Ok, I've hit a wall with this. I cannot get any program to backup or write saves to Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2 on the GBA. This is especially frustrating because the game is essentially unplayable because it frequently crashes while saving, completely wiping the save game.
Here is what I have:
If anyone has has a copy of Dave Mirra 2 on GBA with a different flash cart or hardware, can you see if you can get a save backup to work and let me know what you used?
TIA!
One quick update, I dumped both Dave Mirra carts and the roms had the same checksums.
Then I tried a new game on cart 2 in a different system even and had the game crashed on save just like the first cart. So I think the crashing is definitely software related, so I definitely need to be able to back up to complete this game.
Here is what I have:
- An NTR-001 NDS (electric blue if that matters)
- A CycloDS Evolution card with a Class 4 Toshiba Micro SDHC card (4GB). Firmware is up to date.
- GBA Backup Tool 0.21
- 2 Copies of Dave Mirra (trying to transfer one save to the other, to troubleshoot the crash)
- Tried using GBA Backup Tool v2.1 with Dave Mirra 2
- It autodetects an EEPROM save file with a size of 512 bytes. When I save the file and open it up in a hex editor, it is 512 bytes of Fs.
- When I try to restore the save with all the Fs on Dave Mirra Cart 2, nothing happens. Cart 2's original save is still there.
- When I try to wipe the save file on the GBA cart and run it, the save file is still there
- Tried using GBA Backup Tool with Air Force Delta Storm ("AFDS")
- It autodetects an EEPROM save file with a size of 512 bytes. When I save the file and open it up in a hex editor, it is 512 bytes of varying data
- When I try to wipe the save file on the GBA cart and run it, it correctly wipes the save
- When I used GBA Backup Tool to restore the save, it correctly restored it.
- At this point I assumed there was something wrong with the autodetect on the Dave Mirra game
- I opened up both Dave Mirra and AFDS
- I noticed both had the same physical size on the EEPROM chip. However, AFDS had 9853 on it and Dave Mirra had 9854. After some googling, I found that 9854 is the 64kbit (8KB) size, not the 4kbit (0.5KB).
- I edited the GBA Backup Tool ini to use 8KB for save files instead of auto.
- When I loaded GBA Backup Tool it reflected my changes.
- When I backed up the save, it created an 8KB file. However, it was just 8KB of Fs in a hex editor.
- Wiping saves and restoring saves still did nothing. No error messages.
- I tried using the EEPROM converter and loading the "F" files in mGBA and VBA. Both had empty saves.
- I tried using DS Savegame Manager and it doesn't work with eeprom saves
- I tried using eepinator to dump the save. It created an empty 64KB file. The hex dump of eeprom option gives me a "not implemented yet" message.
- I tried using GodMode9i. It didn't have an option to copy a GBA save to the SD card, only from NDS to GBA flash card.
If anyone has has a copy of Dave Mirra 2 on GBA with a different flash cart or hardware, can you see if you can get a save backup to work and let me know what you used?
TIA!
Post automatically merged:
One quick update, I dumped both Dave Mirra carts and the roms had the same checksums.
Then I tried a new game on cart 2 in a different system even and had the game crashed on save just like the first cart. So I think the crashing is definitely software related, so I definitely need to be able to back up to complete this game.
Last edited by gilgatex,