# Trying to see if I can convert a SMRPG save to use with my Super UFO Pro 8



## Knight of Time (Dec 25, 2016)

Hi all,

One of the Christmas presents I received today was a used copy of Super Mario RPG for the SNES. Anyway, I was wondering how to get it working with the Super UFO Pro 8 I ordered online last October (mainly for the purpose of transferring an SRM save from one of the SNES emulators to the cartridge)?  I tried converting the srm file I have with ucon64 a couple of times, but I keep getting this:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Kyle>cd..

C:\Users>cd..

C:\>cd Emulation\SNES stuff\ucon64-2.0.0-win32-vc-bin

C:\Emulation\SNES stuff\ucon64-2.0.0-win32-vc-bin>ucon64.exe --pad -ufos smrpg.s
rm
uCON64 2.0.0 Win32 (Visual C++) 1999-2005
Uses code from various people. See 'developers.html' for more!
This may be freely redistributed under the terms of the GNU Public License

Create: ntuser.idx
ERROR: Can't open "C:\Users\Kyle\ntuser.dat" for reading
       Please see the FAQ, question 47 & 36


WARNING: "ntuser.dat" is meant for a console unknown to uCON64

C:\Emulation\SNES stuff\ucon64-2.0.0-win32-vc-bin\smrpg.srm

Multi Game Doctor (2)/Multi Game Hunter/MGH

00007fb0  00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00  ................
00007fc0  00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00  ................
00007fd0  00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00  ................

Super Nintendo Entertainment System/SNES/Super Famicom
.....................
Demo or Beta ROM?
Japan
32768 Bytes (0.2500 Mb)

Padded: Maybe, 394 Bytes (0.0030 Mb)
Interleaved/Swapped: No
Backup unit/emulator header: No
HiROM: No
Internal size: 33554432 Mb
ROM type: (0) ROM
ROM speed: 200 ns (SlowROM)
SRAM: No
Version: 1.0
Checksum: Bad, 0x9370 (calculated) != 0x0000 (internal)
Inverse checksum: Bad, 0x6c8f (calculated) != 0x0000 (internal)
Checksum (CRC32): 0xcfea2834

Wrote backup to: smrpg.bak
Wrote output to: smrpg.srm
Wrote output to: smrpg.sav

C:\Emulation\SNES stuff\ucon64-2.0.0-win32-vc-bin>

So yeah, is it just me or is this game not compatible with the Super UFO Pro 8 due to the SA1 chip?  I thought the device had been updated to work with SNES games that utilize special chips...anyway, I'm hoping to get an answer at some point please, just to see if there is anything I can do.

Thanks in advance.


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## kutteke (Dec 27, 2016)

i own the super ufo too,  not compatible at all with those games. I was able to boot smw2 on it with the original cart on top but it would crash pretty quickly. maybe bad connection. 
I had to rip the game to it from the original cartridge, loading a rom i found online did not work


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## Knight of Time (Dec 27, 2016)

kutteke said:


> i own the super ufo too,  not compatible at all with those games. I was able to boot smw2 on it with the original cart on top but it would crash pretty quickly. maybe bad connection.
> I had to rip the game to it from the original cartridge, loading a rom i found online did not work



Ah, okay, that's just as I thought.  I was beginning to think making some tweaks in Super UFO Pro 8 before attempting to copy over the saved data would work, but when I played, my save didn't change.  But please tell me, did you use the ripped game on your computer, or on your Super UFO Pro 8?  Better yet, what did you do to rip the game from the cartridge?

Nonetheless, thanks for the information.


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## kutteke (Dec 27, 2016)

Ok so i might be wrong here because i just got a mariokart cartdridge and i was able to play ballz3d and suzuka8hours roms wich require the dsp1. so it does seem to work with roms. the save on my mariokart cart did not transfer automatically. 

my smw2 might just have dirty connectors so that statement needs more testing. 
to dump your rom you select the third icon in the top row and choose cart to sd. 
you can also dump the sram from that menu to a file.


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## CeeDee (Dec 27, 2016)

Well, if, say, SMK runs, which requires DSP1, maybe it's a specific issue with chips like Super FX and SA-1, which SMW2 and SMRPG use.


