Hacking Final Fantasy VI Advance (U) to Flashcard issues

Andrew-Chillingworth

New Member
OP
Newbie
Joined
Sep 20, 2017
Messages
2
Trophies
0
Age
38
XP
61
Country
United Kingdom
Hello everyone, i'm new to the scene with GBA flashcards (literally didn't even know the DS was this versatile until a month ago!) But i got myself a Supercard and watched a bunch of tutorials (though its pretty standard stuff) and iv'e been happily adding roms and working around saving issues for like Pokémon and stuff. but ive really hit a brick wall with Final Fantasy VI Advance. Ive tried several roms and none of them patch on the Supercard software (even tried changing the patch settings like enable save, reset etc etc), when I put the rom direct into the supercard and launch the game its just White Screen of Death. ive tried other patching programs and though it says they successfully patched I add it to the card (with manually made .sav and .sci files) and i Still get white screen. This seems to be the only Rom ive had an issue with so far but unfortunately was part of the reason that I wanted this Flashcard (the other reason was so I could play Pokemon Ultraviolet on a handheld).

If ANYONE can help I would be so grateful! Im running the latest Software for supercard and 1.85 firmware. I really want to be able to play this on the GBA / DS. I could get it on IOS but i hate playing these games with no real buttons.

If someone says its categorically not possible on the Supercard then at least i can accept that and move on but if its at all possible then i want this in my life!

thanks in advance...(get it?)
 

Andrew-Chillingworth

New Member
OP
Newbie
Joined
Sep 20, 2017
Messages
2
Trophies
0
Age
38
XP
61
Country
United Kingdom
After trying everything everyone suggested, I finally solved the issuemyself, which is great for me as I usually need others to solve the issue for me.

So to reiterate the issue, other roms were patching and working fine on my GBA supercard. but ff4,5 & 6 were a) patch: 'fail' & b) white screening.

I realised that the fact that they were not patching didn't make any difference to the white screen. it was just a coincidence.

In the end the issue was that the Sav files that are created by the patch software make 64kb sav files. which isnt big enough for final fanasy 6. so what I did was add ff6 to my Launchbox software on the PC so I can play it with virtualboy...this created a 128kb .sav file...I then patched ff6 with the supercard software again. and replaced the 64kb sav file with the 128kb sav file in my launchbox folder.

I'm sure there are easier ways to achieve this. But that's how I solved the issue. and now ff6 works fine on my supercard so im very happy.

Thanks for everyone's suggestions.
 

DeadSkullzJr

Developer
Developer
Joined
Sep 28, 2017
Messages
1,560
Trophies
1
XP
3,903
Country
United States
After trying everything everyone suggested, I finally solved the issuemyself, which is great for me as I usually need others to solve the issue for me.

So to reiterate the issue, other roms were patching and working fine on my GBA supercard. but ff4,5 & 6 were a) patch: 'fail' & b) white screening.

I realised that the fact that they were not patching didn't make any difference to the white screen. it was just a coincidence.

In the end the issue was that the Sav files that are created by the patch software make 64kb sav files. which isnt big enough for final fanasy 6. so what I did was add ff6 to my Launchbox software on the PC so I can play it with virtualboy...this created a 128kb .sav file...I then patched ff6 with the supercard software again. and replaced the 64kb sav file with the 128kb sav file in my launchbox folder.

I'm sure there are easier ways to achieve this. But that's how I solved the issue. and now ff6 works fine on my supercard so im very happy.

Thanks for everyone's suggestions.
I had a similar issue with a virtual console game and running its save on a PC GBA emulator, I too found out that some games require a limit on how big the save is. I still don't understand why it works this way.
 

Nikokaro

Lost philosopher... searching for a way out...
Member
Joined
Feb 3, 2020
Messages
2,204
Trophies
1
Location
Nautilus (under) Lake Como, Italy 🇮🇹
XP
6,884
Country
Italy
Sorry for bumping this thread. 😁

Years later, has anyone ever been able to save this game on this flashcart?
A previous user said that changing the format of the .sav file to a 128kb one, it would save it...I don't think that's true! 🙄
I tried to use 128, 256, 512kb save formats, already present in a folder of the Supercard software, but when you go to save on the flashcart (using for example the 256kb file) the file created (written) is always 64kb (but with 4 slots available instead of 1).
The save remains in the sram, but is not written to the microSD: it remains temporarily using the Quick Power Cycle method, but if you load a different game, the save is lost.
It would seem that 64kb is not enough to hold the save data, but the flashcart does not save in any other format! 🤔

I'm afraid no one has ever been able, nor will ever be able to save this game to the SuperCard; yet the format and save type is identical to FF 1-2, FF IV, FF V, which give no save problems at all.
I wonder if anyone will ever get to the bottom of this absurd mystery. 🤣
 

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
  • Psionic Roshambo @ Psionic Roshambo:
    I thought PS4/5 and Xbox One emulation would be kind of easy since they basically just a PC
  • ColdBlitz @ ColdBlitz:
    they sorta are a pc
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    They haslve dedicated on board chips that aren't tweaked like x64/x32 afaik
  • ColdBlitz @ ColdBlitz:
    but its a custom os for both of them
  • ColdBlitz @ ColdBlitz:
    designed for only specific hardware
  • ColdBlitz @ ColdBlitz:
    so you have to learn to emulate that specific hardware which isn't as easy as you'd think
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    It's a locked down Linux distro basically
  • Psionic Roshambo @ Psionic Roshambo:
    I think the only custom hardware is to do with the SSD and a security chip
  • Psionic Roshambo @ Psionic Roshambo:
    Probably combined in one chip
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    They place married security chips onto boards iirc
  • Psionic Roshambo @ Psionic Roshambo:
    Damn Frontier is offering 5Gbps now lol
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    I honestly can't recommend any of the big 3 this years I'd say buy a rog ally z1 if we're being honest
  • Psionic Roshambo @ Psionic Roshambo:
    Honestly after the PS3 and 360 I just went full PC
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Every games basically cross platform they only have about 6 titles making it worth the $600 price tag
  • Psionic Roshambo @ Psionic Roshambo:
    Didn't see much need for a console, all the advantages have kind of disappeared
  • ColdBlitz @ ColdBlitz:
    the ps3 used to support installing linux because the cpu was so powerful
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Then the games are $70 and they want to reboot and refresh the same game every year
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    The ps3 was always Linux they just found a way to make it open source
  • ColdBlitz @ ColdBlitz:
    I'm avoiding buying from the big 3 at all atm
  • Psionic Roshambo @ Psionic Roshambo:
    At one point PC game pads where poorly supported, loading a game had setup, it was complicated. Now it's almost as easy as a console.
  • ColdBlitz @ ColdBlitz:
    nintendo needs to up their game soon
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Yeah even bt support for Xbox one controllers are just as easy as pairing
  • ColdBlitz @ ColdBlitz:
    considering the steamdeck can emulate the switch (yikes) theres almost 0 reason to buy the switch apart from playing online and using cartridges
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Xinput and 360 dongles were a driver nightmare
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    I remember having to manually put in drivers and what not
    K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2: I remember having to manually put in drivers and what not