Homebrew SCFW: Custom Firmware & Kernel for Supercard

[Dark-Dante]

Format memory card and place kernel to scfw folder

 

[PanicPete]

I was having save issues with Kirby & The Amazing Mirror (would reset to 0% every few days) and I think I fixed it by setting both Autosave options to 0, playing the game, then when I quit the game by pressing the START + SELECT + 🅰 + 🅱 combo, pushing R to save SRAM to file, then powering off. When I turn back on, first I select the .sav file, hit L to load it to SRAM, then load the .rom and my progress is where it was last time.

This is the correct way for doing it manually right? I have been able to successfully do multiplayer Kirby & the Amazing Mirror with a Supercard and a fake copy of KatAM with an Aliexpress link cable. I found 2 fake copies would have connection errors but a rom running on Supercard paired with a fake works - just need to get the progress saving nailed down.

 

[V1k70r]

I get a 'FAT initialisation error' when trying to boot the kernel from the stock firmware running on my SuperCard Lite (1.8.5). I tried both 0.5.2 and 0.4.5 but the result is the same. Happens with a Kingston as well as a Sandisk micro SD card, both 2 GB and formatted as FAT16 with SD Formatter. FAT32 formatted cards aren't even recognised by the stock SuperCard firmware.

I went through the source code and did find the actual lines where the micro SD card initialisation attempt is done but at a glance I couldn't pinpoint why the error occurs and I didn't dive any deeper. Of course I can create a GitHub issue right now but I don't want to spam your repository when it may just be user error or a known bug.

I've recently re-entered the Gameboy / Nintendo DS space after 15 years so it may just be my knowledge that's lacking. I have been doing web development professionally for the last 5 years and am looking into going lower level so if I can somehow help debugging I'd be happy to .

 

[Smintman]

I get a 'FAT initialisation error' when trying to boot the kernel from the stock firmware running on my SuperCard Lite (1.8.5). I tried both 0.5.2 and 0.4.5 but the result is the same. Happens with a Kingston as well as a Sandisk micro SD card, both 2 GB and formatted as FAT16 with SD Formatter. FAT32 formatted cards aren't even recognised by the stock SuperCard firmware.

I went through the source code and did find the actual lines where the micro SD card initialisation attempt is done but at a glance I couldn't pinpoint why the error occurs and I didn't dive any deeper. Of course I can create a GitHub issue right now but I don't want to spam your repository when it may just be user error or a known bug.

I've recently re-entered the Gameboy / Nintendo DS space after 15 years so it may just be my knowledge that's lacking. I have been doing web development professionally for the last 5 years and am looking into going lower level so if I can somehow help debugging I'd be happy to .

Probably not your issue but thought was worth mentioning..? and wasn't this custom firmware (Was the SuperFW but I just had issue with setting up new SD card, that was partitioned using GPT, I changed to MBR using partition magic and it started working for me.

 

[OmDRetro]

I get a 'FAT initialisation error' when trying to boot the kernel from the stock firmware running on my SuperCard Lite (1.8.5). I tried both 0.5.2 and 0.4.5 but the result is the same. Happens with a Kingston as well as a Sandisk micro SD card, both 2 GB and formatted as FAT16 with SD Formatter. FAT32 formatted cards aren't even recognised by the stock SuperCard firmware.

I went through the source code and did find the actual lines where the micro SD card initialisation attempt is done but at a glance I couldn't pinpoint why the error occurs and I didn't dive any deeper. Of course I can create a GitHub issue right now but I don't want to spam your repository when it may just be user error or a known bug.

I've recently re-entered the Gameboy / Nintendo DS space after 15 years so it may just be my knowledge that's lacking. I have been doing web development professionally for the last 5 years and am looking into going lower level so if I can somehow help debugging I'd be happy to .

sclite units are supported under the pre-release builds ONLY. I don't have an sclite, myself, but @Apache Thunder helped out and the pre-release builds starting HVCA-B onwards should work on those devices. @edo9300 also assisted with the project and added flashing support for the sclite kernel(meaning there's full scfw support), but I have not updated the kernel binaries to include that yet.

 

[Janni9009]

@V1k70r You'd be best off flashing edo's SCSFW as this will also give you DS mode, then adding SCFW's latest pre-release kernel as normal.

 

[Apache Thunder]

sclite units are supported under the pre-release builds ONLY. I don't have an sclite, myself, but @Apache Thunder helped out and the pre-release builds starting HVCA-B onwards should work on those devices. @edo9300 also assisted with the project and added flashing support for the sclite kernel(meaning there's full scfw support), but I have not updated the kernel binaries to include that yet.

