SuperFW: a custom firmware for Supercard

[Dark-Dante]

When you put folders on SD card from pc, yes, first time it's sorted alphabetically, but when you started to play 10-15 games that's sorted randomly, i think by date. All saves in one folder, i don't know what firmware changed in that folders.

 

[Smintman]

Gave 0.7 a quick go.. playing minsh cap. The in game menu has all save options disabled, and then I try and save in game it throws and error.. .

 

[Disturbo]

Tried out the 0.7 version with some Pokémon games to test the Direct Save feature. Some details for my setup:

• DS Lite
• Supercard SD flashed with SCSFW
  • Card boots to SCFW when in GBA mode
  • From SCFW I then boot SuperFW

Here are some reports:

1. Base Pokémon Emerald (16KB ROM size)
   1. Works great with Direct Save and pathing with the Built-in database
   2. White screen when Patching is set to Patch engine
      1. The ROM Information popup shows "Unknown game!" as the save type
      2. The save mode defaults to SRAM with no possibility of changing it
2. pokeemerald-expansion (based on pokeemerald, 32KB ROM size)
   1. Always boots to a white screen
      1. Save type is detected correctly when Patching is set to Auto (probably because it shares the BPEE game code)
      2. The ROM Information popup shows "Unknown game!" as the save type when Patching is set to Patch engine
      3. Save mode is set to SRAM with no possibility of changing it
3. Pokémon Mirage of Tales (based on an older version of pokeemerald-expansion, 32KB ROM size)
   1. Boots correctly but saving does not work
      1. Same as 2.1.x

Let me know if I can provide more details!

 

[huncho]

Pokemon LeafGreen (GER Version) is still giving me a "This save file has been corrupted. The previous save will be loaded" via directsave.

Pokemon Emerald (GER) doesnt give me the error tho.

im using a GBA SP AGS-001 and I flashed superfw directly to my supercard.

edit: FireRed also gives me the save file corrupted message.

 

[djmuted]

I have tested the new direct save feature with Pokemon Fire Red and I'm truly impressed. The game is now finally playable on the SuperCard. There are some glitches when rendering text frames sometimes, but nothing game-breaking so far. Is there any way we could generate patches ourselves for Pokemon rom hacks? Built-in patches don't play nice with rom hacks unfortunately.

 

[davidgf]

Hey there!

Thank you all for the feedback!
A couple of notes: when using Direct Save mode, you cannot save using the in-game menu. This makes sense since the saving happens within the game, transparently. There's a potential bug at the moment that can be triggered if you open the in-game menu while the game is reading or writing data from/to the SD card. This will be fixed in the next release (I will add a lock so that the menu cannot be opened during these intervals).

I did test the german pokemon mentioned and it worked for me (at least in the emulator), feel free to send me ROMs/savegames and I can test them too. Same for the Minish Cap, worked well for me. Not sure what could be happening. If you don't plan to use the in-game menu (with direct save is less useful) make sure to disable it and try again. Also make sure that your saves are ok.

Also worth noting that Pokemon ROM hacks *won't* work in most cases. This is due to a mixture of: lack of patches for them, superFW cannot distinguish between a rom-hack and the original game in many cases, and the hacks using different signatures for stuff like saving. If there's a hack that's opensource (ie. on github) I could try adding support for it and/or figuring something out with the developers so that their game works well on lesser carts like the Supercard.

 

[huncho]

I did test the german pokemon mentioned and it worked for me (at least in the emulator), feel free to send me ROMs/savegames and I can test them too. Same for the Minish Cap, worked well for me. Not sure what could be happening. If you don't plan to use the in-game menu (with direct save is less useful) make sure to disable it and try again. Also make sure that your saves are ok.

I tested it again without the ingame menu disabled and the message was gone then came back and now im currently checking and the problem is gone (again). So the message is appearing infrequently.

I tested it with a fresh save created via superfw and my savegame from my original cartridge both have the same problem.

maybe its a problem with my supercard or maybe the microSD card is too slow to read the savefile fast enough sometimes (would be funny because its a brand new sandisk extreme pro )?

Anyways, I attached both savefiles for testing purposes.

 

[Smintman]

Hey there!

