Hacking GBA Backup Tool won't inject my Pokémon Emerald save file

BarrelRoll34

Member
OP
Newcomer
Joined
Jul 23, 2018
Messages
10
Trophies
0
Age
26
XP
140
Country
France
Hello,

I recently acquired an authentic Pokémon Emerlad cartridge and I've been trying to inject an old save file I was playing on emulator. The thing is when I inject the save file and load the game, the save doesn't appear and forces me to make a new game.

So for the context:
- I am using a weird bootleg R4 called R4i Gold Christmas Edition. The GBA Backup Tool works fine on it and I've been able to dump my save files from Pokémon Sapphire and Emerald. The latters are correctly read by PkHex.
- When I dump the original save file from the cartridge and I make an edit on it with PkHex, the reinjection will also fail. I've been able to recover the original save file, the injection works with it, so my setup seems to work.
- The rom I was previously playing on is the original game in the same language as my cartridge (French).
- I have changed the battery of my cartridge. So there's maybe some RTC incompatibilty or some other weird phenomenon.

I tried to manipulate the RTC with PkHex to make it the same as the original dumped save but it didn't solve the problem. Well if a slight edit on the original save file makes the the injection fail, it seems RTC is not in the equation but we never know... For the record, I put my save files in the post in case someone wants to try some things or to check them.

I am quite lost now. If anyone has a clue on what's going on or had the same issue and solved it, I would be happy to hear your advices. Thanks !
 

Attachments

  • Emerald saves.zip
    40.4 KB · Views: 133
Last edited by BarrelRoll34,

cluesagi

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2020
Messages
114
Trophies
0
Age
25
XP
1,596
Country
United States
I was able to get the save working on my GBA Everdrive flashcart. I'm not sure if this will help, but try injecting this save.
Are you 100% sure it's an authentic cartridge?
 

Attachments

  • original save.zip
    12.8 KB · Views: 107

BarrelRoll34

Member
OP
Newcomer
Joined
Jul 23, 2018
Messages
10
Trophies
0
Age
26
XP
140
Country
France
I was able to get the save working on my GBA Everdrive flashcart. I'm not sure if this will help, but try injecting this save.
Are you 100% sure it's an authentic cartridge?
100% sure it’s an authentic one yes.

Were you able to make it work on a rom or on a real cartridge by injecting the save as I was trying ? Because yeah there’s no problem with the save file by itself, it also works on VBA, it’s really the injection process that seems to fail…

I’ll try those saves tomorrow, thanks for the help
 

cluesagi

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2020
Messages
114
Trophies
0
Age
25
XP
1,596
Country
United States
Were you able to make it work on a rom or on a real cartridge by injecting the save as I was trying ?
I don't have a French copy of Emerald so I can't try it on a real cartridge, but the Everdrive should work identically to a real cartridge. It actually didn't work at first, but when I adjusted the French Emerald rom's settings and tried again it did work. Then I saved in-game on my GBA and that's the save I sent to you.
 

BarrelRoll34

Member
OP
Newcomer
Joined
Jul 23, 2018
Messages
10
Trophies
0
Age
26
XP
140
Country
France
I don't have a French copy of Emerald so I can't try it on a real cartridge, but the Everdrive should work identically to a real cartridge. It actually didn't work at first, but when I adjusted the French Emerald rom's settings and tried again it did work. Then I saved in-game on my GBA and that's the save I sent to you.
Sooo the injection didn't work with your save... It is very weird that I am still able to inject the original save file though, I will continue my investigations...

Edit: Well I tried a simple thing: copying the save file that worked with the tool and trying to inject it with exactly the same file name and format, and it didn't work. The tool only works with the damn untouched original file. I'm starting to believe the issue comes from my flashcart that is unable to properly write on my cartridge. WHat the hell

Edit 2: HAHAHA I WAS ABLE TO MAKE IT WORK !! So I figured out that the way my flashcart was dumping and restoring save files was pretty unstable because it's a bootleg R4. In order to inject a new save file, the way I found to make the slightest touch to the original dumped file was to open it with an hex editor, copy the hex code from the file that I wanted the save and paste it on the code of the original dump, and then directly save the file by overwriting the original. I inject this newly coded file and it worked. What a surprise
 
Last edited by BarrelRoll34,

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
    Psionic Roshambo @ Psionic Roshambo: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=b-uYsit7iqY