Add 2024 blog posts

Co-authored-by: Jonathan Barrow <jonbarrow1998@gmail.com>

blogposts/11-1-24.md

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+---
+title: "October Progress Update"
+author: "Jon"
+author_image: "https://www.github.com/jonbarrow.png"
+date: "November 1, 2024"
+caption: "Archiverse, new team members, new server architecture and more!"
+cover_image: "/assets/images/blogposts/11-1-24.png"
+---
+
+Welcome back to another progress report. While it may seem like not a lot has been going on lately, we've been hard at work in private working on some exciting new updates to share! This blog post will serve as both an announcement for some upcoming features/additions, as well as a sneak-peak behind the scenes to see what sort of experiments we've been running!
+
+# Archiverse
+
+As many of you know, the original Miiverse service shut down late 2017. However before the service went dark for good, a team of dedicated archivists known as [Archive Team](https://wiki.archiveteam.org) managed to archive 17TB worth of posts, drawings, and images. This data was then published onto the [Internet Archive](https://archive.org).
+
+A group known as Archiverse was later established in 2018, providing the archived data both for modern audiences who may not have experienced Miiverse in its prime, and those feeling nostalgic who want to see themselves and what they were doing all those years ago, formally accessible at [archiverse.guide](https://archiverse.guide). In early 2024 the original maintainer left the project, leaving it in the hands of a new team now accessible at [archiverse.app](https://archiverse.app).
+
+We are happy to announce that we have come together with the new maintainers of Archiverse to merge our services! Archiverse is now an official Pretendo Network service, with the intent to have full (read-only) integrations within the on-console Miiverse apps and in games. This migration will take some time to complete, as we work towards moving many terabytes of data to our systems and finalizing the modifications needed to integrate everything, so stay tuned for a future blog post announcing the migration's completion!
+
+Archiverse can now be visited at [archiverse.pretendo.network](https://archiverse.pretendo.network)!
+
+***Note: Archiverse data will be read-only, and will not be able to be modified by any account system, PNID or otherwise. Functions like "Yeahs", comments, etc. will be disabled when using Archiverse. The data used by Archiverse was taken from the browser version of Miiverse, meaning it lacks some critical in-game data needed for some games which may be impossible to recover, as it was only accessible via the Miiverse in-game API. Archiverse support in games will vary on a game-by-game basis depending on what data can and cannot be recovered/reconstructed.***
+
+# New Members
+
+With the aforementioned project merge with Archiverse, we'd like to welcome our two newest team members joining us along for the ride! Please welcome [SuperFX](https://kylewade.dev) and [Luna](https://github.com/masopuppy), the lead maintainer and designer of Archiverse respectively. Originally only helping out with the migration, we've now offered them official spots on our development team. Both are incredibly talented web developers/designers, so expect to see some exciting new features and improvements rolling out in the future.
+
+# New Licensing
+
+We encourage others to use our work in other 3rd party projects, such as [GoCentral](https://rb3e.rbenhanced.rocks/), custom "Rock Central" servers for Rock Band 3 on the Wii, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. To maintain openness, we typically license our work in ways that prevent privatization. Most of our work has been licensed under [AGPLv3](https://choosealicense.com/licenses/agpl-3.0), as it ensures "network use" (running software on a server) is treated as "distribution", which aligns with our focus on server-based projects.
+
+However, AGPLv3's strict requirements can be too restrictive, as it forces works which use the AGPLv3 licensed work (even as a library, or a non-derivative work) to also adopt AGPLv3 in its entirety, limiting compatibility with other, more permissive, licenses such as [Apache 2.0](https://choosealicense.com/licenses/apache-2.0). While this infectious nature has benefits, we recognize the need for more flexibility in certain cases. Thus, we will be reviewing some repositories when appropriate to see if less restrictive licenses could work better for specific projects.
