Gaming A link to the past/four swords help please

[renegade2k82]

Ok so when i try to load up the save with a emulator like mgba it acts like the save is blank and there is nothing there.I also tryed to change it to .srm for retroarch and same thing happens.is there anyway to fix this?I dont have the luxery of getting multiple friends together just to complete four swords to unlock the extra stuff for a link to the past and this save is supposed to have four swords complete yet when i load it nothing is done on it.here is the link to the save file https://www.dropbox.com/s/ef7fs8dcd...4S_complete-_by_nicko_aura_thug4life.zip?dl=0 Thanks

 

[EuanF]

I'm not allowed to post links yet, but I might be able to help. I wrote an online save file converter which handles some GBA formats. Looking at your files, I think they're too big (a common problem with GBA saves). I would recommend either:
- Use a hex editor to cut those saves down to 8192 bytes each (if you're comfortable using a hex editor)
- Use my converter (you can find it at savefileconverter dot com) to convert those files back and forth from gameshark format (they look to currently be in emulator/raw format) and use it to cut the size down to 8192 bytes
- Go to gamefaqs and download one of the gameshark (not gameshark sp) saves there and run it though my converter to convert it to emulator/raw format and simultaneously cut it down to that size

Check out the help tooltips in the converter for a bit more explanation about save sizes on the GBA. There's also more info in links from the github page which you can find linked from the converter.

Hopefully one of those works for you!

 

[EuanF]

Yay, I can post links now: here's the link to the converter I'm working on: https://savefileconverter.com/#/gameshark I hope it's helpful!

 

[renegade2k82]

Yay, I can post links now: here's the link to the converter I'm working on: https://savefileconverter.com/#/gameshark I hope it's helpful!

Thank you so much your a life saver after using your converter and converting it to 8192 bytes it works fine now as a .sav for mgba but when converting back from a gameshark save to a .srm for retroarch instead of .sav retroarch still sees it blank.your converter got it working for using it as a .sav but not .srm.dont get me wrong im glad changing the size fixes it for emulators that use .sav but i would like to getting it to work for retroarch so how do i do that?

 

[EuanF]

Thank you so much your a life saver after using your converter and converting it to 8192 bytes it works fine now as a .sav for mgba but when converting back from a gameshark save to a .srm for retroarch instead of .sav retroarch still sees it blank.your converter got it working for using it as a .sav but not .srm.dont get me wrong im glad changing the size fixes it for emulators that use .sav but i would like to getting it to work for retroarch so how do i do that?

Hm, I'm not sure what's gone wrong there. Can you post the files all laid out step by step somewhere? Like, original file, then the one that works with mgba then the one that doesn't work with retroarch?

 

[renegade2k82]

Hm, I'm not sure what's gone wrong there. Can you post the files all laid out step by step somewhere? Like, original file, then the one that works with mgba then the one that doesn't work with retroarch?

yeah sure here is a zip of the save files and i separated them by folder by orginial,retroach and mgba https://www.dropbox.com/s/t2kwoo8uymnawmb/Save files.zip?dl=0

 

[EuanF]

yeah sure here is a zip of the save files and i separated them by folder by orginial,retroach and mgba https://www.dropbox.com/s/t2kwoo8uymnawmb/Save files.zip?dl=0

Thankls -- I'll take a look when I get a sec.

In the meantime, did you check out the help icon in the converter beside the file size? Different emulators may need different file sizes (and file names), so what works in one might not work in another. Did you try making a test save in Retroarch and making your file the same size and name as that file?

There's some more info on GBA save file sizes here in links off of here: https://github.com/euan-forrester/save-file-converter

 

[EuanF]

Yeah I took a quick look at your files, and the first 8k of the retroarch file is identical to your original file, so nothing was damaged or missed by the converter. So I think that the issue is mostly likely that the name or size isn't what Retroarch expects -- try making a test save and then making the file have the same size and name as that file.

 

[renegade2k82]

Ok so i made a test save and made sure the converted save file had the same name and size as the retroarch test save well it does so i dont get why its not working for retroarch.very weird its doing this.Heres the test file for retroarch https://www.dropbox.com/s/rml80wn4n6o3kg2/Retroarch test save.zip?dl=0

 

[EuanF]

Hmm sorry I don't think I can help anymore. I don't know why the file you used wouldn't work -- I don't see anything special about the file you sent that works with retroarch. As long as you've followed the way that retroarch expects its files to be, I don't know what else could be wrong since your file does work with a different emulator. To me this sounds like an issue to do with retroarch and I don't think I can help anymore, I'm sorry.

 

[renegade2k82]

Hmm sorry I don't think I can help anymore. I don't know why the file you used wouldn't work -- I don't see anything special about the file you sent that works with retroarch. As long as you've followed the way that retroarch expects its files to be, I don't know what else could be wrong since your file does work with a different emulator. To me this sounds like an issue to do with retroarch and I don't think I can help anymore, I'm sorry.

