Nintendo Zone is the successor to DS Download Stations, offering retailer exclusive content, game videos, screenshots, etc. As of February 6th 2012 demos are available for download, demos are downloaded from the eShop servers and installed to SD card. NZone demos are the same ones available on eShop, these are region-locked as trying to download them from other regions results in an error. USA Best Buy and some other retailers have NZone, this NZone seems to be significantly different from the DS(i) NZone. Most content available at Best Buy is already available on eShop, like the screenshots/videos, game info etc. The OK Go video is available from NZone however. The OOT video on NZone server is the one from eShop launch like most of the other videos.
Like DSi, when an open 3DS detects NZone the hidden(always accessible for USA) NZone title appears and a notification about it appears. Like DSi this title is already stored on NAND, it's just not visible until you're in range of NZone.(doesn't disappear with sdcard removed) When NZone beacons are in range, 3DS only detects NZone when not connected to Internet already. Once connected to a NZone AP, the beacon payload is cached until disconnected from the AP.
When modified DSi nzone beacons are broadcasted with the 3DS Best Buy authentication param, DSi launcher won't blink the NZone title icon but the title will still semi-work. NZone title would connect to the server, with buttons for demos, Best Buy, and WFC config displayed, but NZone will display an error a while after selecting "Best Buy" service after a bit of loading.(probably unsupported html tags etc)
Description
The NZone browser interface looks very similar to the main 3DS web browser, so it's probably the same as that browser except modified.(and with video support, presumably mobiclip) The NZone beacon encryption is same as before, except some unknown fields in the cleartext was changed where 3DS will only "detect" NZone /w NZone icon blinking/enabled when the beacons' fields are set this way. DSi will not detect these beacons. 3DS can use DS(i) NZone, but only if the NZone title is already enabled. With DS(i) beacons, 3DS connects to Internet but the NZone icon will not blink. However the NZone title will still work once launched. The Best Buy NZone uses the same authentication parameter at all stores /w NZone. Different URL params are sent to the to the server than DSi, sending the wrong params via curl results in old content being retrieved.
Beacon payload format
This seems to be identical to DS(i) NZone format except for the unknown fields, WPA2 isn't supported. 3DS NZone is not region-locked like DS(i).
| OFFSET | SIZE | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|---|
| 0x00 | 32 | AP SSID. |
| 0x20 | 10 | ApNum, required for connecting to the server. This is used by the server to determine which retailer NZone you're using. First ASCII number char in this param is region, this is also used to determine which server to connect to. Regions: 0) JPN 1) USA 2/3) EUR 4) KOR 5) CHN. This ApNum also contains the state/province in that country and storeID, but these are fixed for USA/EUR NZone deployments.(For JPN NZone those were unique per location) |
| 0x2a | 2 | This u16 was always one in all dumps, unknown what this is. This isn't used by the client. |
| 0x2c | 24 | Some UTF-16 ServiceName. "BestBuy" |
| 0x44 | 32 | AP crypto key, if any. |
| 0x64 | 1 | Unknown, not used by the DS(i) client. For 3DS this is 0x1, for DS(i) this is 0x0. |
| 0x65 | 1 | AP crypto key type: 0) Open 1) WEP-64 2) WEP-128 3) WEP-152 |
| 0x66 | 1 | Unknown flags, for 3DS this is 0x1e, for DS(i) this is 0x3. Bits 0 and 1 don't seem to be used by the client. The DS(i) client uses bit2 unknown what for though. |
| 0x67 | 5 | Padding. |
| 0x6c | 2 | Unknown, with 3DS this is zero but for DS(i) this was 0x428. |
| 0x6e | 2 | CRC16 over the whole payload excluding CRC offset, initval is 0. |
Wi-Fi Hotspots
Hotspot.conf format
The list of NZone hotspots is loaded from "conf:/hotspot.conf" by the AC system applet, where "conf:" is the 000400DB00010502 content archive. This is a CSV file, with LF-style newlines. All of the information stored in the NZone beacon is also stored in this file for each hotspot.
Beginning the CSV file is the Interval record and field. Following that is the hotspot records on one line, and the fields for each hotspot on individual lines. Some fields are Base64-encoded, for those the '*' character is used instead of '=' for terminating the Base64 string.
Tags
| Tag name | Tag data max len | Tag data |
|---|---|---|
| Interval | Arbitrary | Decimal interval, unknown |
| ServiceName | 0x40 (after decode) | Hotspot Base64-encoded ASCII ServiceName |
| Url | 0x80 (after decode) | Hotspot Base64-encoded URL (unknown what this is used for) |
| Ssid | 32 (after decode) | Hotspot Base64-encoded SSID |
| SecurityKey | 0x40 | Hotspot Base64-encoded encryption key |
| SecurityMode | 1 | Decimal hotspot encryption type |
| ApNum | 10 | Hotspot ApNum, see above NZone beacon info |
| IsVendorIE | 1 | Decimal hotspot flag, can be either 1 or 0 |
| IsBackground | 1 | Decimal hotspot flag, can be either 1 or 0 |
| IsBrowser | 1 | Decimal hotspot flag, can be either 1 or 0 |
| IsShop | 1 | Decimal hotspot flag, can be either 1 or 0 |
| IsGame | 1 | Decimal hotspot flag, can be either 1 or 0 |
| IsSetToFW | 1 | Decimal hotspot flag, can be either 1 or 0 |
Hotspots
| SSID | Security | Region | Source | Usable remotely |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wayport_Access | None | USA | McDonalds | Yes |
| attwifi | None | USA | AT&T | Yes |
| Boingo Hotspot | None | USA | Boingo | Yes |
| SIMON WiFi | None | USA | SIMON Malls | Yes |
| ibahn | None | USA | iBAHN | Yes |
| noasp## | None | USA | Nintendo events (noasp03 at GDC) | No |
| BELLWIFI@MCDONALDS | None | USA (Canada) | Bell | Yes |
| 7SPOT | None | JPN | 7-11 | LAN-only 7-11 hostname used |
| TSUTAYA | None | JPN | TSUTAYA | Only with NZone beacon |
| free-hotspot.com | None | EUR | free-hotspot.com | Yes |
| _The Cloud
WiFi Zone - The Cloud |
None | EUR | The Cloud | Yes |
- These can be configured on you own router/laptop/phone to identify as a Nintendo Zone.
- You will need an available Internet connection to be able to connect to the servers.
- After connecting the Wi-Fi network, the page displayed will be of the device's region. (Some regions, such as Australia, will not be redirected to a local Nintendo Zone page as there are no plans to introduce Nintendo Zone(s) to that region. If a 3DS has its region set to one of these regions where there are no plans to introduce a Nintendo Zone, they will be brought to the Nintendo Zone of the region of the SSID)
- If you intend to create a permanent, private, Nintendo Zone WiFi spot. It is recommended that you enable MAC address filtering to only allow your devices. As using any form of encryption will prevent the Nintendo Zone WiFi spot from working with your 3DS.