+
+One project, our [`error-codes`](https://github.com/PretendoNetwork/error-codes) library for Wii U/3DS, [has already been re-licensed](https://github.com/PretendoNetwork/error-codes/pull/15) under [LGPLv3](https://choosealicense.com/licenses/lgpl-3.0), which offers similar protections to AGPLv3 but is less restrictive and avoids the full infection of AGPLv3. We will still use AGPLv3 for most projects however as other licenses lack the "network use is distribution" clause which makes it unsuitable for purely server-side software.
+
+# Enhanced Multiplayer with Relays
+
+We have begun some experiments of a new method of handling multiplayer sessions known as "relays". The networking library Nintendo used for Nintendo Network has support for relays, however they go unused officially and many games have the relay functionality stripped out to varying degrees. We have begun our own attempt at manually recreating the concept in order to boost security and stability in the future.
+
+***Note: Relays are highly experimental, and not widely tested. We have seen promising results during some initial private tests, however these tests were tiny in scale and nothing suggests these are ready for any sort of public use. The experiment MAY be scrapped if found to be inviable in the future. Relays are not deployed on any game server, beta or otherwise, at this time.***
+
+Some background: All games on Nintendo Network which feature multiplayer are P2P ([peer-to-peer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer-to-peer)). Nintendo uses very little in terms of dedicated servers, opting to only use dedicated servers for features such as object storage and leaderboards. This means that rather than your console talking to a server the entire time, your console instead talks directly to other consoles in a [mesh](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesh_networking). Our servers act as the middlemen, managing individual client connections and grouping them together in what's known as a "gathering", also called a "session". Once a gathering is created on the server, users may join it. The server then tells all the relevant clients in the session who each of the other players are (either directly on join or through live notifications after already joining), and then your consoles begin talking to each other after establishing connections following [NAT traversal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hole_punching_(networking)).
+
+This architecture has several pros, including:
+
+1. Less strain on the servers
+2. Potentially lower latency for clients geographically closer to each other
+3. P2P networks tend to be very good at self-adjusting to account for dropped/new connections
+
+However it does come with some notable cons, such as:
+
+1. Connection issues due to incompatible networks, resulting in failed NAT traversal (very common cause of `118-XXXX` errors)
+2. Potential security concerns over direct visibility of other clients IP addresses
+3. Lack of server involvement makes cheating/hacking much easier
+4. Potentially *higher* latency for clients geographically *farther* from each other or between those with slower home internet speeds
+
+Relays are designed to try and combat some of these cons. Rather than the matchmaking server telling each client the addresses of other players, the server would instead provide the address for a running relay server. Clients then connect to these relay servers as if they were other clients in the mesh. The server then accepts all incoming P2P packets and routes them to the other players also connected to the relay as needed. These relay servers effectively turn P2P games into client->server games.
+
+Routing this session traffic through our own relay servers could fix many of the cons associated with P2P networking, including:
+
+1. Removing the issue of incompatible networks, as now you are only talking to our server and not directly to another user
+2. Effectively masking your IP address from other users, as now the only addresses being used would be ours
+3. Logging of gameplay events to look for anomalies, and even logging entire sessions for later review in the style of [Hypixel Atlas "Replays"](https://support.hypixel.net/hc/en-us/articles/4411166834834-About-the-Hypixel-Replay-System-and-Atlas) to more easily track and report cheaters
+4. More efficient player kicks on a per-session basis
+
+Early tests in Splatoon showed promising results, being able to complete several test matches while running through relays with no direct connections between users. However this system is still in it's infancy and many technical and design quirks have not been ironed out, including managing many relays at scale, increased cost estimations due to increased data usage on our servers, etc. We do not have an ETA for when this system will arrive or in what shape/form it would take.
+
+# New Games and Updated Matchmaking
+
+At the moment we are prioritizing improving our internal tooling, underlying networking libraries, game server protocol implementations, and more rather than prioritizing the total number of games we output. However we may decide to release new games if it relates to those efforts, such as games which use features which have yet to be tested, or simple games used to test large-scale changes just as reworks to common protocols.
