Hacking Forcing Gateway to not "Real-Time Save"?

[raveaddict]

I'm wondering what the best way to prevent a game save from writing to the SD card would be.

It is known that game saves with Gateway aren't stored every time the game saves (It occurs when you exit the game and also if you power off the 3ds during gameplay I believe?). This can actually be useful while playing games with resume data (One-time use only saves), or with games that force you to save or overwrite data.

Currently I'm just ejecting the Gateway cart. This kicks the device out of emuNAND, which is a slight inconvenience.

A safe way to reproduce what I want is simply to back up the save from the SD card so that I can restore it if I need to - but this takes way longer since I need to remove the SD and reboot the 3DS and stuff.

I don't know if taking out the flashcart while a game is running is safe for the cart or console. If I knew, I would have peace of mind.

 

[Pedeadstrian]

I'm wondering what the best way to prevent a game save from writing to the SD card would be.

It is known that game saves with Gateway aren't stored every time the game saves (It occurs when you exit the game and also if you power off the 3ds during gameplay I believe?). This can actually be useful while playing games with resume data (One-time use only saves), or with games that force you to save or overwrite data.

Currently I'm just ejecting the Gateway cart. This kicks the device out of emuNAND, which is a slight inconvenience.

A safe way to reproduce what I want is simply to back up the save from the SD card so that I can restore it if I need to - but this takes way longer since I need to remove the SD and reboot the 3DS and stuff.

I don't know if taking out the flashcart while a game is running is safe for the cart or console. If I knew, I would have peace of mind.

I don't know if it's safe or not, but I wouldn't recommend it either way. I'm not aware of any trick to prevent Gateway from saving. Of course, you can always try your resume save idea (at a safe location in the game so you don't lose a ton of progress). I doubt ejecting the cart once more just to test will do any more damage than you may have already been doing. I'm interested to see your results, though.

 

[gamesquest1]

Most games allow you to disable any auto save features, so then it would just be a matter of not saving

 

[raveaddict]

Most games allow you to disable any auto save features, so then it would just be a matter of not saving

Well, this is really to work around good game design instead of bad game design. I'm doing this to retain bookmark data for Fire Emblem Awakening, which allows you to save in the middle of a battle but deletes the save after you resume. I haven't tried, but I believe you could also keep on trading the same valuable Pokemon infinitely by reloading from an old save in the same manner.

I also forgot to mention that another alternative would be to go back to Omega 2.0, and I may do so if I don't get any assurance that cart ejection is safe.

 

[Cyan]

2.0 is the first version with RTS.
And if you updated the FPGA to 2.0 or newer, you can't go back to 1.x-2.0b which work like you want (saving only when pressing Home+X).

Though, the progress was still in the flashcart's chipset, so if you launched the same game the save was still here. You had to play another game to clear the data.
That's better than shutting down the console to revert a save.

Also, it worked only with Full Image (no FAT32 support).

Too bad there's no user settings to choose things like save method.

 

[netnerd]

I haven't tested it, but holding the power button should work (although you'll still get kicked out of emunand from turning the system off)

 

[raveaddict]

I haven't tested it, but holding the power button should work (although you'll still get kicked out of emunand from turning the system off)

No, the moment you press the power button the game software closes and Gateway saves onto the SD.

2.0 is the first version with RTS.
And if you updated the FPGA to 2.0 or newer, you can't go back to 1.x-2.0b which work like you want (saving only when pressing Home+X).

Though, the progress was still in the flashcart's chipset, so if you launched the same game the save was still here. You had to play another game to clear the data.
That's better than shutting down the console to revert a save.

Also, it worked only with Full Image (no FAT32 support).

Too bad there's no user settings to choose things like save method.

This post was pretty helpful, thanks! I guess I have no choice but to stick to removing the cart. I have encountered one thread of people ejecting real 3DS carts with seemingly no ill effects though, so I feel better. Hopefully nothing blows up.

 

[Cyan]

Ejecting the real card is possible to prevent save because the savegame is stored on the cartridge.
But with Gateway Real Time Save access, it's saving directly to the 3DS's SD Card, not into the cartridge.

removing the flashcart shouldn't prevent you to save the progress because it's already saved to SD card.
Does it really work and prevent you from overwriting your save progress?

 

[raveaddict]

Yeah, I create suspend/bookmark data, save that to the SD card, and then resume with that data. When I resume, the game software deletes the bookmark, but this is still not written to the SD. If I want to start from that bookmark again, I just eject the cart - which abruptly ends the game process and saves nothing to the SD.

