I got this new flash card, the Sky3DS, as this is supposed to work with the latest original 3DS firmware, and without having to install, downgrade or flash anything.
So I got it today, and after testing, it works flawlessly.
You download a program called Diskwriter to format and copy (plus other features) games to your micro SD card. It works similar than on the Wii, you card gets an unknown Windows format file system. You then just copy your games to the card. First of all, before copying though, you load a template file into your Diskwriter program, where all the needed game data is saved as text format. This one is provided by Sky3DS and can be downloaded at their website, the template is also updated regularly, as new games are coming out.
If there's a negative point, this one would be. The flash card does not give you a menu once inserted and booted. Instead it shows the first game that's on the SD card, as if the original game was inserted. If you want to play the next game on the card, you have to press the little blue button on the flash card, wait for 4-5 seconds, then the next game is loaded and ready to launch. So it's not really advised to have 20 or more games on one card, as to get to the last game, you would have to press the button 20 times and wait. You cannot press it continuously f.ex. 15 times, and you're at the 15th game, no, you always have to wait until a game is loaded, press the button, wait for the next one to load until you reached the game you wanna play. Although next time you switch on the console, it will have memorized the last game you played. So what people do at the moment, they just buy several SD cards, and just swap them. 4-16GB cards are quite cheap, so you could use several divided f.ex. into genres.
Other than that, it worked with every game I tested so far. It also is restricted to play EU games, but there's a software existing called RegionThree, which is put on the card, and that will then make the flash card regionfree, didn't try it yet.
It's only about what you want, I know that the Gateway offers a nice menu, but you have to downgrade your console to 4.1-4.5, which is still fine, but at the moment it only works up until 9.2, and have have the newest 9.6 firmware, which is not supported. And then again, if it is flashed, games that need firmware higher than 9.2 wouldn't work, like f.ex. the new Xenoblade Chronicles 3D.
Btw, I bought a new 3DS, as I always wanted to buy an XL console anyway, so I bought now a New 3DS XL. It's really nice, and the transfer from the old one to the new one worked perfect. I really had problems with the normal "small" 3DS seeing anything, and had to wear reading glasses when playing with it. I wanted to play Xenoblade Chronicles anyway, I started to play it some weeks ago on the Wii, because it's a very good game, and like this, I can play it at work ;)
Back to the Sky3DS. In my opinion this is at the moment the best solution if you wanna play pirated games, although homebrew or eShop games don't work (yet). Normal DS games also don't work, this is a pure 3DS flash card. It's easy to set up, as there's basically nothing to do, you can use it out of the box. Games seem to be 100% compatible. I admit that the Gateway has a lot more features, but a lot of them you don't use, plus at the moment you're kind of stuck with the newest firmware and have to wait for them to release again a downgrader. Also with the Sky3DS you cannot brick your console, which is a very good aspect. I'm gonna keep my other 3DS, and play around with the Gateway, once I get the opportunity to downgrade.
Price wise both are the same, you can get the Sky3DS around 70-80€ at some reseller shops around Europe. Price is indeed a bit steep, but it's basically the price of 2 new retail games.
www.sky3ds.com/