+
+As of today we are releasing 2 new games into beta testing:
+
+- Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
+- Super Street Fighter IV
+
+These games had their servers created using some experimental internal tooling we are developing to help streamline to creation of simple game servers. In these cases, the backends for these servers were entirely generated automatically! These servers also serve as a test for the [large-scale matchmaking rework](https://github.com/PretendoNetwork/nex-protocols-common-go/pull/35) that [DaniElectra](https://github.com/DaniElectra) has been working on the past few months!
+
+These matchmaking reworks bring not only better matchmaking logic in general, but also more stable session tracking and creation. These changes give us more control over match management and can be used for more accurate player tracking/moderation, even in cases where players may try to anonymize themselves or mask their user information in local connections.
+
+Pending the results of the matchmaking tests, existing games may soon be getting the same matchmaking rework to try and improve the quality of matchmaking. Similarly, smaller/simple games may be released more often pending the results of our new internal tooling.
+
+Additionally, Minecraft: Wii U Edition has been upgraded with this matchmaking rework, fixing the bug where only 2 players can connect at a time. These changes are available to the public for more widespread testing.
+
+Finally, we have recently documented all the official names for `118-XXXX` error codes. Using this knowledge, we have begun to identify some potential causes for several of these errors. These are now also being looked into, in an effort to improve our matchmaking logic and reduce the number of incompatible clients being put in the same sessions. For details, see the [official feature enhancement request on GitHub](https://github.com/PretendoNetwork/nex-protocols-common-go/issues/43).
+
+# Conclusion
+
+While this month did not see much in the way of new public features, we've been hard at work on many internal affairs. We hope you enjoyed our first more "technical"/"behind the scenes" blog post, and we hope to add more updates like these to future blog posts, mixed in with actual content updates!

blogposts/5-19-24.md

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+---
+title: "Exciting updates for the 3DS"
+author: "Jon"
+author_image: "https://www.github.com/jonbarrow.png"
+date: "May 19, 2024"
+caption: "StreetPass Relay and 3DS notifications"
+cover_image: "/assets/images/blogposts/5-19-24.png"
+---
+
+Today we are releasing 2 big features for the 3DS: 3DS system notifications and StreetPass Relay!
+
+***(Do note that both features are currently in active development, and may not always function properly. A common solution is to remove and reinsert your system's battery, in order to load the latest policylist, however do note this will have side effects in time-based games! It is common for some users to have one, or both, features not function. These issues are being looked in to)***
+
+# System Notifications
+We can now send your 3DS systems notifications using the built-in notifications app! This allows us to deliver news updates right to your console, without needing to be in our Discord server, forum, or even following our social media. You can get all the latest news about the service, right from the console you're using it on!
+
+***Not all announcements may make it to the system notifications however, namely very long announcements or those which require rich media like links, images, videos, and more.***
+
+![screenshot of the 3DS notifications app showing the release of SPR](/assets/images/blogposts/spr.png)
+
+# StreetPass Relay
+StreetPass Relay was a feature built into the 3DS which allows users to gain "StreetPass'" from other users, even without physically being near them at the time. This worked by using a "StreetPass Relay Point", a wireless access point used by Nintendo Zone to store StreetPass data. When connecting to one of these relays, your console would upload your own StreetPass data as well as download the data of others from that relay.
+
+With our implementation, StreetPass Relay now works ***GLOBALLY***, removing the need to be at a physical access point! You can now passively gain passes with other Pretendo users simply by being online. There are 2 things note, however:
+
+1. ***You must be using the latest release of Nimbus for StreetPass Relay to function. Previous versions do not have the correct URL patches for StreetPass Relay. You can download the latest release here https://github.com/PretendoNetwork/Nimbus/releases/latest***
+2. ***Due to the [questionable quality](https://twitter.com/MrNbaYoh/status/1783912413068222477) of the StreetPass parsers inside games and the fact that StreetPass Relay happens automatically, you can ONLY gain passes with people who you are friends with on the 3DS friends server. You will NOT be able to gain passes from any other users through StreetPass Relay.***
+
+![screenshot of the 3DS notifications app showing the notification list](/assets/images/blogposts/notification-list.png)
+![screenshot of the 3DS notifications app showing the SPR notification body](/assets/images/blogposts/notification-body.png)

blogposts/6-29-24.md

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+---
+title: "June Progress Update"
+author: "Jon"
+author_image: "https://www.github.com/jonbarrow.png"
+date: "June 29, 2024"
+caption: "Updates on 6 games, including beta testing for Smash, Puyo Puyo Tetris, and more!"
