A couple of years ago, I received an R4i Save Dongle from the R4i team as part of a promotion they were running. As somebody who loans their games to friends often, it's come in handy quite a few times. Being a mostly-Linux user, however, I was frustrated by not being able to back up my 3DS saves without first rebooting into Windows; Wine doesn't appear to support HID devices and there were some issues (possibly timing-related) when using the device in a virtual machine.
So, I set to work reversing the dongle's official software so I could write my own implementation that would work across platforms.
005Tools currently only works with the R4i Save Dongle, but it is written with extensibility in mind. Since that's the only device I have, though, I doubt it will be supporting any other devices in the near future.
- Fix command line options that were broken in v0.1c
- Fix progress redrawing in Linux
- Now compiles with gcc 4.7
- Writing to 3DS cards works now
- Improved save size detection for 3DS cards
- Fixed progress bar on Win32
- Added some error detection
- Card detection for DS cards that don't have their size reported (EEPROM) isn't implemented
- Certain games have a specific flag set in official software, not implemented yet
The official app writes 3DS cards in full and then writes the first 16kB again. 005tools mimics this but I haven't bothered to change how the progress bar works, so don't be surprised when the progress bar resets after writing all the data.
Also, when writing 3DS/very large cards, you'll notice the progress bar freeze after the first 128kB is written. The official software does the same thing, and writing resumes ~7 seconds later. I have no idea why it does this, but it does.
I'm just one man, and I only have a handful of games, but here are the ones I've tested. Testing using a cycle of READ, ERASE, PLAY, WRITE, READ, DIFF, PLAY, where DIFF is a simple diff -qs on the uploaded data and the read data.
As a general rule, there aren't any problems reading, so if you come across a game that won't write then you can just use the official software in Windows to write your backup. If you do come across a game that won't work with any function of this application, please open a new issue, I may be able to fix it.
Games are EUR unless otherwise stated ( R = READ, E = ERASE, W = WRITE ).
| 3DS GAME | Size | R | E | W |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mario Kart 7 | 512kB | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Star Fox 64 3D | 128kB | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Theatrhythm Final Fantasy | 128kB | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Ocarina of Time 3D | 128kB | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Pilotwings Resort | 128kB | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Super Street Figher IV | 128kB | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| New Super Mario Bros. 2 | 128kB | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Mario Kart 7 | 512kB | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| DS GAME | Size | R | E | W |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nintendogs (Labrador) | 256kB | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon | 256kB | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Animal Crossing Wild World | 256kB | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| New Super Mario Bros. | 8kB¹ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Super Mario 64 DS | 8kB¹ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Feel The Magic XY:XX | 8kB¹ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Metroid Prime Hunters: FH² | 512B¹ | ✔ | ✗ | ✗ |
¹ Save size not detected because the R4i firmware doesn't detect it, this appears to be due to the
save type (EEPROM vs Flash)
² I suspect that, but haven't tested, the official software will not write to this card either.