Yeah also note that for some reason write function fails on Onn branded 32GB MicroSD card on SC Lite. Don't know why and not sure if this impacts regular SC's too with this perticuler MicroSD. if you have an Onn branded card...maybe try a different one.

 

[letsplaynoah]

how do i Remove it on The Gba sp

 

[pking2302]

Hello everyone,
I have flashed my SuperCard (miniSD) with the latest CFW (0.5.2). Unfortunately, it no longer plays roms! Is there a way to flash it back to the original firmware?

Post automatically merged: Jan 27, 2025

Hello everyone,
I have flashed my SuperCard (miniSD) with the latest CFW (0.5.2). Unfortunately, it no longer plays roms! Is there a way to flash it back to the original firmware?

 

[Xyvir]

Yes, using an original DS or Light and a slot1 flashcart running the homebrew app sckill can reflash supercard.

I've also heard desktop cart readers can reflash fw as well but I don't have any personal experience with that method.

Hello everyone,
I have flashed my SuperCard (miniSD) with the latest CFW (0.5.2). Unfortunately, it no longer plays roms! Is there a way to flash it back to the original firmware?

Post automatically merged: Jan 27, 2025

Hello everyone,
I have flashed my SuperCard (miniSD) with the latest CFW (0.5.2). Unfortunately, it no longer plays roms! Is there a way to flash it back to the original firmware?

 

[OmDRetro]

Hello everyone,
I have flashed my SuperCard (miniSD) with the latest CFW (0.5.2). Unfortunately, it no longer plays roms! Is there a way to flash it back to the original firmware?

Post automatically merged: Jan 27, 2025

Hello everyone,
I have flashed my SuperCard (miniSD) with the latest CFW (0.5.2). Unfortunately, it no longer plays roms! Is there a way to flash it back to the original firmware?

This barely narrows down what the issue is. Can you be more specific? I can only make assumptions due to lack of information, but just in case...

You may have flashed the firmware, but you forgot to install the kernel. You can either read the very first post or click the hyperlink.

As for reverting to stock, there are multiple ways:

• Flash-able OFW firmware within SCFW
• FlashMP (requires NDS / NDSL / iQue DS / iQue DSL)
• SCKill (incl. variants) [requires NDS / NDSL / iQue DS / iQue DSL]

For the methods I did not reference there are instructions in this thread. If not in this thread, there is a github repository with instructions(sckill). FlashMP I believe is from the SuperCard team.

 

[ripast]

Hello, I'm new here and I signed up to see if I can get some roms that don't run on my supercard bought on Aliexpress to work.
First of all, I have several old cards with different types of memory, from 16MB, 256MB SD cards, to micro SD cards that range from 256MB, 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, 32GB and even 1TB, so I had no problem keeping the one that came from the factory, since its firmware was obsolete and required me to patch more than 2000 roms? where not all of them ran, I chose to sacrifice one of my 2GB ones to be able to install the firmware that Metroid Maniac proposed (following the tutorials written here to the letter), however I haven't managed to get all the games I would have liked to run, such as Ninja Five-O or Final Fantasy I&II, although games like Golden Sun, Advance Wars and Fire Emblem ran wonderfully.
I have replaced the roms but to no avail, they don't work on Metroid Maniac firmware.
Is it possible you can help me?

 

[OmDRetro]

Hello, I'm new here and I signed up to see if I can get some roms that don't run on my supercard bought on Aliexpress to work.
First of all, I have several old cards with different types of memory, from 16MB, 256MB SD cards, to micro SD cards that range from 256MB, 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, 32GB and even 1TB, so I had no problem keeping the one that came from the factory, since its firmware was obsolete and required me to patch more than 2000 roms? where not all of them ran, I chose to sacrifice one of my 2GB ones to be able to install the firmware that Metroid Maniac proposed (following the tutorials written here to the letter), however I haven't managed to get all the games I would have liked to run, such as Ninja Five-O or Final Fantasy I&II, although games like Golden Sun, Advance Wars and Fire Emblem ran wonderfully.
I have replaced the roms but to no avail, they don't work on Metroid Maniac firmware.
Is it possible you can help me?

This has been tackled in the thread already, those games require another type of patching that's not yet integrated in SCFW.

Games with the "INCREASE ROM SPEED" feature aren't supported unless its patched out

You have to use the official SuperCard patcher(v2.71) to remove some ROM features just to get it to work on the SuperCard SD. Even stock firmware will refuse to load any GBA ROM with said feature

Post automatically merged: Feb 3, 2025

Meteo 1.5.0. video converter doesn't work either. When patched, it's stuck in a blackscreen, as if the video never loads. When it's not patched, it's stuck in whitescreen. These converted videos work fine in stock firmware.