+cover_image: "/assets/images/blogposts/june-29-2024/preview.png"
+---
+
+*Credits for preview image:*
+
+- Toon Link - https://www.smashbros.com/wiiu-3ds/us/characters/toon_link.html
+
+As June comes to a close we'd like to take this time to welcome some new team members and give some updates on what work we've been doing, including beta testing for some brand new games!
+
+# New Teammates
+
+To kick things off I'd like to welcome 2 of our latest teammates [MatthewL246](https://github.com/MatthewL246) and [wolfendale](https://github.com/wolfendale)! Together they have been doing some fantastic work, some of which is still yet to be seen.
+
+[MatthewL246](https://github.com/MatthewL246) has been hard at work introducing Docker configurations to our servers, as well as working with [SuperMarioDaBom](https://github.com/SuperMarioDaBom) and 2 non-Pretendo developers [Jelle van Snik (mrjvs)](https://mrjvs.com) and [William Oldham (BinaryOverload)](https://williamoldham.co.uk), to prepare our services for their eventual move to our new infrastructure! While much of this work has not been deployed yet, it is vital for Pretendo moving forward as we transition to a containerized deployment on real hardware. These changes will make managing and deploying servers much simpler in the future.
+
+[wolfendale](https://github.com/wolfendale) has been working tirelessly with [DaniElectra](https://github.com/danielectra) and myself on [`nex-go`](https://github.com/PretendoNetwork/nex-go), and some related services. This library is the ***heart*** of our game servers, implementing the lower level transport protocols and tools/features needed to build *all* of our game servers, and is one of the more difficult areas to work in. The work done on this library is priceless, and will have positive effects on all games across the board.
+
+# General Server Updates
+
+Before talking about the new games joining our beta testing, we'd like to touch on some more general updates which apply to all games. As mentioned, [wolfendale](https://github.com/wolfendale) has been working almost exclusively on [`nex-go`](https://github.com/PretendoNetwork/nex-go) since joining the team. He, along with [DaniElectra](https://github.com/danielectra) and myself, has been doing fantastic work on debugging some long-standing issues, providing bug fixes and optimizations, introducing new unit testing, and implementing some key missing features. This work not only drastically improves stability, but brings our implementation closer to the original with more accurate emulation.
+
+He has also been tackling the task of [optimizing our database queries](https://github.com/PretendoNetwork/friends/pull/22) on the friends server. The friends server is one of the most important services of Nintendo Network. Without a stable connection to the friends server, the console will not attempt to connect to any individual game server, and is the cause of the common [X01-0502](https://forum.pretendo.network/t/error-code-101-0502-no-solution/1426/5?u=pn_jon) error. Optimizations and bug fixes like these to the friends server will ensure connections to game servers also remain stable.
+
+While most of these updates have not yet been deployed yet (a select few have been hot-patched into existing deployments), and some have not yet been merged at all, the changes that have been made recently should show very positive results once deployed (including tackling the common [X01-0502](https://forum.pretendo.network/t/error-code-101-0502-no-solution/1426/5?u=pn_jon) error). We hope to get all of these new updates out relatively soon, so that all games may benefit from the added stability.
+
+![Screenshot of shutter on Discord saying "@ashquarky @Jon @DaniElectra ok so! i can confirm 2 things: 1: Splatoon is now working on nex v2 (i was having @ashquarky [PN_quarky] change the wrong thing lol) 2: Splatoon did not work until I used the master version of nex-go, this means that the new changes to nex-go likely help a lot with stability 🎉"](/assets/images/blogposts/june-29-2024/shutter-nex-go.png)
+
+[DaniElectra](https://github.com/danielectra) has also been spending quite some time [reworking our matchmaking logic from scratch](https://github.com/PretendoNetwork/nex-protocols-common-go/pull/35). These updates should bring more stability when it comes to matchmaking, as well as better tooling for developers to work on new games.
