Jailbreaking your 3DS is not synonymous with piracy, no matter how popular it may be to do so for that end. Here's a non-exhaustive sampling of some cool things you can do with your fancy little 3D clamshell computer.
- If you've got a New 3DS (or New 2DS), here's how to play 3D (or 2D) videos at 60FPS at the 3DS' native screen resolution! https://github.com/Core-2-Extreme/Video_player_for_3DS
- Use the hardware GBA backwards-compatibility for any game, originally only available for "3DS Ambassador" titles. https://github.com/profi200/open_agb_firm
- If you're a GBA homebrew developer, setting up your 3DS with https://github.com/joshbackstein/gba-net-boot is a great way to test on GBA hardware as part of your workflow without fiddling with a flashcart and causing contact wear. (This is a godsend while iterating on timing-sensitive demoscene bullshit that's inconsistent in emulators)
- Speaking of cartridge wear, you can install your own gamecards to your internal memory so you don't have to juggle them. https://github.com/d0k3/GodMode9
- Back up your game saves! https://github.com/BernardoGiordano/Checkpoint
- Use a Gamecube/Xbox controller to play 3DS games! https://github.com/MissingNO123/GCIR
- You can target the 3DS with Rust! https://github.com/rust3ds
game ports!
- Half-Life
- Sonic Mania
- Old Minecraft
- 3D Pinball Space Cadet
- Friday Night Funkin
- Transport Tycoon
- Tomb Raider
- Higurashi
computer's!
- Native Linux with Wayland (Weston)! https://github.com/linux-3ds/linux/wiki
- Mini vMac https://github.com/TaraHoleInIt/minivmac-3ds
- DOSBox https://github.com/MrHuu/dosbox-3ds/
pretend computer's!
- uxn https://github.com/asiekierka/uxnds
- PICO-8 https://github.com/jtothebell/fake-08
- TIC-80 https://github.com/asiekierka/TIC-80
emulators
(you've got a Retrode, right?)
- Nintendo 64??? https://github.com/masterfeizz/DaedalusX64-3DS
- SNES https://github.com/Arisotura/blargSnes
- Megadrive(/CD/32X) and NES https://github.com/bubble2k16/emus3ds
mods????
(these will work on legitimate copies of games; the patching is done at runtime, i.e. by redirecting I/O to the patched assets)
- MM3D: Un-nerf Zora swimming and many other improvements https://restoration.zora.re
- MK7: Custom Track Grand Prix 7 https://ctgp-7.github.io/
- YNI: Old (non-kazoo) music https://old.reddit.com/r/3dshacks/comments/8c6x0x/release_yoshis_new_island_music_improvement_10/
I have seen a million semi-meme posts over the years about how easy it is to hack your 3ds and how anyone can do it, but out of spite I've refused to look into it because I've literally never seen a single post saying why I should care or what the point of having a hacked 3ds is. until this one! so congratulations. maybe now I'll finally do it