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The 3DS and Wii U eshops are closing on March 27

Violentvixen

(She/Her)
Got my 3DS out last night to start going through things. Had a system update and was reminded of another weird eShop thing I've never understood: updates. When you open the eShop under Settings/Other there's an Updates button, but not all software updates show up there? I remembered it was better to go to "redownloadable software" and then for some reason there's additional updates. So weird.

Anyway, I guess I plan to just go through games on my wishlist and physical ones and make sure there's nothing I'm missing that needs an update or that I want to buy.

Also saw Denpamen on here, I enjoyed Denpamen 2 so much! The first one still had some stuff to figure out and 3 wasn't much of a change from 2 and got boring. But since it's game that requires walking around with your 3DS and opening it up to catch them it's hard to recommend now.
 

Bongo

excused from moderation duty
(he/him)
Staff member
You'll be able to continue to download updates and redownload purchases for an indefinite amount of time after the store stops allowing purchases.
 

Vaeran

(GRUNTING)
(he/him)
Word on the street is that Wii Us can brick if you don't use them often enough due to a software error related to the deterioration of the on-board memory. So factor that into your buying decisions if you planned to store your Wii U away.

That's worrisome. Do you have any more information about this? How long of a period of time are we talking here? And what do you need to do to reset the countdown, just power it on?
 

Sarge

hardcore retro gamin'
Voultar did a video recently on recovering systems (he's not the first, though, I found another video before he put his out there), although it's not entirely clear why it's happening outside of memory corruption. I was mistaken about how NAND memory works, I don't think just powering up or reading it will restore the charge on cells, so it's probably advisable to make a NAND backup just in case.

That being said, apparently modern flash controllers will also periodically refresh cells, so maybe the Wii U has this and a power cycle will help? Don't actually know.

 

Kazin

did i do all of that?
(he/him)
That reminds me, I'll go back up my NAND after work is over. I think I already did so when I hacked my Wii U originally, but I'll do it again to make sure and save it somewhere obvious on an external HDD.
 
Fortunately the majority of the WiiU games I'm interested in have been ported to Switch. The others that haven't are remasters of games I can still play on my Gamecube (Wind Waker and Twilight Princess). It would also be nice to have NSMB Wii and Mario Galaxy 2 ported to Switch so I officially only have to haul out my WiiU if we all want to play OG Wii Sports (sorry, the new Switch game just doesn't look to have the charm of the old one).
 

R.R. Bigman

Coolest Guy
It’s less than a week until the eShops close, and aside from Capcom and Wayforward, there are no big sales. I didn’t expect Nintendo to give any discounts, but I thought Sega or Square-Enix would do something. I wish I would have bought more of the 3D Classics back when they were on sale all those months ago.
 

LBD_Nytetrayn

..and his little cat, too
(He/him)
Yeah, my Wii U is still hanging in there. To my great irritation, I'm now keeping it plugged in with the hopes of avoiding the problem until a solution can be found.

Remember when Nintendo built hardware that would last? Apparently that was longer ago than I realized.

So, what's this NAND thing? Can I back it to the same external drive I use on the Wii U for games?

Went to the 3DS eShop last night, turns out I didn't have enough room for Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice, so it wouldn't let me buy it... unless I did so through the website, that is. So stupid.

And Jirard was right, DLC is a big hassle. I have to figure out what to remove from my SD card, install the game, go through the intro, THEN I can get the DLC.

If there's ever an argument that Nintendo hates money, this whole experience makes a compelling case.
 
As I understand it, the kind of memory that's being used in the WiiU (which is used in a lot of places) expects to be used/powered regularly.
This is an imperfect analogy: Think of the memory in the WiiU as like RAM, but instead of losing its memory after being disconnected from power for a few seconds, it loses its memory after being disconnected from power for a few years.
 

YangusKhan

does the Underpants Dance
(He/Him/His)
If this is the case then mine is extremely fucked. I haven't turned it on in probably 4 years at least.
 

Becksworth

Aging Hipster Dragon Dad
I heard different explanations for the NAND issue, some being related to not being powered on, some instead claiming specific models of NAND chips are faulty.

I've also heard debates as to the statistical significance of the number of reported cases, so it may not have even reached a point where it is indisputably a problem (and not just the baseline of manufacturing errors) like with Joycon drift or RRoD.

That said the more complicated a computing device is the more likely it will turn into a brick over time. See all the issues PS3s have had keeping up and running.
 