+
+Similarly to [Dani's](https://github.com/danielectra) matchmaking rework, I have been [reworking our entire type system from scratch](https://github.com/PretendoNetwork/nex-go/pull/56). These changes should provide a much better development experience for us moving forward, streamlining many previously difficult to do tasks such as data storage and storing type data in databases. This should result in faster, and more reliable, server development moving forward.
+
+# New Games and Updates
+
+Now into what most of you came here for; new games and updates in beta testing! This blog post will cover a whopping ***ten*** games. Some games are receiving general updates, while others are joining us for the first time. We will also be aiming to release some smaller, simpler, games on a more frequent basis. Some games share much of their internals with existing games, making it trivial to get the basics up and running. We do not have an official release schedule, but we expect to release more simple games more often.
+
+*Most of the games mentioned here are only available for beta testers at the time of writing.*
+
+*All games begin their life in beta testing, only available to testers. Once more features have been added, and pending the evaluation of each game's stability, they will each become available to the general public on a game-by-game basis. Until then, consider [supporting the project](https://pretendo.network/account/upgrade) to gain early beta access*
+
+***BETA SERVERS ARE NOT CONSIDERED STABLE, AND OFTEN LACK MANY FEATURES. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK***
+
+## 🥄
+
+Thanks to work done by [wolfendale](https://github.com/wolfendale), [DaniElectra](https://github.com/danielectra) and myself on [`nex-go`](https://github.com/PretendoNetwork/nex-go), as well as work down by [Ash](https://github.com/ashquarky) and [shutterbug](https://github.com/shutterbug2000) on our [Splatoon netcode specifically](https://github.com/PretendoNetwork/splatoon/pull/2), Splatoon has ***officially*** begun its migration to our newest library versions. These changes have, so far, resulted in much more stable and reliable matchmaking across the board. These changes are available ***TODAY***, for ***everyone***!
+
+If you experience any issues with Splatoon still, feel free to reach out for support on our [support forum](https://forum.pretendo.network/c/support/6) and file bug reports on the [Splatoon GitHub repository](https://github.com/PretendoNetwork/splatoon).
+
+![Screenshot of a pending Splatoon lobby](/assets/images/blogposts/june-29-2024/splatoon-match.png)
+
+## A New Title Appears
+
+Thanks to work done by [SuperMarioDaBom](https://github.com/SuperMarioDaBom), **Super Smash Bros. 4 Wii U** is now ***officially*** available for beta testers! The 3DS version is not currently supported, though the controller app should work. Not everything is implemented, however matchmaking is working as expected. Spectating and sharing do not work, nor has Miiverse integration been tested. Attempting to share anything in game may cause the game to stop responding due to unimplemented methods.
+
+![Screenshot of Pikachu and Toon Link fighting in Smash 4 on the Wii U](/assets/images/blogposts/june-29-2024/smash4-wiiu-match.png)
+
+## Gotta Catch 'em All!
+
+Thanks to work done by [shutterbug](https://github.com/shutterbug2000), **Pokémon Generation 6 (X & Y, Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire)** is now ***officially*** available for beta testers! Not all features have been implemented. While still early in development, and missing some recent stability fixes, wonder trades have been fully implemented, and PSS is in active development!
+
+<center>
+
+|                                                                                                           |                                                                                                              |
+| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
+| ![Screenshot of Pokemon finding a trade](/assets/images/blogposts/june-29-2024/pokemon-partner-found.png) | ![Screenshot of Pokemon finishing a trade](/assets/images/blogposts/june-29-2024/pokemon-trade-complete.png) |
+
+</center>
+
+## Puyo!
+
+Thanks to work done by [Ash](https://github.com/ashquarky), **Puyo Puyo Tetris** is now being worked on. Matchmaking and rankings are both working as expected. This game is not yet available for beta testing, as it relies on unreleased library changes, however it will be released for beta testers soon!
