Hacking About Super Mario Advance 4's release

[Clector]

Well it isn"t really difficult to Nintendo to make an update to AGB_FIRM or modify the game to work with actual one if they wanted to launch it for the 3DS.
But it isn"t because Nintendo doesn"t seems to want to put any GBA games in the eShop for buy and at this point it isn"t very likely that they added any game to Ambassador games.
This were the games that Nintendo launched for the Ambassador Program in 3DS if you want to make a comparision:

Spoiler

F-Zero Maximum Velocity
Super Mario Advance 3
The Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap
Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
Kirby and the Amazing Mirror
Mario Kart Advance
Mario vs. Donkey Kong
Metroid Fusion
Wario Land 4
Wario Ware, Inc. Mega Microgame$

Saying so the way GBA games works in 3DS and Wii U is different, also 3DS support Sleep Mode in GBA VC games if the original GBA game have it.

 

[Garblant]

It would still be really cool if someone dumped a save file with the Blue Green Switch enabled so we could play (Piratically) play SMB3 with SMB(Usa)2 vegetables...


...however, I don't think anyone thought of collecting the cards, scanning them into a (legit) copy of SMA4, and then dumping the save (and someone else potentially converting parts of the save into a patch).

 

[VinsCool]

It would still be really cool if someone dumped a save file with the Blue Green Switch enabled so we could play (Piratically) play SMB3 with SMB(Usa)2 vegetables...


...however, I don't think anyone thought of collecting the cards, scanning them into a (legit) copy of SMA4, and then dumping the save (and someone else potentially converting parts of the save into a patch).

I'm pretty sure someone did. Way before the WiiU was a thing.

 

[Clector]

Well now you say so I remeber NO$GBA have e-Reader emulation so you can try to make the save with it.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Well now you say so I remeber NO$GBA have e-Reader emulation so you can try to make the save with it.

I'm pretty sure someone did. Way before the WiiU was a thing.

There was someone name caitsith42 or something who made a guide about creating data files from e reader cards, and also making it work on no$gba and a special visual boy advance modified emulator.

 

[ShadowOne333]

Yes, read my post above for an explanation on that. I'm asking ShadowOne if he can have his friend hack the game so it not longer saves the portion of data dedicated to Level Cards so the game will function properly on a 3DS.

Thanks for the info on your previous post.
And yeah I already delivered the requests to him, it's only a matter of what he decides to do further down the road.

 

[lordelan]

Does anybody know wether the EUR eShop release of SMA4 has the e-Reader levels as well?

 

[ShadowOne333]

My friend just pointed out something quite important for those requesting the 64kB save hack.
The already available patch from Nintendo's ROM is 51kB in size, which means that the levels are exactly that spacy in the ROM.
So I don't think a 64kB save hack will be possible seeing how 51 of those 64 kB will be taken up by the levels themselves, so it might not be feasible after all.

 

[piratesephiroth]

My friend just pointed out something quite important for those requesting the 64kB save hack.
The already available patch from Nintendo's ROM is 51kB in size, which means that the levels are exactly that spacy in the ROM.
So I don't think a 64kB save hack will be possible seeing how 51 of those 64 kB will be taken up by the levels themselves, so it might not be feasible after all.

That would only be a problem if the game used some dirty hack to dump the levels to the sram so it reuses the original code instead of loading them straight from the rom.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Does anybody know wether the EUR eShop release of SMA4 has the e-Reader levels as well?

Did you read the description of the game before downloading? It should say so.

 

[CheatFreak47]

My friend just pointed out something quite important for those requesting the 64kB save hack.
The already available patch from Nintendo's ROM is 51kB in size, which means that the levels are exactly that spacy in the ROM.
So I don't think a 64kB save hack will be possible seeing how 51 of those 64 kB will be taken up by the levels themselves, so it might not be feasible after all.

It's also possible the levels are trimmed in size individually in the IPS because IPS is an optimized format, that the padding between level data is just left out of the IPS but is contained in the actual save files (So yes, the levels are under 64KB but that doesn't mean that the save file only dedicates less than 64KB to holding them.)

I used to compile save files with Level Cards in them, so I believe I have some ground to stand on with this technically speaking. Bear that in mind as I say It'd probably be a good idea to actually look at a save file itself that has 32 levels in it and find where the level data starts and ends. (32 Level Saves aren't hard to come by because they were the only way to play eReader levels before the VC patch came to exist)

Even on the surface level, looking at actual eReader Card Dumps, eReader Cards themselves hold a little less 3kb of actual data each, assuming only about 2KB of that is actual level data on SMA4 levels 32 x 2 is still 64KB, so that data must take up about half the save file, possibly more.

I know the levels aren't trimmed in the save file because logically, nintendo probably made the eReader World with the assumption that all levels would take up as much space as they possibly could to future proof if they ended up making very large sized levels.

I did do some research on this before I made the request, I know at least half the save is level data already. I know it should be possible, I just don't have the technical know how myself to make it happen, unfortunately. :/

 

[lordelan]

Did you read the description of the game before downloading? It should say so.

Well there's not even a single word about that e-Reader stuff.
https://www.nintendo.de/Spiele/Game-Boy-Advance/Super-Mario-Advance-4-Super-Mario-Bros-3-267398.html
So I'm afraid it wouldn't be worth to make a test buy.

 

[Clector]

@lordelan They are included, if you want to be sure see this video:

The menu include the Level Card option without the need to corrupt or edit the save like GBA European game since the levels are here now it isn"t hidden anymore like it did in original European version.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

To be honest, i am quite impressed with these ports of games. While i wish the 3DS or even wii u had ports for online link cable play which maybe were not possible to emulate, i would have appreciated it more. But the super mario advance 4 e reader levels and the Mega man battle network Secret trading chips are also nice. I wish more of these games were availble. Either as part of a compilation title Megaman battlenetwork/starforce HD collection for wii u and 3DS With online modes. Super mario advance collection. Megaman zero/zx collection. Something like that. To even have the games like this exist while it sucks is rather limited to Wii u, it shows they actually put effort into the port with those extra features. Instead of like megaman legacy collection. Shoot, if they even had rom hacks licensed by nintendo and such i would be happy. It should be more like what the sega hub on steam is where you can play mod genesis games.

 

[SAIYAN48]

With the magic of Hex Editing, I managed to duplicate some levels and collect 24 e-Coins. I filled up the castle with some ugly looking coin sprites and do you know what happened? Absolutely nothing! I'd figure we'd get something cool, but nope. Quite sad.

Edit: Anyone want screenshots?

 

[AlexTCGPro]

Any news regarding the eur version?

 

[VinsCool]

Any news regarding the eur version?

Well, if anyone is willing to buy and compare, we will know

 

[Kibmo]

First off thanks for the patch - amazing stuff!

I am guessing because of the original cartridges limited save file size and as this patches the rom, there is no way to apply this patch to the rom, create a save file and then dump it back to the official cartridge 38 levels included?

 

[marc_max]

We can now get contents with uTikDownloadHelper from the EUR version. Is it posisble to extract ROM from there?

 

[VinsCool]

We can now get contents with uTikDownloadHelper from the EUR version. Is it posisble to extract ROM from there?

Yes, most definitely. Just unpack the nus download into the extraced (loadiine) format, and use that python script to extract it from the alldata.bin

At worst, it doesn't work, and you'll have to extract it manually from the installed game, like we did here.