Hacking Supercard Lite in a GBM?

[NoCAshBob]

Before anything let me say: Yes, I know the SuperCard Lite is design form-factor wise for NDSL only, please no "the website says NDSL only" posts, thanks.

I'd like to know if anyone has modified the case to allow a SuperCard Lite to fit in a Gameboy Micro, or an SP.

Secondly, as it uses the same kernel as the Mini-SD, I would assume it still has the pure Slot-2 GBA loader code regardless of it's NDSL-only intentions, and that it will function properly in a Gameboy Micro or SP. any thoughts or comments on this?

I ask because of the faster hardware, and faster available MicroSD cards this unit has would be much better suited for native GBC, GB playing through supercards emus (I'm not a big Goomba fan, I like plug-n-play support ), and would play GBA games with less slowdown, prompting me less often to switch to my EZ-IV for GBA needs.

Also no, I do not want to get an M3 Lite Perfect. They're too expensive.

Thanks for any help!

 

[DanTheManMS]

Yes it should load GBA files just fine once you put it in GBA mode. However, your reasons for doing this appear to have some flaws. GBA game slowdown is caused entirely by the speed of the RAM and has nothing to do with the microSD card speed (for DS games it's the opposite). I don't remember if the SCLite has faster RAM or not, but I imagine it still has some slowdown.

GB/GBC playback will not change at all by getting the SCL, as it's the limitation of the emulator itself. The fact that the built-in version of Goomba Color is the antique Alpha 6 version is the reason you get slowdowns in some games, so you'd have to create your own compilations with the latest version to remedy this.

On a side note, in all versions of Goomba Color, going into the settings and changing the GBC Double Speed setting to "timers" usually yields a pretty good speed increase. The reason it's on Full by default is because some games refuse to boot if its in Timers mode, but for every other game it's the best speedhack option available.

 

[Mangofett]

Yes... speed will not change whether you get the MiniSD or the MicroSD ver...

 

[Xqtftqx]

Ive done this with a help of a action replay. simply plug it in the back, load the action replay and press play

 

[NoCAshBob]

Thanks for the input guys (gals

), I guess I'll stick with my EZIV. I hate having to patch each and every game though, it's a pain in the @55. On the plus side, If the SCLite or MiniSD really gets slowdown even in Goomba Color, then that's pretty bad..

I guess I'll have to find the changes those patches take, and whip up a utility in VB to make it a 1 step process. It really is a pain..

EG: create GBA through Goomba, run through a patcher to fix 32 to 64KB save issue with EZIV, run through GBATA to correct header previous patch butchered, then run through EZIV Client program remembering to rename rom and disable all patches. Do that for EVERY GB[C] rom one at a time.

Yep, definately gonna make a utility..

 

[DanTheManMS]

On the plus side, If the SCLite or MiniSD really gets slowdown even in Goomba Color, then that's pretty bad..
You misunderstand. It's not the Supercard that causes the slowdown in GBC games, at least not directly. It's just the fact that it's using the old Alpha 6 version of Goomba Color, which itself may slow down in some games. It has nothing to do with the Supercard hardware.

QUOTEEG: create GBA through Goomba, run through a patcher to fix 32 to 64KB save issue with EZIV, run through GBATA to correct header previous patch butchered, then run through EZIV Client program remembering to rename rom and disable all patches. Do that for EVERY GB[C] rom one at a time.

Yep, definately gonna make a utility..

Why on earth would you do that for every GB/C rom you have? Goomba Color is meant to be used as a compilation, meaning you can have up to 32 MB worth of games in a single *.gba file. Now granted, on an EZ-IV you'd probably want to keep your compilations less than 16 MB in size so you can use PSRAM, but that's beside the point. You can also try using the version of Goomba Color that only uses a 32 KB save so you don't have to do one of those steps, though I'm not sure how many game saves you'll be able to hold in each compilation if you do that. And I'm fairly certain you could use the command-line GBAfix utility and some batch scripting to avoid having to use GBATA at all, as this tool can both fix the header and give it an internal title of your choosing.

 

[NoCAshBob]

Why on earth would you do that for every GB/C rom you have? Goomba Color is meant to be used as a compilation

I misunderstood nothing, I'm stating that if some GBA roms run slow, and for whatever the reason may be GBC emu is as well, I need not bother. I never said I thought it to be from the ram.

I appreciate the suggestion regarding compilations as well, but as I said, I like plug and play, and I like each rom to load quick. I don't like the "A-D, E-G, etc" approach. 32K version of Goomba still needs to be patched when using EZIV unfortunately.

So yeah, I'm going to keep making my little utility so all the other EZIV users can benefit. I've found exactly which bytes need to be changed and to what universally, so it's just a matter of coding up the GUI and relearning how to code IO in VB (Been a while). It's still going to support compilation etc, just a better GUI. It'll be similar to Goomba Color's existing frontend, but with more options, and support for trouble cards.

I do appreciate the help though, it's good to see a community that gets involved