[JamesBond007]

Hello. One week ago, ten GBA games were released to all "Ambassadors" - people who bought 3DS before price drop on August 12. Earlier, ten NES games were released on September 1. One of the GBA games was The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap.

However, European and Australian version of the game has numerous glitches (like unavailable Bomb Bag upgrade in Stockwell's Shop). These glitches were present since original GBA release and they are still present in the 3DS version. Only American and Japanese versions are glitch-free.

Is it possible to "hack" into 3DS's SD card and replace European ROM with the American one? It might be necessary to edit the American ROM with a hex editor first in order to change the region from NTSC to PAL.

How risky is it? I don't want to "brick" my console completely. I can always make a complete backup of 3DS's SD card first.

[KingMike]

Strange only the EU version would have a glitch since the original JPN and EU versions were released within a week and NA was forced to wait 2 months (possibly because it was a November release NoA wanted to save it for post-Christmas).
I know the NA version removed the multi-language option and forced the player to listen to Ezlo every time they continued a saved game... and updated copyright text . I wonder what else is different?

I'm pretty sure NTSC or PAL does not matter at all to portable games.

[JamesBond007]

Thanks for the info, but I have more questions.

1. Can someone look into folders present on 3DS's SD card by using an SD card reader? Currently, I don't have one.
2. On my PC, I have NES and GBA ROMs, which are files with .nes and .gba extensions. How this is saved on 3DS? The same way or different, more complex?

If the same way (.nes and .gba files), then I could just put US Minish Cap on EU Minish Cap's place, keeping the exact same file name. Heck, I could even put completely different ROMs (like replacing Metroid with Mother 1 and one of the other GBA ROMs with Metroid: Zero Mission, because it includes original Metroid as an unlockable bonus).

If more complex way (like Wii's .wad files), then replacing ROMs will be difficult. In this case, I surrender.

[What Defines A Monster?]

I've taken a look at my 3DS card. You pop it in and you get two folders- DCIM for the 3D pictures you take, and the folder for 3DS data itself. The picture folder is relatively straightforward, with all your pictures right there for viewing and whatnot.

The 3DS data folders, on the other hand, are an incomprehensible mess. Nothing is laid out logically in any way, shape or form and there is absolutely no indicator of what anything inside the folders are- most of the files, in fact, are just different various and sundry numbers. I would venture a guess they do this to ensure that anyone looking in the folders quickly gets irritated and goes somewhere else.

In other words- you won't find any easy rom access there.

[tashi]

Since the 3DS is region locked, I suspect it is impossible (or at least extremely nontrivial) to play a NA version of a game on a european 3DS. That is true for actual 3DS cartridges, and probably for virtual console downloads, too.