Hacking GBA Backup Tool Not loading certain games.

[BigDaddyWeaves]

I've got an Acekard2i and a Gateway 3DS (blue card)
I've been trying for the LONGEST time to rip Wario Land 4 and Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga,
but they just won't rip. I get to the:
ROM Information Screen
with Game Title:
ROM Size:
and
SAVE Type:
but when I rip it and go try and play it on my Visual Boy Advance on my PC it just hangs on a white screen.

As far as Superstar Saga,
I rip it but it rips as ____FE.gba (whatever that means - not even sure I'm getting that "FE" part right but
definitely getting the ____ part right. Please someone help these are the only 2 games that won't rip.
NOTE: I did buy the PAL version of these games (would I need a different GBA Tool?)

 

[Wuigi]

For my whole collection of GBA games the GBA backup tool always worked, I don't own the games you mentioned though.
As the AK2i and GW blue card have DLDI auto-patching the only reasons could be that the games are bootlegs as the Action Replay DS in the rudolph ds backup tool slot 2 also displayed a weird name there or maybe you need to use a certain sector size.
Or the tool has bugs, the DS backup tool by rudolph also didn't dump certain parts of the DS game header and the dumps aren't as good as with the wood dumper because of it.

 

[BigDaddyWeaves]

Are there any alternatives to the GBA Backup Tool?
Thank you for your information, have any idea what the right sector size should be? (I assume you mean when you format the microSD card)
Should I try a different card? I have plenty laying around.

 

[Wuigi]

@BigDaddyWeaves I don't know which sector size is ok, I only used the standard size Windows set when I formatted my 32 GB card and that worked with my games.
I haven't found any alternatives for the GBA tool for DS, only this tool by Fix94, it requires very different hardware though: https://github.com/FIX94/gba-link-cable-dumper.

 

[BigDaddyWeaves]

Thanks @Wuigi I appreciate the help but I think I'd rather just download (or perhaps keep the download of the game I already have - was trying to go completely legit)
butttt I guess some games won't rip for me.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

My result with GBA Backup Tool v0.21 [started by Wood v1.62 on R4i Gold 3DS (r4ids.cn)]

Game Tile: WARIOLANDE AWAE 00
ROM Size: 8MB
SAVE Type: SRAM 256K(32KByte)

Resulting file: WARIOLANDE_AWAE00.gba, CRC32 checksum is D6141609 – identical with the no-intro ROM “Wario Land 4 (USA,Europe).gba”

I don't have Superstar Saga and can't test this. I can give you the checksums to verify your dumps.

"Mario & Luigi - Superstar Saga (USA).gba" CRC32 checksum is 170CC574
"Mario & Luigi - Superstar Saga (Europe) (En,Fr,De,Es,It).gba" CRC32 checksum is E718D850

 

[ItsMetaKnight]

clean your cartridge and contacts, the tool can dump all gba games

 

[BigDaddyWeaves]

@ItsMetaKnight Christ I just can't get this to work. How do I go about cleaning my cartridge and contacts? I've tried 3 different cards about to try the 4th one (another Acekard2i)
@KleinesSinchen Thanks for the information my Wario Land 4 is giving me 32MB readout and I know that's not right because the downloaded version I have is 8MB just like yours.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

@ItsMetaKnight Christ I just can't get this to work. How do I go about cleaning my cartridge and contacts? I've tried 3 different cards about to try the 4th one (another Acekard2i)
@KleinesSinchen Thanks for the information my Wario Land 4 is giving me 32MB readout and I know that's not right because the downloaded version I have is 8MB just like yours.

What?! Full 32MB? Does the game (Wario Land 4) start on your DS? If the Acekard and Gateway Blue start normally, cleaning the contacts of the GBA game(s) and maybe SLOT-2 is required.

 

[BigDaddyWeaves]

32,768 KB yup Full 32MB (Just found out that both Mario and Luigi starts - this one asks you what language you want don't know if that means anything)
and Wario Land 4 starts up just fine as well @KleinesSinchen

 

[zfreeman]

Are there any alternatives to the GBA Backup Tool?

https://github.com/AdmiralCurtiss/nds-savegame-manager/releases
https://www.reddit.com/r/retron5/comments/8bufs2/retron_5_rom_dumper/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Gameboy/comments/4w8xjf/guide_how_to_backup_your_game_save_files/
https://wiki.no-intro.org/index.php?title=Game_Boy_Advance_Dumping_Guide
https://github.com/endrift/duplo

 

[BigDaddyWeaves]

Thanks @zfreeman but none of those look like I have the things required for dumping ROMS.
I think my best bet is to just keep the cartridges and the ROM files I have acquired over the years,
and just go from there (I was only trying to go 100% legit and buy all the cartridges and then rip them.
But it seems too much of a headache for me to continue on this journey after trying many, MANY times.
Thanks for all your help everyone (maybe my slots were dirty? I have no idea SOOO many other games worked!
This actually surprised me I thought I'd be able to do the ripping rather fast, be done with it and store my carts away.
@KleinesSinchen good tutorial for how to clean my cartridges?! Please? I wanna try one last time and I can only go up from here.