Meteo works, but there are specific conditions to MAKE it work.

1. Convert a compatible input video with the right settings for it.
   1. More details here
2. Run gbafix to ensure that it runs on actual cartridge
   1. Feel free to use an emulator to check for "Invalid Logo" errors by not skipping the BIOS. If there's an error in the emulator's logs or that it's stuck on a white screen / black screen then you missed this step.
3. Use Super Card team's patcher v2.71 to remove the "INCREASE ROM SPEED" feature.
   1. Yes, the Meteo video player has it.
4. Load the ROM and it should play.

I already converted an open film for testing. Try this Big Buck Bunny ROM in SCFW

 

[DreamKiss]

Hey Everyone! I recently bougth a supercard, but it doesn't seem to work on my GBA no matter what i do. I saw somebody(including this thread) using supercard on classic GBA and recommending certain versions of SCFW. Any recommendations? Are there any versions that work for OG GBA?

 

[Peeteris]

Hey Everyone! I recently bougth a supercard, but it doesn't seem to work on my GBA no matter what i do. I saw somebody(including this thread) using supercard on classic GBA and recommending certain versions of SCFW. Any recommendations? Are there any versions that work for OG GBA?

Nothing works on original GBA, not even original supercard firmware.

 

[OmDRetro]

Hey Everyone! I recently bougth a supercard, but it doesn't seem to work on my GBA no matter what i do. I saw somebody(including this thread) using supercard on classic GBA and recommending certain versions of SCFW. Any recommendations? Are there any versions that work for OG GBA?

The Supercard MiniSD / MicroSD should work out of the box. If it can run stock firmware then it can run this custom firmware as well regardless of version. Some have reported that it doesn't work on their GBA's (AGB-001 specifically) but it appears to be a case to case basis. For others, wedging in a piece of paper under the cart label side just to even out the board will allow the flash cart to run properly. In my case, I didn't need to do anything. It simply ran without issue.

If I recall correctly, someone shared a doc showing where to wedge the piece of paper. Don't remember where I found it though

 

[saulin]

How does this firmware handle SRAM Save games? like The Castlevania games?

Any SRAM game that normally needs to be patched for Batteryless for other carts in order to save

 

[OmDRetro]

How does this firmware handle SRAM Save games? like The Castlevania games?

Any SRAM game that normally needs to be patched for Batteryless for other carts in order to save

Batteryless patching is N/A. The Supercard Mini SD / Micro SD variants have SRAM chips. The same cannot be said for the the original Supercard SD and the Supercard lite micro SD.

I was having save issues with Kirby & The Amazing Mirror (would reset to 0% every few days) and I think I fixed it by setting both Autosave options to 0, playing the game, then when I quit the game by pressing the START + SELECT + 🅰 + 🅱 combo, pushing R to save SRAM to file, then powering off. When I turn back on, first I select the .sav file, hit L to load it to SRAM, then load the .rom and my progress is where it was last time.

This is the correct way for doing it manually right? I have been able to successfully do multiplayer Kirby & the Amazing Mirror with a Supercard and a fake copy of KatAM with an Aliexpress link cable. I found 2 fake copies would have connection errors but a rom running on Supercard paired with a fake works - just need to get the progress saving nailed down.

Manually, yes. That's the expected behavior.

If using automatic saving, you're supposed to reboot back into the SCFW kernel / file explorer view after you're done with any game that need save files. This is to ensure that the SRAM data is properly offloaded into storage. Should you happen to turn off your GBA without offloading the save within a short period of time, you'll end up with a blank save file on the next boot of the ROM.

Hello, I'm new here and I signed up to see if I can get some roms that don't run on my supercard bought on Aliexpress to work.
First of all, I have several old cards with different types of memory, from 16MB, 256MB SD cards, to micro SD cards that range from 256MB, 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, 32GB and even 1TB, so I had no problem keeping the one that came from the factory, since its firmware was obsolete and required me to patch more than 2000 roms? where not all of them ran, I chose to sacrifice one of my 2GB ones to be able to install the firmware that Metroid Maniac proposed (following the tutorials written here to the letter), however I haven't managed to get all the games I would have liked to run, such as Ninja Five-O or Final Fantasy I&II, although games like Golden Sun, Advance Wars and Fire Emblem ran wonderfully.
I have replaced the roms but to no avail, they don't work on Metroid Maniac firmware.
Is it possible you can help me?

Some of the games you mentioned require patching out the "FAST ROM" / "Increase ROM speed" mode. I've placed instructions here so you can run those games on your SuperCard

 

[Flame]

im kind

 

[Final_Froggit]

i cant seem to open the kernel.gba can someone lend me a hand, i have an original yellow gba