DS Flash Cartridges now Illegal in the UK
Homebrew-enabling devices such as Flash Cartridges are now banned from Britain. In an anti-piracy law that was discussed today, the UK has decided to make a ruling against any flash cartridges being imported or sold in the UK, including, but not limited to, M3DS Simply and R4DS just to name a few. While flash carts were originally used to boot homebrew software like Web Browsers, Organization Software (see DSOrganize), IRC Clients, Email Checkers and all sorts of useful tools, their legality has been questioned as commerical game backups can easily be downloaded and booted on the console thanks to flash cartridge software loaders.
Nintendo 3DS Security more paranoid than ever…
It seems that the big N, Nintendo, has decided to take a massive swing at the Nintendo DS piracy and homebrew scene, and as a result, locked down the Nintendo 3DS firmware with security checks and other tricks to prevent unauthorized tampering.
The 3DS is to feature a upgraded version of the Nintendo Wii’s and Nintendo DSi/DSi XL security system, which Nintendo describes it as “uncrackable”. The 3DS apparently performs a lot of checks that make sure that the code being executed on the system is genuine, and not exploited (which some boot game backup on DS Phat solutions such as PassMe have taken advantage of in the past).