Homebrew Is there a .nds program that allows you to burn GBA games to bootleg carts?

[Kues]

I have begun making reproduction carts of SNES and NES games but now I want to make some GBA games. I have seen programmers/burners (not sure what it would really be called for GBA) that allow you to plug an SD card with roms on it into a GBA and burn the rom to a cartidge.

I have done quite a bit of reading and learned that you can reflash/rewrite over many bootleg GBA games to pretty much make reproductions using a $2 bootleg game. I have an XRom but I can't find any info on how to use it for this.

Pretty much, I want to either use the XRom I have to reflash bootlegs or use a .nds program to reflash bootlegs. I figured it would be possible since the 3n1 program flashed roms onto the specific 3n1 cart but it doesn't even let you try with bootlegs.

With the XRom device, I know it should be possible but I have no idea what program or drivers to use, I have just heard of it being done with no info on how to.

 

[osm70]

Try GBAExploader.

Make sure you set it to flash NOR.

 

[FAST6191]

By and large we do not deal in repros around here. It is just bad news and usually better to just get a flash cart. If you are planning to sell any of these (even for materials cost) you are invited to do one.

Anyway three main approaches have been seen

1) The EZ 3 in 1 GBA size (or modded to GBA size for some of the DS lite sized stuff).

2) Cannibalising cheap games a la the lesser end of the NES/SNES repro side of things, or some kinds of GB/GBC flash cart.

3) Actual proper homebrew boards.



1) was purchased in such quantities by the fake game/repro set, and if a few forum posts over the years are to be believed then some electronics/robotics types as well, that they are now rare as anything. You can get a DS lite sized 3 in 1 fairly cheaply still though. Some took things one step further and snipped/lifted/cut the write enable pins so they would not accept the erase/write commands.

2) I had not seen on the GBA until the other day ( http://gbatemp.net/threads/is-this-a-legit-pal-copy-of-ninja-cop-ninja-five-o.390496/ ). In that case it looked like someone made a breakout board for a type of NOR chip in place of the ROM (in essence making it a kind of flash cart). If you match the save type then great but otherwise you might have to fiddle to make the saves work.

As far as 3) goes we have seen some homebrew/unlicensed games go to the trouble of fabricating their own boards over the years, and there are homebrew flash cart designs out there ( http://reinerziegler.de/GBA/gba.htm#homebrew flash cart ). A few months ago I did see someone say there was a batch of newer ones out there now but I will have to go through my history to find that one.

 

[Kues]

By and large we do not deal in repros around here. It is just bad news and usually better to just get a flash cart. If you are planning to sell any of these (even for materials cost) you are invited to do one.

Anyway three main approaches have been seen

1) The EZ 3 in 1 GBA size (or modded to GBA size for some of the DS lite sized stuff).

2) Cannibalising cheap games a la the lesser end of the NES/SNES repro side of things, or some kinds of GB/GBC flash cart.

3) Actual proper homebrew boards.



1) was purchased in such quantities by the fake game/repro set, and if a few forum posts over the years are to be believed then some electronics/robotics types as well, that they are now rare as anything. You can get a DS lite sized 3 in 1 fairly cheaply still though. Some took things one step further and snipped/lifted/cut the write enable pins so they would not accept the erase/write commands.

2) I had not seen on the GBA until the other day ( http://gbatemp.net/threads/is-this-a-legit-pal-copy-of-ninja-cop-ninja-five-o.390496/ ). In that case it looked like someone made a breakout board for a type of NOR chip in place of the ROM (in essence making it a kind of flash cart). If you match the save type then great but otherwise you might have to fiddle to make the saves work.

As far as 3) goes we have seen some homebrew/unlicensed games go to the trouble of fabricating their own boards over the years, and there are homebrew flash cart designs out there ( http://reinerziegler.de/GBA/gba.htm#homebrew flash cart ). A few months ago I did see someone say there was a batch of newer ones out there now but I will have to go through my history to find that one.

I only plan to make a bunch of games that were translated to English or Rom hacks for me and my friends collections, not selling.

I heard that those $2 bootleg games from sites like alliexpress and such can be used in the same way as option number one you mentioned. The guy who made some flappy Bird homebrews used the bootleg method but didn't explain how he did it.