 

[tyons]

btw let's send emails to gateway asking to make it possible to not save. it would be a useful feature.

 

[Pedeadstrian]

Ejecting the real card is possible to prevent save because the savegame is stored on the cartridge.
But with Gateway Real Time Save access, it's saving directly to the 3DS's SD Card, not into the cartridge.

removing the flashcart shouldn't prevent you to save the progress because it's already saved to SD card.
Does it really work and prevent you from overwriting your save progress?

If your game or console crashes unexpectedly, your saves are rolled over to the last time you properly exited the game/console. I imagine taking out the flashcart would count as a game crash, and make you lose your progress.

 

[Abcdfv]

I don't understand why you don't want to save your games?

 

[Pedeadstrian]

I don't understand why you don't want to save your games?

Some games have two types of saves. Permanent saves, and temporary saves. The temporary saves are often used in the middle of a fight, dungeon, etc. In order to prevent them from being used over and over, they're deleted immediately after being loaded. If someone were to ensure their Gateway stopped saving after they made a temporary save, they'd be able to load that save over and over without having to worry about it being deleted.

 

[Cyan]

If your game or console crashes unexpectedly, your saves are rolled over to the last time you properly exited the game/console. I imagine taking out the flashcart would count as a game crash, and make you lose your progress.

I thought gateway doesn't need to exit the game (quit+X) to save to SD card, it was now read/written automatically to SD card when the game access it.
unless it's part of the 3DS features, as there are multiple partitions in the save file, if the game is not properly exited the last partition is not marked as proper and the previous/backuped one is used?
All savegames have multiple backup partitions?

 

[cearp]

they can just back up their save from the sd card, and restore it.
it's not like gateway has a settings menu where we can configure options (although that would be great), so, this is not that important... have 'read only save' or whatever

 

[Pedeadstrian]

I thought gateway doesn't need to exit the game (quit+X) to save to SD card, it was now read/written automatically to SD card when the game access it.
unless it's part of the 3DS features, as there are multiple partitions in the save file, if the game is not properly exited the last partition is not marked as proper and the previous/backuped one is used?
All savegames have multiple backup partitions?

Oh, whoa whoa whoa, slow down. I'm no technowiz, I just am sharing my personal anecdote. All I know is you can prevent the game from keeping a save by crashing it, which is what the OP is doing.

they can just back up their save from the sd card, and restore it.
it's not like gateway has a settings menu where we can configure options (although that would be great), so, this is not that important... have 'read only save' or whatever

A read only save would be pointless. Assuming it'd work, if he did get past the part where he used the temporary save, he wouldn't be able to save his progress. I doubt that the reason why he wants to be able to load a specific battle multiple times in FE:A is to relive the glorious combat, but to get past a tough fight. Once he got past the tough fight, he'd be left with a read only save.

 

[Cyan]

don't worry, maybe someone else will answer that

 

[cearp]

A read only save would be pointless. Assuming it'd work, if he did get past the part where he used the temporary save, he wouldn't be able to save his progress. I doubt that the reason why he wants to be able to load a specific battle multiple times in FE:A is to relive the glorious combat, but to get past a tough fight. Once he got past the tough fight, he'd be left with a read only save.

sure, i just read something here about trading pokemon or something and then being able to trade it again etc, using a save that does not update/read only etc, that would work.
but it's like an 'anti feature', just backing up your save would be fine.

a file manager homebrew would be useful, then we could do it ourselves

 

[gamesquest1]

Basically gateway does not have real time saving, it's only transferred to the SD. When you exit the game, the card2/NAND saving games are "real time saving" as the saves are wrote directly to the rom on the micro SD during usage

 

[Pedeadstrian]

sure, i just read something here about trading pokemon or something and then being able to trade it again etc, using a save that does not update/read only etc, that would work.
but it's like an 'anti feature', just backing up your save would be fine.

a file manager homebrew would be useful, then we could do it ourselves

Yeah, that kind of duping has been done in tons of games in the past. That's probably why a lot of games have started requiring the player to save before starting any online connection. Backing up the save does prevent progress from being lost, but imagine having to turn off the 3DS, take out the SD card, put it on your computer, copy the old save onto the SD card, putting the SD card back in your 3DS, and turning it back on, repeating every time you lose.

I agree, though, a file manager would be a nifty little tool.