Hacking GBA and Computer

[xb2003]

Hey guys.

Im new to this site, i had someone over at "The Purple Cube" tell me about this site, and i thought i would check it out.

I hope this topic isn't out of place, but i looked through the forum and it seemed to go best here. So i apoligize if i missed something. My question is: In what ways can you hook a GBA or GBA cartridges to a computer. I have been told that this is possible to be done, and you can do some pretty wicked stuff to the game, as in cheats. Is it possible, and if so how can it be done?

Thanks, and Nice site.
\->XB2003

 

[FAST6191]

If you mean connect it up and use your PC as a GB player I do not think we ever got that. There was a fork of the popular VBA emulator called VBA link real (if you search for vba link or vbam they should have link cable emulation for over network or on PC) that could act as a GBA for purposes of link cable games but that was lost a while back (well the schematics for the cable which have not been reverse engineered yet- I have not looked in a while though).

The most common way was to use a linker but those have not been around for years and those that have them tend not to part with them. They usually look like the thing on the left http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5134/539715...c8b258e4e_b.jpg

The secondary method was a type of cable, something like the xboo or mvb2
http://chishm.drunkencoders.com/SendSave/index.html

If you are a bit more electrically inclined there are homebrew options
http://www.ziegler.desaign.de/GBA/gba.htm#cart%20reader

If however you mean can I get a cart (known as a flash cart) that allows me to play games on my GBA capable hardware (depended on how old your friend's knowledge is he might have described an old cart) then that is far easier (the linker model was dropped from 3rd party cards years ago as SD cards and the like became more viable). We had several threads on this sort of thing over the last few weeks but it usually amounts to- if you have a DS consider getting a 3 in 1 but they are a bit limited without a DS cart to flank them so the EZ4 is great if you only have a GBA.

Cheats- if you have a cart then http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=99334 http://gba.dellicious.de/trainer.php?s=n&o=asc&d=
http://cheats.gbatemp.net/GBA/

Emulators can usually do cheats straight away but the above tools should work there as well.

It might take a bit of fiddling but you can usually transfer saves between official carts, emulators and flash carts too.

Hopefully that can get you started.

 

[xb2003]

Hey Man,
Thanks for the responce, nobody over at The Purple Cube knew anything about this.

I didnt make it very clear what i was trying to do, because i feel like a dork. But what im trying to do is take gamefiles that ive played a lot (using VBA Link, im very fimilar with that) onto the proper gba cartridge, so i can trade with my Gamecube. More Specifically, im trying to fill up my Pokedex, on the 3rd Gen games. Please dont make fun of me, i love to use my brain, and there is alot to those games. So i think what i need is one of those GBA linkers, or to wire a GBA. Im a little worried that i would screw up my computer if i try and wire, so it mus be find someone who will part with a linker.

About the Linker...Is there a more Technical term for that item, i looked around on Craigslist and Ebay, and i didnt see anything. Or is that just the nature of the item?

oh, and im not totally what you mean by a Flash Cart, and SD card(i know what those are, but not in GBA terms). Im new to GBA stuff, ive just ran the Emulators, and thats not very hard to do, so im sorry for my Ignorance.

Thanks again for your help.
\->XB2003

 

[FAST6191]

Glad to know you know your way around VBA, that saves a lot of hassle. Main thing to note here is if you mainly use savestates then save properly somewhere and use file -> export -> battery save. Even if you do not and use conventional save methods you probably want to be using that to export your saves anyway rather than finding the finding the "normal" save.

Linker is the main term but some use cradle as well. I doubt you will find anybody willing to part with one though (maybe if their cart breaks but even then they are really nice to have) and even by themselves they can fetch a reasonable price (other people have linkers break or something and as mentioned they are just plain desirable items).

If you just wanted saves then you can use a cable (they are really quite simple to make* and your parallel port is well protected) or one of the programs (if you want programs then you need an EZ4) on http://chishm.drunkencoders.com/SendSave/index.html as that is your best bet. The stuff on http://www.ziegler.desaign.de/GBA/gba.htm is probably overkill for what you want.
You could also use a DS or DS lite with a DS slot flash cart and transfer the saves from that using http://filetrip.net/f3228-GBA-Backup-Tool-0-21.html (sorry I should have mentioned that last night)

* http://pokemonhackingclub.webs.com/apps/fo...-an-xboo-cable- is the result of a quick search although there are better guides already linked on those sites from the first post.

All I will say on the matter of gamesharks/action replay type devices is they can only really be used for temporary storage and trying to get things off your PC is not possible.


"so i can trade with my Gamecube"- this might make flash carts a bit tricky (the gamecube is fairly set in it's ways and flash carts tend not to play nice- nobody I know of has bothered to hack the gamecube side of things either) so yeah if you can inject saves into games that would be better. One sidenote- if you plan on using I think it was PAL park with DS pokemon games you can use a flash cart if you patch the DS rom with pokepatch http://nds.cmamod.com/nds_downloads/

Flash carts- Flash carts are carts that sit in the actual hardware and trick it into thinking it is an official cart often along with a few nice extras. On more modern consoles we tend to abuse optical drives, USB support, hard drives if they have them and SD cards but on older hardware custom made cards are the method of choice. Originally there were many for the GBA but nowadays you are limited more or less to the EZ4 if you want a full fledged GBA capable cart but that is OK because the EZ4 is excellent. There have been a fair few threads on the subject the last couple of weeks in this section and others in the GBA subheading if you fancy reading up (the main thing to take away is you will need a miniSD and not a microSD to mini adapter). On the DS you have a few more options though.

 

[xb2003]

From reading what you said, i think the Xboo cable is the way to go. I read throuh that tutorial, and it seemed like something i could acomplish. Im not totally sure how it works, but ill getting it working. Im usually pretty good at that. Im amazed that something like that can send rom files from a gameboy to a computer, but its worth a shot.

Would you agree that this cable is probably my best option? My DS Lite hardly even works. And honestly i dont know where it is. I never liked it that well. So.....Yeah.

Thanks,
\->XB2003

 

[FAST6191]

Linkers are going to be hard to drum up or build and if you lack a DS then it is cable or nothing. I too find it amusing that such a little thing can have such an effect but you have to remember serial and parallel ports were very simple and as such allowed fine grain control over what goes on unlike some of the more modern things that despite serious advantages lack such control.

 

[xb2003]

Well im gonna have to come up with one of those Cables, and i think about my only choice is to take apart an old Printer Cable. SHouldn't be too difficult.....Famous last words....

Thanks for your help.
\->XB2003