Ok so i did some digging around about retroarch and the saves it uses well i believe i found the issue apparently retroarch uses saves that are 136kb in size so that would explain the save working in mgba but not retroarch now if i could convert the .sav to the 136kb size it should work so maybe you can still help. Although someone got a srm save working for retroarch and its the original files size of 64kb so i dont know why it doesnt match up to having to be 136kb in size to work that google tells me.apparently they just changed the .Sav extension to .srm to get it to work but I tried many times and couldn't replicate it to work so I don't know what there doing special.but the problem is they already did some progress on a link to past and i would rather start from the begging like the original save intends anyways heres a link to the save file they sent me https://mega.nz/file/zyIiCBxZ#Ay5xslZH1Jgu-jw59u9H1AOysGjYVe8lHMI-I_q8aKg

 

[EuanF]

I'm not sure what to say. 136kB is not a standard GBA save file size, so I don't want to add it to the converter. I don't know what to say about it: there's so much extra room going from 136kB to even 128kB (the largest actual GBA save size) that it's not going to just be taken up by a header like most of these formats have. So I don't think that just padding out the file with zeros until it's 136kB in size (which is what the converter would do) will work.

The file you sent just now looks like another raw save, 64kB in size, just like your original one. I don't know what to say about it any more than that.

It sounds like the issue you're having is specific to the particular save you want to use and/or to Retroarch (which I don't know anything about) so I think you're going to have to turn there for further answers, sorry. I can't help you any more.

 

[renegade2k82]

I figured it out.I had to load it as a gameshark save 8kb then save the game.It wasent working before because i kept forgetting to save it then use the saved game.

 

[EuanF]

Great, I'm glad it's working now!

 

[FunkyTable]

I figured it out.I had to load it as a gameshark save 8kb then save the game.It wasent working before because i kept forgetting to save it then use the saved game.

Hey, can you upload your save files somewhere? mGBA is a popular emulator and people using it are still locked out of the extra features from this version of A Link To The Past, which, given its popularity, is truly astounding.

 

[EuanF]

One of the saves from here sounds like it'll do what you want: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/gba/561559-the-legend-of-zelda-a-link-to-the-past-four-swords/saves

Just convert it using this tool: https://savefileconverter.com/#/gameshark and remember to set the tool to output an 8kB save.

 

[FunkyTable]

One of the saves from here sounds like it'll do what you want: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/gba/561559-the-legend-of-zelda-a-link-to-the-past-four-swords/saves

Just convert it using this tool: https://savefileconverter.com/#/gameshark and remember to set the tool to output an 8kB save.

Sorry for the newb question, but once I convert it to the gameshark, how do I load it in mGBA? Is it a saved state through Retroarch? Is it a a new copy of the file called cartridge.sram that I found in the Hakchi saves folder for this game? I understand I need to convert it, and I understand that I need to convert it to an 8 kb file, I just don't know what to do with the finished file.

The save games I'm looking for seem to be in am 8 KB file called "cartridge.sram" located in hakchi/saves/CLV-A-XSTNT. I know this because if I delete this file or attempt to alter it, the games I already made through the GBA's save feature (That is, not a save state, emulator or Retroarch function, but selecting save in game) are gone.

I tried converting one of the gamefaqs files, converted it with the provided tool in 8KB format and I get a "C3: An error has occured." when booting the game on my NES classic, then the saves are empty.

I don't know if this is related, but if I try to alter which save state I'm using in Retroarch, the program freezes. I am unable to create saves in retroarch at all.

I'm trying to get this to work on mGBA through Retroarch Ozone on an NES classic.

Any help you could provide would be appreciated. My son has been looking forward to playing this game for over a year, but we don't own two copies of the cartridge, or two GBAs.

 

[EuanF]

I'm not familiar with that emulator on that platform, but it sounds like you've done everything right. If you've converted the file from a Gameshark file to a raw/emulator file, renamed it to be the same thing as the emulator used, and put it in the right place (and it's the exact same size as the emulator one) then you've done everything correctly so I'm not sure what to say.

You can try using the troubleshooting tool on that site: https://savefileconverter.com/#/troubleshooting and see if it tells you anything, but given your description it doesn't sound like it will.

 

[FunkyTable]

Ha! I thought I was supposed to save it from a Original cartridge file to a Gameshark file. Let me try it your way...

The files that I can download from gamefaqs are .gsv, whereas the Gameshark converter says the Gameshark files should be sbs. Hmm...

So I retitled the file extension of the original file I downloaded from gamefaqs from gsv to sbs, I tried uploading that to the gameshark file converter as a gameshark file, and received the error "This does not appear to be a gameshark file."

Do you want me to convert it to gameshark, then reconvert it to a gameboy cartridge file, then try to use that to replace the place the emulator stores game created save files?

 

[EuanF]

.gsv is a Gameshark *SP* file. There's also a page on that converter that will do GameShark SP files: https://savefileconverter.com/#/gameshark-sp