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## kutteke (Dec 27, 2016)

Could be... i also have star wing so i could do some more tests. these are the games with the extra pins... pilotwings works and mariokart too and these have the standard amount of pins


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## kutteke (Dec 27, 2016)

ok so i reached a conclusion

Dsp1:
if you own pilotwings and super mario kart you can play every dsp1 game (pilotwings is only needed for bases loaded2 wich doesn't work with mariokart)

Superfx:
super fx-v1 (mario chip 1) games do not want to load with star wing, a star fox rom also doesn't load. However the dump of my own star wing cart does load and play fine. 

superfx GSU-2 games do not want to load with yoshi's island. a rom of yoshi's island does not boot. The dump of my own cart runs but only until the island is shown and crashes to black screen

superfx GSU-1 not tested since i don't own doom or dirt trax fx

found footage online from someone testing CX4 chips with the megaman games. rockman x2 only loads megaman x2. the same for x3 so you can buy the cheaper rockman carts and play a translation.

as for the SA1 i'm curious. 
OP could you please try and load PGA tour 96' (wich also uses SA1) and see what the result is? (with mario rpg inserted in the super ufo) it could mean a cheap way to play mario RPG on original hardware 
thx!

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Oh also regarding to the .SRM issue. put the SRM on your sdcard. dump your cart to DRAM and load sram from SD to DRAM. see if that works?


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## Knight of Time (Jan 4, 2017)

I haven't really tried anything more with the srm issue, but I've been feeling very tempted to buy a Retrode2 to see how well it works with save files of SNES and Sega Genesis cartridges...does anyone here own one?  Even though I feel a little silly for changing the subject here, I have been determined to buy one as soon as I possibly can.


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## kutteke (Jan 5, 2017)

the method i posted should work actually


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## Knight of Time (Feb 14, 2017)

Sorry I'm a bit late, but I wanted to let you guys know I got a Retrode2 earlier this year; unfortunately it isn't compatible with Super Mario RPG or other games that use a special chip (I didn't test it with Super Mario Kart yet) even though it works pretty good with some of my other games.

As for the Super UFO Pro 8, I apparently was able to dump Super Mario RPG to DRAM, but the game won't play if I choose the Play DRAM game option (I'm not sure if I have to turn off the SNES and remove the Super Mario RPG cartridge...do I need to remove the cartridge?).  On a different note, how do I load SRAM from the SD card to DRAM?  I'm a little lost there.


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## kutteke (Feb 14, 2017)

In the meantime i've bought a japanese copy of smrpg. found out its not compatible with super ufo pro 8 only DSP chip games seem to work. I'm just going to try and install an eeprom with english version on it.


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## bakageta (Jul 5, 2017)

Way late reply to this, but hey... When you say smrpg isn't compatible, what exactly do you mean? Does the cart itself play through the passthrough? I assume the US rom failed with the JP cart on top, but did a self-dumped JP rom fail with its own cart on top too?

I've been debating picking one of these up. I've got an SFC and the pass through would be nice for playing US games without reshelling them. The videos showing the megaman X2/X3 roms work with the respective Rockman cart would be a very nice bonus, so I'm sad to hear it doesn't seem to work the same with smrpg.


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## kutteke (Jul 11, 2017)

Well I have a SFC and  a SNES, I use a copy of super air diver for the sfc dsp1 games, and i recently bought rockman x, x2, x3 and they all work fine with the english rom. It seems all the superfx games just arent compatible. That's why i'm going to just solder in another rom chip on my copy of SMRPG
http://www.mmmonkey.co.uk/cheaper-super-mario-rpg-cartridge/ since this is the only game i want to play that actually needs english text. Yoshi's island and star fox are playable with japanese text. I do have an snes classic on pre order, but i already have the rom chip ready so.

I do reccomend getting one as they are cheap, and work fairly well. only issues with some copy protected games like super ghosts and goblins (or was it ghouls and ghosts, who cares)


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## jaffa225man (Jan 8, 2019)

Knight of Time said:


> Hi all,
> 
> One of the Christmas presents I received today was a used copy of Super Mario RPG for the SNES. Anyway, I was wondering how to get it working with the Super UFO Pro 8 I ordered online last October (mainly for the purpose of transferring an SRM save from one of the SNES emulators to the cartridge)?  I tried converting the srm file I have with ucon64 a couple of times, but I keep getting this:
> 
> ...



Sorry for the extremely late response, but I was only just now investigating the opposite and thought it may help you and/or others.

I wanted to export my Super Mario RPG cartridge's SRAM suitable for restore to the original cartridge or emulation.  I Have saves on it in the past when installing a new battery, and although I love the game, not repeating everything would be nice.   I believe it's simpler than your attempt.  I was able to export it with the Super UFO Pro 8 by using the "SRAM CHIP" menu in the "CHECK"->"CART CHECK" menu.  There, I set the "SIZE" to "256Kbit" (looked up the Internet), and set the "MODE" to "HiROM".  The rest are defaults (but perhaps only after changing the "MODE" to anything and then back to "HiROM": "A23" is "X", "A22" is "0", "A21" is "1", "A20" is "X", and "A15" is "0".  Some other combinations may work, but I'm sure that setting both the "CARTRIDGE TYPE" and "SRAM CHIP" to "LoROM" produces a bad export.  Anyway, with that setup, back out of the menu with 2 presses of "Y" and go into the "BACKUP" menu.  There, send the cartridge SRAM to the UFO and then send the UFO SRAM to SD Card.  It creates a .srm file that can be loaded in zsnes (if named the same as the rom, except for the extension and placed in the proper directory - for me, on GNU/Linux that is ~/.zsnes/).  It also works on the SD2SNES (which was my hope to not duplicate all the playtime).



