Homebrew Can I transfer GBA VC save to something that's usable on Retroarch Windows?

DutchyDutch

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I have a Pokemon Sapphire CIA installed on my 3DS. It's not an emulator or anything, just a GBA cia I downloaded from that chaos site.

I was wondering if I could transfer that GBA VC save to my PC, so I can play it fullscreen on RetroArch with my new Xbox One controller.
 

MajinCubyan

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You can. Use Decrypt9 to dump your gba sav. Then put the rename the save to whatever your rom is called and place it where it looks for saves. I do this to transfer my Firered VC save to my cart and back. But that requires a few more steps.
 

Griizly

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Hi @MajinCubyan , I am interested in the few steps that you talk about injecting Cart save to VC and vice versa because when I try to do it the save extracted from my cart is 128k and decrypt9 doens't allow me to import a save from this size, it only accept 64k.
Can you explain me how you do it ?

Thanks !
 
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Mikemk

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1) Don't use italics like that, it's obnoxious.
2) Chop off the last half of the save. The game will give you a warning message that the save board is wrong, this can be fixed by modifying the rom if desired, but can be safely ignored.
 

DutchyDutch

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You can. Use Decrypt9 to dump your gba sav. Then put the rename the save to whatever your rom is called and place it where it looks for saves. I do this to transfer my Firered VC save to my cart and back. But that requires a few more steps.
When I use decrypt9, it shows me a bunch of different names to pick from. The names are really random so I don't know which one is for Sapphire.
I picked a random one and tried using it on Retroarch. It didn't detect it since it uses SRM files instead of .sav
 

MajinCubyan

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Hi @MajinCubyan , I am interested in the few steps that you talk about injecting Cart save to VC and vice versa because when I try to do it the save extracted from my cart is 128k and decrypt9 doens't allow me to import a save from this size, it only accept 64k.
Can you explain me how you do it ?

Thanks !

This is how I change the size of my gba save files.

What you need; Your game save, a rom of your game and some version of VBA. Keep your save backed up somewhere and in a different location than your rom when you are doing this, as you should have a new save file made at the end of this.

1. Start up vba and go to Options, down to Emulator and then Save type. You should see Flash 64 kb and 128 kb. Select what every size you are looking for. So 64kb for you.
2. Load your rom. Once it is has started to load, go to File, Import... and then Battery File. Load your save file this way.
3. Once its loaded, start your game and then save it. Quit VBA and go to the location of your rom. You, should, now have a new save file in your desired size.

I figured this out a long time ago and I'm sure you can hex edit the save file to a smaller size, but I don't know. Haha. Hope this helps ya.

When I use decrypt9, it shows me a bunch of different names to pick from. The names are really random so I don't know which one is for Sapphire.
I picked a random one and tried using it on Retroarch. It didn't detect it since it uses SRM files instead of .sav

To dump a specific game, load that game and then quit it. Boot Decrypt9 in your preferred way. Then go and dump the sav. It will always be something like gbavc.sav, gba_vc2.sav, blahblahblah. Rename the file. If it doesn't work, maybe try to expand the save to 128 kb and see if that works. If you want to inject your save back into the vc, do the same as dumping it. Start game, quit and boot Decrypt9.
 

Griizly

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@MajinCubyan Which version of VBA do you use, I use VisualBoyAdvance-1.8.0-beta3-624, I followed your steps but the save file at the end is still 128kb ?

The save file extracted from my firered card is 128kb
 

MajinCubyan

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Wanted to do a follow up just in case anyone finds this sometime down the road.

It seems that this method only works of FR/LG and, I assume since the former two are based off of it, Emerald. I tried everything I could think of to get R/S to take the save, but it would not.

So remember; Works for FR/LG(maybe Emerald) and doesn't work for R/S.
 

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