Hardware FLASH 128K to 64k. Is there any way to do that?

[prosty]

Hi there.

I have a question, I've not found answer using search tool. Is there any way to change save type from 128k to 64k? I can't save pokemon hack rom- I mean Shiny Gold on my super card. SC supports only 64k saves, shiny golds saves 128k - so I can't save and go to Kanto. Well, I'm saving via Real Time Save but I can't go to kanto till I make save.
Or, is there any way to convert .sci (super card rts save file) to vba save/other emu hot save? I would save by emu, go to kanto and save via hot again - then convert to .sci and load on my GBM.

thx for reading
Prosty

 

[FAST6191]

I am afraid there is no way to easily convert the rom to use 64K. Best you can hope for is that you find a compression method able to do it and build a compression algorithm into the game. While it is probably a fairly modest assembly hack it would be many hours and for little gain for most people.

Savestate conversion is an odd one. Savestates are "merely" a dump of the memory (ram, registers, cache and miscellaneous) at the time of play however it is not always that easy as there are a few sections of interest and usually some write only hardware and things requiring tight timings (ever had the sound mess up on restoring a savestate be it on hardware or emulator?).

This means you are going to have to find the format used; is it compressed, is it complete and if not what is missing (you will then have to fill in the gaps), where are things stored and in what order.
I would avoid working with your presumably advanced save and instead go right to reversing the format, fortunately games are designed to be repeatable and even predictable. Usual way here is to make a save right as you get into the game on both the emulator and the cart itself as well as a ram dump (even vanilla VBA can make these).
Now there should be large sections off very similar data from which you can infer a format. Pokemon is a tricky game as anyone who has ever made cheats, hacks or save editors will tell you but you just might get away with.

Oh and here is a tool for converting VBA to NO$GBA savestates, in some ways it is probably going to be nicer than looking at the source code to VBA or disassembly of no$gba.

Option 2 is you use cheats to recreate your game.