Hacking GBA Exploader on Acekard 2.1 AKAIO 1.6

[windragon122]

Okay, so I have an Acekard 2.1 running AKAIO 1.6 and an EZ Flash 3 in 1. My Pokemon Emerald game wont save when I launch it through AKAIO and I understand that the Pokemon games will only save if you run them on GBA ExpLoader.

However, I cannot seem to get GBA Exploader to run on my Acekard. It always freezes at "Initializing....." and I leave it for a few minutes and it wont do anything. Does anyone have an AceKard running GBA ExpLoader that can help me out or does anyone know a fix for this?

 

[Deleted-236924]

SRAM patch with EZ4 Client.
No ExpLoader needed.

 

[windragon122]

Can I even use EZ4 Client with an AceKard?!

 

[ryan90]

you patch the rom with the ez4 client on your computer, you don't need to hook it up to the cartridge or anything

Once you patch the rom just put it on your ds as normal and run through gba exploader imo it has the best compatibility and reliability especially with saving

 

[how_do_i_do_that]

see link in sig, under BUGs, fixes. You only need to use the EZ4 Client to patch any problem roms.

 

[MarcioHP]

Hello,
Sorry to revive this topic, I searched on the subject at gbatemp, I found some answers but still do not really understand what happens to the pokemon emerald.

So here's the facts:
- I can run it on the gba exploder (that should solve the whole problem)
- if I load it by Akaio, game runs with new save (i searched about it, then found about the rtc of pokemons roms).
- not yet understand how and why patch the rom, what I was trying to do was to use a save of the VBA in EZFLASH 3in1, i managed to make the save works, but only when i use the sdram dump function of Akaio, and after some play and save again the save was reseted

My doubts are:
- Is there a safe way to really play pokemon emerald using gba exploder/akaio/ezflash3in1?
- is there any way to use the vba saves? i need to patch and stuff? how to do it?

tnks in advice!

 

[how_do_i_do_that]

pokemon emerald uses a hardware clock. The hardware clock is NOT found on the 3in1. There is no way to currently enable RTC (Real Time Clock) features with emerald, via patches to the rom.

You will need to have the M3 GEP (definition of GEP is in my sig). Which does have the hardware clock needed for pokemon emerald.


Your first doubt/question:
The game runs fine regaurdless of the clock. You will not have access to any time based features in the game like daylight/nightime, berries, etc if your running it on the 3in1.

Your second doubt/question:
EEPROM save types being the exception, you can interchange nearly any saves from VBA to GBA Exploader without any modification except for the file naming. GBA Exploader saves all the saves in 1 folder GBA_SAVE. It is not complicated to drag and drop any saves you need, unless you want to make it more difficult or something.


As for patching roms, that is done on the computer. You can use either the EZ-Flash IV client or the 3in1 tool. These 2 are basically the same thing with different skins, and fixes the save types you can use.

EZ-Flash IV client: http://filetrip.net/f4753-EZ4-Client-2009-04-03.html
3in1 tool: http://www.ezflash.cn/zip/3in1tool.zip

Some games require a 2nd or 3rd patch for other things like language, example being mother 3 translation patch, or the light setting patch for boktai. These require other patching tools or comes self contained executables.


AKAIO, stores gba saves like it does with the nds saves, in the same folder as the game. AKAIO gba saves are not directly compatible with gba exploader or VBA, AKAIO puts a header to all gba saves making it incompatible.