Hacking Supercard Lite

[DJ Hobo]

I was thinking about getting a SuperCard Lite to play GBA Games and to surf the net. However, I've heard that the Lite doesn't have very good compatibility with GBA games due to speed issues or something. So of course, most of you would tell me to get an EZ Flash 3-in-1

But the thing is, I want to be able to do GBA Union with my SuperCard DS One as well, which can't be done with an EZ-Flash 3-in-1. So, after a bit of reading, it seems as if the Supercard Lite can boot up GBA games when the Supercard DS One is inserted, Is this true? How about the Opera Browser? Can I surf the net if I had the DS One and the Lite? And what about GBA Union? Is it as simple as turning on the GBA Union in the DS One's menu, and then launching the GBA & DS Roms? Or is there some kind of patching required?

Thanks

 

[jos7960]

EZ-Flash 3-in-1 CAN do gba union.
Just load your rom on the NOR memory. Just read about it.
EZ-Flash 3-in-1 is the way to go if you want to play gba on your ds.

I had a old supercard lite, but slowdowns occured with some games.

 

[DJ Hobo]

EZ-Flash 3-in-1 CAN do gba union.
Just load your rom on the NOR memory. Just read about it.
EZ-Flash 3-in-1 is the way to go if you want to play gba on your ds.

I had a old supercard lite, but slowdowns occured with some games.

Wow, I thought I did some pretty thorough reading, but I never saw anything about loading the rom onto the NOR... Well, I might try it then if I do indeed get the 3-in-1.

 

[DanTheManMS]

I believe you may need to do some tinkering to get the union to work correctly (probably involves patching of either the DS rom or GBA rom) but it should work with the NOR memory.

 

[DJ Hobo]

I believe you may need to do some tinkering to get the union to work correctly (probably involves patching of either the DS rom or GBA rom) but it should work with the NOR memory.

Patching them with what, exactly?

 

[Destructobot]

I believe you may need to do some tinkering to get the union to work correctly (probably involves patching of either the DS rom or GBA rom) but it should work with the NOR memory.

No, if you flash the game to NOR it will just work (except for the pokeyman games, the DS games need to be patched for that to work). You can actually get GBA union working in PSRAM mode as well, avoiding the need to flash the game to NOR, but that requires a bit of fairly easy tinkering to set up.

 

[DJ Hobo]

I believe you may need to do some tinkering to get the union to work correctly (probably involves patching of either the DS rom or GBA rom) but it should work with the NOR memory.

No, if you flash the game to NOR it will just work (except for the pokeyman games, the DS games need to be patched for that to work). You can actually get GBA union working in PSRAM mode as well, avoiding the need to flash the game to NOR, but that requires a bit of fairly easy tinkering to set up.

Are there any tutorials or guides on this?

 

[DanTheManMS]

I believe you may need to do some tinkering to get the union to work correctly (probably involves patching of either the DS rom or GBA rom) but it should work with the NOR memory.

No, if you flash the game to NOR it will just work (except for the pokeyman games, the DS games need to be patched for that to work). You can actually get GBA union working in PSRAM mode as well, avoiding the need to flash the game to NOR, but that requires a bit of fairly easy tinkering to set up.

Heh, the only time I really looked into GBA Union was regarding the Pokemon games, so that's why I had that idea. Thanks for clearing it up.

 

[Destructobot]

Here's the pokemon patch: http://ezflash.sosuke.com/viewtopic.php?f=...=a&start=15

You just follow the instructions in the readme file to apply the patch to a clean, untrimmed copy of Diamond or Pearl. GBA Pokemon games have to be flashed to NOR in order for the DS games to detect them properly.


You'll be using GBA ExpLoader to load games onto the 3-in-1 and run them (it's far better than any other 3-in-1 loader). There are two things you have to do (other than just dropping it onto the memory card) to get it set up properly.

First, you edit the GBA_ExpLoader.ini file in a text editor and remove the # from the noMultisave line (the multisave feature causes problems with the Pokemon games, and probably other games that use the same save type). The file goes in the root of the memory card.

Second, you'll want to use the NDS Backup Tool to dump a rom of the SCDS1 (a fairly simple process). You then rename the SCF_DSGB00.nds file that this produces to SoftReset.SCDS and move it to the root of the memory card. This allows GBA ExpLoader to soft reset back to the SCDS1 menu, and that in turn allows you to enable the rumble function for DS games and the RAM function for the web browser, as well as allowing you to use GBA union in PSRAM mode. You just highlight the game and press select. It will load the GBA game, then reset back to the SCDS1 menu, where you just run the DS game you want to connect to the GBA game.

This step can be skipped if you don't care about these features.



A quick explanation of PSRAM and NOR:

PSRAM is a type of RAM; data can be written to it quickly (about 15 seconds for the biggest roms that will fit in the 3-in-1's PSRAM), but that data disappears as soon as the power is turned off, so you have to wait a few seconds to load the game into PSRAM every time you run it.

NOR is a type of flash memory; It is slow to write (about 4.5 minutes for the biggest GBA roms), but the data is not lost when the power is turned off. Once a game is flashed to NOR, the 3-in-1 behaves just like a regular game pak. It loads instantly and DS games that support GBA union will detect it as whichever GBA game is flashed to NOR at the moment.

The 3-in-1 has 32MB of NOR and 16MB of PSRAM. The biggest GBA games are 32MB, but the vast majority are 16MB or smaller.

 

[DJ Hobo]

Ok, thanks for that. From the reading I had done before posting, I knew about GBA Exploader and NDS Backup Tool, and I knew (roughly) what PSRAM and NOR were, I just didn't know that Union would work when writing the rom to NOR memory, and I didn't know about the patch either.

So thanks a lot for the help, greatly appreciated.

 

[Asitaka]

Err... from the supercard menu, you can choose gba union. Just put the gba on your slot-1 and the .nds, choose gba union, choose the gba rom, then load the .nds rom regularly. Did this for, umm... Final Fantasy A2 and worked like a charm.

 

[DJ Hobo]

Err... from the supercard menu, you can choose gba union. Just put the gba on your slot-1 and the .nds, choose gba union, choose the gba rom, then load the .nds rom regularly. Did this for, umm... Final Fantasy A2 and worked like a charm.

Err... but don't you need a slot two? That's the whole reason for the thread....

 

[Asitaka]

Actually, I didn't (I don't think) I have a slot 2 lite which I rarely use, the slot-1 is for gaming, the slot-2 has comic book reader which I use to read text books etc. I'm pretty sure you can put a .gba on the slot-1 select 'GBA Union' and load it with the .nds game without even using a slot-2 card.

As far as getting the supercard lite, I got it for gba games too, but I don't use it, everything just goes on the slot-1 so, I don't know how useful it is to have 2. You can only use 1 at a time (the slot-1 becomes a passkey)

 

[DJ Hobo]

Actually, I didn't (I don't think) I have a slot 2 lite which I rarely use, the slot-1 is for gaming, the slot-2 has comic book reader which I use to read text books etc. I'm pretty sure you can put a .gba on the slot-1 select 'GBA Union' and load it with the .nds game without even using a slot-2 card.

No, you can't... that's why I created the thread in the first place.. I knew using the slot-1 as the sole card wouldn't work so slot 2 seemed like the only option.

Anyways, the question's already been answered now, so it doesn't matter.