ROM Hack Super Mario Advance 4 - All Unreleased e-Reader Cards Translated!!

[Jayro]

Hello, all of this is pretty interesting, i make a save file in no$gba with all the e level, and smb3 saves with the blue and red switches, the problem is when i try to load the save into an original SMA4 game, but it appears the "save file corrupted" message, this message appears in vba too, i can only play in no$gba

You may need to convert the save from No$gba to raw, and then flash it.

 

[celebi23]

I was wondering if it's possible to create custom e-Reader card files for the Unused Switch Content. There's 5 unused effects:

4000 Points Switch​

Switch ID: 0020
With this effect, the continuous enemy point bonus will start at 4000 instead of 100. This means that the player will start earning extra lives with the third enemy in a row.

1-Up Mushroom Switch​

Switch ID: 0004
With this switch active, all blocks that contain 1-Up Mushrooms will give three of them instead of one.

Floating Platform Switch​

Switch ID: 1000
This switch will enable a cool feature when you fall down a pit: the first two times the player falls down in a stage, they will be raised out of the pit by a floating platform. The first time it will be two blocks wide (much like the similar winged platforms of Super Mario World), and the second time it will be only one block. Jumping down a pit a third time will result in death.

Hold Box Switch​

Switch ID: 0008
This switch effect will add a hold item box to the center of the screen, again like Super Mario World. Once you get hit, the item will drop down and a new one will be added. The item box will always be a Mushroom at the start of the stage.

The item can be any one of the following: Mushroom, Fire Flower, Raccoon Leaf, Frog Suit, Tanooki Suit, Hammer Suit.

Luigi Demo Switch​

Switch ID: 4000
Any demo recorded with this switch active will have Mario replaced with Luigi when played back. If used during the main game in conjunction with the Luigi gameplay switch (4100), or during World-e, this will usually lead to Luigi dying.

Thanks!

 

[Renegade_X135]

Hello again. (Wow, it's been another long gap since checking this thread, I apologize.)

But on the lakitu screen/scanning card screen, the cyan switch appears with the exact cyan color, but after coming back to the world e map, the color reverts to blue green. I believe this is a programming mistake. If both switches have the same palette, why does this change in color only happen to the cyan switch?

Good question, you'd have to ask the SMA4 devs directly. It's very likely that these palette issues were just an unchecked oversight. Or it could just be that the number of available palettes was too limited for the overworld map room and/or lakitu screen room (remember that the GBA only has 16 palettes of 15 colors + 1 transparency for sprites and layers each, for a total of 32 palettes)

I transferred a CIA file of a SMA4 ROM with the e-reader levels patched into it on my homebrewed 3DS XL, but I got a message saying "Your saved data is corrupted." Could someone please help me out? What should I do?

When you use the word "patch", what do you mean? Did you load the e-reader levels into a SAV file, and included that SAV along with the GBA game file upon importing into 3DS? (I have zero idea how .cia/.3ds installations work btw) ....OR.... did you use just the 2016 Wii-U VC version of the game (which has all e-reader levels built in) as part of your installation? Because there are two very different outcomes from performing either.

Hello, all of this is pretty interesting, i make a save file in no$gba with all the e level, and smb3 saves with the blue and red switches, the problem is when i try to load the save into an original SMA4 game, but it appears the "save file corrupted" message, this message appears in vba too, i can only play in no$gba

Unfortunately, No$GBA has this bizarre thing where the SAV files created from it are not compatible with other GBA programs (VBA/mGBA/etc), or even with native cartridges. At least, not without manually modifying the binary SAV file and removing a few bytes. (there exist online programs that will clip these SAV files to make them compatible).

In addition, SAV files from the original 2003 SMA4 game, and the 2016 Wii-U version are NOT compatible with one another when it comes to e-Reader save data. It is possible for a save file to go from the 2003 version to the 2016 version, but NOT vice-versa (without the save becoming corrupted). This is due to the nature of where the e-Reader levels are being sourced from: RAM (2003), or ROM (2016).

I was wondering if it's possible to create custom e-Reader card files for the Unused Switch Content. There's 5 unused effects:


Thanks!

In theory, yes, it is possible to create custom e-Reader card files for the unused switches. There are a few things to keep in mind however:

1) There are 16 effects total: 10 used, 5 unused, and 1 unknown. Each effect can be combined by adding the hexadecimal values together. In total, this means that there are 2^16 or 65,536 possible combinations, with 0000 being none, and FFFF being all at the same time.

2) You will also need to take into effect the other attributes of the e-reader effect, as it appears in the BIN file: This includes the color palette for the switch, as well as which versions of the game the effect will work in (main game, and e-reader world). I believe that the documentation for these switch BIN files was included in my project files that I uploaded here 3+ years ago.

3) Don't forget about the Nintendo-official checksum header for the BIN files. (again, documentation for that is also included in the project files).

