Hardware How does one convert Codebreaker Codes to Action Replay Codes?

[Stephano]

So i have an action replay for my GBA which i use all the time for my GBA Fire Emblem games. A long time ago, i picked up a translated copy of FE6. However, there are no known AR codes for this game. There are, however, codebreaker codes available.

So what is the easiest way to convert between the two code formats, if possible?
As well, if i am able to convert the codes, how will i receive the master code for the other codes to work.



I also have another question. My FE6 cartridge is very... strange, unlike other games where the battery is separate from the ROM, with this Translated FE6 cartridge, the save battery is actually tied to the ROM itself. It cannot be reflashed with a different battery file, and when attempting to load a battery save on a backed up ROM, it will refuse to load the battery and only play off the current save file on the ROM
No other game i have behaves like this.
Is there any reason why this happens?

 

[Shadow#1]

So i have an action replay for my GBA which i use all the time for my GBA Fire Emblem games. A long time ago, i picked up a translated copy of FE6. However, there are no known AR codes for this game. There are, however, codebreaker codes available.

So what is the easiest way to convert between the two code formats, if possible?
As well, if i am able to convert the codes, how will i receive the master code for the other codes to work.



I also have another question. My FE6 cartridge is very... strange, unlike other games where the battery is separate from the ROM, with this Translated FE6 cartridge, the save battery is actually tied to the ROM itself. It cannot be reflashed with a different battery file, and when attempting to load a battery save on a backed up ROM, it will refuse to load the battery and only play off the current save file on the ROM
No other game i have behaves like this.
Is there any reason why this happens?

Saves went tied to a "ROM" its always a separate chip

 

[Stephano]

Saves went tied to a "ROM" its always a separate chip

What are you implying exactly?
Only this game behaves like this. Pokemon ruby and various other games don't.

 

[FAST6191]

Saves went tied to a "ROM" its always a separate chip

Battery save is the term used by various emulators to mean normal save as opposed to savestate, assuming the OP mainly comes from that world rather than flash carts...
As for the actual problem I am not sure. I would have to look at the cart to see what it is doing. Were it a big boy flash cart then it could be that the save is being overwritten with the one stored but every cheap and nasty repro I have seen does not do that. It could be that the tool you are using got confused when trying to write the save if it thinks it is a different type, however it would probably have said that. Personally I would suggest just getting and using a flash cart.

Anyway choice link to have during all this
http://doc.kodewerx.org/hacking_gba.html

Codes did get encrypted so you may need a copy of CBAcrypt
http://doc.kodewerx.org/tools.html#gba

I am not sure what we are using to convert these days (everything I use supports both), or if indeed it is that easy to convert on the GBA. The CBA tends to be considered a lesser method, and master codes are not really necessary for AR/gameshark. If the codes start with 8 or 3 codes it is trivial, if they are the others then you might have to think for a second but the AR has all the same abilities (and a few more besides).

 

[Stephano]

Okay here we go...
So my Fire emblem 6 cartridge is translated and does act very strangely. It lags when saving and has erased it's own data for one reason though.
My Pokemon Ruby cartridge is Normal.
I dumped both Roms and both Battery Saves. I was able to import the battery save of Ruby Just fine, but i had to use a hex editor to change the size of the FE6 save.
Interestingly, when i loaded up the ROM backup of Pokemon Ruby with no save, it acted like a normal empty game
But when i started my ROM backup of Fire Emblem 6 without a save battery, my files and what not where still attached to the cartridge

I should tell y'all what program i'm using. I'm using GBA_Backup_Tool on the NDS.

So i change some stuff to both files, make a battery export and try to put it back on the cartridge.
Pokemon worked with the modded battery, but nothing changed with the FE6 Backup

So this is my situation


As for the AR and codebreaker stuff. The programs didn't seem to help.
CBAcrypt would always give me an error when i put in a codebreaker code
As for ARcrpyt, none of the codes i converted worked. I even tried to find a master code and it wouldn't work
From this list... https://www.gamefaqs.com/gba/563015-fire-emblem-fuuin-no-tsurugi/faqs/35138
I converted these codes

I replaced the ## with a "71", an item value

Its a simple code and couldn't get it to work when i put it through AR crpyt

 

[FAST6191]

Looks like it is decrypted already
From the link above

3aaaaaaa 00xx 	8-bit RAM write
xx is written to 0aaaaaaa.

