I’m trying to recover a Pokémon Gold save on an EZ-Flash Jr. and have reached the point where I think the issue may be EZ-Flash-specific rather than Pokémon-specific.
Hardware:
Background:
A friend’s Pokémon Gold save (~150 hours, beat Red, etc.) became corrupted after a normal save.
The original save behaves like this:
I posted the save on Project Pokémon and someone recovered/exported a valid Gen 2 save from it by bypassing PKHeX save detection checks.
The recovered save behaves like this:
Additional testing:
Fresh save test:
I created a brand-new Pokémon Gold save on the same EZ-Flash Jr.
Interesting observation:
The original save and recovered save both begin with a run of ‘=’ bytes.
The fresh save begins with a run of ‘D’ bytes.
I created a hybrid file by taking the recovered save and replacing only the first 80 bytes with the first 80 bytes from the fresh save.
Unexpectedly, the resulting file behaved like the fresh save rather than the recovered save.
That suggests the first part of the file contains some kind of save-identification metadata, index, pointer, checksum, or EZ-Flash-specific structure.
Questions:
At this point I have:
I’m happy to upload all three files if it helps.
Thanks!
Hardware:
- EZ-Flash Jr.
- FW5_731
- Pokémon Gold
- RTC battery was recently replaced
Background:
A friend’s Pokémon Gold save (~150 hours, beat Red, etc.) became corrupted after a normal save.
The original save behaves like this:
- File size: 32,816 bytes
- EZ-Flash recognizes it
- Pokémon Gold shows CONTINUE
- Selecting CONTINUE results in “The save file is corrupted!”
I posted the save on Project Pokémon and someone recovered/exported a valid Gen 2 save from it by bypassing PKHeX save detection checks.
The recovered save behaves like this:
- File size: 32,816 bytes
- Loads correctly in mGBA
- Loads correctly in PKHeX
- All trainer/Pokémon data appears intact
- EZ-Flash Jr. shows NEW GAME only
Additional testing:
- Replaced RTC battery with a new battery
- Disabled Auto Save
- No change
- Truncating the final 48 bytes made no difference
- Original save still shows CONTINUE
- Recovered save still shows NEW GAME
Fresh save test:
I created a brand-new Pokémon Gold save on the same EZ-Flash Jr.
- File size is also 32,816 bytes
- Loads normally on hardware
Interesting observation:
The original save and recovered save both begin with a run of ‘=’ bytes.
The fresh save begins with a run of ‘D’ bytes.
I created a hybrid file by taking the recovered save and replacing only the first 80 bytes with the first 80 bytes from the fresh save.
Unexpectedly, the resulting file behaved like the fresh save rather than the recovered save.
That suggests the first part of the file contains some kind of save-identification metadata, index, pointer, checksum, or EZ-Flash-specific structure.
Questions:
- Does the EZ-Flash Jr. store any metadata in Gen 2 save files that is required for the cart to recognize a save?
- Is there a known structure/header/checksum near the beginning of the save file that the cart validates?
- Has anyone successfully converted a valid emulator/PKHeX Pokémon Gold save back into a format recognized by the EZ-Flash Jr.?
- Is the SAVE/SAVER file on the SD card always the authoritative save, or does the cart maintain additional state in SRAM that affects save recognition?
At this point I have:
- Original save (cart recognizes, game rejects)
- Recovered save (game recognizes, cart rejects)
- Fresh save (both recognize)
I’m happy to upload all three files if it helps.
Thanks!