Thanks for the info. I'm going to test out osm70s idea when I get home

 

[Kues]

So far it erases the NOR fine but gets tuck on 0% for writing to NOR. anyone know what may cause this?

I tested it and it is erased so it does seem to be able to access it

Edit: I tried a smaller rom file and this one got to 3% and froze it seems.

Edit 2: so after hours of messing with it it doesn't seem like GBA Expload will work right. I finally got it to "copy the rom" to the bootleg., the first try the game booted but it would instantly start making a terrible screeching sound. the second rom I tried make the game unloadable at all and didn't even appear as having a GBA game in anymore.

I read somewhere that the newest version has issues with NOR mode but the problem is no other version lets you even attempt to load to anything but recognized flash cards so attempting this with an older version seems to be impossible.

Does anyone else know of a .nds program that might work better for what I want to do? it feels like I'm close

 

[vresu]

Hello guys, i'm still curious about the flappy bird stuff, on how he flash a normal card and replace em, did you manage to make it? would you mind to share some informations?

 

[Kues]

Hello guys, i'm still curious about the flappy bird stuff, on how he flash a normal card and replace em, did you manage to make it? would you mind to share some informations?

yes, I was able to do it using this linker for the XROM

I have a LOT of bootleg games and found that all of them are made differently so I was only able to reflash about 1/3rd of them. I used an old windows XP computer to do it using drivers and software from this site

http://mootan.hg.to/umj/ezusbins.html#ixp

using this, 1/3rd of my bootlegs could be reflashed to be new games. the trick now is to find a reseller on ali express that only sells bootlegs that work like those 1/3rd that can be reflashed

 

[vresu]

OMG, where can i buy those stuff, did not find em on ebay, alibaba etc. i only got this.http://www.gameboy-advance.net/img/ez_flash/EZ-2-PS-box.jpg
anything i can do with this tools? i tried littlewriter, but it cannot connect to the device, already on old xp virtual machine too. but did manage to install the driver. just that this is another tools.

argh need that tools. i will try to look around.
Thank You very much for the info!

 

[Kues]

OMG, where can i buy those stuff, did not find em on ebay, alibaba etc. i only got this.http://www.gameboy-advance.net/img/ez_flash/EZ-2-PS-box.jpg
anything i can do with this tools? i tried littlewriter, but it cannot connect to the device, already on old xp virtual machine too. but did manage to install the driver. just that this is another tools.

argh need that tools. i will try to look around.
Thank You very much for the info!

I don't think they are the easiest things to find since they haven't been made in years. I don't know if any other device will work since I have only tested this with this one cable.

FlashManager GBA is the program I used. here is a direct link http://mootan.hg.to/download/FM300E.zip it will annoy you on every single click you make to pay for it but it works, you just gotta click away the message every time you click something

I suggest trying that first, then if it doesn't work you need to somehow 100% get rid of the driver (might be easier to just make a new virtual machine and start fresh, it's what I did but with a space XP laptop which I use just for this now).

This is the driver you want to use and might want to just try using from the beginning http://mootan.hg.to/download/ezusbdrv.zip it's a generic gba flasher driver designed to work with FlashManager GBA

You don't need a bootlet to test this out, using a commercial game you can at least use it to copy the save file and at least with that you will know if it works or not

this page has the instructions on installing the driver http://mootan.hg.to/umj/ezusbins.html

 

[vresu]

Noooo... just try em, cannot work.. now i need to look for Xrom >.< i will make a new post, maybe someone out there want to sell em.

 

[Sliter]

I only plan to make a bunch of games that were translated to English or Rom hacks for me and my friends collections, not selling.

I`m with this plan too xD Also including translations to portuguese....

yes, I was able to do it using this linker for the XROM

are these much expensive nowadays? x3x if we do a simple link cable-> usb and a software we can`t do the same? XD

The aliexpress cheap bootlegs(or at leats some?) are written in NOR? This mean we can use the GBA explorer ? I got this right?
I think there aren`t any much coust friendly flasher, right? and they don`t work both for gbc games?
well I can`t even dream about importing stuff nowadays.... the dollar value are so danm high to my country`s money ...:v (maybe just the cheap games but at least get almost the price we find a bootleg here lol)

I took some time to notice that your avatar was shiroe :v

 

[vresu]

I don't think they are the easiest things to find since they haven't been made in years. I don't know if any other device will work since I have only tested this with this one cable.

