Hello everyone. For everyone who may own a 3DS or Wii U, I’m sharing this out to as many places I can think of, where the awareness can make an impact. Please read if you own a 3DS or Wii U at all, or know anybody who does:

The SpotPass servers by Nintendo will be shutting down on April 8th, 2024 at 4PM PDT. The SpotPass Archival Project has been created by the 3DS and Wii U Homebrew modding community, to make sure as much SpotPass data as humanly possible is preserved for the foreseeable future and not lost forever in the coming few days. This archival project can only be made possible by the donations of any individuals owning a 3DS and Wii U (not a donation of money, but rather a donation of SpotPass data stored on your system)

This data can only be collected before April 8th. Any and all dumps made or sent after the end-date will be useless due to the nature of how the archive process works. The dump does not require you to have a modded or Homebrewed console, and can be done completely unmodded. All you need extra as an unmodded user, is a PC or laptop.

Even if you make the dump before April 8, and send it to them afterwards, the dump will be useless regardless, this is why we are frantically trying to spread the word about the project as quickly as possible, as there is a lot of data that is still going to go away permanently regardless of the efforts of this project. The data is stored offline locally on your 3DS and Wii U, so you may be confused as to why you can’t just make the dump after the date. For a better explanation, here is a Discord message from the official Discord server which explains things. I am not a developer of the project, I’m just someone who is passionate about gaming and technology preservation, and wants to get this out there.

The data is going to be used by the developers to put towards developing a replacement for the SpotPass network, similar to what was done by the Homebrew community who created the Nintendo Network replacement, dubbed “Pretendo Network”.

Even if you don’t think you have much data on your system, please help dump it towards the archive as soon as possible (within the next couple of days), because you likely have some things you don’t know about. The process does not require a modded console at all, and the offical site here, has instructions for both users of modded consoles, and users of unmodded consoles. You can ask for help in the official Discord server of the project here and people will be very willing to help.

There are also many many niche, lesser known games, which have absolutely no data archived for them still to this day, so any help archiving them is vital. Thanks for reading, and I ask you to also share this out to as many people as you possibly can. Even if you do not own a 3DS or Wii U, please share this out to anyone you know who owns one, or even those whom you suspect might have one.

  • Cris@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    My 3Ds has never been played, I assume there’s nothing I can contribute here?

    • DreitonLullaby@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      0·
      6 months ago

      Probably not. Unless you bought it second-hand? Apparently the data still remains on the system even if it’s reset, so if you bought your console pre-owned, or was given it by a friend, there may still be a large amount of data still there in the background.

      • Yttra@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        6 months ago

        Ooh, I factory reset a used one I bought pretty recently… I might as well give it a shot then

        • DreitonLullaby@lemm.eeOPEnglish
          0·
          6 months ago

          Please forgive me. That information was wrong, the data does not stay after factory resetting. I’m editing my comment to clarify this.

          • Yttra@lemmy.worldEnglish
            0·
            6 months ago

            Oh man, that’s too bad… The O3DS I grew up with is bricked and inoperable too…

    • Srootus@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      0·
      6 months ago

      Certain WiiU and 3DS games have a link with Miiverse, Nintendo’s Twitter before it closed 2017, you could post… posts from the game your playing when you beat a specific level or complete an achivement. You could also see and interact with other peoples posts ingame, in Super Mario 3D World for example you would see other players avatars on the world map, see their Miiverse posts and interact with them. It merged ingame worlds with Miiverse extremely well, making it feel like you were part of a tight not community Good Vibes Gaming did a very good video about Pretendo as a whole good watch if your interested

    • braxy29@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      6 months ago

      based on memory, so a little vague, but examples - access to various merchants in Bravely Default required you to have passed others. i remember this because i was sick with flu and spent a couple days with my 3ds and my daughter’s running/“passing” each other repeatedly so i could unlock everything.

      to the best of my memory, some turn-based rpg’s (Persona? SMT? Etrian Odyssey?) would allow you to access customized personas/demons/teams? others had made available. like maybe someone had a really great high level persona (basically a pokemon) with a really great selection of skills on it and you could use it instead of trying to build the same thing yourself, before you might have normally had access to it.

      so the latter type thing was cool and fun, but i didn’t get many of those. the first example is a situation where the game doesn’t really fully work without spotpass.

      edit - you could visit houses of people you had passed in animal crossing and buy their stuff, too. so you could see how other people decorated and access furniture you might not have access to yet (seasonal, Gracie).