The AR equivalent

00aaaaaa xxxxxxyy  [a0aaaaa..a0aaaaa+xxxxxx]=yy

Original code
3202AB9C 0071
Code in AR form
0022AB9C 00000071

As a sanity check
http://problemkaputt.de/gbatek.htm#gbamemorymap
02000000-0203FFFF WRAM - On-board Work RAM (256 KBytes) 2 Wait
02040000-02FFFFFF Not used

0202AB9C is then certainly a place I would expect to find values for inventory items.

As for the save stuff I am at a loss, theoretically I guess you could append a save to a ROM image and it would dodge some of the saving issues but I have never heard of a flash cart doing that and that would be some exotic electronics for a repro (if they are not a simple ROM chip swap/breakout board usually we are left wondering if they employed a blind monkey on a dextox to use a flooring nail heated over a blowtorch to do the soldering). At the same time general policy around here is repros are bad and you should not be using them (pirate or not it is up to you, pay someone else for a pirated copy of something and now that is a dick move). Get a wholesome emulator or flash cart instead.

 

[Stephano]

Thank you again for your help.
As far as me buying a repo, the reason why i did is because i like having physical copies of things. A flashcard wouldn't do it of me in this case. I mainly just wanted a physical copy of this specific game so that i could complete my case collection of the three GBA games. Take a look!

As for the code you gave me I do not know if it works or not due to me not having the enabler code.
I have tried finding it myself but have not been so lucky.

 

[FAST6191]

I think I would rather have got a flash cart (probably something like a 3 in 1), flashed that and printed my own box and label if that mattered. Paying for pirated games, much less those also including the word of some hackers, just seems truly distasteful. I will give that it is less troublesome on the GBA compared to the NES and SNES where hacks might be a bit more emulator centric.

You could try the code in an emulator if the AR failed -- enabler codes are only a problem for said devices which have to try to inject their own hooks in there where emulators do not usually have the problem.

 

[Stephano]

I think I would rather have got a flash cart (probably something like a 3 in 1), flashed that and printed my own box and label if that mattered. Paying for pirated games, much less those also including the word of some hackers, just seems truly distasteful. I will give that it is less troublesome on the GBA compared to the NES and SNES where hacks might be a bit more emulator centric.

You could try the code in an emulator if the AR failed -- enabler codes are only a problem for said devices which have to try to inject their own hooks in there where emulators do not usually have the problem.

Well, the emulator i'm using doesn't seem to like the AR codes i'm inputing. I'm using VBA. I get an error saying it wants it in XXXXXXXX:YYYYYYYY format despite it already being in that format.

 

[Deleted User]

I also have another question. My FE6 cartridge is very... strange, unlike other games where the battery is separate from the ROM, with this Translated FE6 cartridge, the save battery is actually tied to the ROM itself. It cannot be reflashed with a different battery file, and when attempting to load a battery save on a backed up ROM, it will refuse to load the battery and only play off the current save file on the ROM
No other game i have behaves like this.
Is there any reason why this happens?

It's probably one of those bootlegs patched to save to an empty area of flash instead of having an SRAM chip.

 

[Stephano]

It's probably one of those bootlegs patched to save to an empty area of flash instead of having an SRAM chip.

I did a bit of research a while ago on sram chips and you're probably right. I guess I wasn't lucky then. Haha
It's funny because I bought a FE8 cartridge many years ago thinking it was legit and it turned out to be a bootleg. But at least that cartridge behaves normally compares to this one.

 

[Spider_Man]

was any tools released to convert AR codes to Xploder SP, I have tried using Gamehacking.org but in some cases I check info for decrypted and encrypted and find some have errors from whats on main page for XploderSP code vs its encrypted version, so no idea if master codes are legit either.

i assume XploderSP doesnt support all code devices like it back on othery systems.

I will try today and make codes using VBH but how would i make a M code for XploderSP?

 

[FAST6191]

Conversion is very rarely seen in automated form beyond getting things into a format a far more extensive flash cart cheat engine might support (supports all the formats but might use different labels to make a big database of them).

https://doc.kodewerx.org/hacking_gba.html
https://problemkaputt.de/gbatek.htm#gbacheatdevices
(xploder being a codebreaker clone)
If something is a basic always write then easy enough to convert.

The more conditional things (if this then) can be easy enough to convert for some if the read lengths are similar enough. If it is a more involved thing that does some operations first to see if it is a range or a flag or something then rather more annoying, as is something that more actively changes data.

