SuperFW: a custom firmware for Supercard

[Skinnyice]

since you tried swapping sd card (if i interpreted the words correctly), it might be your card being faulty e.g. flash chip is worn out? you may try using scsfw to chainload superfw or switch back to original firm to see if there's still issue.

Thanks for the reply. Almost broke it by flashing wrong, but the nds flasher in OP’s post fixed it.
It turns out my problem is the GBA for some reason. I put the card in my NDS and all roms launch and no graphical glitches whatsoever. I put the card in my GBA and no roms load en GBC has the graphical glitches. Wth is going on? I do have my GBA modded with a IPS and USB-C battery. I will try with normal batteries as a last resort

[edit]
Can’t find the metal battery thing, probably in a box in the attic. Have a modded SP as well and there everything works to. So the problem is my GBA. Wonder what the problem is.

 

[Peeteris]

Thanks for the reply. Almost broke it by flashing wrong, but the nds flasher in OP’s post fixed it.
It turns out my problem is the GBA for some reason. I put the card in my NDS and all roms launch and no graphical glitches whatsoever. I put the card in my GBA and no roms load en GBC has the graphical glitches. Wth is going on? I do have my GBA modded with a IPS and USB-C battery. I will try with normal batteries as a last resort

[edit]
Can’t find the metal battery thing, probably in a box in the attic. Have a modded SP as well and there everything works to. So the problem is my GBA. Wonder what the problem is.

Original GBA consoles don't work with supercards. No one really knows why.

 

[davidgf]

If it's an original GBA, it has been reported that Supercards have issues with them (even in the original FW).

 

[Skinnyice]

If it's an original GBA, it has been reported that Supercards have issues with them (even in the original FW).

Yeah, huge bummer. Thanks for making this fw though, it works amazing!

 

[TBC999]

How to enter NDS mode

 

[Sakitoshi]

Original GBA consoles don't work with supercards. No one really knows why.

stop spreading misinformation.
i have 2 og gba and both work with my supercard.
here is one of them running stock fw, but i have superfw now and just works.

 

[Peeteris]

stop spreading misinformation.
i have 2 og gba and both work with my supercard.
here is one of them running stock fw, but i have superfw now and just works.

Good for you. Instead of implying that I should stop spreading "misinformation", then fix my and other GBA devices which show garbled mess in many games using supercard, no matter what. I'll spread this info till the moment someone will be able to tell what's going on and why I can't use my supercard with my GBA that I would love to do.

 

[hippy dave]

You guys could compare GBA revisions if you want to try and figure out the difference in compatibility

 

[djmuted]

You guys could compare GBA revisions if you want to try and figure out the difference in compatibility

I have the original GameBoy Advance (AGB-001) and a DS Lite. I can confirm (with 1 original SuperCard SD and 1 black SuperCard SD clone) that some games work flawlessly on the DS Lite and do not work well with the GBA. The GBA sometimes shows garbled textures and fails to load some game areas. The problem is reproducible and happens every time in the same areas on the GBA, while working fine on the DS Lite. The game I tested was Pokemon Unbound with both SRAM and Direct Save modes.
So in general, the SuperCard SD works with the GBA, but some games show issues that are not present on a DS Lite.

 

[ziggystar12]

How's .12 coming?

 

[Sakitoshi]

You guys could compare GBA revisions if you want to try and figure out the difference in compatibility

i have 6 gba's in total.
2 AGB-001. AKA OG.
2 AGS, one 001 and other 101. AKA SP.
2 OXY-001. AKA micro.

both AGB are modded with different screen kits.
the first one has a clone of the funnyplaying IPS kit v2, it says 02 7-2 behind the battery cover. supercard works.
the second one has a funnyplaying ITA kit, it says 10 1-1 behind the battery cover. supercard works.

both SP are almost stock.
the AGS-001 has a headphone jack mod. supercard works.
the AGS-101 has a headphone jack mod and the screen is new old stock bought from aliexpress, it works just as it should no modifications needed so it should be true. supercard works.

both micro are stock.
the first micro is a black USA model, i had to rewire the select and start buttons because i ripped the ribbon cable back when i opened it for the first time to clean it, other than that it is stock. supercard works.
the second micro is a silver EUR model, no mods or anything. supercard works.

all of them were cleaned and modded by me.
i think the problem is that people don't know how to properly clean the contacts inside the gba, i've had problems with some of them not booting consistently, causing garbled menus, but a good clean fixed it every time.

