Hacking Does anybody have savegames working for 32MB GBA games from NOR?

[jhoff80]

Okay, I already made a topic about this, but that was when I thought that the issue was with converting saves that GBA ExpLoader had made into a format for usage with AKAIO. Now that I figured out it's not that, I thought a new topic / title would probably get more attention and responses.

I recently got a AK2i to use with my DS Lite and EZ Flash 3 in 1 (not the plus version.)

After testing a new game, both with Mother 3 with the translation patch to English, the same ROM with a Savefix patch I found, and Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories (both 32 megabyte games).

I also changed NOR mode from Auto where it flashes only for 32MB and up games to always, so that even smaller games get flashed to the NOR. However, Anguna (the newest version) and Link to the Past / Four Swords both saved properly using this method.

So, I was wondering if anyone else is able to save games like this that are 32MB and need to be loaded to the NOR flash to play.

 

[Another World]

i played some of mother 3 in nor using akaio and had no issues what-so-ever. the problem is usually with the patch and i would come up with a clean rom that you can verify by crc and repatch it using a respected ips patching program.

for the record 'auto' flashes anything up to 16mb to psram and anything over 16mb to 32mb to nor. 'always' flashes everything to nor. the way you stated it reads with some confusion.

-another world

 

[jhoff80]

i played some of mother 3 in nor using akaio and had no issues what-so-ever. the problem is usually with the patch and i would come up with a clean rom that you can verify by crc and repatch it using a respected ips patching program.

for the record 'auto' flashes anything up to 16mb to psram and anything over 16mb to 32mb to nor. 'always' flashes everything to nor. the way you stated it reads with some confusion.

-another world

Yeah, I've already checked the ROM and repatched it, and it's not working. And as I mentioned, I tried another 32MB game in Kingdom Hearts, and that wouldn't save either. And sorry about the confusion about the way I said the NOR thing. It's weird though that I'm having issues with two different 32MB games, and you're not having any issue whatsoever. I wonder if it could be a problem with my 3in1 or something, but since it worked previously with GBA ExpLoader that doesn't make much sense to me, I don't know. If the battery in the 3in1 was dead, it wouldn't even tell me data was corrupt (which Mother 3 does).

I guess I'll try formatting my microSDHC and maybe that will help things, who knows.

 

[Another World]

if the battery was dead the 3in1 would not hold a save file in sram. so the next time you rebooted and backed up the save no valid save would be there. you can always debug this by trying another game, using gba exploader, or attaching a volt meter to the battery. the battery is 3 volt.

i know some people that have issues and some that don't. i have a "new" 3in1, the second hardware revision, and as i've said i've never had a problem. i did have gba games fail to flash and was forced to format my msd. it was directly related to using ds organize.

-another world

 

[jhoff80]

Yeah, I reformatted everything and then copied over, and still no-go for only Kingdom Hearts and Mother 3. I guess I'll just have to use GBA ExpLoader for it. Not too big a deal, but it'd be nice if it worked natively.

Like I said, it's just weird that it works on yours and not mine. I don't have the 3in1+, just the regular 3in1, but I did buy it early this year. If it matters, even though I don't think it does, my AK2i is HW version 81, and I did apply the DSi language fix because a friend has a DSi that I was using for a little bit.

 

[bluesceada]

Sorry to bump all this threads but it seems necessary, all Information about this is a bit scattered around it seems..

Ok the following:
I have a new and an old 3in1, both work with AKAIO with Games at 16MB, Mother3 however does a save-file corruption (the only 32mb game I tested)

The new one doesn't work with AK2 official firmware (4.17).
The old one does work perfectly with AK2 official firmware (other 16MB Games AND Mother3)

The only thing I tried out AKAIO was because of the new 3in1 for another person, as it didn't work with AK2 official.

Other post in related thread: http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=165...=0#entry2107513

 

[Another World]

Mother3 however does a save-file corruption (the only 32mb game I tested)

many people have save corruption with the mother 3 translation running on many different slot2 kits. its a problem with the hack, its still very buggy when it comes to certain things. they did test it for game play but not for compatibility, from what i remember reading.

like i said originally it works fine on my 3in1, ak2.1 (black and green pcb), running akaio. infact i flash many games to nor over psram and have no issues.

-another world

 

[bluesceada]

Mother3 however does a save-file corruption (the only 32mb game I tested)

many people have save corruption with the mother 3 translation running on many different slot2 kits. its a problem with the hack, its still very buggy when it comes to certain things. they did test it for game play but not for compatibility, from what i remember reading.

like i said originally it works fine on my 3in1, ak2.1 (black and green pcb), running akaio. infact i flash many games to nor over psram and have no issues.

-another world

Still akaio has a partial fault, as it works with the official ak2 firmware version 4.17 (and at least 2 versions earlier)... or maybe the official firmware has some specific game fixes which akaio hasn't.
(Talking about a black pcb ak2.1, I could also test with an old ak2.0)

edit: Test with ak2.0:
Same behaviour, I'm quite sure that it's nothing hardware related....

And I'm sure that a change in AKAIO could fix it.

And if you read the original thread starter, another game has the same problems: "Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories"
though it is also patched, yeh. So AKAIO might not be as foolproof for the program as AK2 4.17 is..

 

[Another World]

well you are talking about gba. akaio has near 100% compatibility for nds roms and homebrew. with gba it is a whole other problem. firstly smiths hasn't done much for the gba after adding in the updated 3in1 support. the "+" support was just code released by ez flash and was never fully tested or debugged. neither smiths or norm own a 3in1+ and they both have ds phats. sadly the "+" doesn't have a normal gba case. not to talk ill of smiths (he knows how much i luv him), he doesn't seem to have any desire to fix any gba compatibility issues.

the best solution might be to try and find the older 3in1, or to bug smiths relentlessly until he decides to code some updates =P.

also i think people look at this hobby incorrectly. when a few roms don't work they make hundreds of posts and complain about it. instead they should be happy that the other 98% of the known 3,000+ roms do work. yea it sucks when that one game doesn't work that you really want to play (especially if it's a cool hack) but that is life. you can't always have everything the way you want it. if someone wanted to jump on the akaio team and be a dedicated gba coder, well that might be an option, otherwise just use emulation or get an older gba kit that has better compatibility. mother3 also run great on my flash2advance 128mb kit.

cheers,

-another world

 

[Da-Bomb1]

Mother 3 works fine for me on my 3in1. It saves and everything. Haven't tried dumping the sram yet though. But I didn't have to do anything but give it the translation patch.

 

[logical thinker]

Sorry to bump all this threads but it seems necessary, all Information about this is a bit scattered around it seems..

Create your own thread or post everything in just one thread, it's so confusing trying to understand a problem when all information about it is scattered around...