 

So, I expect if you set the "SRAM CHIP" settings as specified above, and from the "BACKUP" menu, copy your .srm file from the SD Card to the UFO, and finally from the UFO's SRAM to the "CART" you will restore the .srm file (backup or emulated play) to the actual cartridge.  I haven't tried this yet because I'm not certain it will work and don't want to entertain the possibility of corrupting my saves before the battery runs out again and I'll have to try this.

However, I have not been able to backup the ROM for this game yet.  I suspect that's impossible with the UFO Pro 8.

I hope that helps,

  Luke


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## Knight of Time (Jan 9, 2019)

jaffa225man said:


> Sorry for the extremely late response, but I was only just now investigating the opposite and thought it may help you and/or others.
> 
> I wanted to export my Super Mario RPG cartridge's SRAM suitable for restore to the original cartridge or emulation.  I Have saves on it in the past when installing a new battery, and although I love the game, not repeating everything would be nice.   I believe it's simpler than your attempt.  I was able to export it with the Super UFO Pro 8 by using the "SRAM CHIP" menu in the "CHECK"->"CART CHECK" menu.  There, I set the "SIZE" to "256Kbit" (looked up the Internet), and set the "MODE" to "HiROM".  The rest are defaults (but perhaps only after changing the "MODE" to anything and then back to "HiROM": "A23" is "X", "A22" is "0", "A21" is "1", "A20" is "X", and "A15" is "0".  Some other combinations may work, but I'm sure that setting both the "CARTRIDGE TYPE" and "SRAM CHIP" to "LoROM" produces a bad export.  Anyway, with that setup, back out of the menu with 2 presses of "Y" and go into the "BACKUP" menu.  There, send the cartridge SRAM to the UFO and then send the UFO SRAM to SD Card.  It creates a .srm file that can be loaded in zsnes (if named the same as the rom, except for the extension and placed in the proper directory - for me, on GNU/Linux that is ~/.zsnes/).  It also works on the SD2SNES (which was my hope to not duplicate all the playtime).
> View attachment 154534
> ...



Hey, thanks for helping out here.

Now, I did what you said, and I was able to backup my Super Mario RPG save using the method you described, and I updated it in ZSNES (Mario was originally L1, now he is L2), however, I couldn't restore the save back to the cartridge (I'm not sure if I did anything wrong).  If you manage to restore a save file using the method above you mentioned, be sure to let me know.

Edit: While I was able to load the save file from my Super Mario RPG cartridge in both ZSNES and Snex9x, I came across a different oddity in each.  Snes9x is allowing me to update the save file, but its size ends up changing from 128KB to 32KB.  In ZSNES, the save file's size doesn't change, but for some reason it doesn't allow me to overwrite the save with new data (that is, if I make a new save in ZSNES, close and re-open ZSNES, and open the game again).  If I want to get the 32KB save onto the cartridge, I'll need to get it converted so that it's 128KB again.

Edit2: Okay, I'm starting to think the Super UFO Pro 8 can _only_ backup the save from an SA-1 SNES cartridge.  I just haven't had any success restoring a 128KB updated save to the cartridge (I tried using Translhextion here; I opened up the 128KB save file in one window and a 32KB save in another window, and copied the hex values from the 32KB save to the 128KB save (overwriting those values in the process).  I opened up the updated 128KB save file in ZSNES and found that it had the same saved data from the 32KB save, though I just cannot understand why the Super UFO Pro 8 didn't successfully copy the new save other than the possibility that it just cannot restore a save to an SA-1 cartridge let alone backing up the save).  Thanks though for your help.


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## jaffa225man (Jan 14, 2019)

Knight of Time said:


> Hey, thanks for helping out here.
> 
> Now, I did what you said, and I was able to backup my Super Mario RPG save using the method you described, and I updated it in ZSNES (Mario was originally L1, now he is L2), however, I couldn't restore the save back to the cartridge (I'm not sure if I did anything wrong).  If you manage to restore a save file using the method above you mentioned, be sure to let me know.
> 
> ...



