How to backup and restore your GBA save files

[arhacker]

Here is a step-by-step visual guide to ultimately achieve the goal of backing-up or restoring your GameBoy Advance save files:

If you don't have an Xboo cable, you will need to make one (If you do have one, then skip to the end):

About the Xboo cable:

An Xboo cable is a special cable that lets you connect your GameBoy Advance or GameBoy Advance SP to the Parallel port on your computer to allow you to send small ROMs. Since the GameBoy Advance only has 256 KB of RAM, only ROMs that are 256 KB or smaller in size can be sent to the GameBoy Advance. The Xboo cable doesn't replace a flash cart because commercial ROMs such as "Pokemon Fire Red" are much to big to be sent to the GBA. Any other ROM that can be sent is called a "Multiboot ROM".

About the Parallel port:

A Parallel port is a physical hardware socket inside a computer. The Parallel port standard is very old, and was originally invented to connect printers to computers. An Xboo cable links a computer's Parallel port to a GameBoy Advance.

Here is a list of what you need:

• A Nintendo GameBoy Advance or GameBoy Advance SP
  
• A computer that is running ONE of the following operating systems: Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7
  
• A Parallel port in your computer
  
• A 25 pin male d-sub connector
  
• A GameBoy Advance or GameBoy Advance SP link cable (DO NOT USE ANY CABLE THAT HAS GAMECUBE FUNCTIONALITY!)
  
• A voltage meter
  
• Solder
  
• A Soldering Iron
  
• Scissors
  

Now for those of you who don't know what scissors are, here is a picture of everything you will need:

Here is what a 25 pin male d-sub connector looks like (You can buy these at Radio Shack. PARALLEL PORT CABLES THAT YOU ALREADY HAVE WILL NOT WORK, YOU WILL NEED A NEW PARALLEL PORT ADAPTER):

Look at the back of you computer, to see if it has a Parallel Port (example is shown below):

STEP 1. Once you have gathered all the items, cut your GameBoy Advance or GameBoy Advance SP link cable in half.

STEP 2. Using sciccors, remove about 2 inches of insulation from the GBA Link cable, then separate and remove about 1 inch of insulation from each of the wires until the copper wire is exposed. Example shown below:

STEP 3. Touch one end of your voltage meter to the copper end of a wire on the GBA Link cable. Touch the other end of your voltage meter to each metal contact on the connector end of the GBA Link cable. Connecting the same wire to its metal contact on the connector side of the cable will make an electric circuit. Repeat step 3 with each wire to find out which wires output to which metal contacts on the connector end of the cable.

STEP 4. Using the following picture as reference, figure out where each of the copper wires on the GBA Link cable are supposed to be soldered onto the back of the 25 pin d-sub connector. Notice that only the back of the 25 pin d-sub connector is shown. Remember that you labeled the wires in step 3!

HOW TO SOLDER:

• USE COMMON SENSE AND DO NOT DO ANYTHING RECKLESS OR STUPID.
  
• Make sure the plastic or rubber insulation is stripped off the part of the wire you want to solder so that you see the copper end.
  
• Make sure your soldering iron is heated up for 10 minutes BEFORE soldering anything.
  
• "Tint" the ends of both connections you wish to solder by holding the soldering iron against the metal, and tapping a wire of solder against the metal contact. There should be a drop of solder on the end of each metal contact you wish to solder together.
  
• Hold the ends of both tinted metal contacts in place for about 20 to 30 seconds to allow it to cool and harden.
  
• Check that the soldered connection(s) are silver colored and DO NOT have any black or brittle looking spots. If they do, heat up the soldered connection, and melt the exising solder off, and then complete this list of 6 steps again.
  

STEP 6. Test your Xboo Cable:

• Download the Xboo communicator here: http://pokemonhackingclub.webs.com/Programs/Xboo%20communicator.rar
  
• Decompress the Xboo communicator by right clicking on it and selecting "Extract here".
  
