Homebrew SCFW: Custom Firmware & Kernel for Supercard

[OmDRetro]

Thank you so much I got the final fantasy games working and metroid zero mission as well. Still can not get Duke Nukem advance to work but thank you for your help. I still cant get the card to work on my standard GBA I tried a different SD card, cleaning it, cleaning the GBA pins. I am not too concerned about it though thank you for your suggestions anyway. I have enough legit games to play on it I dont need the supercard as well. Mostly to run second copies to play multiplayer. Tested out 4 swords with my copy of zelda and the supercard and it worked great

Ahh... Looks like one of those edge cases again(Duke Nukem Advance). Glad you got it to work(FF Games) and the issue is also marked on our github repo as a needed kernel enhancement.

I ran the suggested update for the firmware using the OFW.frm file provided to account for the c2ba flash chip, this succeeded in updating the firmware which now shows v1.85. Unfortunately the Supercard is now also showing a list of sdram errors and continues to show a flash error quoting the c2ba chip, and wont detect any sd cards. I will attempt to flash back to older firmware using an R4 tomorrow. Any ideas on how to fix this?

Guess what? There are instances of FAKE and LEGIT versions of the Supercard SD.

https://web.archive.org/web/20070509174322/http://eng.supercard.cn/fake.htm

Here're some snapshots from the archive:

"All Fake SuperCard have common features:

• The Fake will corrupt your SAVE DATA.
• The Fake will white screen more often.
• The Fake is very hard to insert and plug out the Mini SD/SD flash card."

Also, if you happen to be the user with a SuperCard SD version 1.52, you can use the attached firmware to install the older OS while on stock.

If the firmware is corrupted(which I assume came from installing the stock firmware via a dying microsd card), you need a DS and a SLOT-1 flashcart. Download this (Linfox domain mirror) onto your SLOT-1 flashcart and use the tool afterwards.

NOTE: sd_152.bin file MUST BE RUN ON A DS in Game Boy Advance Mode (According to the developer)

 

[Apache Thunder]

Hardware limitation the cart doesn't contain enough save memory. There are theoretical alternatives but it's hard to know whether it'll work unless it's tried.

I've read somewhere someone mentioned that most SuperCards do have 128K of sram but the page switching isn't physically wired up so only 64K is usable. Might have been specific to SC Lite though. Don't recall. SC Lite uses something non volatile for SRAM as it does not have SRAM battery like most DS phat versions.

The end result is the same though. No amount of software tweaks can allow 128K saves on SuperCards.

 

[SylverReZ]

Guess what? There are instances of FAKE and LEGIT versions of the Supercard SD.

https://web.archive.org/web/20070509174322/http://eng.supercard.cn/fake.htm

Here're some snapshots from the archive:

View attachment 448082

View attachment 448083

"All Fake SuperCard have common features:

• The Fake will corrupt your SAVE DATA.
• The Fake will white screen more often.
• The Fake is very hard to insert and plug out the Mini SD/SD flash card."

This is incredibly helpful. Never seen anybody mention this, so thanks.

 

[Bandit_Keith]

Ahh... Looks like one of those edge cases again(Duke Nukem Advance). Glad you got it to work(FF Games) and the issue is also marked on our github repo as a needed kernel enhancement.

Cool cool, I have no idea if this may be the issue with my AGB001 but I do have an aftermarket shell on it and bootleg carts and the super sd card dont fit flush with the case like an original game does. I dont think thats the issue cause it still makes good contact with the pins other bootlegs played fine on it. it only sticks up like less than a millimeter but still doesnt go as far in as a legit game does.

 

[pikachuguay23]

I bought the supercard and when I put the games in the specific export program and upload them to the card in the game boy advance it doesn't have any effect on the Nintendo DS, they do work but I don't understand why after 4 months I still haven't been able to run any games on it. the game boy advance. WHAT AM I DOING WRONG ?. I have a 1GB and a 2GB card that are not SDHC and neither works. The supercard is updated to 1.85. I'm seriously desperate, please someone help me, I'm very, very stuck and I just want to play. I have read everything you have posted in the forum and I do not understand most of the things you post. Is there a tutorial or link that someone can recommend so I can do it all? Thank you all, I'm very desperate now and it's very frustrating.

