Wood R4 v1.04

[EJames2100]

@Another World, is there a chance you could open an Improvement/Features you'd like to see thread ?

I don't mean asking for ports and the whole rts stuff.

I mean stuff like Soft reset, it Auto restarting when changing skins.
I know you said these would be fixed, I just mean other features that could be implemented ?

Also would it be possible to have Cheats Auto-Turned on in settings instead of Global(off) ?
Just for those who don't fiddle around and wonder why their cheats aren't working and ask the question someone asked about 3 posts above.

I also noticed that to save the cheats you select, you have to generate a new .cc file, isn't is possible to Press a button(Say Start or something) and save them ?

Also when you choose a Save Slot on Settings, does the *default auto save to Slot 1 or not ? Just asking in-case I accidently overwrite if I start another game on something.

here is the thing about suggestions. YWG is coding a fork of glue's opensource rpg firmware. he codes a firmware for himself and happens to release it to the internet. if there is a feature he wants, he adds it. if there is a feature someone else wants, he provides the source code. so if you want to start a thread in the r4 section i will link him to it, and it will be up to him if he wants to follow it. personally i would like to see some features added as well, but i know better than to ask for them =P.

as for softreset - it has been fixed in the beta build. this will include it happening after skins are changed.
i haven't toyed with cheats all that much, are you saying they have to be set on a per-rom basis to "on" but you can set all cheats to "off" globally? that doesn't make much sense to me, i'll have to check that out. when you turn cheats on, the setting should get saved. right now there are still a lot of bugs which is why i started the bug thread. find things that don't work as they should and report it. i'll do my best to get all of the bugs fixed before "bugging" him for more features.

-another world

True perhaps it's best if requesting features is hold off at least until the bugs are all ironed out... then we can bug him

No I swear that when I 1st checked it it was set to globally(off) and I changed it on, now I can only find off, on and globally(on), I'll wipe card and re-do and see if it was/wasn't just my eyes playing tricks.

I'll post the 2 bugs that I know of and might not have been posted in the other thread and check out the card a bit more later

 

[Another World]

Does he plan to have slot 2 loading fixed in the next build? Is it working in the BETA? Thanks for any info.

the slot2 support is for the 3in1. all it does is boot in passme if something is in nor, however, it doesn't always work correctly. i have a build of ds heritic in nor and it will not boot it into passme mode. there are probably no plans to make slot2 boot in gba mode. if you have something GBA in nor just boot it from the nds firmware menu.

i asked him about this and he said that he only owns the 3in1. he does not see the 3in1 as a "gba" cart. he thinks about gba carts and real games as something completly different than an expansion pack designed to be flashed with each use. both sides of the arguement make sense to me.

-another world

 

[blazingwolf]

Does he plan to have slot 2 loading fixed in the next build? Is it working in the BETA? Thanks for any info.

the slot2 support is for the 3in1. all it does is boot in passme if something is in nor, however, it doesn't always work correctly. i have a build of ds heritic in nor and it will not boot it into passme mode. there are probably no plans to make slot2 boot in gba mode. if you have something GBA in nor just boot it from the nds firmware menu.

i asked him about this and he said that he only owns the 3in1. he does not see the 3in1 as a "gba" cart. he thinks about gba carts and real games as something completly different than an expansion pack designed to be flashed with each use. both sides of the arguement make sense to me.

-another world

I'm confused about this reply, I am talking about the 3 in 1. It does not boot it when selecting boot slot 2. You say the slot 2 support is for the 3 in 1...but its not working? Sorry your replay isn't clear. Is it only for booting GBA/NDS homebrew, not games?

 

[Another World]

you are confused on what you expect the firmware to do. my reply is very clear. i'll retype it this once.

the slot2 selection in root boots into nds passme mode, ONLY!

selecting any 16MB (or less) GBA game will automatically flash it to psram and then boot the game.
selecting any 17MB to 32MB GBA game will automatically flash it to nor and then boot the game.
this works the same for GBA homebrew with a proper GBA header.
using the properties settings one can manually pick psram or nor on a per-rom basis.
there is no way to force "always to nor" or "always to psram."

if any GBA game is sitting in nor you can only boot that using the nds firmware. so pop out the R4 (so it doesn't auto boot) and run the 3in1 as if it was a real gba game.

again, clicking the slot2 selection in root will only boot into nds passme mode, not gba mode. you can, never could, and probably never will, be able to boot a gba game using the slot2 selection.

once again he does not see the 3in1 as a standalone gba game pack, so the code does not work as you expect it too. when he releases the source on monday, feel free to add any thing you want under the GPL license.

i have already selected more than a few GBA games, they flash to the correct area (psram or nor) and the cart then boots and i can play them. this is working as it should. the only issue so far is the slot2 selection which boots to passme mode. i have tested a few things and they do not all work. with some i get an error that i do not have a cart in slot2, with other .ds.gba homebrew it works just fine. apparently it all has to do with the gba header. he runs a check (ucon64 --logo -chk *.ds.gba might help) to see if the homebrew has a valid header before trying to boot it into passme mode.

-another world

 

[blazingwolf]

Oh I see, its weird though, maybe my memory was bad, but I remember being able to load any game in the GBA slot by hitting boot slot 2 in the R4 firmware...maybe its just me though.

It doesn't bother me, I know I can go straight into the firmware, I just thought it was a bug, as I though the old R4 firmware could boot straight into a GBA game flashes onto a EZ3in1.

But I see that isn't the case now, thanks.