    • ImpulseDrive42@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      6 months ago

      My version of a TLDR:

      Spotpass is a wireless tech that would auto connect with other 3ds or Wii U systems that were in the immediate area albeit with a limited range. It was their way of having a social community. Sort of like how you might meet other people while walking around outside.

      In the case of Spotpass, when you connected, it would show you the user’s profile, their favorite games, etc. And in some cases for specific games it would provide special DLCs or content that cannot be found elsewhere.

      Hence why we’d want to preserve that data since some DLC and other features are exclusive to Spotpass.

      • DreitonLullaby@lemm.eeOPEnglish
        0·
        6 months ago

        This isn’t correct, you’re getting confused between StreetPass and SpotPass. Yes, SpotPass is a wireless tech, but it has nothing to do with connecting to other 3DS’s or Wii U’s (and the Wii U did not have StreetPass; only SpotPass). A StreetPass-like feature would be pointless on a Wii U because you couldn’t take it out of the house without it losing range from the console. The 3DS on the other hand, had both features. So yes, the SpotPass did provide you with “DLC’s”, but it did not have the same features as StreetPass.

        Also, the users’ profile and their favourite game was shown in the friends list, which was not a part of SpotPass. I can’t remember for sure if you needed a Nintendo Network account for adding friends, but I do know that you can add friends offline through the local network, but this does not use the SpotPass network, as the SpotPass network requires internet (and most games which had SpotPass warned you of this prior to activation).

        The local wireless connection used in the friends list is the same connection used in local multiplayer games, the same as how it works on the Nintendo Switch.

      • PrimalHero@kbin.social
        0·
        6 months ago

        Thanks you. I will try to extract the data from my 3ds later but I never used to that feature. So I am not sure if it will much help.

    • DreitonLullaby@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      0·
      6 months ago

      SpotPass was/is a free service provided by Nintendo that was only on the 3DS and Wii U consoles; Nintendo Switch doesn’t provide this. Essentially what it’s purpose was, was for Nintendo to send various pieces of content to players for their games and apps. For example, Tomodatchi Life had various time-limited costumes distributed to players on a half-monthly bases. This was some of the data I had on my console. Other examples include special distributions of special Pokemon in pokemon games. So, in a sense, you could call the SpotPass data “DLC’s”. That’s why they are important to preserve, as they are DLC content that was distributed for free. They also include notifications, since all the notifications sent to you were through SpotPass. There’s also some DLC’s for New Super Mario Bros. 2 that require you to receive a SpotPass notification in order to install.

  • acr515@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    Used to play my 3DS a lot during its heyday so I’d love to contribute, but my 3DS uses a standard SD card and none of my computers have an SD card reader. Is there a good way to get the data off it without one?

    • Mint_Raccoon@kbin.social
      0·
      6 months ago

      There’s a homebrew app called ftpd that you could use, but it only works on a hacked system and that requires an SD card reader to initially setup.

    • clubb@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      6 months ago

      I just donated mine and there doesn’t seem to be one. Try to go to a computer store, SD card adapters aren’t very expensive these days. P.S. I just remembered it uploads automatically if you’re connected to the internet

      • acr515@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        6 months ago

        Actually, I was able to dig up an old laptop that as an SD reader in it. I don’t know if I have a spare blank SD lying around, though- can I use my 3DS’s native SD card without losing the data stored on it?

        • clubb@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          6 months ago

          Yes, all it does is create a directory with the data and then upload it to the internet - all from the 3ds

          Do keep in mind I have cfw 3ds, without it I don’t know if you still have a solution

          • acr515@lemmy.worldEnglish
            0·
            6 months ago

            Yeah my 3DS is unmodded. I may look to see if I have an SD card lying around somewhere at my home when I have a chance

  • realbadat@programming.devEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    Well no WiiU here, but I’ve got an N3DS upstairs somewhere. Maybe a regular 3DS too if I ever got it back.

    Will do what I can later today!

    • DreitonLullaby@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      0·
      6 months ago

      Hey, you looked further into getting it done yet? I’ve had a lot of “I’ll do it later” posts, so just checking in on some people.

      • realbadat@programming.devEnglish
        0·
        6 months ago

        Had to find the cable to charge it, so it only got power last night. So on the list for after work today.

        • DreitonLullaby@lemm.eeOPEnglish
          0·
          6 months ago

          Hey, even though I’m not officially part of this project, I’m sorry to say that at least for the period of April 6, at 12PM to 4PM PDT (Pacific Daylight Time), the maintainer of the server mistakenly didn’t see that the server had run out of storage space. This means that any dumps made by anyone within this time period didn’t actually get archived in the end. The exact amount of time is unknown. This 4 hr period is just the least amount of time the server was down for, so for all he knows, it could have been for the entire day of April 6th up until 4PM in the afternoon (PDT). Again, even though this wasn’t because of me, I’m sorry about this. If you can, could you please make the dump one last time if possible? As the archive servers are now working correctly again. Screenshot of the Discord announcement

  • 🔍🦘🛎@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    I’ll definitely look into this tonight. Affordable Space Adventures was fantastic and deserves to be remembered, but I’ve never seen another soul mention it.