+
+|                                                                                                              |                                                                                                               |
+| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
+| ![Screenshot of Puyo Puyo Tetris in a match](/assets/images/blogposts/june-29-2024/puyo-puyo-wiiu-match.png) | ![Screenshot of Puyo Puyo Tetris rankings](/assets/images/blogposts/june-29-2024/puyo-puyo-wiiu-rankings.png) |
+
+## An Apple a Day
+
+Thanks to work done by [shutterbug](https://github.com/shutterbug2000), *both* **Dr. Luigi (Wii U) and Dr. Mario: Miracle Cure (3DS)** are now ***officially*** available for beta testers! Both games feature fully implemented matchmaking and rankings.
+
+|                                                                                                                                 |                                                                                                     |
+| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
+| <img src="/assets/images/blogposts/june-29-2024/dr-luigi-wiiu-match.png" alt="Screenshot of Dr. Luigi in a match" width="800"/> | ![Screenshot of Dr. Mario in a match](/assets/images/blogposts/june-29-2024/dr-mario-3ds-match.png) |
+
+## Minecraft
+
+Minecraft has been available for beta testers for some time now, and is now receiving some new updates! Thanks to work done by [Ash](https://github.com/ashquarky), Minecraft is being updated to the latest version of our libraries which should bring with it more stability and feature support!
+
+![Screenshot of Minecraft in a minigame lobby](/assets/images/blogposts/june-29-2024/minecraft-wiiu-minigame.png)
+
+# Conclusion
+
+![Screenshot of ACNL saying "Hello there, Mayor Pretendo" teasing ACNL being worked on](/assets/images/blogposts/june-29-2024/mayor-pretendo.png)

blogposts/8-2-24.md

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+---
+title: "July Progress Update"
+author: "Jon"
+author_image: "https://www.github.com/jonbarrow.png"
+date: "August 2, 2024"
+caption: "News on AC:NL, general server improvements, Discord bot updates, and more!"
+cover_image: "/assets/images/blogposts/august-2-2024/preview.png"
+---
+
+While July didn't see as many new games join our roster, we were all still hard at work. With a focus on enhancing performance and user experience, July brought crucial updates to our services. This blog post will cover many updates to our servers, patches, and go over some future plans we have for popular games like Animal Crossing: New Leaf!
+
+# General Server Updates
+
+As mentioned in [our last blog post](https://pretendo.network/blog/6-29-24), we had many pending server updates yet to be merged/released. While not all of them have been merged/released yet still, several have been! Our core game server library [`nex-go`](https://github.com/PretendoNetwork/nex-go) continued to get love last month, bringing it several new performance boosts.
+
+Together with [wolfendale](https://github.com/wolfendale), we spent much of July reverse engineering several core systems, including the entire packet retransmission system. Before now, this was a very basic, inaccurate, implementation of how [PRUDP](https://developer.pretendo.network/overview/prudp) handles dropped packets. With our implementation now more accurate, both clients and servers should be seeing substantially less dropped packets, resulting in better connection stability.
+
+Additionally some changes were made internally to address issues such as [goroutine](https://go.dev/tour/concurrency/1) overuse, poorly implemented hashing algorithms, and issues regarding the number of allocations each server performs. These issues all lead to degraded server performance and higher system resource usage. Addressing these issues has substantially dropped the libraries overall footprint (taking the average amount of memory used per server from \~300mb at the low end, to just barely \~50mb!) and increased general performance.
+
+For a full breakdown of last month's changes to `nex-go`, [see here](https://github.com/PretendoNetwork/nex-go/commits/master/?since=2024-07-01&until=2024-08-01).
+
+# Better Infrastructure
+
+As mentioned in [our last blog post](https://pretendo.network/blog/6-29-24), we have been working closely with 2 non-Pretendo developers [Jelle van Snik (mrjvs)](https://mrjvs.com) and [William Oldham (BinaryOverload)](https://williamoldham.co.uk). These are personal friends working in these fields professionally, who have graciously helped with restructuring our internal infrastructure. With their help, we have been making even more strides towards full containerization through [Docker](https://docker.com) and a deployment strategy built on top of [Kubernetes](https://kubernetes.io).
