Hacking Lots of stupid questions about game saves (M3)

[jaxter]

As promised, here's the thread where I asked stupid questions:

OK, so I have my M3, and successfully (thanks TheSpade) flashed without bricking my Lite. I'm current with the new releases (by the way, what utility can I use to keep track of them?). Now there's a bunch of stuff I need to understand.

What does the M3 game manager do, exactly? I think it copies the ROM, and patches it or not according to the options... and creates an initial save file? is that needed?

I'm not sure I understand all the options and don't know where to read abou them (the "help" file really doesn't). For DS roms, the manager software lets me choose if I want a software reset (why wouldn't I always want it?), if I want to trim the rom (again, why not always do it?) and read method/DMA speed (what are these and which should I choose?).

If I understand correctly, whenever the game thinks it's saving to cart, it's actually saving to the M3's SRAM - does that sound about right? Also, what happens to SRAM when you turn the unit off? Is it possible to lose the save, and how I can I make sure it doesn't happen to me?

Does all this rely on naming the ROM to a certain filename, so that the program knows what patch to apply to it?

For GBA, the game manager software lets me specify a GBA patch method (SW/HW+SW/HW) - what's that? The other option is whether I want a realtime save.
* Why would I ever not want realtime saves?
* Do these go exactly where the non-realtime saves go? I mean, are these the same type of files, and the only difference is when it happens?
* Again, can I do anything wrong and think a game saves but find out later it didn't?



The only time I lost saves was with the dreamcast - it had two types of memory card, VMU(memory card+tiny mono display) and non-VMU, and one capcom title (resident evil 2, or was it 3?) decided any card without a display was faulty and should be reformatted - without asking first, of course. I really don't want to go through that again - ever.

(By the way, I don't have my DS now anyway - a friend comandeered it once he found out I had NSMB. Should get it back in a couple of days).

 

[pelago]

The reason you can turn off trimming, software reset and real-time save is that it breaks some roms. As for the other options, I don't really know. I agree there needs to be some more documentation on this. Maybe someone could write a guide on what all the options are for. The G6 has similar options.

 

[jaxter]

Hmmm... so it's pretty much just trial and error for all of these. It's a shame the manager doesn't tell you how much it can trim to figure if it's worth the risk for a certain game.

And what is this SRAM? Does it get deleted when the power's off? If so, does that mean you *have* to do a software reset, to give the M3 a chance to save from SRAM to flash without turning it off?

 

[outphase]

trim means it deletes the extra 0s at the end of the file. this value varies from rom to rom. sram is where the saves are temporarily kept when the power is off. there is a battery that maintains the sram when there is no power to the m3. this save is then backed up when you use the m3 again

 

[jaxter]

So there's no problem letting the game save, turning the unit off, waiting a couple of days, and turning it on again?

What happens when the battery runs out? How can I tell when? Can it be replaced?

And I know what trimming is, I just mean it's a shame the game manager is asking you to choose whether you want it, without letting you know how much you'd gain.