this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2024

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Please help preserve your 3DS and Wii U SpotPass data before it's too late! (lemm.ee)

submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by DreitonLullaby@lemm.ee to c/technology@lemmy.world

106 comments fedilink hide all child comments

(MAJOR UPDATE: ONLY 10 HRS REMAIN BEFORE SHUT DOWN AT TIME OF WRITING THIS UPDATE)

Hello everyone. For everyone who owns a 3DS, 2DS, or even a 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 (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. A huge amount of SpotPass content is essentially free DLC for various games and apps, and they could have been installed without your knowledge. They are not required for most games to play, but without their archival, many games will lose DLC content permanently and some features may no longer work. This archival project can only be made possible by the donations of any individuals owning a 3DS or 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. There is also zero risk of having your console banned; so rest assured. The guides can be found here: https://spotpassarchive.github.io/#guides.

Update: For those who can't recall the difference, what we're archiving here is SpotPass, not StreetPass. The difference between the two are: StreetPass: Is a 3DS exclusive offline wireless tech which connects your 3DS to other systems and shares various bits of data with random people you pass on the street (in the real world). For example, in the game StreetPass Mii Plaza, the data sent to random passers are your Mii, along with your most recently played game, and your Mii can be played with in the various minigames that StreetPass Mii Plaza offers, and vice versa. SpotPass: Is an online wireless tech available on both the 3DS and Wii U. Unlike StreetPass, it does not connect to other 3DS systems directly, but rather connects to Nintendo's SpotPass servers online. The data sent could be anything from notifications, to in-game content. This is what we're archiving; not StreetPass data. Streetpass is not an online service, and thus does not lose content after April 8th; but SpotPass data will be lost after the 8th if it's not archived. Wikipedia article.

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, and the 3DS was a wonderful part of my late childhood.

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 official 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 don't 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.

Edit: added some extra information, removed some no longer relevant information, fixed some typos, improved some wording slightly.

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[–] AlligatorBlizzard@sh.itjust.works 36 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Done. I've got a modded 3ds LL and it took maybe five minutes, and no SD card pulling required (which absolutely sucks on the XL/LL). I doubt it's going to be useful because I've only had my 3ds for a few months, but who knows, maybe there's something useful that remained from the previous owner.

[–] DreitonLullaby@lemm.ee 35 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (8 children)

Thanks so much. Every bit helps. I noticed only 4 people dumped their 3DS data and 0 people dumped their Wii U data in the past couple of hours, so there's going to be a very small amount of extra dumps by Apr 8th at this rate. I'm gonna continue sharing as much as I can. I was gonna go share on r/technology on Reddit, but saw that one of their rules explicitly forbids posts that are a "call to action". What a stupid rule, why even stipulate that?

[–] dabu@lemmy.world 19 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Post it to /r/3DS. Maybe /r/gaming as well?

[–] RobotToaster@mander.xyz 10 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

r/3ds is run by nintendo fanboys that ban anyone who even mentions custom firmware.

[–] PrivateNoob@sopuli.xyz 6 points 7 months ago (2 children)

How tf can you defend such a nefarious company?

[–] RobotToaster@mander.xyz 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)

They're reddit mods.

[–] DreitonLullaby@lemm.ee 3 points 7 months ago

r/wiiu mods were good. Pinned my post. r/gaming on the other hand... well. They took it down because it had a singular link to this lemmy post at the bottom which was apparently spam according to the moderator I appealed to in DM's.

[–] otp@sh.itjust.works 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

By being extra paranoid about their nefarious lawyers, haha

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[–] ManniSturgis@lemmy.zip 3 points 7 months ago

You can use it perfectly legally for installing your own physical games to your sd card for instance. Running CFW on the 3DS is objectively better as it has zero downsides once you have set it up. You can be a nintendo fanboy AND use CFW at the same time. I mean at least I think so. I hate nintendo, so I can't say for certain.

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[–] Natanael@slrpnk.net 7 points 7 months ago

Try /r/datahoarders too and some people posting about Nintendo stuff

[–] KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 7 months ago (3 children)

hop up to r/datahoarders. im sure those guys will welcome you.