Thank you all for the feedback!
A couple of notes: when using Direct Save mode, you cannot save using the in-game menu. This makes sense since the saving happens within the game, transparently. There's a potential bug at the moment that can be triggered if you open the in-game menu while the game is reading or writing data from/to the SD card. This will be fixed in the next release (I will add a lock so that the menu cannot be opened during these intervals).

I did test the german pokemon mentioned and it worked for me (at least in the emulator), feel free to send me ROMs/savegames and I can test them too. Same for the Minish Cap, worked well for me. Not sure what could be happening. If you don't plan to use the in-game menu (with direct save is less useful) make sure to disable it and try again. Also make sure that your saves are ok.

Also worth noting that Pokemon ROM hacks *won't* work in most cases. This is due to a mixture of: lack of patches for them, superFW cannot distinguish between a rom-hack and the original game in many cases, and the hacks using different signatures for stuff like saving. If there's a hack that's opensource (ie. on github) I could try adding support for it and/or figuring something out with the developers so that their game works well on lesser carts like the Supercard.

I thought I'd try again with minish, but this time completely deleting the save file.

When the choose a flle menu pops up I get this when a scroll over a save slot

Then if I actually try and create a new save file I get this..

When I put my normal save file on there, it can see it and load it, but again when I try and save I get the unable to save file error..

 

[djmuted]

I also encountered a corrupted save error in all Super Mario Advance games when using Direct Save. Works fine with SRAM though.

Also worth noting that Pokemon ROM hacks *won't* work in most cases. This is due to a mixture of: lack of patches for them, superFW cannot distinguish between a rom-hack and the original game in many cases, and the hacks using different signatures for stuff like saving.

That is why I asked, if we could have an option to generate patches ourselves using the tools available in your GitHub repository. Maybe SuperFW could load the .db file generated by the patchgen tool if it finds one on the SD card? Just an idea.

 

[davidgf]

Hey there!
You guys were right, there's a bug in the EEPROM direct save codepath. I just fixed it Uploaded version 0.8
I tested also Minish Cap and now it seems to work for me too (and perhaps a bit faster, even tho it's quite slow for EEPROM).

And yeah: there will be a web-based patcher util where you will be able to patch a ROM and generate a patch file for it (that superfw can read). To generate full databases you probably need to use the repo mentioned (since it's a bit impractical to load hundreds of ROMs to Chrome/Firefox). I will add the ability to load a patch database from the SD card, that's something that was always planned (I just removeed it due to $reasons, but will re-add it).

Thanks guys!

Edit: Forgot to mention, there's a new menu. Added some tests, like memory (SDRAM test) and SRAM test. Also a battery test and a simple read benchmark tool. Can be useful for people without electronic skills, so they can figure out whether the battery is still alive.

 

[Smintman]

Hey there!
You guys were right, there's a bug in the EEPROM direct save codepath. I just fixed it Uploaded version 0.8
I tested also Minish Cap and now it seems to work for me too (and perhaps a bit faster, even tho it's quite slow for EEPROM).

And yeah: there will be a web-based patcher util where you will be able to patch a ROM and generate a patch file for it (that superfw can read). To generate full databases you probably need to use the repo mentioned (since it's a bit impractical to load hundreds of ROMs to Chrome/Firefox). I will add the ability to load a patch database from the SD card, that's something that was always planned (I just removeed it due to $reasons, but will re-add it).

Thanks guys!

Edit: Forgot to mention, there's a new menu. Added some tests, like memory (SDRAM test) and SRAM test. Also a battery test and a simple read benchmark tool. Can be useful for people without electronic skills, so they can figure out whether the battery is still alive.

Thanks need to do a longer play but minish cap seems to work now and tried some others..

One weird thing is some games have option for direct save and some games don’t? Won’t let me change in the games menu? Only has option for SRAM?

Is there a reason for this?

 

[davidgf]

Yes there is a reason. As I mentioned in the previous posts, as well as the first post, direct saving works exclusively for games that use EEPROM or Flash backups. Some games don't have saving or use SRAM (or FRAM) as backup memory, so they are not compatible with Direct Saving. It could be possible to implement it for some games, but many of them would be incompatible.