 

[marizkyu]

I bought the supercard and when I put the games in the specific export program and upload them to the card in the game boy advance it doesn't have any effect on the Nintendo DS, they do work but I don't understand why after 4 months I still haven't been able to run any games on it. the game boy advance. WHAT AM I DOING WRONG ?. I have a 1GB and a 2GB card that are not SDHC and neither works. The supercard is updated to 1.85. I'm seriously desperate, please someone help me, I'm very, very stuck and I just want to play. I have read everything you have posted in the forum and I do not understand most of the things you post. Is there a tutorial or link that someone can recommend so I can do it all? Thank you all, I'm very desperate now and it's very frustrating.

if you use scfw, follow the instruction on text and you just need to copy paste the game without converting the game using the software
if you are using ofw, convert the game using the software, make sure the output folder is anywhere except the microsd (it will break if you directly choose the microsd), and then move the converted game to the microsd

edit: after looking at written guide and youtube, i was wrong about the output folder. the right one is that the conversion path is directly put on microsd

 

[pikachuguay23]

if you use scfw, follow the instruction on text and you just need to copy paste the game without converting the game using the software
if you are using ofw, convert the game using the software, make sure the output folder is anywhere except the microsd (it will break if you directly choose the microsd), and then move the converted game to the microsd

I don't use scfw, but I want to use it because the official one doesn't work. Is there a tutorial here to get started?

 

[NoCaPo]

I bought the supercard and when I put the games in the specific export program and upload them to the card in the game boy advance it doesn't have any effect on the Nintendo DS, they do work but I don't understand why after 4 months I still haven't been able to run any games on it. the game boy advance. WHAT AM I DOING WRONG ?. I have a 1GB and a 2GB card that are not SDHC and neither works. The supercard is updated to 1.85. I'm seriously desperate, please someone help me, I'm very, very stuck and I just want to play. I have read everything you have posted in the forum and I do not understand most of the things you post. Is there a tutorial or link that someone can recommend so I can do it all? Thank you all, I'm very desperate now and it's very frustrating.

If you want to play NDS games you must boot your supercard with PassMe in Slot1 o flash your NDS with Flashme. Otherwise you only be able to run GBA games

 

[marizkyu]

I don't use scfw, but I want to use it because the official one doesn't work. Is there a tutorial here to get started?

yt link watch?v=nzzFrSbHfaU
docs link document/d/1CQQUMnC2aq4dEevPbLqK_xKPuxEScyJo/edit

i use these link to get the official/ofw works. cant put links directly so i just copy the latter half of the links
also, i need to correct myself. the conversion path/output folder must be on microsd.

 

[pikachuguay23]

If you want to play NDS games you must boot your supercard with PassMe in Slot1 o flash your NDS with Flashme. Otherwise you only be able to run GBA games

i only want to use gba games in a game boy advance. I dont want play in nds but how can i config it ?

 

[Ceymsbolt]

How can I go back to official firmware?

 

[Xyvir]

How can I go back to official firmware?

There is a supercard flasher application called sckill.nds you can run from a slot 1 nds

 

[SomeAbyss]

Hello, I've been using SCFW for a few weeks now. Though, just today the kernal was deleted off of the sd card along with everything in the scfw file. And when trying to put back the files into the folder, it would disappear or delete it's self.

It was fix, though by deleting the folder and uploading the scfw file I backed up, it started to work again. Does anyone know why?

 

[OmDRetro]

Hello, I've been using SCFW for a few weeks now. Though, just today the kernal was deleted off of the sd card along with everything in the scfw file. And when trying to put back the files into the folder, it would disappear or delete it's self.

It was fix, though by deleting the folder and uploading the scfw file I backed up, it started to work again. Does anyone know why?

