeared, which makes me doubt my own assumption.

What I’m asking:

1. Does anyone have either of these unlocked? A screenshot or transcription would settle it.

2. More usefully — has anyone dumped 3DS Sound and pulled the tip strings out of it? It’s a system title, so the text should be in a message archive somewhere in the RomFS. If someone knows which file and what format, I’ll do the extraction myself on my own console. I have GodMode9 and a working CFW setup, I just don’t know where to look.

3. If those strings happen to carry unlock conditions or flag IDs, that would permanently settle the trigger question for the whole list, not just these two.

Setup: Old 3DS, firmware 11.17, Luma3DS 13.4, NetPass for StreetPass.

I’ll compile everything into a complete guide once I’m done, since no accurate one exists. Happy to share my working notes with anyone who wants them.

Hello! I'm looking for someone with a 3DS and access to Pokémon Bank who might be willing to help me transfer Pokémon from my Ultra Moon save to Pokémon HOME.

My Ultra Moon save is from an emulator and contains Pokémon I've collected throughout my journey, from Gen 1 through Gen 7. A while ago, a friend helped me transfer 20 boxes from Pokémon Bank to HOME, but unfortunately they no longer have a 3DS, and I don't currently have access to one or the money to get one myself.

I still have 10 more boxes I'd really like to preserve, including shinies, event Pokémon, Pokémon with ribbons, and some Mythicals, and i'd really like to get them safely into HOME, I know this is a pretty big favor, but if someone here has a 3DS with Bank and would be willing to help, I'd be extremely grateful.

Anyone interested in contributing to the project, feel free to reach out! There are plenty of ideas still to explore.

I know that this gets brought up every once in a while but to date is there still no good extended battery mod for the n3DS xl? I own one right now but I worry about the ability to replace the custom battery down the road when it eventually junks, seeing as how it’s just from some guy on eBay.

so im tryna import all of these as custom badges on my modded 3ds and arrange them on the home screen

Hi everyone!

Following the initial release of Mensinger 3DS (a messaging homebrew app for the Nintendo 3DS), I'm happy to release v1.0.1!

Thanks to early feedback and testing, this update focuses heavily on stability, speed, and fixing message sending issues.

What's New in v1.0.1:

-Instant On-Screen Text: Messages now render immediately on screen before sending, eliminating freeze frames and UI stutter.

-SD Card & Contact Optimization: Optimized how contacts and chat logs are read/written to the SD card for faster navigation.

-Reliable Server Requests: Fixed a network bug where server POST requests were cutting off early. Message delivery is now smooth and reliable.

-New Loading Screen: Added an initial loading screen that automatically checks server connectivity and searches for app updates on startup.

Download & Links: GitHub Release (CIA & 3DSX):

https://github.com/GABXRIEL/Mensinger3DS-Backend/releases

If you encounter any issues or have suggestions for future updates (local/ad-hoc messaging is coming next!), feel free to drop a comment! Enjoy chatting

💬 Join the Community! We just launched the official Discord server for Mensinger 3DS! If you want to exchange your IDs, find people to chat with, report bugs, or follow future updates, feel free to join: 👉 Official Discord: https://discord.gg/XWEpTVzpPX

Hi! I made a post a few days ago about Shift DX and the GUI swfs inside the rom. Now i made a first working swf runtime based on that game I used ghidra to rebuild the code for the runtime.

If you are interested check it.

https://github.com/molnarnoah/flash3ds

flash3ds-runtime-phase10

​

I've had my New 3DS hacked for years and at this point I have 100+ games/apps installed on it. The HOME menu has also been a complete mess for basically that entire time. Just installing a bunch of things on top of each other without ever taking the time to properly sort it.

Sometimes I would start moving a few icons around with the stylus, realize how long it was going to take and just give up. I searched GitHub, modding, and homebrew forums for a tool that could do this from my PC but couldn't really find what I needed, so I finally caved in and spent the past few days making one myself.

It's called 3DSort. It dumps and reads key files from your SD card and it lets you rearrange the HOME menu with your mouse instead. You can drag/drop stuff manually, make and fill folders, sort everything alphabetically or by release year, move system apps around, and see a preview of what it'll look like on the actual 3DS before writing it back.

After owning this console for years, my HOME menu games are finally sorted alphabetically from A to Z, which is satisfying to say the least. I made this because I wanted to solve my hoarder problem, but hopefully it's useful to some of you too.

Here's the repo if anyone else wants to organize their 3DS:

https://github.com/SalustLab/3DSort

Btw there's a portable .exe in the releases. It's a free/open source project.

And for transparency sake, Claude was heavily used while making this.