Edit: when picking a ROM, the pop up menu indicates info such as the game code and the save type. If you see None or SRAM, you cannot select direct saving.

 

[Smintman]

Yes there is a reason. As I mentioned in the previous posts, as well as the first post, direct saving works exclusively for games that use EEPROM or Flash backups. Some games don't have saving or use SRAM (or FRAM) as backup memory, so they are not compatible with Direct Saving. It could be possible to implement it for some games, but many of them would be incompatible.

Edit: when picking a ROM, the pop up menu indicates info such as the game code and the save type. If you see None or SRAM, you cannot select direct saving.

Yes I noticed that after posting, thanks for confirming.. So for this type of save, just continue with using the save to SD from the in game menu or soft reset to have it sync the sram to the sav file?

I tried out the diagnostic tools also and I think my "NEW" supercard's (dont knot how long was sitting in ali-express shops shelf) battery test failed, maybe I can somehow replace at some point!? But with direct save etc its less of a worry.. Might explain some of the weirdness I had when saving with the stock firmware..

Again thanks for the great work, its really giving this cheap card a whole new life!

 

[Skillzlol]

I'm loving SuperFW, literally the best thing ever to happen to Supercard!!
One question though: I'm running some GBC/GB games, I noticed the emulator is Jagoomba 0.5, but I can't seem to find the generated Jagoomba save files in the filesystem when I connect my microsd into my pc. Where do they end up? They aren't in the default SAVEGAME folder. But they seem to still exist since I can do a powercycle and my in-game saves still are being read from somewhere.

 

[EVYI]

Hey, i love this Project and wanted to thank you for your effort.
I just want to ask, if there any way to save the Options per rom when a game is selected, like the Savegame options and Patching options, because some games just work with Patch engine and not with Built-in database and i have to change this setting every time i want to play because there are not saving

 

[pitrako]

Any plans to autopatch in superfw games that have the "increase rom speed"?, example final fantasy series: https://github.com/metroid-maniac/SCFW/issues/10

 

[JORGETECH]

When you put folders on SD card from pc, yes, first time it's sorted alphabetically, but when you started to play 10-15 games that's sorted randomly, i think by date. All saves in one folder, i don't know what firmware changed in that folders.

Have you tried to sort the files from the PC using a "FAT Sorter" program? I have seen similar issues with some flashcarts and old MP3 players where the files are sorted by date of addition/modification.

Here's a multiplatform Java-based program that should do the trick.

Post automatically merged: Feb 3, 2025

Edit: Forgot to mention, there's a new menu. Added some tests, like memory (SDRAM test) and SRAM test. Also a battery test and a simple read benchmark tool. Can be useful for people without electronic skills, so they can figure out whether the battery is still alive.

Nice! I wish the EZ-Flash Omega had a battery check option. It's a shame the Supercard still has slowdown issues in some games with patches applied, if it had faster memory the cart would be best-in-class thanks to SCFW and your firmware! Also, kind of ironic how the less capable cart ends up having the best firmware.

 

[OuYeaaah]

Pokemon Gen 3 Load Saves didn't work with Direct Save (in game it say "the save was deleted"), but working with SRAM save (64Kb save size), just report, thanks

 

[djmuted]

Pokemon Gen 3 Load Saves didn't work with Direct Save (in game it say "the save was deleted"), but working with SRAM save (64Kb save size), just report, thanks

Both Pokemon Ruby and FireRed are working well with Direct Save for me. Make sure your rom dumps are good and unmodified. However, Gen 3 rom hacks like Pokemon Unbound will only work with SRAM just like you mentioned.

 

[Skillzlol]

Pokemon Gen 3 Load Saves didn't work with Direct Save (in game it say "the save was deleted"), but working with SRAM save (64Kb save size), just report, thanks

Another thing to add to this:
I believe SD card speed also plays a factor. I tried my 2GB and 4GB(Class 4 Speed) microSDs and they fail directsaving Pokemon 64kb saves, I had the same issue as you, the saves just disappear or corrupt, but when I tried my Class 10 Speed UHS-1 32gb microsd, it worked flawlessly. Could also be the SD card quality itself, try officially branded ones. The 2GB was unbranded and 4GB was sandisk (but class 4 speed)