EZ flash omega Simple custom firmware doesn't save Gameboy Color or Gameboy Games

aidn0828 · Aug 7, 2022

Hello, world,

I am making this thread to ask for help on my EZ Flash Omega.
I own the non-definitive edition and thought I wanted an upgrade from the factory firmware since it didn't play Pokemon Crystal. (one of my favorite GBC games)
So when I installed the latest version of simple, I immediately was delighted that there was no pixel corruption with Pokemon Crystal. After I was done playing the game, I went to eat dinner and play afterward. As soon as I started the game up my in-game save file was nowhere to be found. I was so confused and immediately started digging through the simple thread to look for answers. I found one person that said to install the latest version of Jagoomba and put it in the plugs folder and this didn't work. I don't think it's the problem with my cart because when I switched back to the original firmware everything saved fine. Again, if anyone finds anything that can help me, that would be great.

Thanks!

- aidn0828

EZ-Flash2 · Aug 8, 2022

Press L + R before you stopping to play the game.

aidn0828 · Aug 8, 2022

EZ-Flash2 said:
Press L + R before you stopping to play the game.

I obviously did that or else I wouldn't be making a post.

EZ-Flash2 · Aug 8, 2022

aidn0828 said:
I obviously did that or else I wouldn't be making a post.

You also have to press A when the kernel asks if you want to save the next time you boot up.
If you do both of these steps, theoretically there will be no failure to save.

Jayro · Aug 8, 2022

aidn0828 said:
I obviously did that or else I wouldn't be making a post.

Use Lesserkuma's build, it writes the save file to the rom itself.

Localhorst86 · Aug 8, 2022

Jayro said:
Use Lesserkuma's build, it writes the save file to the rom itself.

That sounds like a bad idea for the regular EZ-Flash Omega (not sure about the Definite Edition), I am not even certain if it would work. It's inteded use is for repurposed bootleg repro carts from china.

From my understanding, the EZFlash Omega monitors the SRAM of the cartridge and stores it on the SD card when a write occurs, this will have a few caveats for Lesserkuma's goomba fork:

The EZFlash Omega stores the running game either in NOR or PSRAM, I am not even certain the firmware allows write access to these when a game is currently running.
Even if it does , since Lesserkuma's fork doesn't write changes to the SRAM but the ROM, saves are most likely not monitored by the cart firmware.
Even if the EZO allows write access to the NOR/PSRAM area at runtime, and even if save modifications made in this manner are monitored by the cart firmware, the save corruption issue is an inherent flaw when the EZFlash team decided to save SRAM content in realtime on the SD card (presumably in an effort to not lose saves to an empty battery) and the write process gets interrupted. Writing the savegame to the ROM would not only increase the write time to the SD (as it would probably have to copy the entire rom back to the SD card) but any write corruption would also corrupt the entire ROM instead of just the savegame.

aidn0828 · Aug 8, 2022

Localhorst86 said:
That sounds like a bad idea for the regular EZ-Flash Omega (not sure about the Definite Edition), I am not even certain if it would work. It's inteded use is for repurposed bootleg repro carts from china.

From my understanding, the EZFlash Omega monitors the SRAM of the cartridge and stores it on the SD card when a write occurs, this will have a few caveats for Lesserkuma's goomba fork:

The EZFlash Omega stores the running game either in NOR or PSRAM, I am not even certain the firmware allows write access to these when a game is currently running.

Even if it does , since Lesserkuma's fork doesn't write changes to the SRAM but the ROM, saves are most likely not monitored by the cart firmware.

Even if the EZO allows write access to the NOR/PSRAM area at runtime, and even if save modifications made in this manner are monitored by the cart firmware, the save corruption issue is an inherent flaw when the EZFlash team decided to save SRAM content in realtime on the SD card (presumably in an effort to not lose saves to an empty battery) and the write process gets interrupted. Writing the savegame to the ROM would not only increase the write time to the SD (as it would probably have to copy the entire rom back to the SD card) but any write corruption would also corrupt the entire ROM instead of just the savegame.

oh crap. So I should probably shouldn't use Lesserkuma's build

aidn0828 · Aug 8, 2022

EZ-Flash2 said:
You also have to press A when the kernel asks if you want to save the next time you boot up.
If you do both of these steps, theoretically there will be no failure to save.

wait wdym. I never got that option. Where does it pop up?

aidn0828 · Aug 8, 2022

m

Jayro said:
Use Lesserkuma's build, it writes the save file to the rom itself.

have you tested lesserkua's build yourself? and if so, does it work well?

aidn0828 · Aug 9, 2022

Jayro said:
Use Lesserkuma's build, it writes the save file to the rom itself.

If I were to use this, how would I put it onto the ez flash omega

aidn0828 · Aug 9, 2022

Jayro said:
Use Lesserkuma's build, it writes the save file to the rom itself.

I tried the build. Doesnt work

KFox109 · Mar 20, 2023

No idea if it's kosher to reply to this almost a year later, but I had this issue and it was killing me. Turns out the latest version of this custom kernel bumps up Goomba Color to v5 (or .5 or something), and this version of Goomba Color introduces a bug that doesn't let you save or access your GBC/GB saves. I just downloaded a previous version of the custom Simple kernel, before GC got fully bumped and it saves now.

Edit: Tested this and you HAVE to exit the game through the emulator menu after saving (using L+R), otherwise the save file doesn't stick.

EZ flash omega Simple custom firmware doesn't save Gameboy Color or Gameboy Games

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