Homebrew OPEN_AGB_FIRM discussion thread

[ninjafrogman]

You could use the official GBA VC releases or create your own own as Injects with NSUI if you want to. And it has the ability to go back to the home menu after pressing the power button iirc.

I'll look into that, thanks.

 

[spitzeqc]

If anybody knows a way to suspend the game and have the screen turn off I would love to know!

If you are using open_agb_firm, the latest nightly supports turning off screen manually (X+DLEFT for turn off, X+DRIGHT for turn on)

 

[Maximumbeans]

I was concerned if this might damage the 3DS, but if not then I guess it's ok.

Nah, it's okay, but I do understand why you might feel that way. OPEN_AGB_FIRM basically 'silences' the 3DS part of the 3DS, and only loads the GBA hardware built inside, which is why it turns off so quickly when you're using it. Unless you're constantly playing a GBA title for five minutes only to close and reboot and open another one over and over, it should be alright.

 

[ghjfdtg]

Should be perfectly safe to just turn off. It will write the game save to the SD card if needed and then power off normally. Since Nintendos OS is not involved it happens much faster than with GBA VC.

 

[ninjafrogman]

That's nice to know! I didn' know how it worked, thanks!

 

[Larfleeze]

Is there any way that I can take a save I created on my N2DS with this, load it on my PC to use some cheats, and then move it back onto my DS? Just thought I'd ask for the sake of some things that can't just be done in games, or things that are tediously time consuming.

 

[CoolMe]

Is there any way that I can take a save I created on my N2DS with this, load it on my PC to use some cheats, and then move it back onto my DS? Just thought I'd ask for the sake of some things that can't just be done in games, or things that are tediously time consuming.

Ok, you want to go 2DS>PC>DS? Sure.. i think the emulator (GBARunner2) you'll be using on the DS could read .sav without the need of any conversion.

 

[Larfleeze]

Ok, you want to go 2DS>PC>DS? Sure.. i think the emulator (GBARunner2) you'll be using on the DS could read .sav without the need of any conversion.

Oh, I meant going back to the same N2DS. So N2DS -> PC -> N2DS. If there's a way to add the cheats on the console as is, maybe through a different emulator, that'd be fine as well, but I read that it wasn't possible with open_agb_firm.

I just have a couple saves I want to edit for the sake of sparing myself the tedious grind of hunting for some enemies that almost never show up, and maybe add some trade evolution Pokemon to a save, so I thought I'd see if it was doable.

 

[AleronIves]

OAF isn't an emulator. It runs games natively using the GBA that is built into every 3DS, which is why performance is perfect.

You can run mGBA on N2DS, which probably (?) supports cheats. Depending on the game, the FPS may be pretty poor, but it should be enough to apply the cheats.

 

[Larfleeze]

OAF isn't an emulator. It runs games natively using the GBA that is built into every 3DS, which is why performance is perfect.

You can run mGBA on N2DS, which probably (?) supports cheats. Depending on the game, the FPS may be pretty poor, but it should be enough to apply the cheats.

I get that, which is why I chose to use OAF in the first place. I was just wondering if it's possible to take the save created while playing the game with OAF, load it somewhere else that does support the cheats just long enough to get the desired benefit, and then return to playing it on OAF. I did find a .SAV file while exploring my SD card, but it wasn't recognized when I tried loading the game on my laptop with an emulator.

 

[Sono]

Is there any way that I can take a save I created on my N2DS with this, load it on my PC to use some cheats, and then move it back onto my DS? Just thought I'd ask for the sake of some things that can't just be done in games, or things that are tediously time consuming.

Depends on the save type of the game. If my memory serves correct, then some save formats (flash? and EEPROM?) require swapping before they can be loaded into an emulator. Test your save first in an emulator, and if it behaves wrong, or it is rejected, then it most likely requires swapping.

You can try [this] or [this], at least one of them should work.
The tool should work on desktop, mobile (except iOS, and Android browsers which don't have their own built-in downloaders), and also Internet Explorer 10+.

Oh, and apparently open_agb_firm stores the save data correctly, so the reason you must swap your savefile is because all emulators store the save data wrong

 

[Larfleeze]

Depends on the save type of the game. If my memory serves correct, then some save formats (flash? and EEPROM?) require swapping before they can be loaded into an emulator. Test your save first in an emulator, and if it behaves wrong, or it is rejected, then it most likely requires swapping.

You can try [this] or [this], at least one of them should work.
The tool should work on desktop, mobile (except iOS, and Android browsers which don't have their own built-in downloaders), and also Internet Explorer 10+.

Oh, and apparently open_agb_firm stores the save data correctly, so the reason you must swap your savefile is because all emulators store the save data wrong

I appreciate it. One of them didn't load, the other didn't seem to work out, but it did help me know what to look for so I went back to the site I got OAF from and found this link:
https://exelotl.github.io/gba-eeprom-save-fix/
Just finished using it to convert my original save, doing some edits, and then converted it back, and it loaded on my N2DS perfectly.

 

[ImaDireWolf]

hi, theres a way to make open_agb_firm to read .sav files from rom folder? tried editing the folder dir with hex edit but with no success, i want to use the same sd and saves between gbarunner2 and open_agb_firm only needing to swap sd cards

 

[Maximumbeans]

Couple of nooby questions:

1) If I wanted to back up my Pokemon Emerald save from playing a ROM on OAF, is it as simple as copy and pasting the save file somewhere? Or do I need an application to handle it in a more specific way?

2) Still talking about Pokemon Emerald, could I theoretically switch between save files by swapping them out in the save folder?

 

[Kwyjor]

i want to use the same sd and saves between gbarunner2 and open_agb_firm only needing to swap sd cards

This is unclear. Are you saying you want to store save data on the NAND instead of on the SD card..?

1) If I wanted to back up my Pokemon Emerald save from playing a ROM on OAF, is it as simple as copy and pasting the save file somewhere? Or do I need an application to handle it in a more specific way?

2) Still talking about Pokemon Emerald, could I theoretically switch between save files by swapping them out in the save folder?

Why not just try it and find out..? (If you're worried about losing your save data, then you can always make a second copy of the ROM, or try it with a game you're less concerned about.)

Regardless, 1) Yes, it is that simple, 2) Yes.

 

[Maximumbeans]

Why not just try it and find out..? (If you're worried about losing your save data, then you can always make a second copy of the ROM, or try it with a game you're less concerned about.)

Regardless, 1) Yes, it is that simple, 2) Yes.

Because there's no harm in asking the question in a thread dedicated to discussing the application in question. Why be passive aggressive if you're just going to give the two simple answers anyway?

Speaking of which, thanks.

 

[BeavisMacon]

Has anyone had success running Doomhack's prboomgba port with openagb or even cia injections?

 

[Nothin]

Hi, i have a problem with saves.
I'm playing Final Fantasy Dawn of Souls and don't know why but sometimes the game lost the progress.
I'm using the in-game save method, save in all 3 save slots to be sure but, when i turn on the console and try to load i see a hours old saves, it seems that console/emulator don't update save file. What can i do?

 

[cugel]

Has anyone had success running Doomhack's prboomgba port with openagb or even cia injections?

I just tried the KippyKip fork linked to on the main project's github which is supposed to come with the shareware episode but I only get a white screen after the GBA logo.

 

[BeavisMacon]

I just tried the KippyKip fork linked to on the main project's github which is supposed to come with the shareware episode but I only get a white screen after the GBA logo.

Thanks for trying it out. I got early versions to work as injects. Unfortunately they are from before most of the performance improvements were implemented. Oddly enough, gbarunner2 plays later versions, but the graphics are a mess.