Gaming How do I add cheats to a .cia installed version of a gba game ?

[Ghostlander]

Say I have a gba game that was converted into .cia format and installed to the 3ds. How would I use cheat codes for that game?


Would i need to emulate on pc and save using said cheat, and transfer the save to the 3ds? Or would that even work?

 

[tall guy]

Say I have a gba game that was converted into .cia format and installed to the 3ds. How would I use cheat codes for that game?


Would i need to emulate on pc and save using said cheat, and transfer the save to the 3ds? Or would that even work?

Yes, that works.

 

[ack]

Yes, that works.

i dont think that it works to transfer the saves

 

[tall guy]

i dont think that it works to transfer the saves

go here: https://3ds.hacks.guide/godmode9-usage
and then go to "back-up gba saves".

 

[edoardocarta]

Hi, what can i do if checkpoint haven't cheats for a game?

 

[FAST6191]

Hi, what can i do if checkpoint haven't cheats for a game?

I imagine most GBA games have cheats out now. That said some might have slipped through the cracks.

My usual suggestion for a guide to make cheats is actually for the GBA so that is nice
https://web.archive.org/web/20080309104350/http://etk.scener.org/?op=tutorial
https://doc.kodewerx.org/hacking_gba.html if you need to know about GBA cheats and methods they support.

To answer the question of the OP. Yes you can transfer saves around. Bit tedious and hard if you want cheats all the time but plenty have done such things over the years. I would usually reserve this more for things more complicated than I can reasonably make into a cheat (complicate conditions and extensive but simple manual edits) or things where a PC emulator might replicate a piece of hardware that a flash cart or embedded device emulator might not have the option (in the case of GBA and DS then pokemon pal park being the more notable for many here).

In the case of devices being emulated on other devices you can find where the emulator stores the emulated system's memory (hopefully it is fixed) and in that case most cheats can have the address changed to match (usually going to be a matter of adding things) and whatever cheat type turned into a corresponding cheat type for the host system (by and large anything newer will support all the older cheat types and a few more besides).

Alternatively. You can hardpatch cheats into GBA games (older consoles less so unless they are game genie codes https://github.com/Mte90/Game-Genie-Good-Guy https://gbatemp.net/threads/game-genie-game-patcher-tool.54539/ , this is as game genie codes are ROM edits where action replay/gameshark/pelican/codebreaker/goldfinger are memory edits and it is harder to make a generic tool to capture a ROM*) via fairly simple tools. https://gbatemp.net/threads/gba-auto-trainer-maker-gbaatm.99334/ https://gbatemp.net/threads/gbaatm-rebirth-gba-auto-trainer-maker-a-new-hope.564321/ being the main two jumping off points these days.

*this video covers a bit for the Amiga but does detail quite cleanly how various things are turned from memory to hardpatch, albeit for the GBA the debuggers are far far far nicer.