SuperFW: a custom firmware for Supercard

[OuYeaaah]

In SCFW it overclocks it automatically immediately you load the firmware. Works only for GBA, GBA SP. Nothing else as they don't have EWRAM. For SuperFW it has already been implemented but now we are waiting for release.

Alright, I think I’ll just wait for a future version of SuperFW instead. It would be much more reassuring if EWRAM overclocking could be enabled directly from a proper menu. I just tested Mario Kart on SCFW and there's still noticeable slowdown during races, so for now I'll hold off and wait for SuperFW. Thanks for the information!

 

[sam2895]

I just tested shantae advance on superfw and it works and also saves but there is slowdown

 

[Gamemaster2022]

I just tested shantae advance on superfw and it works and also saves but there is slowdown

Yeah. There are slowdowns but it's playable. We'll see how it will perform once the new version with overclocking is out

 

[akumanoyokai]

Hello, will your Firmware Support Pkmn Seaglass or R.o.w.e? (doesnt boot atm with 0.15)

 

[sam2895]

Yeah. There are slowdowns but it's playable. We'll see how it will perform once the new version with overclocking is out

I'm using Nds ,so overclocking won't work for me

 

[Tsila]

I know that some revision of Gba AGB-001 works great but i have tested on 3 different revision and none worked for me.
- AGB-CPU-02, AGB-CPU-03,AGB-CPU-10 : white screen after selecting rom with any patch, tried running pre patched rom but doesn't work either (no patching selected in menu), gb/c emulation work with some rom but have major visual glitch rendering it unplayable
- Other AGB revision: need to be tested because i don't own these
- NDS/Lite: works as intended
- Gameboy Micro: works as intended

So i think that we need a public document to fill for those who have working revision to find why it doesn't works as intended on AGB. Some say that older or newer revision works but i have AGB-CPU-10 which is one of the newer version and it doesn't works for me but work for some other.

I rule out mod like IPS screen because i have modded AGS 101 screen AGB but doesn't works and unmodded vanilla other wich also doesn't works.

Found out too that some revisions have smaller EWRAM chip and some doesn't have AGB-REG chip at all. Maybe it's a hardware problem too. Or overclocking the crystal oscillator can help too.

Tried messing with waistate and timing related to writing to SDRAM and overclocking/de-overclocking EWRAM but no success.

So for those having working agb, what is your revison number and is it modded? Thanks

 

[Sasiccia84]

Hello, will your Firmware Support Pkmn Seaglass or R.o.w.e? (doesnt boot atm with 0.15)

I haven't managed to run Seaglass... Maybe a rtc or save related issue or... Don't know really but R.O.W.E works Use patch engine patching.

 

[Peeteris]

I know that some revision of Gba AGB-001 works great but i have tested on 3 different revision and none worked for me.
- AGB-CPU-02, AGB-CPU-03,AGB-CPU-10 : white screen after selecting rom with any patch, tried running pre patched rom but doesn't work either (no patching selected in menu), gb/c emulation work with some rom but have major visual glitch rendering it unplayable
- Other AGB revision: need to be tested because i don't own these
- NDS/Lite: works as intended
- Gameboy Micro: works as intended

So i think that we need a public document to fill for those who have working revision to find why it doesn't works as intended on AGB. Some say that older or newer revision works but i have AGB-CPU-10 which is one of the newer version and it doesn't works for me but work for some other.

I rule out mod like IPS screen because i have modded AGS 101 screen AGB but doesn't works and unmodded vanilla other wich also doesn't works.

Found out too that some revisions have smaller EWRAM chip and some doesn't have AGB-REG chip at all. Maybe it's a hardware problem too. Or overclocking the crystal oscillator can help too.

Tried messing with waistate and timing related to writing to SDRAM and overclocking/de-overclocking EWRAM but no success.

So for those having working agb, what is your revison number and is it modded? Thanks

This:

AGB-001 (40 pin version, under battery cover 02 5-2), made in Japan.
Screen: laminated drop-in IPS v5
Contacts cleaned thoroughly.

Supercard with microSD, no matter the alignment and firmwares produces the same corrupted graphics on this GBA.

If games doesn't show corruption, after a while they still crash, freezes. That means, even if you don't see any graphical glitches, you never know when will it crash. For example, Sonic Advance 3 doesn't show glitches, but crashes suddenly in first few minutes of playing.

 

[akumanoyokai]

I haven't managed to run Seaglass... Maybe a rtc or save related issue or... Don't know really but R.O.W.E works Use patch engine patching.

i say how i am going
start the SP
go to Rowe
[Savegame Settings]
Savemode :SRAM
Savegame Load : Load
Savegame Save : on reboot

i used the Patchengine (run)
it Loads but then i got a white screen :/

can you send me your settings? and which fw do you use?

 

[Sasiccia84]

i say how i am going
start the SP
go to Rowe
[Savegame Settings]
Savemode :SRAM
Savegame Load : Load
Savegame Save : on reboot

i used the Patchengine (run)
it Loads but then i got a white screen :/

can you send me your settings? and which fw do you use?