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[–] Exec@pawb.social 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I noticed only 4 people dumped their 3DS data and 0 people dumped their Wii U data in the past couple of hours, so there’s going to be a very small amount of extra dumps by Apr 8th at this rate.

This post and the cross-posted ones along with new people waking up in other time zones sure helped to boost those numbers a bit.

[–] Natanael@slrpnk.net 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I posted it to bluesky, it got a few reposts in nerd circles, hope it helped

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[–] Exec@pawb.social 3 points 7 months ago

Just submitted one from a N3DS.

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[–] Drummyralf@lemmy.world 19 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Uploaded my 3DS XL data. Was easy as pie with my modded 3ds.

I'll see if I can connect my WiiU tomorrow.

Thanks for the heads up!

[–] DreitonLullaby@lemm.ee 6 points 7 months ago

No worries, glad I could reach you!

[–] acr515@lemmy.world 18 points 7 months ago (2 children)

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?

[–] clubb@lemmy.world 10 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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.world 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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.world 4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

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.world 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] clubb@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago

First of all, it's incredibly easy to mod it, and it's something that, since the shop shut down, is necessary to have new experiences on it. Here's a link to the site I used to mod my new Nintendo 2ds.

https://3ds.hacks.guide/get-started.html

[–] Mint_Raccoon@kbin.social 2 points 7 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.

[–] ABCDE@lemmy.world 16 points 7 months ago

What does this data do? Looks like a decent cause otherwise. Submit to /piracy also?

[–] PrimalHero@kbin.social 14 points 7 months ago (6 children)

🤔 Might be stupid question but what is spotPass why do we need to preserve the data?

[–] AlexCory21@lemmy.world 16 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

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.ee 10 points 7 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 10 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] braxy29@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 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).

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[–] 9point6@lemmy.world 12 points 7 months ago

Just done my 3ds that I'd recently installed CFW on, funnily with the intention of hooking it up to the pretendo network.

For anyone hesitant, it was a less than 5 minute job.

[–] Lolman228@kbin.social 10 points 7 months ago

Just got it done! Thanks for spreading the word!

[–] ManniSturgis@lemmy.zip 7 points 7 months ago

Damn, I've disposed of my 3DS battery because it started to fail (and I don't play on it anymore anyways) and THIS is how I find out you can't turn the damn thing on without a battery? Well, I can at least get the ol' WiiU out and do it on there.

[–] alekwithak@lemmy.world 6 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I have multiple 3DS and a WiiU, will try to remember to do this tomorrow!

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[–] matrixrunner@lemmy.world 6 points 7 months ago

Just finished! Thanks for the tip!

[–] jol@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 7 months ago (3 children)

I lost my 3DS last week 😭

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[–] the16bitgamer@lemmy.world 5 points 7 months ago

I am doing my part 🫡!

[–] Zoomboingding@lemmy.world 5 points 7 months ago (6 children)

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.

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[–] KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 7 months ago (4 children)

damn, guess i have a late night project today, and possibly tomorrow.

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[–] Lemminary@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago

I wish I still had my 3DS with me. Sadge.

[–] realbadat@programming.dev 3 points 7 months ago (6 children)

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!

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[–] Cris_Color@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago (4 children)

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

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[–] pgetsos@kbin.social 3 points 7 months ago

Thanks for the post. I will try to do it on Saturday

[–] kuneho@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago

Pretendo, yay!

[–] Fijxu@programming.dev 3 points 7 months ago (5 children)

Thanks. I'll do it later

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[–] ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I'll have to dig out my 3dsxl this weekend. Still packed up from moving a few years ago.

Bet it still has a charge on it, lol

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[–] tabular@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Will the replacement services be proprietary or open source/free software?

[–] Draconic_NEO@lemmy.world 9 points 7 months ago

Pretendo is open source.

[–] veniasilente@lemm.ee 2 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Would love to contribute, but I won't have access to my 3DSes until around the 22nd.

Also would love to try and know why the data can't be sent after the deadline (it's just data, should not be "time-encoded") but unfortunately the link to the image with the explanation says the image can't be loaded because it has errors. Does anyone have the actual text explanation?

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