• Copy ONLY the UserPort.sys file to the directory: C:\WINDOWS\System32\Drivers\
  
• Right click on the "UserPort.exe" program and select "Run as...", then press "The following user:" radio button, and select an admin user account, and press the "OK" button.
  
• Press the button labled "Start" on the UserPort program, and then press the button labled "Exit" INSTEAD of pressing the red X icon in the upper right corner of the program.
  
• Connect the GBA Link port end of your Xboo cable to your GameBoy Advance's or GameBoy Advance SP's link socket, and then connect the Parallel port end of your Xboo cable to the Parallel port on your computer. Once everything is connected, turn your GameBoy Advance or GameBoy Advance SP ON and simultaneusly hold down the "SELECT" and "START" buttons on your GameBoy Advance or GameBoy Advance SP untill the ROM has been sent.
  
• Open the xcomms program, then press the GameBoy Advance icon to select the ROM to send. Once you select the GBA ROM to send, press the button labled "Open". The SaveSender GBA ROM has been included so that you can backup and restore your save files from your GBA carts. NOTE: the GBA ROM you wish to send MUST be less than 256 KB in size.
  

The xcomms program was created by Martin Korth, NOT me.

Edited November 2, 2010 by arhacker

[Delta Blast Burn]

You may have noticed that smiley face in there. For some reason, it won't go away...

Anyways, it is supposed to say:

Just go into edit post and check the box next to disable smileys, that should get rid of it.

[arhacker]

Thanks! That sure fixed it!

[Delta Blast Burn]

You're very welcome, thanks for pointing out this thread.

[Poryhack]

Probably worth mentioning Rudolph's backup tool for flashcard users no? Much easier if you have one.

[arhacker]

Poryhack:

You are correct, those are much easier, in fact the next guide I plan to write is how to make your own GBA flashcart. However, I find that the Xboo cable itself still has much undiscovered potential functionality. For example, did you know that every GameCube Pokemon game ever released contains at least two Multiboot ROMs? Certain Multiboot ROMs responsible for Pokemon distributions (like the one in the USA or Japanese Pokemon Colosseum Bonus Disc) can possibly be reverse-engineered to distribute different Pokemon other than Jirachi or Celebii. Also, one could develop a computer interface to function with certain Mulitboot ROMs, so that battling GBA against GBA could be hosted by a single computer instead of a GameCube.

I just want to get the word out about Xboo cables, and their potential. It took me several months of trial and error to create my first Xboo cable, and I hope that others may be able to create one without the hassle I went through.

[Poryhack]

Yeah it's pretty similar with Wii Pokemon games. Anything that interfaces with the DS/GBA has to have a ROM to send over otherwise the DS wouldn't be able to do anything not predefined in its own ROM. The ones I've seen won't do anything without communication from the GC/Wii though, which makes everything difficult.

[maximxxl]

On the picture here in the forum 5 wires are connecting to the connector- blue,green,white,brown and red!BUT on my gba to gba cable the green one is not connected! on possision 5(where should be the green) the wires is not connected! but the wires on possision 1 is connected? please if you know tell me where should i connect the wires on possision 1.THANKS A LOT!

[phoenragon]

I've followed the instructions and can't get this to work. The program doesn't see the gba, I just get the error that says "reset and requesting normal boot, gba not found" Any way to test the cable? I didn't make it myself, I bought it, so I am not 100% sure that it works, but I don't know how to test it outside of this program and so far it does not work.

I've also tried rudolph's backup tool, but I can't get it to work either =/

EDIT: Nevermind. Finally got a working tool for backing up my saves: I used Rudolph's tool by patching it to work on my ARDSi. Worked like a charm!

[lifesavers2]

*** Important for anyone attempting this!

I hate to bump a thread, but it's necessary and I can't believe that no one's noticed it over these years.

This is a great guide, don't get me wrong, but there is one flaw: it's incorrect. Your pinout is reversed. The view from the link cable is actually the view from the console connector. I initially tried it by this guide to no avail, but once I realized the pinout was fishy and used the one directly from the No$GBA readme it worked like a charm. The correct pinout, slightly modified from above, is as follows: