Hacking Saving GBA games

[kreation]

Hi all,
I don't want to inadvertently start a flame war being the new kid on the block and all but I've seen various threads around here about people having issues saving GBA games using the EZ-Flash V, myself included. I think we're all having similar issues which in my case is I don't know what the diff between NOR and SRAM is. I don't know what mode to boot a game in. What I can do is boot up any GBA rom and play it and save it when the game prompts me to. I turn the DS off and come back to it at a later time. When I boot up Rudolph's tool and pick my game, when it boots up and I'm in the game menu and I try to load the saved game I was playing, the save slots are empty. So obviously I and everyone else who is having issues are doing something wrong.

The point of all this is I was wondering if someone kindhearted could please type up a comprehensive tutorial and sticky it please as I feel like I'm running around in circles checking out youtube videos and other forums and posting in other forums and no one wants to answer this question. I don't want to be spoon fed the answer but I feel as if that's the only alternative left to me after looking everywhere else and finding nothing

If some could please help, that'd be great

Look forward to the replies.

 

[Psyfira]

The clearest explaination I've ever seen on the NOR/PSRAM subject was this one written by Destructobot:
http://gbatemp.net/index.php?s=&showto...st&p=714802

You're right though, it probably is overdue for a sticky.

 

[kreation]

Thanx for that Psyfira...that thread on that link you posted makes it all too complicated

Destructobot raises some great point but it's still got me puzzled me why I can't continue my game from where I left off. Are you supposed to be able to???

 

[Destructobot]

If you're using the 3in1 Expansion Pack Tool, most games will need to be SRAM patched before they will save properly. You can do this with GBATA.

If you're using GBA ExpLoader, make sure you have the latest version (currently 0.5 beta 1; get it here). If no saves are showing up in the list when you try to start a game, try disabling the multi-save feature (you have to edit the .ini file that comes with GBA ExpLoader). You do not need to SRAM patch games if you are using GBA ExpLoader.

 

[kreation]

Sounds great in theory Destructobot and I thank you for answering but I have no idea what you're talking about!! I'm using the GBA Exploader, I know that much, and I can see saved games in the GBA Exploader menu but i'm talking about when you actually choose a game and load the game, say Jet Set Radio, for example. When you press start and it says New or Load game, I choose load game but the save slots in the game are empty. When I first choose the gba exploader however, I can see my Jet Set Radio saved game. But I don't know if when I first start playing the game even before I save the game, should I be in SRAM or NOR mode and after playing it and saving it, do I boot the game in SRAM or NOR mode or do I just go into the game and try and load the game from there??

Am I making any sense??

 

[Destructobot]

PSRAM mode vs NOR mode is really just a matter of preference. PSRAM mode allows you to load a game in a matter of seconds, but you have to load the game onto the 3-in-1 each time you play. NOR mode allows you to store a game on the 3-in-1. It takes a few minutes to write the game to the NOR Flash memory, but once written it starts instantly, and it stays there until it is overwritten by a different game.

The only thing you need to be careful about is running the same game in both the PSRAM and NOR modes. This can sometimes cause your save file to be overwritten by an older version of that game's save. Do not run a game from PSRAM if it is already written to NOR. If you have played a game in PSRAM mode, load a different game in PSRAM mode before writing the game to NOR. This will prevent any confusion from using the same save file in both modes.

PSRAM and SRAM are not the same thing BTW. The PSRAM holds the game data, or acts as RAM for DS programs that can use it. SRAM holds the save data.


About your save problem; you see your save files in GBA ExpLoader, but the games don't seem to think they have any save data (i.e. you can only start a new game, not continue a saved game)? Am I understanding this correctly?

Make sure you aren't using roms that have been processed by the EZ4 Client. They won't save properly.

When you start GBA ExpLoader and it asks which slot to write the save to, choose one and press (A). If you press (B), the save data will not be written to a save file.

 

[kreation]

Hi Destructobot,
Thank you so much for your help and insight!! Regarding the last part of your post about, that's exactly what's happening...I can start a new game but if I try to load a game from the menu, the game itself not the GBA Exploader shows the save slots as empty

I'm not too sure what I'm doing wrong...I wish I could video myself loading and saving a game and then showing you how it doesn't save it. You sound like you know exactly what I'm talking about

What gba games do you play?

 

[Mloteq]

I've been using 3-in-1 with rudolphs' loader for a while now,and while it has been mostly painless there were couple of times when the saves were lost.I'm pretty sure I did everything I should (patching with GBATA when necessary etc) but maybe I did mess up something so my question is, under what conditions one would lose the saves?

 

[kreation]

Also when I save a game and power down and reboot, the gba Exploader is asking me to choose a save file, do I choose the save file when I'm in PSRAM or NOR mode? And should choosing the save file boot the game automatically??

Update on this: I manually deleted all files related to this on the micro sd card and the gba exploader.sav file as well and tried the whole process again and it worked!! I tried Super Mario World gba and it kept the saved game when I went back in. I guess all I need to know now is can I save different gba games or does it only hold the active game? So can I save my mario game and also jet set radio as long as I use different slots? And I choose the save slot for that game when I boot back up, yes??

Another update, I now realise that this doesn't work with all games, for example, super mario world kept my saved game whereas super monkey ball did not. Is there a compatability list anywhere or there is some way we can see which game will save and which won't??