Wishing you luck in your endeavors with creating custom e-reader BIN files.

 

[CharlieF]

Done, SMA4-SMB3(GS).sav has the Red Switch scanned in Files 2 and 3 but not in File 1 with the Green Switch scanned in World-e. I didn't know if you also wanted the Red Switch in World-e or not so SMA4-SMB3(GS)(2).sav was put in this zip file for that.

I came across this thread and was able to import these save files into VisualBoyAdvance and also use them on my GBAX5-mini. I wanted to add more info. for anybody else that comes across it. Does this sound about right?

SMA4-SMB3 WiiU Version Save Files

Usage Notes:
VisualBoyAvance>Options>Emulator>Save Type 'Flash 128 KB' and use *.sav extension
GBAX5-mini: GBASYS>SAVE> *.fla extension

Save 1:
File 1:Blue, Orange, Blue Green, and Yellow Switches
File 2:Blue, Orange, Blue Green, Yellow, and Red Switches
File 3:Blue, Orange, Blue Green, Yellow, and Red Switches
World-e: Blue, Orange, Green, and Cyan Switches

Save 2:
File 1:Blue, Orange, Blue Green, and Yellow Switches
File 2:Blue, Orange, Blue Green, Yellow, and Red Switches
File 3:Blue, Orange, Blue Green, Yellow, and Red Switches
World-e: Blue, Orange, Green, Cyan, and Red Switches

Switches:

Blue (X1) Changes most 1-Up Mushrooms into 3-Up Moons, allowing the player to accumulate extra lives much faster. Code: 83002D52 0400

Orange (X2) Fire Mario's fireballs turn non-boss enemies into coins, like in Super Mario World. Code: 83002D52 0040

Blue Green (X3) Grass with turnips appears throughout the main game, which Mario can pluck and throw at enemies, like in Super Mario Bros. 2. It is permanently on in World-e. Code: 83002D52 0001

Yellow (X4) Gives Luigi his scuttle ability from Super Mario Bros. 2 in the main game, and made his fireballs bounce higher, like in Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2. It is permanently on in World-e. Code: 83002D52 0100

Green (X5) World-e levels have a slow timer countdown and music for the first 50 counts of the timer, giving the player more time to complete each level. Once this effect expires, a coin sound effect is played, and both the timer and the music go back to normal speed. Code: 83002D52 0010

Cyan (X6) Reduces the Power Meter in World-e from six steps into just three, making it easier to run and fly with Raccoon or Tanooki Mario. Code: 83002D52 0002

Red (X7) Replaces most of the enemies in the game with more difficult ones, doubles any points gained and the bosses' health, and makes Mario go directly from any fully powered-up form to Small Mario, rather than to Super Mario whenever he got hit, as in Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, and the original version of Super Mario World. Code: 83002D52 2A80; 0080 only provides the Mario/Luigi damage modification; 0200 has just the point multiplier; 0800 gives you only the harder enemies; and 2000 is exclusively the boss damage modification

 

[Tsquare07]

Nice work!
Finally each level is now their proper .bin file for an eReader card

I also wanted to ask, would this help to like create a ROM of Super Mario Advance 4 with all of the eReader levels? In like injecting them somehow without the limit of the 32 levels that the original SMA4 had?
So that we can have a ROM with all of the eReader levels without having to rely on the legally dubious patch floating around.

You can download the Rom with all 38 e-reader levels here. This is rom of the version officially released on Virtual Console by Nintendo.

In theory, yes, it is possible to create custom e-Reader card files for the unused switches. There are a few things to keep in mind however:

1) There are 16 effects total: 10 used, 5 unused, and 1 unknown. Each effect can be combined by adding the hexadecimal values together. In total, this means that there are 2^16 or 65,536 possible combinations, with 0000 being none, and FFFF being all at the same time.

2) You will also need to take into effect the other attributes of the e-reader effect, as it appears in the BIN file: This includes the color palette for the switch, as well as which versions of the game the effect will work in (main game, and e-reader world). I believe that the documentation for these switch BIN files was included in my project files that I uploaded here 3+ years ago.

3) Don't forget about the Nintendo-official checksum header for the BIN files. (again, documentation for that is also included in the project files).

Wishing you luck in your endeavors with creating custom e-reader BIN files.

Hello Renegade,

I really want to create custom switch cards with unused effect but i really have no clue on how to do it exactly. The only thing i could do and have done is putting all the 7 official switch bin files through a hex editor to see the difference (I documented all of these differences in the a table word file below) in certain values such as checksum, card identifiers, etc. So i suppose if i could find these values for the unused effects I would be able to create custom switch cards with a hex editor, yes? But how do i figure out the check cum or the identifiers of the unused effects? I'm not really a coder or programmer so i absolutely have no idea how to use the programs in your project files.

Word file: