Sharing a physical Nintendo 3DS game Cartridge

[Raffy98]

I and my brother have one Nintendo 2DS each and we wanted to buy Pokèmon Super Mystery Dungeon, but it's pretty expensive to get 2 copies of it and we are not willing to spend that much money right now. :P

So I was thinking to buy just one copy and split the price in half between me and him, but I have a question (it might sound silly) that maybe some of you have already guessed: where does the save data gets stored?
I already tried to look for the answer on Google and I'm getting very controversial statements, some say they are stored in the SD card, some others say that the save data is stored on the cartridge itself, making it impossible for us to share the game, and someone also claims that you can choose whether to save the data on the cartridge or on the SD card but without telling how to do that. ~_~

Anyone who can help or give some advice? Thanks in advance!

 

[Raffy98]

With a 3DS cartridge, save data is generally saved to the card itself, and extra non-important content (Say, spotpass or streetpass, or user-created content like images or QR codes) is saved to the SD card, depending on what the game needs. I believe it will tell you beforehand. If you download it from the eShop, it will obviously use the SD card though for everything.

So I believe that is a no from Nintendo on game sharing. >:(
That practically makes it impossible for someone to share a game with someone else or even a family member without using the other person's save data.
Oh well...

 

[machomuu]

There are plenty of softhacks that allow you to backup saves and substitute them with others. Use caution, obviously, but if you have the opportunity you should look into it.

 

[Melody]

Provided you're not on 11.4 firmware; you can easily install CFW on both systems that allows you to DUMP the physical copy to digital. If you are on 11.4 you can at least access some homebrew that may be able to backup/restore the save file if and only if it's on the cartridge.

However since the legality is questionable I won't link any how-to's, but some intelligent google-fu should yield some results.

 

[Raffy98]

Provided you're not on 11.4 firmware; you can easily install CFW on both systems that allows you to DUMP the physical copy to digital. If you are on 11.4 you can at least access some homebrew that may be able to backup/restore the save file if and only if it's on the cartridge.

However since the legality is questionable I won't link any how-to's, but some intelligent google-fu should yield some results.

Unfortunately I'm on 11.4.0-37E so I can't use homebrews for now :/, last time I used SoundHax to start the Homebrew Launcher but Nintendo patched it and I have to find a new way.

There are plenty of softhacks that allow you to backup saves and substitute them with others. Use caution, obviously, but if you have the opportunity you should look into it.

Can you name some of these homebrews? :) Also, you said "Use caution", you mean that the cartridge can stop working or something like that?

 

[machomuu]

Can you name some of these homebrews? :) Also, you said "Use caution", you mean that the cartridge can stop working or something like that?

Oh no, the cart should be fine regardless- the worse thing you could do is corrupt the save, and the only instance where that would happen is when, say, the power goes off while you're importing save data to the cart. But since 3DS carts use ROMs you won't really have to worry about accidentally messing with the game data or anything like that.

I'm just saying that in regards to hacking in general, especially if you were going for something like A9LH. But there are a number of fullproof guides out there so you should be golden.

It's been a while since I've really done any hacking 3DS shenanigans, but I personally use JK Save Manager, though I occasionally use Save Data Filer. The former's way more convenient, though.

 

[Dter ic]

As you mentioned you were on 11.4 then there's currently no entrypoint to access homebrew so for retail cartridges, you can't transfer the save data.

If possible, you could return the original cartridge and get the digital copy. you can then transfer the save to an SD card under the 3DS.

 

[Raffy98]

Oh no, the cart should be fine regardless- the worse thing you could do is corrupt the save, and the only instance where that would happen is when, say, the power goes off while you're importing save data to the cart. But since 3DS carts use ROMs you won't really have to worry about accidentally messing with the game data or anything like that.

I'm just saying that in regards to hacking in general, especially if you were going for something like A9LH. But there are a number of fullproof guides out there so you should be golden.

It's been a while since I've really done any hacking 3DS shenanigans, but I personally use JK Save Manager, though I occasionally use Save Data Filer. The former's way more convenient, though.

Ok, thanks for the precious info!

As you mentioned you were on 11.4 then there's currently no entrypoint to access homebrew so for retail cartridges, you can't transfer the save data.

If possible, you could return the original cartridge and get the digital copy. you can then transfer the save to an SD card under the 3DS.

I didn't buy the cartridge in the first place, I was just asking before buying it. :)
But yeah I might be better getting a digital copy at this point.