+
+Over the past month they have been making great strides towards this goal, completely redesigning our deployment strategy from the ground up. We have also begun releasing pre-built Docker containers for our servers to aid in this, which can be found on our [GitHub organization](https://github.com/orgs/PretendoNetwork/packages?visibility=public).
+
+Once complete, these changes should help dramatically increase our productivity by streamlining many of our more tedious workflows, leading to higher server output in the long run! They also should help increase overall stability through failsafes and rollovers in the event of a server failure!
+
+# New Games and Updates
+
+Last month saw less new games join our roster than June (hard to beat 10 new games!), but that doesn't mean games were not worked on. Last month saw the addition of two new games, as well as several existing games/services receiving new updates/features!
+
+***All games begin their life in beta testing, only available to testers. Once more features have been added, and pending the evaluation of each game's stability, they will each become available to the general public on a game-by-game basis. Until then, consider [supporting the project](https://pretendo.network/account/upgrade) to gain early beta access.***
+
+***BETA SERVERS ARE NOT CONSIDERED STABLE, AND OFTEN LACK MANY FEATURES. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK***
+
+## Smash 3DS
+
+Thanks to work done by [SuperMarioDaBom](https://github.com/SuperMarioDaBom), **Super Smash Bros. 4 3DS** is now ***officially*** available for beta testers! Just like the Wii U version, only matchmaking is implemented. All other features are still being worked on. Unlike the Wii U version, trying to use an unimplemented feature will not hang the game, however it is still not recommended to try anything besides matchmaking.
+
+![Screenshot of the Smash Bros. 3DS multiplayer menu](/assets/images/blogposts/august-2-2024/smash-3ds.png)
+
+## Game & WARIO
+
+Thanks to work done by [Jemma](https://github.com/CaramelKat) and [Trace](https://github.com/TraceEntertains), **Game & WARIO** is now ***officially*** available on Miiverse for beta testers! Most features have been tested, however as a beta title there may still be issues.
+
+<center>
+
+|                                                                                                            |                                                                                                          |
+| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
+| ![Screenshot of the Game & WARIO online menu](/assets/images/blogposts/august-2-2024/game-and-wario-1.png) | ![Screenshot of Game & WARIO drawing Santa](/assets/images/blogposts/august-2-2024/game-and-wario-2.png) |
+
+</center>
+
+## Minecraft
+
+Thanks to work done by [Ash](https://github.com/ashquarky), **Minecraft: Wii U Edition** is now ***officially*** available to the public! You can now play this LCE classic with friends again, in private worlds or in minigames.
+
+Due to safety concerns regarding the games lack of official anti-cheat, *public minigames* are currently disabled. For the time being, use the `Friends` tab on the far right to access games. We are interested in opening the game up fully in the future, so keep an eye out for more future updates!
+
+![Screenshot of the Minecraft: Wii U Edition online menu showing that only private matches are available](/assets/images/blogposts/august-2-2024/minecraft.png)
+
+## Inkay
+
+Thanks to work done by [Ash](https://github.com/ashquarky), [Inkay](https://github.com/PretendoNetwork/Inkay) has received a massive update last month! While the changes may be small, they have a huge impact; the additional patches provided by [Nimble](https://github.com/PretendoNetwork/Nimble) are being phased out! For those unaware, our Wii U patches come in a set:
+
+- [Inkay](https://github.com/PretendoNetwork/Inkay) - The main Pretendo Network patches connecting your Wii U to our servers. Standard Aroma plugin
+- [Nimble](https://github.com/PretendoNetwork/Nimble) - Supplementary patches for patching the BOSS (SpotPass) policylist. Aroma setup module
+
+Historically [Nimble](https://github.com/PretendoNetwork/Nimble) has been required for games which make use of SpotPass features, such as Splatoon. Before the console enables SpotPass, it downloads what is called the "policylist". This tells the console which background tasks to enable and what their priorities are. After the Nintendo Network shutdown, Nintendo has changed the official policylist to disable all SpotPass features. The Wii U downloads this policylist extremely early in the boot process, earlier than standard Aroma plugins have access to. Setup modules *are* loaded early enough, however, thus [Nimble](https://github.com/PretendoNetwork/Nimble) was born.