FlashManager GBA is the program I used. here is a direct link http://mootan.hg.to/download/FM300E.zip it will annoy you on every single click you make to pay for it but it works, you just gotta click away the message every time you click something

I suggest trying that first, then if it doesn't work you need to somehow 100% get rid of the driver (might be easier to just make a new virtual machine and start fresh, it's what I did but with a space XP laptop which I use just for this now).

This is the driver you want to use and might want to just try using from the beginning http://mootan.hg.to/download/ezusbdrv.zip it's a generic gba flasher driver designed to work with FlashManager GBA

You don't need a bootlet to test this out, using a commercial game you can at least use it to copy the save file and at least with that you will know if it works or not

this page has the instructions on installing the driver http://mootan.hg.to/umj/ezusbins.html

Hello!, i manage to get myself XROM 512! its super hard to get this... huhu

1. i have windows xp on virtual machine works.
2. installed the driver http://mootan.hg.to/download/ezusbdrv.zip
3. aso installed this http://www.cypress.com/file/110496 EZ-USB_devtools_version_261700.zip
after that... what should i do????

it is using littlewriter to write? or the FM300??
also i dont understand this 「UMJ-FX」where can i download em?
can you help me with screen shots?

Cheers

 

[Kues]

Hello!, i manage to get myself XROM 512! its super hard to get this... huhu

1. i have windows xp on virtual machine works.
2. installed the driver http://mootan.hg.to/download/ezusbdrv.zip
3. aso installed this http://www.cypress.com/file/110496 EZ-USB_devtools_version_261700.zip
after that... what should i do????

it is using littlewriter to write? or the FM300??
also i dont understand this 「UMJ-FX」where can i download em?
can you help me with screen shots?

Cheers

use this http://mootan.hg.to/download/FM300E.zip

that replaces littlewriter. it's the program that asks you to buy it with ever click you do but can be used for free if you ignore it.

1: place the bootleg in the GBA,

2: plug the USB cable into the PC and the other end in the GBA

3: turn it on while holding start and select on the system

4: Start Flashmanager from the link I just linked. a window will come up with check marks. make sure X-ROM is checked. at this point I spent a while screwing with what was and wasnt checked but I think all you need to do is check the xrom and leave the rest. then push the middle bottom button

5: when it gets to the next screen it should automatically try to detect the bootleg and tell you if it can be rewritten. some bootlegs it doesn't even see, some it can tell are eproms and then it sees the good ready to erase and reflash bootlegs.

good luck! one last bit of advice is to watch out for GBA games that use eproms to save (like dragon quest caravan) these will work but wont save unless you find the hacked version of the game that allows normal saves. I dont think there are many like this, just something to keep in mind as after I made the flappy bird homebrew my second game was the English translated caravan hearts... and I spent HOURS and HOURS trying to figure out why it wouldn't save... so many times going through the beginning of the game over and over...

 

[vresu]

Hello @Kues Thanks a lot for helping this noob~ >.<
i did manage to install the stuff using paralel desktop on mac, previously using VM on windows it seems there is a bug with oracle VM which make the USB error.

at any rate i manage to install the driver properly, thanks to you!

just that now, i can erase my XROM 512 catriage and put any games. but this is not what i'm aiming.

i have this 6 random catriage, when i put it on GBA the FM300 software read the catriage, but all the option such as erase upload stuff are disabled, it is anyway to delete the files?

some of the catriage readed 256M or 32M some is none.
but none of em i can delete or replace with any GBA files. (i can do that with XROM 512 Catriage).

any other info to replace the normal catriage?

Thanks a lots for the help

 

[OmarElsayed]

Has anyone found out how to flash bootlegs using a ds and an r4 card, without the use of flashcarts or gba flashers?

 

[DSoryu]

Googling Burn2Slot leads to this thread, so I necrobump just so say that this is possible now with this

 

[OmarElsayed]

Googling Burn2Slot leads to this thread, so I necrobump just so say that this is possible now with this

There's also another program called 'gbabf', in case anyone was still wondering.