You're welcome, but I'm sorry to say it's not working for me either.  Saving changes in zsnes to a save from the actual game works for me, but it is immediately truncated to 32KB (32768 bytes) as you've described (which shouldn't be an issue as 256Kbit == 32000 bytes).  The UFO refuses to load the file directly.  Padding it with the original data that was truncated (back to 128KB) seems to make the UFO accept it but changes aren't seen in-game.  I also tried various setting changes for the UFO (LoROM/HiROM cart with HiROM SRAM, HiROM cart with LoROM SRAM).  I didn't mess with the SRAM mapping settings besides the defaults I'd had luck exporting with, because corruption could possibly become likely.  Although nothing I tried corrupted my saves, nothing restored the zsnes copy.  Next, I tried changing the cartridge saves a bit and restoring my original, non-zsnes, non-tampered with, backup export  Again, nothing restored it and I'm again stuck with a save slot I can't delete.  Oh well, at least nothing was lost.  I can't help thinking that if it can be read, it should be writable, but then again, it could be something to do with the "SA-1 copy protection" I've read about (but that's a bit backward, as you can "copy" this SRAM).

These are my notes while manually tinkering with the GNU/Linux program okteta to compare the original backup SRAM hex to zsnes'  It's moot anyway, since I was unable to restore the original backup, but perhaps it will come in handy for someone:
ZSNES changed the file in the following locations (without even restoring a save)
0000:2000-0000:200C
0000:2290-0000:22FF (2298-229A, 22A0-22A1, 22B0, 22C0-22FF)
0000:3440-0000:5F3F
0000:7800-0000:7DFF
0000:8000-end (truncated to 32768 Bytes, while 256Kbit(/8) should be 32000 Bytes, but my original .SRM file is 131072 Bytes (exactly 128KB))

Seeing 128KB instead of 256KB made me try creating a 64Kbit file with the UFO, but it was the same 128KB size with only one byte different: 0000:07FE (now 00 instead of the 03 before).  And, yes, the file is still truncated to 32KB when opened in zsnes.
EDIT: 07FE just seems to be where the last played/selected save slot 00-03 being top-to-bottom is stored, so changing the SRAM size on the UFO does nothing when reading the cart.  (It probably would truncate writing to it, though.)

Anyway, I'm sorry it does still elude me.  I don't like to give up, but feel I have to before I really corrupt it.  If you figure something out, please let me know, as I'd love to restore it the next time my battery dies.  I guess an extremely unsatisfying, sort-of (but cop-out) solution is to buy the incredibly expensive SD2SNES, as I recently did, and use your emulator's .srm file directly.


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## Knight of Time (Jan 15, 2019)

The only thing I know of that will enable me to restore saves to my SA-1 cartridges is this Arduino cart reader.  There's a topic here on GBATemp about this device, and I'm gonna be buying one directly from this guy who goes by moldov on the Arduino forums, as he has reserved one for me to buy from him (that is, once he notifies me that he has received all the parts for my specification and assembled it).

Basically, a major component of the cart reader I'm going to eventually purchase (which may be as early as the 19th this month) will be the ability to read and write to SA-1 SNES games.


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## jaffa225man (Jan 16, 2019)

Knight of Time said:


> The only thing I know of that will enable me to restore saves to my SA-1 cartridges is this Arduino cart reader.  There's a topic here on GBATemp about this device, and I'm gonna be buying one directly from this guy who goes by moldov on the Arduino forums, as he has reserved one for me to buy from him (that is, once he notifies me that he has received all the parts for my specification and assembled it).
> moldov
> Basically, a major component of the cart reader I'm going to eventually purchase (which may be as early as the 19th this month) will be the ability to read and write to SA-1 SNES games.


Wow, thanks for the information!  It sure looks like a lot of work to build (sourcing everything and all), but if moldov is still offering them when I have money, I've always wanted to be able to read all my cartridges.  Rewriting the SRAM to SA-1 games is a nice bonus, now that I see the Super UFO Pro 8 doesn't seem up to the task.  As you'll surely get it before I can, good luck with your endeavors!


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## jaffa225man (Feb 2, 2021)

I finally have mine built and functioning with everything (well, not full-sized SD cards yet), but it wasn't easy at all!  It seems to me, though, that it will continue to be an invaluable tool, as I had so many systems' cartridges I wanted to back up (mainly SNES and N64).  Other than the Super UFO Pro 8, this is all I have, but likely all I'll ever need.  If you haven't seen my post in the arduino thread, today, I was able to write my original SRAM save of Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, made with the Super UFO Pro 8 settings I mentioned above those years ago.

I'm sorry you had so much trouble with yours, but wanted to let you know that with lots of perseverance, it did work in my case.

Thank you very much for making me aware that such a project existed!


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