 

[Another World]

the official r4 firmware could boot slot2 or passme, wood r4 is not based on the r4 firmware. wood r4 is a fork of the acekard rpg firmware (wood rpg). the only reason it is working on the r4 is due in part to the direct-sd saving which was finally perfected. it was originally designed to make acekard rpg saving faster, but it was obvious that it could be ported to any flash kit that allows for direct-sd saving. YWG has an original r4, so one thing led to another and we now have a new firmware option for our old r4 flash linkers.

-another world

 

[blazingwolf]

Ah I see now! This has built in GBA flashing! No need for gbaexploader! Just drag roms onto the card select and run them and it automatically flashes the ROM and creates the save file, awesome feature!

One thing though, does it automatically back up saves and replace them when flashing a new one?

Example: I have minish cap flashed onto there, it creates a save file, then I switch to say Harvest Moon, which I had flashed on there before with a save file. Will it automatically restore the .sav that it created for it last time when switching back over?

If so, amazing!

 

[Another World]

yes, there is an option to back up saves on boot up. it doesn't have as many options for backing up as gba exploader. very simply if a save exists it should make a back up of it. i have not experimented with it much, so let us know what you discover and what problems might pop up. it should also load the save. YWG likes to make stuff work dynamically, a coder after my own heart. so i assume that when you flash a game, if a save exists, it will automatically load the save.

-another world

 

[blazingwolf]

When you hit Y on a .gba game you have two options (L for RAM) and (X to NOR), NOR is the permanent one right? RAM is just temporary and as soon as you shut it off its gone? Correct me if I'm wrong.

I'm about to do a test right now and post results.

 

[EJames2100]

Yes Nor is the permanent one.... at least until you overwrite it

Nor is mainly used for those games over 16MB(Not many of those though), and to store a specific game if you wanna lend it out.

 

[blazingwolf]

EDIT: Oops. Going to post results soon.

Alright here are my results from my test:

3 ROMS: Warioware Inc, Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town, Minish Cap. GBA Settings in R4 Wood were set to "Backup save at startup - ON".

1. Booted Warioware it flashed it to RAM, created save. Turned off. Reflashed and rebooted, save was still there. So test one, success.

2. Flashed Minish Cap into RAM, created save, did it again save was still there. Turned off and booted Warioware back on there! It automatically flashed the warioware save! Booted Minish cap and my old save was there! Success!

3. Flashed Havest Moon into NOR, created save. When booting into NDS firmware, booted fine, save was there. Flashed Warioware onto NOR, save was there, when booting Harvest Moon into NOR, save was there too.

So basically yes, Wood R4 automatically handles backing up and restoring save files for your GBA games, awesome! So much convenience!

 

[EJames2100]

Thank you for that feedback, yes that is pretty much what anyone would want off a firmware for their 3in1.
So the only real problem is not been able to boot GBA(Nor mode) from within the the Firmware ?
Which as shown is pretty easy to get around

 

[heartgold]

This is awesome

 

[Deleted User]

EDIT: Oops. Going to post results soon.

Alright here are my results from my test:

3 ROMS: Warioware Inc, Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town, Minish Cap. GBA Settings in R4 Wood were set to "Backup save at startup - ON".

1. Booted Warioware it flashed it to RAM, created save. Turned off. Reflashed and rebooted, save was still there. So test one, success.

2. Flashed Minish Cap into RAM, created save, did it again save was still there. Turned off and booted Warioware back on there! It automatically flashed the warioware save! Booted Minish cap and my old save was there! Success!

3. Flashed Havest Moon into NOR, created save. When booting into NDS firmware, booted fine, save was there. Flashed Warioware onto NOR, save was there, when booting Harvest Moon into NOR, save was there too.

So basically yes, Wood R4 automatically handles backing up and restoring save files for your GBA games, awesome! So much convenience!

Those functions do not work for me. I have an EZ 3in1 and what happens is I see the games and I tried to flash them to NOR by pressing X and nothing happens, then I tried test to flash it to PSRam by pressing L nothing happens the GUI remains the same. But it works in YSmenu though.


The Game used was Pokemon Emerald.

*****EDIT*****

Forgot to say Pressing A does nothing either.

 

[magicksun]

somebody can tell me why this thing don't work in the fake r4, in my fake r4 in the root i have one _ds_menu.dat and in the wood has other _ds_menu , will be a wood for a fake r4?

 

[Mages4ever]

somebody can tell me why this thing don't work in the fake r4, in my fake r4 in the root i have one _ds_menu.dat and in the wood has other _ds_menu , will be a wood for a fake r4?

Just because it has the same file, doesn't mean it'll work on different carts.
http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=220235

 

[Xenon++]

somebody can tell me why this thing don't work in the fake r4, in my fake r4 in the root i have one _ds_menu.dat and in the wood has other _ds_menu , will be a wood for a fake r4?

>Support:
>There is confirmation that this is working on the Original R4, the R4 SD clones, and the M3 Simply.
Won't work on SDHC clone.

 

[Thunderboyx]

how do u know if your r4 is a clone?

can you post a pic or tell us what site is written on the card?

=edited=
cant post a pic but it is similar to tm2 megatrons pic.

R4

Revolution for DS
(NDSL/NDS)

can you provide me the details of a r4 clones?

They all have different names:

R4 SDHC, R4 III, and other crap with R4 in it

 

[Another World]

Those functions do not work for me. I have an EZ 3in1...

what 3in1 do you have?

-another world

 

[Deleted User]

Those functions do not work for me. I have an EZ 3in1...

what 3in1 do you have?

-another world

Giving the label and the Description

White EZ Flash V gba game/ram expansion/rumble pack

Bought in March 2009 from Leetmod.