+
+With the latest changes made to [Inkay](https://github.com/PretendoNetwork/Inkay), after the plugin is loaded it forces the console to refresh the policylist, which triggers a redownload using our patched URLs. This essentially removes the need for [Nimble](https://github.com/PretendoNetwork/Nimble) entirely, as well as dramatically increases SpotPass reliability in certain games (such as 104-2210 in Splatoon). To download the latest release, see the [Inkay releases page](https://github.com/PretendoNetwork/Inkay/releases/latest)!
+
+Additionally thanks to collaborations with [Maschell](https://github.com/Maschell) (the creator of the Aroma CFW), [Inkay](https://github.com/PretendoNetwork/Inkay) is now also available through https://aroma.foryour.cafe! Updates to [Inkay](https://github.com/PretendoNetwork/Inkay) can now be managed through the Aroma updater on-console!
+
+## Miiverse
+
+Thanks to work done by [Jemma](https://github.com/CaramelKat), Miiverse in general has received bug fixes and performance improvements last month. The biggest change was improved data/asset caching, which has dramatically improved the load times on Juxtaposition! These changes affect both the Wii U and 3DS versions, as well as the browser version.
+
+<video controls>
+	<source src="/assets/images/blogposts/august-2-2024/miiverse-side-by-side.mp4" type="video/mp4">
+</video>
+
+Additionally a long standing issue of friends not properly being handled in WaraWara Plaza has also been fixed!
+
+![Screenshot of WaraWara Plaza showing the Miis of friends being positioned correctly](/assets/images/blogposts/august-2-2024/wwp.png)
+
+## Animal Crossing: New Leaf
+
+As teased in [our last blog post](https://pretendo.network/blog/6-29-24), Animal Crossing: New Leaf has ***officially*** entered development! Features such as Tortimer Island are showing signs of life as this highly requested game starts to go online!
+
+<center>
+
+|                                                                                                                                         |                                                                                                                                                  |
+| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
+| ![Screenshot of user "Pretendo" arriving in town "Rin" in Animal Crossing: New Leaf](/assets/images/blogposts/august-2-2024/acnl-1.png) | ![Screenshot of two players matched together in Tortimer Island in Animal Crossing: New Leaf](/assets/images/blogposts/august-2-2024/acnl-2.png) |
+
+</center>
+
+Additionally, we have begun the process of processing the data from our Dream Suite archive. Prior to the Nintendo Network shutdown, our team spent a considerable amount of time archiving data from many games, including all available towns from Dream Suite. We collected over ***200GB*** of data from Dream Suite and a total of ***239,105*** towns!
+
+We plan to eventually publish the raw data on the [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/), as well as on our own website where you can view/download the pre-processed data. Currently the amount of data displayed is limited, and the website is still in development, so it's not yet ready for release. However we plan to look into extracting more data from the towns themselves, and possibly making them available as town backups that can be directly imported into save files!
+
+***Eventually we will process and release all the data (around 1.6TB) for all games/services we collected data for. Animal Crossing: New Leaf is the first of these to start it's processing.***
+
+![Screenshot of the work in progress Animal Crossing: New Leaf archive website. Website contains a table of towns with information on their data ID, version, name, uploader name, creation and updated dates, the time the last person visited, the total number of visits, and the country of origin](/assets/images/blogposts/august-2-2024/acnl-site.png)
+
+# Conclusion
+
+Thank you everyone for your continued support of the project! We know this progress update may seem small, but we only go over the largest changes! Most of our work consists of small bug fixes, library development, and lots and lots of research time. We hope you all stay tuned for future updates!