Hacking Supercard sd gba problems

[Skyhigh_]

I have a supercard sd mini gba flashcart which is purple

The annoying part of this card is that i need to use supercards software to patch games so they can be played, because if i load a game without it being patched it will just stay on the white screen.

The patching is exactly my problem, i use the latest patch software thye have on their website which is version 2.71. The patch software probably only patches 25% of games with success the rest dont get patched and can't be played.

The silly thing is i once successfully patched 2 games, same 2 games that i can't patch anymore.

Is there a specific way to patch without problems? Because nearly every gba game that i try to patch comes out as ''fail''. Adding games to the sd without patching only results on a forever loading white screen so they never work.

gb/gbc and older games don't require patching .... but gba games always do or they never work.

 

[DanTheManMS]

I highly doubt that this is the issue, but just in case: are you telling the Supercard software to output directly to your SD card? That's actually a huge no-no, and you want to output to some folder on your hard drive first (perhaps on your desktop) and then copy-and-paste the patched roms over manually. If this is in fact the issue, please format your card (copy your files off first of course) to start off with a blank slate. The slot-2 Supercards don't work well with cards that have any filesystem corruption whatsoever.

You are correct that most GBA games usually must be patched before they will run on the GBA. I say most, but really only a very few homebrew programs will run without patching so it might as well be "all"

EDIT: Here is an old but still-useful "intro to Supercard" guide which may help: https://sites.google.com/site/danthemanms2/ea05th_s_SuperCard_Guide_v1.1.pdf

 

[Skyhigh_]

Sorry i should have clarified, i was never trying to output the patch file directly to sd card, it has always been in a folder in my desktop.

Also some games that did get successfully patch ( which was a very limited amount) have trouble saving in game. I noticed this after i played a game for like 40 min saved in game and then when i wanted to play it again the save wasn't there. Tried the l+R+a+select combo and saved and it seemed to work however some games save just fine without doing this combo which i might forget considering i sometimes play on and off ( like 1 week and then maybe nothing for 2 months).


I had this card for a while now, and since the patching was so dull and inconsistent i kind of didn't bother with it until now again. The funny part is after messing the the patcher for about an hour i managed to successfully patch some other games. It still says ''fail'' but the files were created and i tested them on the card and the game loads fine , however others that also said ''fail'' and still created patch files show a white screen even after numerous tries.

Are some games just incompatible?

 

[www.flashlinker-]

Are some games just incompatible?

Yes.....

You have also installed the latest kernel (V1.85) to your supercard ?

 

[Skyhigh_]

I am already on the latest kernel , i just confirmed and re-downloaded it

When i launch kernel it says
old'' 1.85'' new ''1.85'' , i choose no since i am already on the latest kernel

Also is there a way to stretch out gb/gbc games?

Also i notice the emulator goomba its using is outdated , i think gameboid is probably better.
Is it possible to update the emulator, or is it best not to mess with it?

the gameboy emulator its using is goomba color alpha 6, has anyone actually played a game until ending with this specific gameboy emulator without many issues?

 

[mrseguin]

A new version of goomba with save states appeared on dec 2014.I'm in a processs to try it.And no way to stretch(it will require too much cpu I suppose) ) and I never played a gameboy color game till the end
About the supercard software to patch roms I noticed on my windows 8 computer that if I don't launch the program with administrator privilege I have a lot of problem with the patching.Maybe it will help knowing this.

 

[Skyhigh_]

A new version of goomba with save states appeared on dec 2014.I'm in a processs to try it.And no way to stretch(it will require too much cpu I suppose) ) and I never played a gameboy color game till the end
About the supercard software to patch roms I noticed on my windows 8 computer that if I don't launch the program with administrator privilege I have a lot of problem with the patching.Maybe it will help knowing this.

Excellent information!

Running the supercard patcher as admin fixed most of the issues, in fact only 10% of the games i re patched still get a white screen, however some that had a white screen were fixed after i re patched the games again running the supercard patcher as admin.

How do i patch the built in goomba emulator in supercard mini sd?

Lastly have you come across any fix for some games that still get a white screen? Even when patching as admin?

In any case your post was of great help

EDIT- i guess i found some answers to my own questions
ill post them here in case someone has this card and is having some trouble like me.