 

[Deleted-236924]

I think you should be more concerned about whether or not those are bootlegs, than whether or not the games require cleaning.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

I think you should be more concerned about whether or not those are bootlegs, than whether or not the games require cleaning.

Hmmhm. I’ve thought about this as well – but did not mention it. Why should a GBA bootleg behave differently compared to the genuine games? On older systems I can imagine problems for ROM dumpers with bootlegs because of unknown mappers.
Other than the few movies (Shrek, Shrek 2, Shark Tale) no commercial GBA carts used any mapper. Why should an illegal copy of a single game contain additional hardware like this? Or is there another reason why they work on GBA/DS but refuse to dump?

If you have any information on that I would be glad to learn.


=======
@BigDaddyWeaves But… if the games boot and work normally, I guess there is no need to clean them. There is not much tutorial for cleaning. I normally open games and gently rub the contacts with electronics cleaner.
Wario Land 4 is one of the older games and uses SRAM+battery for saving.

Spoiler: photo of Wario Land 4 cart

From all that I know this is a legit Wario Land 4:

Superstar Saga… is newer but not as complex as Pokemon so I guess it uses 8KB EEPROM (no battery) for saving.

No ideas left – sorry.

 

[BigDaddyWeaves]

@Ammako you're right, I should be more worried about bootleg games. But the games run just fine when I boot them up through the main menu of the DS Lite.
But that still doesn't mean they're not bootleg, they very well could be.
Thanks for all your help @KleinesSinchen if anyone else has any ideas I'd be happy to learn as much as possible.
The game cartridges are clean (I know this because the games run PERFECTLY) so maybe it's the slots?

 

[Deleted-236924]

Hmmhm. I’ve thought about this as well – but did not mention it. Why should a GBA bootleg behave differently compared to the genuine games?

Who knows. Emulators aren't perfect, and bootlegs rarely are perfect repros, so they often have to do some really weird stuff that emulators might not always agree with (for instance, some bootlegs save directly to the rom, which is stored on a rewritable chip.) Especially VBA sometimes can just hang on a white screen if the wrong save type is selected.

I would doubt that it's possible for the cartridge or Slot-2 to be dirty enough to the point it can't read or dump the cart properly, yet the console can read and play the game just fine.

 

[BigDaddyWeaves]

@Ammako That's what I'm saying (something's up!) I gave up on trying to rip those two games though. It's not worth the effort I already have the games downloaded so there was
only one reason I bought the actual cartridge itself and that's if anyone ever says do I own these games that I emulate on PS Vita, PS TV, my Wii or my PSP I'll say, "Yes I do own these."

 

[BigDaddyWeaves]

I believe it has something to do with Slot-1 Card spot. Sometimes my DS Lite will read the card and sometimes it just doesn't. It says Slot-1 Card : [ R4TF ]
up at the top of the screen. I tried using compressed air to clean it out but it didn't work it's still hanging on a blank screen down the bottom with
GBA Backup Tool v0.21 at the top. I played a full 5 minutes of Mario & Luigi (even saved my game) but still nothing. I guess I'll have to clean my Gateway 3DS card
I may end up cleaning all of my flash cartridges, this shit is ridiculous I want to rip 2 games TWO that's all and they just won't show up, really aggravating.
@ItsMetaKnight what works in terms of cleaning your devices? Cartridges?

 

[BigDaddyWeaves]

***EDIT
I moved the GBA Backup Tool to a different folder on my microSD card and it actually loaded...loaded WHAT?! I don't really know.
It says Game Title: ____00
Rom Size: 32MB"
SAVE Type: EEPROM 64K (8Kbyte)
I tried ripping it even though I know it wouldn't be a valid file, I even took a look at my acekard2i and Gateway cards (they're not dirty)
so I can't figure this shit out. They're not bootleg games all the other ones I got from the seller on eBay were legit why is it that this game
and Wario Land 4 won't dump? If you can't tell by now I'm really pissed off lol

 

[Wuigi]

@BigDaddyWeaves If the sticker of the games is of good quality and there are two little letters engraved on it, they are most of the time legit.
If you have a triwing you can also open the cartridge and look if the pcb is properly made.