The kernel is not designed to delete itself and I cannot replicate that issue on my end. ~ A non-issue

The ff. scenarios come to mind:

• A malfunctioning sdcard / TF card
  • Try a different micro SD card / TF Card
• User negligence:
  • Improperly removed(yanked) while the device + cartridge is on
  • Removed the device from the PC's card reader without safely removing it to ensure no data corruption.

Micro SD cards(or TF cards in general) are sensitive and if you're active on some SBC forums like the Raspberry Pi forums, you'd understand that you have be careful with those tiny cards.

Also, a little bit of online searching will do you wonders

 

[SuperCardDeepFan]

A present for the group

 

[SomeAbyss]

The kernel is not designed to delete itself and I cannot replicate that issue on my end. ~ A non-issue

The ff. scenarios come to mind:

• A malfunctioning sdcard / TF card
  • Try a different micro SD card / TF Card
• User negligence:
  • Improperly removed(yanked) while the device + cartridge is on
  • Removed the device from the PC's card reader without safely removing it to ensure no data corruption.

Micro SD cards(or TF cards in general) are sensitive and if you're active on some SBC forums like the Raspberry Pi forums, you'd understand that you have be careful with those tiny cards.

Also, a little bit of online searching will do you wonders

Thanks, it's probably negligence on my end. It my first time doing such a thing.

 

[CleberPrado]

Can I put my saves on the SD card and continue playing? I tried putting .sav files in the cart, but I get the ‘put in manual save’ message and don’t know how to proceed.

 

[OmDRetro]

Can I put my saves on the SD card and continue playing? I tried putting .sav files in the cart, but I get the ‘put in manual save’ message and don’t know how to proceed.

I'm not sure what you mean by "Put in manual save", but I believe this was also answered on our Github repository:

Section: "Save file does not exist"​

​

This means that the associated save file for the ROM you are trying to open does not exist.​

​

This is normal if:​

• You opened the game for the first time on a new TF/microSD card.
• You did not transfer the save file which should carry the same name as the ROM you're trying to load(minus the extension)
• Once you soft reboot/power cycle your GBA after loading a rom, a save file will be generated afterwards thus the prompt will cease the next time you run that game.
• You need to take note that the save file carries the same filename as the ROM minus the extension
  
  • So, if you ever rename the ROM that already has a save, you must rename the save file as well in order for it to be recognized. Otherwise, the save file "doesn't exist" due to human error/your mistake.

 

[and4685]

how can I install the original firmware from the supercard if I don't want more this custom firmware

Post automatically merged: Aug 24, 2024

It is going to be possible to run gb or gbc games?

 

[OmDRetro]

how can I install the original firmware from the supercard if I don't want more this custom firmware

Post automatically merged: Aug 24, 2024

It is going to be possible to run gb or gbc games?

The latest pre-release adds support for the ff. emulators

Emulator	Target System / Additional feature	Quit to firmware	Soft reset support	Modular
Goomba / Super Goomba / Jagoomba Color	Game Boy
Goomba Color / Jagoomba Color	Game Boy Color
NGPGBA	Neo Geo Pocket / Color	⚠
PCEAdvance	NEC PC-Engine / TurboGrafx-16
PocketNES	Nintendo Entertainment System / Family Computer	⚠
SMSAdvance	Sega Game 1000 / Sega 1000
SMSAdvance	Sega Game Gear
SMSAdvance	Sega Master System
WasabiGBA	Watara/Quickshot Supervision	⚠
HVCA	Famicom Disk System / NSF player			‼
SwanGBA	WonderSwan / WonderSwan Color / Benesse Pocket Challenge V2
DrSMS	Sega Master System Mark III			‼
DrSMS	Game Gear			‼

It also adds support for:

• E-Book Advance
  • Loads TXT files (*.txt)
• Music Player Advance 2
  • Loads Music Player Advance files (*.mpa)
  • Loads Music Player Advance Compilation files (*.mpac)
  • MPA2-Compilation-Tools can be used to create *.MPAC files

As for reverting back to stock, flash this firmware file within SCFW