SuperFW: a custom firmware for Supercard

[chrisis685]

Hey there!
In the meantime while we try to fix some of these pesky issues with older models... just released version 0.16!

This version has:
- Support for Supercard Lite! (works in GBA and NDS mode ofc).
- Added EWRAM overclocking.
- More misc stuff like more translations, emulators, etc.

Enjoy!

I just downloaded the SD-version release from github, but it seems the .zip file is corrupt, can't open it, neither in Windows file explorer nor in 7zip... don't have a Supercard Lite, but just checking if this zip works, and no, it doesn't either...

 

[sam2895]

I just downloaded the SD-version release from github, but it seems the .zip file is corrupt, can't open it, neither in Windows file explorer nor in 7zip... don't have a Supercard Lite, but just checking if this zip works, and no, it doesn't either...

Same problem here ,zip file corrupted

 

[Sakitoshi]

@chrisis685 @sam2895
i checked and the files aren't zip, but the firmware itself.
in the meantime, you can rename it from .zip to .gba and copy it to your sd card.

 

[OuYeaaah]

Where can I find the menu to enable EWRAM overclocking?

Post automatically merged: May 17, 2025

Where can I find the menu to enable EWRAM overclocking?

My bad, i found it

 

[chrisis685]

@chrisis685 @sam2895
i checked and the files aren't zip, but the firmware itself.
in the meantime, you can rename it from .zip to .gba and copy it to your sd card.

Ah thanks, guess there was something misconfigured in github Actions anyways, I was able to flash it now onto my Supercard from the previous Super FW version by renaming it to superfw.fw

 

[sam2895]

Where can I find the menu to enable EWRAM overclocking?

Post automatically merged: May 17, 2025

My bad, i found it

Plz Try mario kart with EWRAM overclocking enabled

 

[Gamemaster2022]

we have come to the conclusion that agb with "CPU AGB A" generally work fine with the supercard.
this has not been 100% proven and i've seen reports of users claiming that it doesn't work well on their gameboy player, when, for what i can gather, all gameboy player's have "CPU AGB A" with later models having "CPU AGB A E".
sp's use "CPU AGB B" or "CPU AGB B E" and micro's use "CPU AGB E".
no idea what nds use but doesn't matter, from sp onwards they are all confirmed working.

for the record i have 2 og gba and one of them is affected and the other is fine. the one affected has "CPU AGB" and the working one is "CPU AGB A".

Seems like I am unlucky then. Because in my case the GBA with "CPU AGB" has LESS glitches and works better than the other with "CPU AGB A" where games outright crasho or hae terrible glitches. It's interesting it has the exact same glitches like my GB Player

 

[davidgf]

OOpsie! Yeah fixed the release file naming, sorry for that!

 

[Wokann]

(Solved, I got the wrong version, this is a supercard rumble lite, not supercard lite)

Hello, I have encountered some problems when flashing superfw for my supercard lite chs, and I would like to ask if there is any way to solve it.
1. Cannot recognize and read any .gba or .bin firmware files in gba mode. Seems the supercard firmware is broken? verson is 1.85

2. When flashing with flasher, it shows 0kiB of usable space (64 total unlocked blocks).

Flashing the original firmware from archive (supercard_ofw_185.fw) met the same prompt text. Now it cannot flash superfw in gba mode nor in slot1 mode. And cannot restore the original firmware in it( sd_185.bin is in sd but supercard didn't show it). And this is what I dumped from this supercard lite.

 

[xy1154]

Hello, I have encountered some problems when flashing superfw for my supercard lite chs, and I would like to ask if there is any way to solve it.
1. Cannot recognize and read any .gba or .bin firmware files in gba mode. Seems the supercard firmware is broken? verson is 1.85
View attachment 505242
View attachment 505237
View attachment 505243
2. When flashing with flasher, it shows 0kiB of usable space (64 total unlocked blocks).
View attachment 505239
View attachment 505240
View attachment 505241

Flashing the original firmware from archive (supercard_ofw_185.fw) met the same prompt text. Now it cannot flash superfw in gba mode nor in slot1 mode. And cannot restore the original firmware in it( sd_185.bin is in sd but supercard didn't show it). And this is what I dumped from this supercard lite.

At the moment no support is planned for Supercard rumble I’m afraid. After all, rumble is a cut down variant of SC lite designed with running DS backups in mind.

 

[Wokann]

At the moment no support is planned for Supercard rumble I’m afraid. After all, rumble is a cut down variant of SC lite designed with running DS backups in mind.

So this is a supercard rumble lite, not supercard lite? Wow I made a mistake, sorry!

Post automatically merged: May 17, 2025

Another problem about DS mode.
If I use independent boot cartridge like Passcard or Superkey, it will stuck on SuperFW logo screen.

While if i use passme function in slot1 flashcart like passme in YSmenu, slot2 mode in wood, slot2 nds in dstwo, SuperFW logo will soon end and go into twilightmenu screen. I don't know why this problem happened.

 

[sam2895]

So this is a supercard rumble lite, not supercard lite? Wow I made a mistake, sorry!

