(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.

  • AlligatorBlizzardEnglish
    42·
    8 months ago

    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.eeOPEnglish
      37·
      8 months ago

      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?

            • DreitonLullaby@lemm.eeOPEnglish
              2·
              8 months ago

              Thanks for the suggestion. My post over there currently has 48 upvotes and had at least one person comment they’ve uploaded their data; a few others said they will do it “soon” or “tomorrow”

      • Exec@pawb.socialEnglish
        5·
        8 months ago

        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.

      • SailorMossEnglish
        2·
        8 months ago

        I’ve done it on my WiiU/3DSes as well. I’ll message my friend with a 3DS to do it later tonight as well.

        Is there anything else I/others can do to help with preservation on my/their systems before the Nintendo network goes down?

        • DreitonLullaby@lemm.eeOPEnglish
          3·
          8 months ago

          Thanks for asking. I asked on the Discord server, and I was told that the Pretendo Network devs are also asking for network dumps for games that have online multiplayer support, and that you can find out about it on their website. I haven’t found where on the site he was talking about yet, but I’m going to look further into it tomorrow to see if I can get any of mine dumped.

    • DreitonLullaby@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      1·
      8 months ago

      If they didn’t factory reset it before you bought it from them, than it definitely would still have that old data lying around in the background.

  • Hucklebee@lemmy.worldEnglish
    19·
    8 months ago

    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!

  • acr515@lemmy.worldEnglish
    19·
    8 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?

    • clubb@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      8 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
        5·
        8 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
          4·
          8 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
            5·
            8 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

    • Mint_Raccoon@kbin.social
      31·
      8 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.worldEnglish
    191·
    8 months ago

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

    • ImpulseDrive42@lemmy.worldEnglish
      191·
      8 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.

      • PrimalHero@kbin.social
        10·
        8 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
          1·
          6 months ago

          Note that if you got the console second hand (even if it was factory reset), apparently, the SpotPass data stays on the console in the background, so it may be of more help than you think.

          Edit on May 13, 2024 (Originally commented April 5): Sorry, but this information was incorrect and no data remains after a factory reset. Mainly making this edit for future readers.

      • DreitonLullaby@lemm.eeOPEnglish
        10·
        8 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.

    • SrootusEnglish
      5·
      8 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

      • DreitonLullaby@lemm.eeOPEnglish
        1·
        8 months ago

        I think you’re getting confused between the Nintendo Network and SpotPass. Miiverse didn’t use SpotPass at all (except for notifications; which were also a function of SpotPass). Miiverse used the Nintendo Network, which as you know, the Nintendo Network was recreated into the Pretendo Network; but this has nothing to do with SpotPass, which is a separate service altogether.

        • SrootusEnglish
          1·
          8 months ago

          Oh then I have no real idea then, the notifications were spotpass? Idk

          • DreitonLullaby@lemm.eeOPEnglish
            1·
            8 months ago

            Yeah, there was the content side of SpotPass, but the notifications were also sent to you with SpotPass, so I believe that you didn’t require a Nintendo Network account for SpotPass to work.

    • DreitonLullaby@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      2·
      8 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.

    • braxy29@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      8 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).

  • 9point6@lemmy.worldEnglish
    14·
    8 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.

  • 🔍🦘🛎@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8·
    8 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
        1·
        8 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
          1·
          8 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
            1·
            8 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
              1·
              8 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
                2·
                8 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~

    • DreitonLullaby@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      1·
      8 months ago

      Hey, just checking in and seeing if you remembered to make your dump yesterday? Just in case you forgot.

      • alekwithak@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        8 months ago

        I appreciate that! I dumped my 3 3DS. The application made it super easy.

        However my WiiU hadn’t been on in forever and forced an update that killed homebrew. We’ll get there, I just haven’t had the time to deal with it yet.

        And my WiiU as well!

  • ManniSturgis@lemmy.zipEnglish
    7·
    8 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.

      • jol@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        1·
        8 months ago

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

        • DreitonLullaby@lemm.eeOPEnglish
          1·
          8 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.