 

[Takafumi]

If that were the case, wouldn't people with other models of GBA (SP, Micro, etc...) be reporting the issue in a similar manner? Or is the original model exceptionally more prone to gathering dirt?

 

[Sakitoshi]

well, it is strange that only people with AGB are reporting issues, so you may be right and be something else and not dirty contacts.
if i have to point out the differences it would be that AGB could be more prone to it because are the only with the cartridge slot at the top when you hold it upright. but that doesn't really mean anything.

a more likely reason would be if only older AGB models have issues. if that is the case then failing caps could be the culprit.
caps don't just stop working in a moment notice, it is gradual, so it may be that the supercard is more sensitive to that.
it would explain why only some AGB fail but AGS and above not.

 

[davidgf]

Hey there!
Let's keep the discussion positive please
I also have an AGB (actually two) and one of them was having issues, the other not as much, but sometimes would act up.
My suspicion aside from unmantained contacts in the bus, is probably something related to the design. I suspect the AGB has a slightly larger capacitance or input/output impedance. That won't explain why such a big difference exists tho. The NDS is the most reliable, all supercard work fine on NDS.

Perhaps we should try to gather info on issues, would you guys mind reporting, for each supercard cart:
- What memory chip it has (perhaps a picture would be better if you don't know which chip it is).
- What issues you have (or don't have). Each device where it works and where it doesn't. A pic can also help.

It could well be that some SDRAM chips are better than others and less prone to issues with AGB devices. I suspect better speed grading and/or output impedance.

Thank you!

 

[Skinnyice]

Devices:
NDS (Phat 1st gen)
AGB-001
AGS-001 (40 pin screen version)

Since AGS and NDS have the same result I’ll only post pics of the AGS.

GBA games do not load on AGB so the pics attached are GB games. Also provided the specs of my Supercard.

 

[davidgf]

BTW would be also useful to know whether GBA gaming works on official FW and/or SCFW. So I can try to guess what we are doing right/wrong. I have some suspicions on what things could make this problem worse and how to try to mitigate them. Thank you again!

 

[Skinnyice]

Well, that’s where the idiot sandwich comes in play. In the OP post you said to make a backup of your old firmware. So I just copy pasted everything from my SD instead of running your tool and backup the firmware from there. So I don’t have the original… whoops. Don’t know if you can restore using someone else his backup if they have the exact same card? Tried to find the original firmware online and found a .bin file, which cannot be used by your NDS firmware tool.

 

[JORGETECH]

well, it is strange that only people with AGB are reporting issues, so you may be right and be something else and not dirty contacts.

I'm starting to think there may be various factors at play. First of all, as @davidgf said, the SDRAM chips might have speed differences depending on the cart, this is not surprising due to slight differences in semiconductor manufacturing yields.

However, there is another potential factor I haven't seen mentioned. According to gekkio's database there are at least two variants of the main SoC the GBA uses, "CPU AGB" and "CPU AGB A", of course, there are also different motherboard revisions but I find that less likely to cause issues. I thought about this theory because in the Game Boy Color scene there have been documented cases of retail games and flashcarts behaving in different ways depending on the SoC revision (there were way more revisions for the GBC chip). If this theory is correct, this would also explain why the NDS behaves in a different way, since there are differences in the GBA implementation there too, for example, Megaman Battle Network 4 has a game-breaking bug when played in the NDS.

Of course, this is just a theory and could be a massive red herring but I think it could be worth exploring.

In my case, I did see some issues with my cart when playing some games, I think it was Super Mario Advance that had corrupted sprites when I tried it in a GBA. Right now I can verify my SoC revision is "CPU AGB" while the motherboard revision is "AGB-CPU-02", and the SDRAM chip my cart is the Hynix HY57V561620CT-H.

 

[Skinnyice]

Opened up my AGB and I have the AGB-CPU-03

 

[davidgf]

The original FW was posted here:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/scfw-custom-firmware-kernel-for-supercard.647238/page-10#post-10403989

I dont have access to my copy (to verify whether they are identical), but I recall they had the same hash.
We should upload a copy to web archive or something.