Post automatically merged: May 17, 2025

Another problem about DS mode.
If I use independent boot cartridge like Passcard or Superkey, it will stuck on SuperFW logo screen.
View attachment 505255
View attachment 505256
While if i use passme function in slot1 flashcart like passme in YSmenu, slot2 mode in wood, slot2 nds in dstwo, SuperFW logo will soon end and go into twilightmenu screen. I don't know why this problem happened.
View attachment 505261View attachment 505262View attachment 505264View attachment 505265

Yes

 

[edo9300]

So this is a supercard rumble lite, not supercard lite? Wow I made a mistake, sorry!

Hey, a Chinese edition supercard rumble is sure a rare find, would you like to dump its firmware for archivial purposes? Also I'm curious if my scsfw will work on it (I haven't had the possibility to test on that edition since mine is English version). It'll require reflashing the firmware, but it can easily be restored with the dump in case (or with the official updates).

 

[akumanoyokai]

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.

is there a tutorial for patch manually?

 

[Wokann]

Hey, a Chinese edition supercard rumble is sure a rare find, would you like to dump its firmware for archivial purposes? Also I'm curious if my scsfw will work on it (I haven't had the possibility to test on that edition since mine is English version). It'll require reflashing the firmware, but it can easily be restored with the dump in case (or with the official updates).

dumped firmware is on #569. and i'm not sure this firmware is right or not, cause write flash to it is impossible like i showed before.
Using scsfw and sckill can make supercard rumble lite work to boot twilightmenu. And it can be booted by passcard and superkey, not like supercard microsd stucking in superfw logo screen when using passcard and superkey to boot ds mode in #571.

 

[davidgf]

See the docs: https://superfw.davidgf.net/docs/usermanual/patches/#patch-generation
If someone wants to create a step by step tutorial it will be welcome.

SuperFW has issues with some passme loaders. I have tested some passme like a homebrew Passme and some Slot1 flashcart like the one that works for you. However I do not own a passme slot1 cart so I was unable to test these. I suspect they initialize the arm7/9 differently and my bootloader makes some assumptions (which result in a deadlock).

 

[SooraMaru]

See the docs: https://superfw.davidgf.net/docs/usermanual/patches/#patch-generation
If someone wants to create a step by step tutorial it will be welcome.

SuperFW has issues with some passme loaders. I have tested some passme like a homebrew Passme and some Slot1 flashcart like the one that works for you. However I do not own a passme slot1 cart so I was unable to test these. I suspect they initialize the arm7/9 differently and my bootloader makes some assumptions (which result in a deadlock).

Do you have GameCube connectivity planned? I think it will be a fantastic feature for Pokémon.

 

[akumanoyokai]

See the docs: https://superfw.davidgf.net/docs/usermanual/patches/#patch-generation
If someone wants to create a step by step tutorial it will be welcome.

SuperFW has issues with some passme loaders. I have tested some passme like a homebrew Passme and some Slot1 flashcart like the one that works for you. However I do not own a passme slot1 cart so I was unable to test these. I suspect they initialize the arm7/9 differently and my bootloader makes some assumptions (which result in a deadlock).

IT Works ! thank you very much there is a bug with the light but rowe runs with rtc
MarioMon worked too

Pokémon Sovereign of the Skies too
seaglass wont work ​

 

[edo9300]

dumped firmware is on #569. and i'm not sure this firmware is right or not, cause write flash to it is impossible like i showed before.
Using scsfw and sckill can make supercard rumble lite work to boot twilightmenu. And it can be booted by passcard and superkey, not like supercard microsd stucking in superfw logo screen when using passcard and superkey to boot ds mode in #571.

I didn't notice the attachment, in any case, that is an incomplete dump, as due how the scrumble works, what you dumped is the first 512kb of the upper megabyte of the flasg, so it is actually missing the recovery firmware partition, you can dump it for now by using gbaexploader (also godmode9i should work) and doing a rom dump rather than scfw nds tool, since scfw nds tool will attempt to change the supercard mode to the "incorrect" one.
As for the other part, nice to see that scsfw works on the Chinese supercard rumble as well. I was having some doubts since the way I get my firmware to work on the rumble is by "exploiting" the recovery firmware present (and that cannot be removed) by overwriting a function in ram.

 

[Wokann]

I didn't notice the attachment, in any case, that is an incomplete dump, as due how the scrumble works, what you dumped is the first 512kb of the upper megabyte of the flasg, so it is actually missing the recovery firmware partition, you can dump it for now by using gbaexploader (also godmode9i should work) and doing a rom dump rather than scfw nds tool, since scfw nds tool will attempt to change the supercard mode to the "incorrect" one.
As for the other part, nice to see that scsfw works on the Chinese supercard rumble as well. I was having some doubts since the way I get my firmware to work on the rumble is by "exploiting" the recovery firmware present (and that cannot be removed) by overwriting a function in ram.

This is the dumped file of supercard rumble lite by using godmode9i.
File (supercard rumble lite chs) :1.20_PASS01_00.zip

Post automatically merged: May 19, 2025

See the docs: https://superfw.davidgf.net/docs/usermanual/patches/#patch-generation
If someone wants to create a step by step tutorial it will be welcome.

SuperFW has issues with some passme loaders. I have tested some passme like a homebrew Passme and some Slot1 flashcart like the one that works for you. However I do not own a passme slot1 cart so I was unable to test these. I suspect they initialize the arm7/9 differently and my bootloader makes some assumptions (which result in a deadlock).

can i attach the dump files of passcard and superkey here?