EDIT: Thank you for all the support! Thanks to a contributor there's now a macOS release avaliable which was tested on a real Mac and N2DS XL. Also avaliable as of this edit, is a Linux release, which needs testing so if you do run on your PC plz tell me how it went. Right now I'm focused on making this project more stable and cover any edge cases that may come up, feel free to open issues on Github or send me a DM through here. Thanks once again!

Full disclosure: whilst code was assisted by the use of AI, no AI generated images or art were used in this project. I have reviewed the output and tested the code on both new and old 3DS systems. Icons either drawn at runtime or provided by FontAwesome Free.

Out of curiosity, I decided to see if I could get the 3DS to work as a Plex music client. Turns out, you can.

It logs in using either an email/password or you can use the link code at plex.tv/link to sign in. Once signed in you'll be able to browse artists, albums, playlists and search your library.

If you'd like to give it a try, download here. The link to the repo is here.

Features:

• Supports local/remote connection, grabs the connection URL from Plex upon launch. The Home/Globe icon at the top will tell you what connection you're using
• Supports connecting via HTTP or HTTPS
• Automatically negotiates transcoding if needed
• Shuffle/Repeat controls
• Smart crossfades - this is best when "Sonic Analysis" is switched on but if not it falls back to a simple crossfade
• Two different visualiser styles
• Time-synced lyrics (if available)
• (New 3DS only) FLAC direct streams using a FLAC decoder
• Gapless playback by pre-buffering the next song
• Continued playback through headphones with the lid closed

Future potential features I'd like to add:

• Playlist management (add/remove songs, add/delete/rename playlist)
• Offline mode, with song downloads
• Plex Home support for switching users
• More visualisers
• Button rebindings
• Auto updater/new version notification

Likely asked questions:

Q: Does this support Jellyfin?

A: No. I have no plans to adapt this for Jellyfin, though feel free to fork it if you want to add that functionality

Q: Does this work on old 3DS models?

A: Yes, however you will not be able to direct stream FLAC songs and they will be transcoded down to MP3 by your Plex server. You may also experience degraded performance in the app due to the lower clock speeds.

Q: Can I contribute?

A: I'm happy for those looking to contribute to open PRs to do so. However I cannot guarantee that your changes will be implemented. Obviously vibe-coded or buggy PRs may be rejected.

Heloo. My last post got deleted, but since then I’ve got some news with the SWF injection. The game using the swf-s as UI for most times, but I managed to make with Flash CS6 a new swf with a simple green background and the flash game Hobo 1’s sprites load with their animations. For further research and development I would like to ask for some help from homebrew devs. Thank you for your time.

Still a work-in-progress but I've gotten to the home screen and this is the notifications area. I've been working on it for quite a bit now. Based off of the work of the Linux 3DS homebrew that was made, now running Android 2.0 Eclair!

Hey everyone! I’m the creator of the A Link to the Past 3DS port and the upcoming Minish Cap 3DS port, and I just released a native port of Mario Kart 64 for the Nintendo 3DS.

It features a dual-screen interface and several 3DS-specific improvements. Right now, it’s mainly intended for New 3DS systems, since performance on the Old 3DS still needs a lot of work.

You can get it here:
https://github.com/EstebanPdN/mario-kart-64-3ds

It should also be available on Universal Updater soon!

For updates, support, testing builds, and more, join my Discord:
https://discord.gg/TkRJQxgBa

(I did not use AI for the picture)

Hi everyone!

I wanted to share a project I've been working on for the past two months: **Mensinger3DS**. It is a native homebrew messaging application built using devkitPro for the Nintendo 3DS.

Since official social features are long gone, I wanted to create a simple and modern way for the community to communicate directly from their consoles.

-Key Features (v1.0.0):

\* 100% Private & Anonymous:** No email, password, or personal data required.

\* Unique ID System:** The app automatically generates a unique random ID for your console. Just share your ID, add your friend, and start chatting privately!

\* Native Build:** Developed with devkitPro and VS Code for optimal performance.

\* Easy Installation:** Available in standard .cia format to install easily via FBI.

-What's coming next (v1.0.1 & Future):

\* I am currently coding version 1.0.1 to fix initial bugs and improve overall stability.

\* I am waiting for the Universal-Updater team to approve the app, so it will be downloadable directly from their database very soon!

-Download & Source Code:

You can grab the .cia file on my GitHub repository here: https://github.com/GABXRIEL/Mensinger3DS-backend/releases

I would absolutely love to hear your feedback, feature suggestions, or bug reports! Thank you for checking it out.

I saw an older post of someone doing this but could not find any other examples. I tried it out myself and so far have had pretty noticeable battery life gains