Hacking M3 Perfect GBA Patching Options...

[WigWrm]

There's never been a clear documentation of what the patching options for gba roms actually do.
Well after some testing I think I've figured it out.

Soft Patch(Patches the save type to sram "creates same crc as gbata's sram patcher")

Hardware Support 1(Used for patching save types "this works the best with flash saves and pokemon games")
I have no idea what Hardware Support 1 converts the save to or the other modifications it makes

Hardware Support 2(Clean rom setting "same crc before and after")

It's a little dissapointing to see that "perfect" gba compatibility can only be achieved with patching.
Also any criticism or insight is appreciated.

 

[YodaJM]

I've also wondered this but never could find an answer.

I recently started up the Pokemon GBA games again. I found that the Software Patch of the roms while unzipped, was the only way to get the in game menu to work correctly. HW Support 1 would bring up the menu, but none of the options actually worked.

 

[WigWrm]

Well after some testing with gbata, it seems that Soft Patch patches the save type to SRAM.
Last peice of the puzzle is Hardware Support 1.

 

[WigWrm]

This is the last time I will bump my topic. All testing information has been added to the first post.
Hope this is helpful to someone other than myself...