GBA Trade Protocol

[Selim_042]

Not sure if this is exactly the right place on the forum, but I'm wondering if anyone knows where to find documentation on the gen3 games trade protocol?

Edit: I would also be interested in knowing how the gen1-2 games trades work too if anyone knows.

Edited May 2, 2020 by Selim_042

[Selim_042]

Not how to do it, but how the games encode and transfer the data themselves.  I'm trying to write a program that can act as one side of the trade.

[Sabresite]

Gen 1/2 source got leaked so that is there. Gen 3 is still being disassembles but if the source gets leaked you can use that.

I am not aware of any research into trading specifically though sorry.

[Selim_042]

I was hoping there was a write-up somewhere as I'm not great at reading assembly or C.  Tried reading Emerald's disassembly (C) to work it out, didn't go too well.

 

If anyone is fluent in GB ASM and/or C and willing to help me out by working out the protocol, it would be greatly appreciated!

Edited May 2, 2020 by Selim_042

[NStephenH]

As someone with some computer engineering experience, the best way to handle this would likely be to get two GBAs and a digital oscilloscope, and read the data that's sent. Then you could ideally spoof that data/reverse engineer that. You may be able to get VBAlink to print that data instead of using actual hardware, which would save a lot of time, money, and troubleshooting. Beyond that, once you have a binary dump, try reading it for known binary data (Pokemon IDs, etc). You could also try hooking up an arduino or a version of vblink and sending that data to the games and see what happens.