Pokemon Emerald Emerald mGBA Emu .sav files not being recognized by PkHeX

[FrackaMir]

It started today and for some strange reason PkHeX no longer considers the save files made from the emulator to be valid, and I'm unsure of the reason why due to having done 3 actions prior to this happening

 

Note that the sav worked perfectly fine and dandy with mGBA and VBA emus and PkHeX managed to get them fine, but after today, only mGBA can load them while the others fail, and PkHeX gives the error in return. It is not Savestates

 

Steps as accordingly done

I've updated the mGBA emulator some time ago to the 7736 ver today, using the Dev ver of the emu that worked fine

 

After that, opened up and started a Jp Emerald with a save creation, later switched to English Emerald with the save

For the instance of saving time due to new Uni Semester, used warp codes to get to desert underpass earlier for Ditto, for the Masuda method breeding for later gens. I'll emphasis that I'm at the Elite four for normal eng pokemon and have RNG'ed nearly all 85 caught pokes.

 

Initially didn't wanted a Jp Ditto or a Perfect 6IV one, but once learning about the method, decided to go for it and just to save time as I'm not aware of speed run methods to get there faster, encountered and caught a legit Ditto.

 

Then, saved the game after exiting and wanted to use PkHeX to check the Ditto's legality, whether or not if it is legal after some RNGing the right breeding Ditto, but came to this blockage where it refused to load the Jp Emerald save that it did load fine before.

 

Checked with the English one and it resulted the same issue. Save Files are at 128k or 1 Mb option for mGBA for pokemon emerald saves etc

 

My Conundrum is not knowing what the cause could be, whether its the emulator updating to newer ver, some setting changed that caused the save file issues, was it because of the use of Warp codes or the fact that I used a Jp Save on an Jp E then Eng E and back, and whether or not that caused corruption in the save data or the roms themselves.

 

Earlier backup saves with the Emulator still work fine with PkHeX but am unwilling to potentially cause the same corruption to them

 

Edit: I'll also share that newly created save files and old backed up saves being resaved cause the same issue too

 

 

Edited October 12, 2022 by FrackaMir

[BlackShark]

The latest versions of mGBA now append a 16 bytes footer with RTC information to the end of the save file.
Until PKHeX is updated you can use any hex editor to remove the last 16 bytes and the save should be recognized again.

@Kaphotics

[FrackaMir]

Oh, I see

 

so that also means I cant use the VBA Link to do self trading and self poke block making functions with other VBA emus.

 

Would any simple hex editor would do or is there any recommendations? also is there a simple guide to do the basic hex editor to remove the last 16 bytes of the save?

 

Edit: What last ver of mGBA could be used to have save files compatible with the VBA emus if one seeks to use VBA RR and VBA Links?

Edited October 12, 2022 by FrackaMir

[BlackShark]

mGBA can still load saves from VBA and once you got rid of the last 16 bytes VBA will also load the mGBA save again.

Any hex editor would do, but I recommend HxD https://mh-nexus.de/en/hxd/
Open HxD, drag your file into the window, scroll down to the end, mark the last line and delete it, then save the file.

[FrackaMir]

hmmmm I see, so it'd just be a slightly longer process.

 

My thanks for clarification and providing help

[BlackShark]

35 minutes ago, FrackaMir said:

What last ver of mGBA could be used to have save files compatible with the VBA emus if one seeks to use VBA RR and VBA Links?

I just saw you edited your previous post. The latest dev build without the RTC data is 7704-e2e22e2 https://mgba.io/builds/2/

[FrackaMir]

2 minutes ago, BlackShark said:

I just saw you edited your previous post. The latest dev build without the RTC data is 7704-e2e22e2 https://mgba.io/builds/2/

Ah I see, many thanks

Also my bad if it is seen as being inappropriate if a post is edited after a reply.

[BlackShark]

Don't worry it's not inappropriate. It was more my fault.