Extract this to your sd root, I am using superfw

 

[akumanoyokai]

same .. i put it on my SD
start rowe > loading and white screen

i do now the same as you in your picture and it loads.. its the RTC that bugs

 

[Sasiccia84]

same .. i put it on my SD
start rowe > loading and white screen

i do now the same as you in your picture and it loads.. its the RTC that bugs

Delete your patch in .superfw\patches
Delete your config in .superfw\config

Copy my patch to .superfw\patches and rename it to what your rom is called.patch

Try again.

 

[akumanoyokai]

Delete your patch in .superfw\patches
Delete your config in .superfw\config

Copy my patch to .superfw\patches and rename it to what your rom is called.patch

Try again.

it Loads now as i say
but i see you Disable the RTC and i want the RTC
but thank you ^^

 

[Sasiccia84]

it Loads now as i say
but i see you Disable the RTC and i want the RTC
but thank you ^^

If I load with RTC it doesn't start for me either unfortunately

 

[akumanoyokai]

maybe have @davidgf an idea would be very nice

 

[sam2895]

maybe have @davidgf an idea would be very nice

Maybe he is busy on new superfw version (overclocking EWRAM )

 

[davidgf]

If you play Pokemon hacks (ie. ROWE) you should *not* use regular patches. These ROMs pretend to be official games and SuperFW attempts to use the patches for the original game. So you need to generate patches manually for them. Generating patches might not work for every game, particularly features like RTC.

And yeah Im busy adding new stuff Just got a supercard lite as well as some leads on fixing some issues.

 

[Gamemaster2022]

If you play Pokemon hacks (ie. ROWE) you should *not* use regular patches. These ROMs pretend to be official games and SuperFW attempts to use the patches for the original game. So you need to generate patches manually for them. Generating patches might not work for every game, particularly features like RTC.

And yeah Im busy adding new stuff Just got a supercard lite as well as some leads on fixing some issues.

That's great news!

I was thinking about the incompatibility problems with SC and OG GBA & GB Player. It could theoretically be the RAM chip that differs on different motherboard revisions. From what I have seen, most GBA SP motharboards have a NEC/BSI chips while OG GBAs and GB Players usually have hynix chips. This of course isn't a rule but we know that SPs don't have visual glitches and all (compatible) games seem to load.

So my hypothesis is that RAM chips in GBAs and GB Players might have a tad different inputs. Original games don't have problems with that, however when SC is loading the ROM, it has to be patched in some way due to its limits. And the patch only counts with the GBA SP/DS RAM. The ROM will load but it won't exchange information with the GBA correctly resulting into visual glitches, crashes or black/white screens.

It could also be the CPUs that are different - original GBA apparently has 128 pins while SP 156 pins. Inputs might be, again, different. Maybe the patches could be altered or maybe a "GBA mode" could be implemented so the cartridge will detect if it's in a GBA or an SP (or a DS) and that would change its behaviour in some way the AGBs and GB Players wouldn't have problem with anymore.

Again, this is just a hypothesis. I haven't done a research of any kind but I wanted to share this thought. Below I shared few photos of differences between different revisions of GBA SP, GBA and a GB Player. Just for reference.

EDIT: I just checked few more GB Player motherboards and they all seem to have CPU with 128 pins....

 

[sam2895]

If you play Pokemon hacks (ie. ROWE) you should *not* use regular patches. These ROMs pretend to be official games and SuperFW attempts to use the patches for the original game. So you need to generate patches manually for them. Generating patches might not work for every game, particularly features like RTC.

And yeah Im busy adding new stuff Just got a supercard lite as well as some leads on fixing some issues.

Great news

 

[Tsila]

That's great news!

I was thinking about the incompatibility problems with SC and OG GBA & GB Player. It could theoretically be the RAM chip that differs on different motherboard revisions. From what I have seen, most GBA SP motharboards have a NEC/BSI chips while OG GBAs and GB Players usually have hynix chips. This of course isn't a rule but we know that SPs don't have visual glitches and all (compatible) games seem to load.

So my hypothesis is that RAM chips in GBAs and GB Players might have a tad different inputs. Original games don't have problems with that, however when SC is loading the ROM, it has to be patched in some way due to its limits. And the patch only counts with the GBA SP/DS RAM. The ROM will load but it won't exchange information with the GBA correctly resulting into visual glitches, crashes or black/white screens.

It could also be the CPUs that are different - original GBA apparently has 128 pins while SP 156 pins. Inputs might be, again, different. Maybe the patches could be altered or maybe a "GBA mode" could be implemented so the cartridge will detect if it's in a GBA or an SP (or a DS) and that would change its behaviour in some way the AGBs and GB Players wouldn't have problem with anymore.

Again, this is just a hypothesis. I haven't done a research of any kind but I wanted to share this thought. Below I shared few photos of differences between different revisions of GBA SP, GBA and a GB Player. Just for reference.

EDIT: I just checked few more GB Player motherboards and they all seem to have CPU with 128 pins....

View attachment 504687View attachment 504691View attachment 504688View attachment 504689

I was suspecting the ERAM chip too, all of the non working agb i have all have larger chip but the one with smaller chip have broken cart slot so i couldn't test things out. Maybe some person who have working agb should mention their chip brand here too if possible. I wonder if we can somehow use SP ERAM on OG gba.

But GB Micro doesn't use ERAM chip as i know (i may be wrong) and it works on it.