Hacking I apparantly have no idea how to use my M3 Lite.

[Hammyface]

I just received my M3 Lite in the mail so I can have GBA backup capability along with my M3 Simply. The M3 Simply is easy to use and great. No problems. The M3 Lite however, confuses me beyond belief and I have several problems, even after reading directions.

I updated the latest update to the card, and put the games on the card by dragging them to the SD card (since I do not care about real time save or anything).

Here's the first problem. Every single time I start a game I get this error: "Cannot find *.DAT! Please copy these files to directory named GAMESAVE. Cannot BACK UP GAME SAVE DATA without these files!". Okay first off, it says that no matter what, even if I have a save slot in that game. I also DO have a GAMESAVE directory I placed on the root for the MicroSD.

Also, quick load (pressing "A" on the game title) works for absolutely NO games. It freezes at Loading! 00000KB. Pressing START works, but I must be doing something wrong if quick load doesn't work on a single game.

Also, Super Mario Advance: Yoshi's Island doesn't work. It just says SAVE DATA CORRUPTED and never starts.

If someone could help me I'd appreciate it. I am worried it may be broke, or maybe my brain is broke. Thanks guys!

 

[Costello]

you always need to use their software.

It patches the rom to make them compatible, .. I mean, ROMs need to be patched to run from the GBA slot.

The software automaticaly creates .DAT files (.Dat = savegames)

 

[Smuff]

Don't know for sure, but my guess would be that while the M3Simply supports drag'n'drop (being a Slot1 card), the M3 Lite requires the patching of the roms through the proprietry software (if it's like any other Slot-2 card out there).

Should be a client/loader for the M3Lite floating around on these pages somewhere..........

[EDIT] Yet again someone beats me to the punch while I'm typing

 

[jhoff80]

Quick load might not work, depending on how the SD card you're using is formatted. I honestly don't suggest using the M3 patching software for GBA roms- instead, download the M3 software, open up the directory it installed to, and look for a file called "NDS.dat". Thats a blank save file. There also is one called GBA.dat. GBA.dat is 1meg, because it allows for real-time save, if you use the M3 software, but the M3 software often creates problems for GBA games, which is why I suggest not to use it. The NDS.dat file will work fine for GBA games if you don't use real-time saving, and it'll conserve space.

Make a directory called GAMESAVE on your SD card, for all GBA saves. (DS Saves get a NDSSAVE directory, but those NEED to be patched, so you won't have to make the directory yourself.) Copy the NDS.dat file to this folder, and rename it to the name of each GBA rom, and you're all set.

 

[Hammyface]

Quick load might not work, depending on how the SD card you're using is formatted. I honestly don't suggest using the M3 patching software for GBA roms- instead, download the M3 software, open up the directory it installed to, and look for a file called "NDS.dat". Thats a blank save file. There also is one called GBA.dat. GBA.dat is 1meg, because it allows for real-time save, if you use the M3 software, but the M3 software often creates problems for GBA games, which is why I suggest not to use it. The NDS.dat file will work fine for GBA games if you don't use real-time saving, and it'll conserve space.

Make a directory called GAMESAVE on your SD card, for all GBA saves. (DS Saves get a NDSSAVE directory, but those NEED to be patched, so you won't have to make the directory yourself.) Copy the NDS.dat file to this folder, and rename it to the name of each GBA rom, and you're all set.

Ahh I have over 100 games on it

How is it recommended to be formatted? If I do decide to use the software, what patching method is reccomended? Soft patch? Hardware support 1? Hardware support 2?

I also don't want the system taking 1 meg per GBA game for saves. That would take up too much space. How could I prevent that and just allow it to take up the required space normally? Again I won't be using real time save.

 

[jhoff80]

Well, what you could do is use the software to patch all the GBA roms, and that will automatically create the save file (although it might use the 1mb version, I'm not sure), and then afterwards, you can just copy over the clean versions of those games.

 

[Hammyface]

Can anyone answer these please?

How is it recommended to be formatted? If I do decide to use the software, what patching method is reccomended? Soft patch? Hardware support 1? Hardware support 2?