Emulation Can I continue VBA save on M3 DS Real?

[Geoff Parker]

Hey everyone, this is my first post on this site!

I've been playing Pokemon Fire Red on Visual Boy Advance, and I've gotten pretty far... about more than halfway through the game. The other day, I just happened to hear about the possibility to play ROMs on an actual Nintendo DS, which beats the hell out of carrying around a bulky (in comparison to the DS) laptop around. So, I bought the M3 DS Real with the GBA Expansion Pack, a 4 GB card.

After hours of hitting my head against the wall, I finally got Fire Red to play on my DS. But now, the only problem is that I don't know how to continue where I saved on the Visual Boy Advance on my computer. Is this even possible, or do I have no other choice but to start a new game?

I'm a total newb when it comes to all of this technical mumbo jumbo, but when I look at the folder that I've been using to keep my saves in (while playing on the VBA), I have a lot of different file extensions... I have CLT Files, SA1 Files, SA2 Files, SGM Files, SG1 Files, and SG2 Files, along with a single SAV file.

I have absolutely NO clue what all of that stuff means, but by looking at the dates of the files, I can tell that the file extension of my most recent save is SG1.

I also think I understand from using GBA ExpLoader on the M3 DS Real that it makes SV1 files. If this is true, is there any way to convert my most recent SG1 file into a SV1 file? Or, again, am I doomed to loose all progress?

 

[Da-Bomb1]

Try exporting the saves as a battery file. Dunno exactly how gbaexploader works, since I use an AK2, though. You could try just renaming the .sav files to .sv1? You should just try searching to see how it works.

EDIT: haha, there's a thread about this right on this page.

 

[Geoff Parker]

Try exporting the saves as a battery file. Dunno exactly how gbaexploader works, since I use an AK2, though. You could try just renaming the .sav files to .sv1? You should just try searching to see how it works.

EDIT: haha, there's a thread about this right on this page.

Try exporting the saves as a battery file.

Step by step, how do I do this? Again, I'm a total newb!

I use an AK2

What is AK2?

You could try just renaming the .sav files to .sv1?

Again, it's a SG1 file, dunno if thats synonymous with .SAV files, but either way, I already tried renaming the file extension to .SV1. The GBAExpLoader (or the M3 DS Real?) didn't recognize that I had done anything, and it still wanted to use the .SV1 file that it created from scratch. So, should I delete this file?

You should just try searching to see how it works.

I've tried searching "convert SG1 to SV1", and "convert SAV to SV1" in Google. No such luck, at least in results that I can actually understand in lamens terms. What I have found might as well be a bunch of binary digit lingo to my newb eyes!

EDIT: haha, there's a thread about this right on this page.

Where? Can you link me to it?

 

[Geoff Parker]

UPDATE

Okay. I figured out how to export the save as a battery file, at least I think so. From within VisualBoyAdvance, what I did, step by step, was this:

1) File > Open > (I choose Pokemon Fire Red)

2) File > Load > (I choose Pokemon - Fire Red # GBA1.sg1, my most current save)

3) File > Export > Battery File > (And when I save it, it creates a .SAV file)

Okay, so next what I did was as follows... (and if I go into excruciating detail, please forgive me; it's a bad habit!

:

4) I moved the .SAV file that I just created into H:\GBA_SAVE (H is my M3 DS Real driver, or at least I think you call it driver!)

5) I remove my SanDisk 4GB Micro SD HC card and put it into the M3 DS Real thing that is the size of a DS game. I then put this into Slot 1 on my DS. And btw, the GBA Expansion Pack is already in Slot 2 of my DS.

6) I turn on my DS, the M3 DS Real default screen appears (the one that says M3 DS REAL on the top screen and has the MyCard, Boot, Media, PDA, and Setting icons on the bottom screen), and I choose MyCard.

7) I scroll down to the NDS folder, press A, scroll down to GBA_ExpLoader.nds, press A, and press A with Slot-1 selected.

8) A black screen on top and on bottom appears, with the one on bottom having DLDI Compatible in the middle and Loading in the bottom right corner. This gives way to a white on the top screen and the GBA ExpLoader [M3/G6] v0.57 screen on the bottom screen. In the middle of this screen, there is a window, I guess you would call it, that says Write SRAM to SAV file. Below this, in the same "window", there are six lines. The first line says SAV -- No File -- and the last five say -- No File --, -- No File -- and so on. In a window below the "Write SRAM to SAV file" window, it says (A) :write to selected file and below that, (B) :No write(Cancel)

9) I've tried both choices. Neither one leads to what I'm trying to do, which is to continue from where I created the battery file in step 3. But, for sake of continuing this step-by-step troubleshooting report, I'll just press A this time around.

10) On the top screen, there are two lines. The first one says and the second one says Pokemon - Fire Red # GBA.GBA 16.00 MB. I highlight the second line. The bottom screen has three windows, the first of which simply says Selected game. The second one says Current SRAM Save and under that, < Pokemon - Fire Red # GBA.sav >. The third window has a blue strip in the top middle that says SDRAM Mode, and below the blue strip, but still in the third window, the following:

(A) :Run (B) :Write SRAM to SAV file
(X) :Backup whole SRAM to SRAM.BIN
(Y) :Restore SRAM.BIN to SRAM

Long story short, whenever I do get to the actual Pokemon Fire Red game, after the intro sequence, and at the point where you usually get the option to continue, or to start a new game if you don't have any save on the game yet, instead of getting that screen, I get this:

The 1M sub-circuit board is not installed.

The game lets me continue on past this, but it acts like I'm starting a new game. It does the whole sequence where Oak talks to you, you choose a name for yourself, and you choose a name for your rival. Once I'm in my charicter's room, when I press start and test out if I'm able to save, it says this:

WARNING!:
There is a different game file that is already saved. If you save now, the other file's adventure, including items and POKEMON, will e entirely lost. Are you sure you want to save now and overwrite the other save file?

What? So, evidently, there IS a save file already on the game, even though the GBA ExPloader said there wasn't. Is that save file the same battery file I created in step 3? If not, what the heck is going on?

Oh, and before I end this long-ass post, I did three aditional things before I did any of the above steps.

1) In the GBA_EspLoader.ini file that is in the NDS folder, I deleted the # that was in front of No_MultiSave.
2) I downloaded and extracted vba-over.ini into the same folder that my VisualBoyAdvance, my Pokemon - Fire Red # GBA, and my various save files are located in.
3) I went to Options > Emulator > Save Type > selected Automatic and selected Flash 64K. Also, I tried this with EEPROM, SRAM, Flash, EEPROM+Sensor, and None, as well as Flash 128K with all of the above combinations.

After all of this, I still am having the exact same problem that I started out with. I just want to continue my game from where I left off, but on the DS! It's the whole reason I spent $60 of my own hard earned money to get the M3 DS Real in the first place!!! I didn't buy it to get bogged down in this bits-and-bytes technological mumbo-jumbo!

Sorry for the long post, but I just wanted let everyone know EXACTLY what I'm doing and what I'm dealing with. And please, help would be greatly appreciated!