Gaming Restoring saves to NDS cartridges? [Pokemon]

[Pivot]

Could really use some help. I recently exported my HeartGold .sav file to my computer. I then played it on my emulator and saved the game. Now I want to load the updated .sav file back onto my HeartGold cartridge. How do I do this?

I tried to put the .sav file into CheckPoint, and then use "Restore," but it didn't work for some reason. Any help? I really hope I didn't lose all my progress.

 

[FAST6191]

When most people ask the question you have in the title ( Is there a way to play ROMs on NDS cartridges? ) then they want to play a different ROM on a normal game, which has not been done for the DS and I doubt it ever will be (flash carts were too good, too cheap and too easy to come by compared to older systems where people would devise methods for it). That is not what you seem to want though. What you want is the ability to restore a save to a game cart, which can be done quite happily.
Pokemon can have issues with certain tools if it is one of those with the pokewalker thing -- they stuck the communications for the walker on the same thing that handles the saves and many tools (which will work for every non pokemon game) don't know what to do there.

Anyway what do you have? If you have a DS/DS lite then you have some choices as you can hotswap things.

If you have a homebrew capable 3ds then you have some options there from what I recall.

Afraid I am not current on either but thought I would just say it can definitely be done and change your title for you.

 

[Pivot]

---FIGURED IT OUT---

Solution:
For Desmume, you need to first load up the game you want to put into the cartridge, then do: File --> Export Backup Memory. That lets you export your game's updated .sav file.

Explanation:
Saving in-game does not update the .sav file that you loaded into the emulator. The emulator uses both (1) a .nds file, and (2) a .sav file, in order to play your personal Pokemon game. But when you save in-game, it does not overwrite the .sav file you loaded. The emulator (as far as I can tell) uses this thing called a .dsv file to keep track of your updated save progress. But you then need to export this progress into what they call a "raw" save format, or .sav, before you can restore it in your DS game.

Sorry for the useless topic. Hopefully someone will search this same question and find a bit of help.

EDIT: Thanks FAST for the reply - I was typing my resolution before you sent it!

Tutorial

So you want to play your DS/3DS Pokemon game on an emulator and be able to load it back to your physical game after. The reasons may be: speed up training, ease of use, etc. So here's how.

1) Load up Godmode9 and dump the cartridge. I'm not going to reinvent the wheel, so follow this Youtube guide: *I can't post hyperlinks, so just search on Youtube "How to Use Godmode9 - to "Dump Nintendo DS Cartridges" for Flashcarts/Emus/TWLoader + Backup Saves!". It's by GameInCanada.
Note that TitleDB isn't around anymore, so ignore that part of the guide. Just use something like CheckPoint to create a .sav file from your cartridge. This tool is just going to let you extract the .sav file from your cartridge. There are many guides online about how to use CheckPoint.
Explanation: You're getting all the stuff from the cartridge to your SD card so you can bring it to your computer for an emulator.

2) After following that video guide, you should be playing your game on your emulator just fine. Now, after you've trained everyone to level 70 at 2x speed, you're ready to get this thing back to your actual Pokemon cartridge. Obviously, save in-game first. Then from the emulator, do: File --> Export Backup Memory, and put your .sav somewhere safe. Now load up your SD card on your computer. Navigate to the same location you got the .sav from earlier, which should be somewhere in CheckPoint. But this time you're going to make a new folder, alongside the folder which holds your original .sav. Name it something short. Then inside it, put that .sav file you exported from the emulator. Name it the same as the original .sav file, or CheckPoint can't restore it. For example, when I back up HeartGold, CheckPoint lets me name the backup. Let's say I choose "HG 5.23.19." On the SD card, this will create a folder called "HG 5.23.19" and a .sav file within called "POKEMON HG.sav" But the emulator's exported .sav file will be something like "POKEMON HG.0.sav" or whatever you name it to. So you need to rename it to "POKEMON HG.sav" or whatever CheckPoint calls them for your game. Once this folder is created and you've put the new .sav file in it (and renamed it), you can put the SD card back in your DS and load up CheckPoint to restore the new .sav file. Tada!

 

[Sanjomf]

---FIGURED IT OUT---

Solution:
For Desmume, you need to first load up the game you want to put into the cartridge, then do: File --> Export Backup Memory. That lets you export your game's updated .sav file.

Explanation:
Saving in-game does not update the .sav file that you loaded into the emulator. The emulator uses both (1) a .nds file, and (2) a .sav file, in order to play your personal Pokemon game. But when you save in-game, it does not overwrite the .sav file you loaded. The emulator (as far as I can tell) uses this thing called a .dsv file to keep track of your updated save progress. But you then need to export this progress into what they call a "raw" save format, or .sav, before you can restore it in your DS game.

Sorry for the useless topic. Hopefully someone will search this same question and find a bit of help.

EDIT: Thanks FAST for the reply - I was typing my resolution before you sent it!

Tutorial

So you want to play your DS/3DS Pokemon game on an emulator and be able to load it back to your physical game after. The reasons may be: speed up training, ease of use, etc. So here's how.

1) Load up Godmode9 and dump the cartridge. I'm not going to reinvent the wheel, so follow this Youtube guide: *I can't post hyperlinks, so just search on Youtube "How to Use Godmode9 - to "Dump Nintendo DS Cartridges" for Flashcarts/Emus/TWLoader + Backup Saves!". It's by GameInCanada.
Note that TitleDB isn't around anymore, so ignore that part of the guide. Just use something like CheckPoint to create a .sav file from your cartridge. This tool is just going to let you extract the .sav file from your cartridge. There are many guides online about how to use CheckPoint.
Explanation: You're getting all the stuff from the cartridge to your SD card so you can bring it to your computer for an emulator.

2) After following that video guide, you should be playing your game on your emulator just fine. Now, after you've trained everyone to level 70 at 2x speed, you're ready to get this thing back to your actual Pokemon cartridge. Obviously, save in-game first. Then from the emulator, do: File --> Export Backup Memory, and put your .sav somewhere safe. Now load up your SD card on your computer. Navigate to the same location you got the .sav from earlier, which should be somewhere in CheckPoint. But this time you're going to make a new folder, alongside the folder which holds your original .sav. Name it something short. Then inside it, put that .sav file you exported from the emulator. Name it the same as the original .sav file, or CheckPoint can't restore it. For example, when I back up HeartGold, CheckPoint lets me name the backup. Let's say I choose "HG 5.23.19." On the SD card, this will create a folder called "HG 5.23.19" and a .sav file within called "POKEMON HG.sav" But the emulator's exported .sav file will be something like "POKEMON HG.0.sav" or whatever you name it to. So you need to rename it to "POKEMON HG.sav" or whatever CheckPoint calls them for your game. Once this folder is created and you've put the new .sav file in it (and renamed it), you can put the SD card back in your DS and load up CheckPoint to restore the new .sav file. Tada!

Dude thanks so much for this explanation, I was looking everywhere to get detailed instructions on how to do this, and luckily I stumbled upon this post. I got it to work for me too, although my situation was a little different — I was able to use your directions to take a .sav file from twilight menu and inject it into the actual cartridge of the same game (so I didn’t have to use desmume). Appreciate it!