      • 🔍🦘🛎@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        6 months ago

        Hmm, not sure I’m going to be able to do it. I don’t have an SD card reader on my computer anymore… I do have an old ebook that could read it, but it might be a hassle getting everything shuffled around. Plus I need to figure out Python. Might have time for it tomorrow.
        EDIT: This is a monumental hassle… my laptop can’t properly run the script it seems, CMD just auto-closes after trying to initialize the SD card, so I’m seeing if I can compress, upload to google drive, run it on my main computer, send back, then overwrite the SD card
        EDIT2: It looks like I did the injection correctly, but the 2DS is stuck on a loading screen in the Extra Data Management page; the tutorial says “Follow the directions shown on the bottom screen.” :/

        • DreitonLullaby@lemm.eeOPEnglish
          0·
          6 months ago

          I used the modded method so I’m not sure I can help you personally, but the people over at Discord will be very willing to help. Here is an invite to the Discord https://discord.gg/bVpaR9EY so you can get help; I’m sure they can help you. Otherwise, there is another method listed on the site that doesn’t involve Python, but it only works on the New 3DS or New 2DS though. I don’t know if the method is any more or less difficult, though.

          • 🔍🦘🛎@lemmy.worldEnglish
            0·
            6 months ago

            Ok, I went out and got an SD card reader (I needed one anyway for my dash cam). Less swapping seemed to do the job, got both my 2DS dump uploaded! Also just finished up with the WiiU spotpass dump :D

            • DreitonLullaby@lemm.eeOPEnglish
              0·
              6 months ago

              I appreciate you’ve gone to this much effort. Thankyou. I’m so sorry if this affects you. Because your message is 13 hrs ago, I will assume that you weren’t affected by this, so you likely don’t have to worry:

              There was an announcement on the Discord by the maintainer of the server which the entire archive is stored on. He announced that he’d accidentally not noticed that the server storage-space had run out, from all the dumps being made. This means that for at least 4 hrs, all dumps made by contributors were not being received, even though they thought they had been. Here’s the screenshot of the post.

              So the servers were first overfilled starting April 6, 12PM Pacific Daylight Time (PDT); and was fixed by the server maintainer at 4:08PM (PDT). However, all he knows is that the full amount of time the server was having this issue was “at least a 4 hrs”, so it could have started some hrs prior to 12PM; it could have even been the entire day for all he knows. I know this is annoying. I’m not officially a part of this project, I’m just spreading the word, but I’m still sorry for you if this affects you. If you think you made your dump within this time period, you will need to make the dump again. Otherwise, if you made the dump prior, but on the same day, it might be worth re-dumping, because your original dump may have not actually properly uploaded due to this mistake on the server-owners part.

              • 🔍🦘🛎@lemmy.worldEnglish
                0·
                5 months ago

                Yeah actually I saw that discord message not two minutes after I submitted my 3ds data haha. Luckily I kept a copy of it, so it was easy to resubmit. Then resubmit again about an hour later~

      • jol@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        0·
        6 months ago

        I’m really heartbroken about it. All my games and saves… And it was in perfect condition too.

        • DreitonLullaby@lemm.eeOPEnglish
          0·
          6 months ago

          I know how you feel. I understand because I lost my game case back in 2016 which contained ALL of my 3DS and DS games in it (plus my wallet); it was possibly stolen. Lost all my games and saves too

          My Mii’s in Tomodatchi Life probably starved to death, rip.

  • kratoz29@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    Already done 👍🏻

    Pretty easy to do with a hacked DS.

    Actually, I have other two 3DS hacked, but I have barely used them (the one I backed up was my main) I wonder if they have any usable data…

    • DreitonLullaby@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      0·
      6 months ago

      Worth a dump, I think. I dumped my modded secondary console which is an OG 2DS which I also hardly ever use, just in case there was something there.

  • themoonisacheese@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    It seems there aren’t remind me bots yet (please correct me if I’m wrong) so let’s do this the old fashioned way

    If someone reads this comment and it is 9 hours old, please reply to it so I get notified :)

  • Lamps@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    I doubt my 3ds had much, but I went and completed it. Super easy to do on CFW!