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Sprite

(He/Him/His)
Yeah, I’m expecting my old cart devices to go to the grave with me, but everything else is going to need an alternative eventually. My PS3, PSP, and Vita are all getting pretty unreliable at this point. And it’s only a matter of time before I’m old man yelling at Cloud gaming.
 

ArugulaZ

Fearful asymmetry
Apparently the systems with Hynix chips are most susceptible to failure... and when they die, they don't come back to life, even if you have a Raspberry Pi.

I'd shed tears, but really, the Wii U was kind of a dud as Nintendo systems go. You're chained to that big 'ol Fisher-Price game pad, and it's only about as powerful as an Xbox 360 despite being seven years its junior. If mine dies, it dies. As often as I don't use it, I won't be able to tell the difference.
 

Violentvixen

(She/Her)
Last chance to buy things is today!

I'm a little bummed because we're out of town through Wednesday and I meant to hook up the WiiU before we left and ran out of time. Eh, there's nothing on there I was incredibly excited to get at this point, and I can always hack it later if I want.
 

Ludendorkk

(he/him)
One week left. Payday Thursday I plan to get Omega Ruby, Rhythm Heaven Megamix and Kirby's Extra Epic Yarn. I want to get Paper Jam as well but I need to be able to eat and I hear it's the worst M&L game anyways so *shrug*

It really is bullshit that Nintendo isn't having a massive sale on Wii U and 3DS games, They're probably making a lot of money right now but I'd imagine they'd rake in even more if they made everything 50% off because people tend to spend more money when there's a sale event (see: Steam Sales).

Nobody uses these stores anymore. Extremely niche audiences don't expand when you do sales because price sensitivity isn't the main barrier to people buying stuff. Sales would most likely just cost them money at this point.
 

Becksworth

Aging Hipster Dragon Dad
Yeah, sales take man hours to coordinate and advertise. In the case of say Atlus's specific niche 3DS catalog it might make sense in this situation, but probably not Nintendo's broader 3DS catalog and definitely not their Wii U catalog given how much of it is on the Switch too.

Eh, there's nothing on there I was incredibly excited to get at this point, and I can always hack it later if I want.

Still need to switch to Tiramisu on my Wii U, as well as see if Pretendo is out of beta testing yet.
 

ArugulaZ

Fearful asymmetry
Is it closed yet? I was wondering what the pink rabbit from the Badge Arcade was gonna say. (I think someone transcribed that conversation from a data skim, but I want to see it in person.)

EDIT: 5PM Pacific tomorrow. That's the official deadline for the flatline.
 
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Purple

(She/Her)
The WiiU's is effectively already closed, at least in that I have no idea how to add funds. 3DS, I managed to snag those download-only Ace Attorneys through Nintendo's website (both absurdly on-sale).
 

Mr. Sensible

Pitch and Putt Duffer

R.R. Bigman

Coolest Guy
The WiiU's is effectively already closed, at least in that I have no idea how to add funds. 3DS, I managed to snag those download-only Ace Attorneys through Nintendo's website (both absurdly on-sale).
I have only enough room in my 3DS fridge for one of these Ace Attorney games. Which one should I get as someone unfamiliar with most of the series?
 

LBD_Nytetrayn

..and his little cat, too
(He/him)
I see people stanning for Spirit of Justice.

No idea if it's still better if you're not already familiar, though.
 
I have only enough room in my 3DS fridge for one of these Ace Attorney games. Which one should I get as someone unfamiliar with most of the series?
You can still redownload games for the foreseeable future (I think you can still even do that on the Wii), you just can't buy stuff anymore.
 

Bongo

excused from moderation duty
(he/him)
Staff member
However, it won't let you purchase if you can't immediately download it, even if you don't.
 
Well yeah, but if you link your 3DS account to your Switch account on Nintendo's site you can just buy the games there without it checking for room on your system/SD card/what have you.
 

ArugulaZ

Fearful asymmetry
Whoops. I think they just closed the eShop. I went to get Phoenix Wright, and it just asks for my region. The party's over, folks.
 

Sprite

(He/Him/His)
End of an era, good lord.

The rubber on my circle pad fell apart under my thumb yesterday. Seems appropriate to the occasion.
 

R.R. Bigman

Coolest Guy
I bought all the BoxBoy games, Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice and a few other things. Seeing decade-plus old games at full price until the very end that will be stuck on this dead handheld has been the motivation I needed to get serious about getting new laptop. Steam being ready to put on most any computer with full access to your games seems pretty cool right now!
 
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