The built in goomba emulator in supercard mini sd seems like it cannot be upgraded instead you get the newest goomba from here: http://www.dwedit.org/dwedit_board/viewtopic.php?pid=3318

Then you get frontend from here: http://www.kuwanger.net/gba/goomba/

frontend will basically compile a list of games into a .gba format which will create a list of the the gb/gbc games.

Make a folder called goomba gba in the supercard mini's sd card, then drop the newest goomba emulator from the site i posted above and then drop the other.gba file frontend will create.

Now when you launch the supercard mini card from a gameboy advance select select the file that the frontend program made and it your list will appear and when you launch a game it will also show you are using goombas latest emulator.

Now the frontend program i used i kind of already forgot how i managed to make a .gba file... because i tried it again and i can't seem to get it to work.

Also it appears you can stretch out games using something from here: http://gbatemp.net/threads/jgoombabuilder.346677/

I gave it a go but i can't seem to figure it out

 

[mrseguin]

I'm happy I could have helped
GBA is not too much fashionable during these times with all the android tablets but Its the best pocket size console ever made.(with very good EMU and especially msxadvance but only msx 1...)
Let me know the games that are not working for you and I will check with mines.Most of my games were patched few years ago using another supercard program than the 2.71.So...

Unfortunately from what I read it's not possible to patch the build in emulator(or you have some great programming and hardware knowledge...)
So the only way is to add some rom in the frontend (and to select the path of the executable the output folder....)and to patch the created GBA file.
I don't know if when patching goomba will allow you to use enable restart and real time save.

With the last version of pocketNes(fantastic but some games that were working before are no more working)and HVCA(the only emu that allow you to play Punch out without scrambled graphics on the characters but still some in the intermission of the fight but we don't care because it doesn't affect the gameplay) you can only use enable saver(and also "save" double clicking on the rom) and use the "QPC" saving.(very quickly power off power on and go to the saver tab and write the save from the sram to the mini sd card)
Not the best but for now the only way.
I just created a small GBC using gomba2.40paletted in which i copied the last goomba.gba from december 2014 and when I lauunch the gombafrontend.exe I have to choose the goomba.gba to create the compil with the save function working but not the others goombapaleted that may use the future of having bigger screens but not saving.There is maybe a way to compile the new gooba.gba allowing to use the borders but I have no knowledge how to and no idea also

So after saving a game I used the QPC method to save.Relaunch the emu and Voila ! the game was saved
But because its a new implementation it may be buggy through the long run...

I have never tried to put my hand in the snesadvance program but if you have let me know.I know you can't expect too much in term of speed but I'm mostly interested in puzzle game and billlard(side pocket !) game that dont require to run full speed.
I hope I was enough clear(sorry I'm french...)and if you need more details let me know.

 

[Skyhigh_]

One of the biggest reasons i like playing some things in a flash cart like this is so i can keep my saves forever

Whatever progress or achievements i make in a game, i wish to keep forever.
However since i used that frontend application for it to actually merge all the gb/gbc games into a whole list by creating a single gba file i can't find where the saves are going...

I wanted to extract/copy saves so i can save them forever but it seems its probably holding those saves in the merged gba file.
Also sometimes i like to change changes to another device such as an android device and such so extracting or copying my saves is kind of a big deal.

Another thing i noticed is that the gba saves i can copy and extract them and use them in another device/emulator, however when i save something from a different device or emulator and copy it to the supercard to its corresponding game it won't read the save.

The snes gba emulator you speak of seems very flimsy hardly worth using it , i found another one and its still quite bad even for playing puzzles the screen flickers a bit and the image is kind of jaggy along with the sound being broken. I don't think its worth using it

 

[mrseguin]

Totally agree with you about keeping the saves forever and not being obliged to begin a game again when you change the devices...but unfortunately all emulators are coded depending on the devices hardware(and the knoledge and skills of the programmer!) and I think we may never have the possibility to "swap"our saves everywhere
Using a frontend to create your own compil is nice but not the best way to keep track on the save and we are limited on the saves too 64kb...with gameboy color its better to create a very small compil.
But with rasperry 2 motherboard maybe we will have somebody or a kickstarter project to create a nice PC portable handeld device using retroarch multi emus
A first step in the compatibility....
I know on the internet you can find some online converting saves programs but ...we can never be sure it will work 100% and that all devices are listed too.
Too bad
Thanks for the infos about the snes emus.I know its not worth playing but I was hoping to play maybe Side pocket if it was emulated in a correct way.
We have some correct billard games on the nes and on the gba but I was looking for this nice direct play arcade that side pocket offers(and arcade pool on the amiga)
Anyway perfection is only to motivate us to do better but will never be reached !

