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by in1tiate 2339 days ago
Somewhat of a departure from the rest of the current comments. I'm a dataminer/rom hacker mainly working on Nintendo handheld systems from the DS onward and I've recently resigned myself to learning the sort of ASM code needed to reverse engineer compiled assets (since obviously I have no way of getting a pre-compiled version of those assets). I've been looking into the legality of reverse engineering and I've always found it to be a fascinating subject.

All because I can't get a 3DS game to load modified videos.
2 comments
jlevers 2339 days ago
That sounds awesome! Are these things you're doing for work, or on your own (or both)? I'm not much of a gamer, and I don't know what the market looks like for Nintendo systems...what are the applications for custom ROMs on DSs and other handheld systems?

Some excellent free reverse engineering courses for Windows[0] and Linux[1] were posted in another HN thread recently, and a couple other HNers and I started a study group for the Linux course. We have a Discord group, and we're meeting for the first time on Thursday, in case you're interested. (It sounds from what you're doing as if you might already be past those resources, knowledge-wise.)

[0] https://github.com/0xZ0F/Z0FCourse_ReverseEngineering [1] https://beginners.re/

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saghm 2339 days ago
> what are the applications for custom ROMs on DSs and other handheld systems?

Having played around a bit with a jailbroken Switch, the primary reason is to be able to either run mods for games (e.g. there's a surprisingly viable set of tools for converting/bundling Skyrim mods for PC for use on the Switch version) or to run homebrew apps, the common ones being emulators. Previously, I had played around with GBA emulators on PSP/PS Vita, but the Switch form factor and screen size are a lot nicer to play on.

That being said, you could also go the route of putting a completely foreign OS instead of just modified Switch firmware. Android seems to run flawlessly on a Switch from my testing; even though Android doesn't seem to be able to access the joy cons directly when they're attached, you can still pair them with bluetooth and they work fine even when they're slotted in. Android even seems to have pretty good built-in support for that kind of input device; you can easily navigate through the icons on the home screen, hit "A" to select whatever's highlighted, etc.

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jlevers 2338 days ago
Fascinating. I'm going to have to do some reading about this -- it's a whole world I didn't know existed. Thanks for explaining.
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defterGoose 2339 days ago
| All because I can't get a 3DS game to load modified videos

You were trying to load VR porn on there, huh?

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