M(aster) codes vary between devices. I have not really done much with them (flash carts and emulators don't especially need master codes) and looking at those then links then depending upon the game you might need to find a suitable hooking point, which is a more advanced hack but most games should already have one. If it is going to be a hooking point as opposed to simple CRC and other identifier aspects then you want to find an area of code that is constantly run (most usually look for a vblank routine in the ROM, the cheat device then altering the read of that to something else and thus allowing the cheat engine aspects to run). Easy enough to see when you are in a vblank (if nothing else advance the game cycle by cycle until you are back in a vblank, or a vblank in the parts of the game where you want the cheats running in case it differs between menus and in game proper) and what is executing at the time to in turn feed that to the master code.

 

[Spider_Man]

Conversion is very rarely seen in automated form beyond getting things into a format a far more extensive flash cart cheat engine might support (supports all the formats but might use different labels to make a big database of them).

https://doc.kodewerx.org/hacking_gba.html
https://problemkaputt.de/gbatek.htm#gbacheatdevices
(xploder being a codebreaker clone)
If something is a basic always write then easy enough to convert.

The more conditional things (if this then) can be easy enough to convert for some if the read lengths are similar enough. If it is a more involved thing that does some operations first to see if it is a range or a flag or something then rather more annoying, as is something that more actively changes data.

M(aster) codes vary between devices. I have not really done much with them (flash carts and emulators don't especially need master codes) and looking at those then links then depending upon the game you might need to find a suitable hooking point, which is a more advanced hack but most games should already have one. If it is going to be a hooking point as opposed to simple CRC and other identifier aspects then you want to find an area of code that is constantly run (most usually look for a vblank routine in the ROM, the cheat device then altering the read of that to something else and thus allowing the cheat engine aspects to run). Easy enough to see when you are in a vblank (if nothing else advance the game cycle by cycle until you are back in a vblank, or a vblank in the parts of the game where you want the cheats running in case it differs between menus and in game proper) and what is executing at the time to in turn feed that to the master code.

got loads of reading to do to try remember my younger years using cheat carts on actual consoles to make codes rather than emulating.

now i am trying to remake my codes for Hybrid Heaven and no idea why the pro's like Datel (though they were shit back then) are not making codes pointing to its correct in game memory address, as i tend to sit reading memory viewer more than actually trying to do code searched.

i am trying to get moon jump codes again for castlevania legacy of darkness and hybrid heaven, tried comparing different regions to see the differences and apply, sort or helped with CLOD as its differences between regions was the same for most addresses.

Its moon jump is tricky, it wont convert but its definitely doing something, the pal version has individual addresses for each section of the game where as the USA version had a moon jump that worked across the entire game.

I tried applying the differences and rather than moon jump, it has a strange effect, it will make it look like your player has drowned in water, and sinks, then strangely acts like a ballerina dancing across the floor.

hybrid heaven, i cant seem to get the moon jump at all, no matter what address you try find the difference in, they never match up so I have to try find it manually, but the PAL activators on GH.org or the PAL region dont seem to work, so I have to try figure them out too while forgetting what the hex values were for the N64 controller.

 

[FAST6191]

Moon jump tends to be one of three, maybe four, things.

In the most basic form if the game has a double jump (or triple, quad...) then somewhere in there will be a "has done enough jumps, no more allowed" flag. Choice timing, pausing, savestates, jumping again... you can find this flag easily enough and set it to never have the second jump done which also means to the moon you go if you hold or possibly tap jump.
The vast majority of moon jump cheats (as opposed to odd exploits of game mechanics) will be this.

If the game has a stat that influences jump height then you might be able to set this to something silly and gain a moon jump that way. Rare to see as most stats encompass the range available to them but never the less a thing I note.

Some games will have a moon gravity cheat or indeed a level. You might be able to flick this in the game somehow.

Finally gravity might be a variable within the game or a calculation you can skew. This will tend to involve delving into the code itself to find even if the final result is simple. In the case of the GBA most games are 2d using the OAM for sprites so easy enough to find on screen location (which may be different to the game's own internal location of the character) and set a breakpoint for whatever changes that. Said breakpoint will then find whatever changes it (presumably your jump) and thus what the limiter is for the character to start coming down again.
Alternatively there are code loggers available for the GBA (usually it is seen in older systems) where you can run the game, have it note down all it sees on the execution front (which would be everything but the jump function you care about) and then jump, last new executed code will be the jump function.

I mentioned exploits in passing above. This can be a thing you play to or even aggravate with cheats (cheats can do pretty tight timings or location changes after all if it involves some more precise inputs to achieve the exploit) but I will leave that for another day, and most of the time exploits to do moon jumps are not a thing until you hit some fairly decent physics in a game. What few there will be will tend to be for games with more serious attempts at stopping you from going beyond boundaries.