Hacking Unable to save GBA data?

[Irish Ninja]

Howdy all (nice to meet the lot've you), i recently bought a new DS Lite, an R4 and EZflash (also new). following some ideas online, and what id found worked, i went with R4 v 1.13, as it was able to get NStation working (the program for converting GBA titles to DS format). The first time i run it, it seems to flash, and after that, i can boot right into any GBA title ive converted that way, but all save files come up as "corrupt" and im unable to save any data.

Mind you, i tried the latest 3-in-1 software first, found the same problem and formatted my card, trying again and hoping the Nstation method'd work but found the same results. I create a SAVE folder in the GBA folder with this method, as instructed, but again, either way, no saving ability, with zelda: link to the past, FF VI advance, pretty much any title that could save.

im not certain the differences on NOR and PSRAM (sp?) or whatever the other format was, but im clearly missing something here. Can anyone help? itd be most appreciated!

 

[cutterjohn]

Try using Rudolph's 3in1 Exp Pack Tool, or his newer GBA ExpLoader 0.3 app.

If you use the latter you will NOT have to patch the GBA ROMs before loading onto your uSD as his new app patches the ROMs on the DS when they are loaded through his app. With the new app, GBA ROMs can go ANYWHERE, but you'll need a GBA_SAVE directory in the root directory of your uSD, and this is where the saves will go.

If you use his older app(doesn't work with newer 3in1 hardware at all), you'll need to patch the ROMs on the PC first. Use gbata 0.7 (might be 0.6) is the latest version and is available in the file section here. Use the save patch tab, and if it doesn't let you patch then the ROM does NOT need to be patched first. The patched ROM is saved with a different name from the original, output-. IIRC and that's the one that you'll want on the uSD.

I'd really recommend just using Rudolph's new ExpLoader since it does the save patching on the DS allowing you to just load "clean" ROMs onto your uSD. I've just started experimenting with 0.3 myself, so I can't say how stable it is yet, as I'm still working on getting my save files from his old app to work correctly with the new app but have yet to spend more than a few minutes with it. If this doesn't work, unfortunately it's either a bug in the new app or a bad download of the ROM, in which case you should try re-downloading the ROM, and also try downloading it from somewhere else entirely.

Not sure why NDStation didn't work, but I've never used it, and I'm not at all sure how it works when you don't execute the files that it creates from the DS side rather than trying to directly boot slot-2. (I've NEVER used NDStation as I just don't care for the idea behind it, when there are other, better apps available.)

NOR Flash, well this is 32MB in size and some of the larger ROMs will have to go into NOR Flash. You can also boot games directly in NOR Flash as if it were a normal GBA cartridge as the ROM is retained in memory even after power off, although I really don't care to use NOR Flash myself unless I absolutely have to.

PSRAM, is just 16MB of fast RAM into which 16MB and smaller GBA ROMs can be loaded. They load fast with the only drawback being that the memory contents(i.e. the ROM app, not the saves!) are lost with each powercycle, but loading is so quick that it hardly matters. I just wish that it had 32MB of RAM, along with the 32MB of NOR Flash.

Also, if you've been trying to trim the ROMs or anything like, stop doing that and see if they work just save patched or "clean" if you use Rudolph's new app.

 

[azotyp]

Some games must be patched, good program checked by me is gbata

 

[Rhuarc]

That's a really nice writeup cutterjoh, thanks! Answered some questions about all of that I didn't even realize I had! LoL.

For me, I have teh DSTT, so I normally use YSMenu to load patched ROMS directly, but I also have the new Loader on there in case I would need it for something.

 

[ozling]

The latest 3in1 from Rudolph - ExpLoader 0.2 - does not require any of the ROMS to be patched. It will also work with the later chipsets 3in1 cards

 

[Irish Ninja]

Thanks so much cutterjohn, off to try just that, just trying to find that GBA ExpLoader 0.3 in the files section, i know its there somewhere! thanks again man.

 

[Irish Ninja]

hmm - sorry to be a bother, but going through the files, ive found 3in1 Expansion Pack Tool v1.9d (2007/12/1) and such, but not GBA ExpLoader 0.3, anyone know where specifically to look? again, sorry for being a noob here. thanks again.

 

[Minox]

hmm - sorry to be a bother, but going through the files, ive found 3in1 Expansion Pack Tool v1.9d (2007/12/1) and such, but not GBA ExpLoader 0.3, anyone know where specifically to look? again, sorry for being a noob here. thanks again.

http://gbatemp.net/index.php?download=1857

 

[Irish Ninja]

Thanks minox, 'preciate it.

also, just tried it out & all smooth sailing now, that was way easier. Thanks again cutterjohn, i'm all over link to the past and FF VI advance thanks to you man.