 

[Skyhigh_]

i didn't even realize the 64 kb limit until you mentioned it

I was using the in games save feature which seemed to not use this limit, however using the in games save feature isn't reliable as sometimes when one does save a game progress turn off the system and try to load it sometimes it didn't register the most recent save.

In either case it seems i can still back up the whole compressed compilation i created through frontend seeing as the save is surely there but i can't extract it.

not being able to directly see, copy or extract the saves from gb/gbc games kind of puts me off , so perhaps i will just stick to playing gba games from the supercard mini as i can actually back up the saves from those. Ill pobably play 1 complete gb/gbc game just to see how well it saves and functions in the end using the goomba emulator.

The raspberry pi 2 if made into a pc portable might be a bit too big probably like a jxd and thicker, i am dissapointed the new raspberry model doesn't have a gpu upgrade.


i hope the everdrive gba has a feature where you can imply just drop gb/gbc games and extract or copy the saves it creates from there and hopefully they are swappable with most devices as well. But i know like most everdrive products it will be expensive, though i am not sure if the everdrive gba will support gb/gbc games as i see there is a everdrivegb.

Oh and the problems with the gba games i was still having a white screen was with the nes classic gba games, and castlevania harmony

Also super mario bros 3- advanced 4 doesn't get a white screen but it freezes at the start screen always so it seems it can't be played, i noticed this game is an issue on other emulators too.

 

[mrseguin]

Love the gba for its pocket perfect size and because its sturdy.
And the d-pad is much better than the one on the nds lite(love the nds lite but after purchasing 5 and having always problem with d-pad and shoulder buttonssand thhe fringe I gave up...)
About the nes classic I didn't get into because you can use pocketnes
But you may have a look on this
https://gbatemp.net/threads/ips-patches-for-classic-nes-series.63195/
And as far as I can remenber I had problem too with super marios bros 3 advanced 4 and it was fixed but from my recollection you will enjoy slowdown...
http://wiki.pocketheaven.com/index.php?title=SupercardGBASlowdowns
will try to get back into the game and will let you know

 

[Skyhigh_]

Well i really haven't had too much success with goomba on this supercard or maybe i am doing something wrong?

I was playing final fantasy and warioland i was using the in games save function for these and also creating save states via goomba.
Well since i was only shuffling through these 2 games, and yesterday i decided to play a gba game on my supercard i noticed my saves for the gameboy/gbc were deleted...

The in game saves were gone and so were my save states... good thing i only played a bit. I think i will not play gameboy/gbc games on this supercard at least i can use lameboy on a supercardstwo and back up my saves in case something like this happens.

 

[how_do_i_do_that]

You likely need to manually backup your save in this case before switching to another game. Use the pdf link Dan listed above to lookup how to save your game before switching to something else.

 

[DanTheManMS]

Yeah, the SC MiniSD proudly advertized that it had a battery backup so you didn't have to manually save each time like on the SC SD, but realistically it only holds one game's worth of save data at a time, so if you switch between games you'll lose your progress. You'd want to first save within Goomba (in-game or save states, your choice) and then write the updated SRAM info to the *.sav file on your miniSD card after you're done, either through a button combination or with the Quick Power Cycle method. You can back up this *.sav file to your computer for safekeeping.

Fun fact: Lameboy used to require manual saving as well, before it got updated to automatically update the *.sav file on the fly. Shame that it's not as streamlined on the GBA side of things, but that's really the Supercard's fault and not Goomba's.

 

[ryanmiller]

I can't get Driver 2 Advance to work... any suggestions?

 

[Nikokaro]

I can't get Driver 2 Advance to work... any suggestions?

Have you tried both the (U) and (E) versions?
Have you tried to activate only normal saver without restart and without RTS? You will have to use QPC (quick power cycle) to save.