Tutorial HOW TO: Dump and Preserve VC GBA roms

[Hking0036]

Someone finally got EU Multi5 Drilldozer, I'll be adding that shortly. Might make a post in the GBA games section as well in case they don't see it here.

Edit: Drilldozer's patch is too big
I've now made a drive folder for patches instead.

 

[Hking0036]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm sure I read somewhere that the rom stored within the VC games isn't necessarily the game that you end up playing once loaded on the Wii u. Some games do on the fly patching which means you would have to use the memory dump method to extract the game as opposed to extracting the game from the VC dump.
IIRC it was one of the earthbound games that had this but I can't be sure.

I've since taken a look at SNES, and it seems to be an SNES or other console thing. Of the 40-some GBA dumps I've made not one mismatches from inject_gba and tcpgecko, however most of what I got out of the SNES did so it must be a system-specific thing. I still dump with tcpgecko on the gba games to make sure though. (on a side note, if anyone knows how to fix those snes dumps it'd certainly be appreciated)

What about the 3DS Ambassador games? Any changes there?

All of the 3DS Ambassador games I've dumped are identical to their originals.

Also, if anyone has GBA Titlekeys remember to put them out there, not going to say where but you know. I just got Golden Sun (USA), Mario Tennis Power Tour (USA), Minish Cap (USA), and Superstar Saga (EUR) and I've catalogged them in my spreadsheet with patches accordingly. Thanks to whoever put those out there.

Also Also I realized .bps patches are a lot better than .ips so I can attach them again because they don't take as much space (namely drill dozer eur isn't 5MB anymore but 500k instead), just use floating IPS as before to patch them.

 

[Hiccup]

I'm pretty sure all the ambassador games are identical.

 

[Hking0036]

I'm pretty sure all the ambassador games are identical.

I went through and checked, and yes they are, unless they change in ram. In which case I've got no clue as to how to touch a 3ds' memory while running a game.

 

[Hiccup]

there is some old homebrew (might have been on the old "how to rip models from 3DS games" (or whatever) thread) that could read stuff leftover in memory after the title is closed, but for realtime stuff I think you'd need a CFW

 

[Hking0036]

there is some old homebrew (might have been on the old "how to rip models from 3DS games" (or whatever) thread) that could read stuff leftover in memory after the title is closed, but for realtime stuff I think you'd need a CFW

CFW isn't an issue (although I can't say I'm familiar with the NTR Debugger either), mostly my interest. The whole ambassador thing seems pretty slap-dash and I'm pretty doubtful they put very much effort in until the wii u came out because they weren't actually selling them, plus all the wii u gba roms I come across are prepatched and not modified in ram like snes.

 

[VinsCool]

Also, if anyone has GBA Titlekeys remember to put them out there, not going to say where but you know.

I gave my title keys to someone last night. I don't know if they added them though.

 

[Hking0036]

I gave my title keys to someone last night. I don't know if they added them though.

I'm not seeing anything new on the site, so they must not have.

I also love the sheer website crippling power of pokemon.

 

[VinsCool]

I'm not seeing anything new on the site, so they must not have.

I also love the sheer website crippling power of pokemon.

I'll add them later on my own then

 

[Hking0036]

I'll add them later on my own then

Sure thing, huge thanks.

 

[VinsCool]

Sure thing, huge thanks.

Alright, I added them

 

[Hking0036]

Alright, I added them

Thanks again!

 

[Hking0036]

Coming back with 16 more dumps:

USA:

• Contra Advance
• F-Zero GP Legend
• Game & Watch Gallery 4
• Kirby & The Amazing Mirror
• Kirby - Nightmare in Dreamland
• Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga
• Metroid Fusion
• Metroid Zero Mission
• Pac-Man Collection
• Super Street Fighter II Turbo Revival
• WarioWare, Inc
• Wario Land 4

EUR:

• Super Mario Advance 1-4

Super Mario Advance 1 EUR is identical to Super Mario Advance 1 USA VC Dump, Super Mario Advance 2 has no changes, also like the US version. Patches updated on the second post, and the spreadsheet has been updated as well.

11/25/16 Added:

• Fire Emblem (USA)
• Fire Emblem - Sacred Stones (USA)

11/30/16 Added:

• Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team (No Change) (USA)
• Pokemon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire (No Change) (USA)
• Metroid Fusion (EUR)

12/2/16 Added:

• Kurukuru Kururin (No Change) (USA)

12/9/16 Added:

• Advance Wars, Advance Wars 2 (USA)

 

[Hking0036]

Updated the guide to split the ways into options, also added an option of dumping titlekeys rather than using DDD. Added Advance Wars 1, 2 (USA) to patches. Also, again, if anyone knows how to get at /meta/manual.bfma please let me know, only some of the USA manuals are actually linked online, others aren't but are included in the games so I know that there's some way to get them.

Current USA Count is up to 50/71! Games left are:

• Car Battler Joe
• All 3 Castlevania Games
• DK: King of Swing
• Golden Sun: The Lost Age
• Both Harvest Moons
• Both Klonoa Games
• Konami Krazy Racers
• Mario Golf: Advance Tour
• Mario Party Advance
• Mario Pinball Land
• All 4 Medabots
• Mr. Driller 2
• Onimusha Tactics
• Pocky & Rocky

Any rechecks are welcome as well.

12/11 added:

• Fire Emblem (EUU) (En,Fr,De)
• Densetsu no Stafy (JPN) (No Change)
• Game & Watch Gallery 4 (JPN) (Unreleased before VC)
• Made in Wario (JPN)
• Mario Kart Advance (JPN)
• Mario Party Advance (JPN)
• Tsuukin Hitofude (JPN) (Polarium Advance in NA)
• Wario Land Advance (JPN)

Also, did a huge update to my spreadsheet. Added jpn region, split regions into individual sheets, added filter views for each sheet (data > filter views) to help find things quickly. Still looking for a good way to get the missing manuals.

 

[Hking0036]

1/7 Added:
EUR

• Advance Wars
• Advance Wars 2

USA

• Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
• Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
• Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (No Change)

1/15:

• Metroid Zero Mission (Europe)