Hacking gba game saves

[triple-sevenz]

ok i recently formatted my 4gb card after backing everything up. i put all the stuff that was on it after the formatting. then i load fire emblem using the gba expansion and m3 ds real and it says new game. my save data is gone. i check the micro sd card but the .sav is still there. i was on chapter 16 last time i saved and i even loaded the game again to make sure it was saved (this was before the formatting). but now it just says new game. anyone got any ideas?

 

[Searinox]

Are you talking about using a slot1 M3 with EZflash or a slot-2 M3 adapter? Happened to me with DOOM and DOOM 2. Sometimes when getting stuff off the memory files are enlarged to their cluster size with added 00 or FFs at the end. Open the problematic ROMs in VisualBoyAdvance and save. Check your save files and compare their size to those created by VBA. If they are different size, take your savegames and add/substract blank spaces until they are the exact size as VBA creates them. I hope it helps you.

 

[triple-sevenz]

im using the m3ds real with the gba expansion pack for it. i understand what you are saying but the savedata did work before i formatted the card. i was able to load the .sav file from the micro sd and load as well. the sav file is the same size as the one created by vba as well. another weird thing is that i tried to load the .sav file i backed up before formatting using vba and it says new game as well. man this sux. i gotta start over... i think i just got a corrupted savedata.

 

[Searinox]

Did you check your "corrupt" saves in VBA?

 

[triple-sevenz]

yea and all i get is the new game screen when i boot the game thru vba.

 

[Searinox]

That's sad, I'm terribly sorry to hear it.

I can't think of anything except them being corrupt on the card.

 

[triple-sevenz]

ok this is weird. on my computer, i backed up another save data of fire emblem i had. it was 64 kb. i copied that on to the micro sdhc and ran the rom thru the m3 ds real. when the game loaded, it said new game again. now when i read the micro sd card thru my computer, that same savedata is now 128 kb. it doubled in size. wtf?


edit. ok i think i got it to work. previously, i was running the game thru the sakura fw and using the slow patch mode. i used the m3 ds real fw instead of sakura and the fast mode. it seems to load my save data. ^^ that 64kb save data becoming 128kb does kind of bother me though. i guess sakura's gba loading isnt perfect much like its homebrew compatibility.

 

[freakazaa]

64kb becoming 128 kb is perfectly normal. the m3 real gba loader saves gba saves as 128 kb .sav files so if you use vba's 64 kb files, they become 128 kb files (did that makes sense?) it happened to me when i had to use vba to get past the freezing part in ff6's opera scene (where celes should throw the flowers)

 

[Searinox]

The savefile change you are noticing is what I first advised you against in my post. It just so happens that different firmwares see and dump savefiles differently. If you found one setup that works, I suggest you stick to it.

 

[triple-sevenz]

^^ did not know that. well i just played 3 hours on a new savedata and it seems to be saving fine. must have been sakura that messed it up.

 

[Frederica Bernkastel]

If you save on VBA, then Use Sakura as your firmware, Sakura reads most of VBA's save files