Hacking Software for oldest GBA linkers

snk4ever

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I modded my Panda GBA with a backlight screen and found my old linker in the drawer. It is some flash advance pro 256M from the early days of the GBA, the type that you flash with a parallel port linker and an external 9V power supply.

I still have a old Thinkpad running Windows XP that has a parallel port but no longer have the correct software. Anyone here can help by providing a copy of the definitive software for this ? I think I remember that the stock software required patching of later games and some more recent software was able to patch roms on the fly before transfering and flashing the card.
 

Plstic

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I modded my Panda GBA with a backlight screen and found my old linker in the drawer. It is some flash advance pro 256M from the early days of the GBA, the type that you flash with a parallel port linker and an external 9V power supply.

I still have a old Thinkpad running Windows XP that has a parallel port but no longer have the correct software. Anyone here can help by providing a copy of the definitive software for this ? I think I remember that the stock software required patching of later games and some more recent software was able to patch roms on the fly before transfering and flashing the card.
Does it maybe work with uCON64? https://ucon64.sourceforge.io/
 
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snk4ever

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Does it maybe work with uCON64? https://ucon64.sourceforge.io/
Looks like it should ! I think mine is this one:
Flash Advance Linker
2001 Visoly http://www.visoly.com
(uCON64 options: --xfal, --xfalmulti, --xfalc, --xfals, --xfalb, --xfalm)

I didn't know about this software, it seems to also support a PC Engine linker I have that I never flashed before (was part of a PC Engine lot I bought a while ago):
PCE-PRO
200X ToToTEK http://www.tototek.com
(uCON64 option: --xpce)

Thanks ! I will try it hopefully tomorrow.
 

Plstic

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Looks like it should ! I think mine is this one:
Flash Advance Linker
2001 Visoly http://www.visoly.com
(uCON64 options: --xfal, --xfalmulti, --xfalc, --xfals, --xfalb, --xfalm)

I didn't know about this software, it seems to also support a PC Engine linker I have that I never flashed before (was part of a PC Engine lot I bought a while ago):
PCE-PRO
200X ToToTEK http://www.tototek.com
(uCON64 option: --xpce)

Thanks ! I will try it hopefully tomorrow.
Well let me know how it goes. Cheers!
 

FAST6191

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If you have a DS and DS slot flash cart there is FAS1 that might work here (don't know what the pro does or does not do here. I know the f2a stuff does not work with it but it is for flash advance so who knows).
https://code.google.com/archive/p/fas1/

GBATA might also be wanted to patch games depending upon how far advanced the things got
http://www.no-intro.org/tools.htm
http://gbatemp.net/threads/buying-a-gba-flash-cart-in-2013.341203/page-18#post-4756995 might also be of interest.

There is also littlewriter that might do
http://www.gameboy-advance.net/fal_soft/flash_advance_little_writer.htm
It also appears to distinguish between the pro and regular and turbo so I am even more "I don't know" about FAS1 above.
 
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snk4ever

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If you have a DS and DS slot flash cart there is FAS1 that might work here (don't know what the pro does or does not do here. I know the f2a stuff does not work with it but it is for flash advance so who knows).
https://code.google.com/archive/p/fas1/

GBATA might also be wanted to patch games depending upon how far advanced the things got
http://www.no-intro.org/tools.htm
http://gbatemp.net/threads/buying-a-gba-flash-cart-in-2013.341203/page-18#post-4756995 might also be of interest.

There is also littlewriter that might do
http://www.gameboy-advance.net/fal_soft/flash_advance_little_writer.htm
It also appears to distinguish between the pro and regular and turbo so I am even more "I don't know" about FAS1 above.
Little Writer ! This was it I think, the one that auto-trims and auto-patches. The link seems down, going on a hunt online.
 

snk4ever

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Little Writer was a success ! I had to enable ECP in the Bios, and strangely had to switch to LTP3 in the options for the linker to be detected even though it showed as LTP1 in Windows.
 

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