Managing GBA Saves: Extracting and Injecting Save for Bootleg GBA Pokémon Carts

[theSLAYER]

Preface

Recently, it has been getting harder and harder to find legitimate affordable copies of Generation 3 Pokémon games online. For one reason or another, regardless if it is due to sheer ignorance or nonchalance, people have been acquiring bootleg Pokémon carts. Together with other sites, such as emulator support sites, we have noticed an influx of requests relating to reading and editing saves of such games.

Frankly, I would much recommend that if you own such a cart, to nab the save and use it on a legitimate retail cart instead, as those are way way more reliable. But in any case:
This tutorial isn't to judge why people get bootleg carts.
This tutorial would not work for every bootleg cart; this tutorial is aimed at the carts that store the save files as part of the ROM.

As a disclaimer, I would like to:
1. Remind everyone that ROM files are not to be uploaded to our site
2. Warn people to not do this many times, as I am not sure how many flash read/write cycles these carts can take
(basically, do too many times, and risk breaking your cart)
3. This method will not work for every GBA repro in existence. You run the risk of bricking your GBA repro cart.
4. A minor issue, but due to how these carts handle saves, Hall of Fame  data would not be intact.

Necessary programs and files

1. Loads of patience, and also the ability to read and follow steps
2. A NDS or NDS Lite. (Neither DSi nor DSi XL nor any 3DS/2DS model.)
3. NDS flashcart of some kind
4. gbabf_1.2.7z (Source: https://gbatemp.net/download/gbabf.37005/)(https://gitlab.com/Fexean/gbabf)
5. Bootleg Pokémon GBA Extractor and Injector

Must-do for first timers

YOU MUST MAKE A BACKUP OF YOUR ENTIRE BOOTLEG GBA ROM, IN CASE ANYTHING GOES WRONG!

Spoiler

1. Run the gbabf.nds on your NDS/NDS Lite, via the NDS flashcart. Have the GBA cart inserted into Slot-2 (the GBA slot)

2. Select Detect Flash and take a photograph of the entire detected configuration that the screen shows you. This may be useful later on when trying to restore the cart, if you somehow bricked it. Not everyone has the same configuration and you shouldn’t try to use someone else’s on your cart.

3. Now, select Dump Data


4. Select 00 as the Dump Offset


5. Select 32 Mbytes as the Dump Size

(Yes, I'm aware that this is bigger than the standard size of Pokémon ROMs. Just matching the size of GBA Backup Tool)

6. Wait for the dumping to complete. You'll see a progress bar at the bottom screen of your NDS, not dissimilar to this


7. Once the dumping is complete, it'll appear on your top screen, not dissimilar to this:


8. Once done, turn off the NDS. Remove the flashcart. Read the flashcart's SD card on your computer. Go into GBA_Backup


9. The file that you just dumped would be in the folder. In this case, this is the file I just dumped.

 

10. Please keep a copy unedited and in a safe location on your computer.
 

Make sure you keep this file as a safe unedited backup somewhere on your computer. If anything goes wrong, this is the file you'll restore to your cart.


Regular steps

Spoiler

-1. Seriously, if you do not have a safe unedited backup of the entire bootleg cart, perform the Must-do for first timers first

0. You must already have played the cart, received a starter, checked your boxes in the PC, and saved the game at least twice.

1. Run the gbabf.nds on your NDS/NDS Lite, via the NDS flashcart. Have the GBA cart inserted into Slot-2 (the GBA slot)
[Your screens would likely look different]

2. Select Dump Data


3. Select 00 as the Dump Offset

4. Select 16 Mbytes as the Dump Size


5. Wait for the dumping to complete. You'll see a progress bar at the bottom screen of your NDS, not dissimilar to this


6. Once the dumping is complete, it'll appear on your top screen, not dissimilar to this:


7. Once done, turn off the NDS. Remove the flashcart. Read the flashcart's SD card on your computer. Go into GBA_Backup


8. You will see the file. You must move this file to somewhere else on your computer
->

9. Launch the Bootleg GBA Save Extractor and Injector program.


10. Open the file


11. Wait for progress to complete.


12. Once the saves are found, select Extract


13. The save would appear in directory that the game is stored in.


14. You may now edit the save as you like on PKHeX. (look here if you've never edited a save)

15. To now inject the save back into the game, select Inject


16. Select the save. I'll be selecting a different save.


17. Once done, you would hear a ping, and the text here would update to show that injection is done


18. Copy the edited game back to your SD card


19. Now place the SD card back into your flashcart, run the gbabf.nds on your NDS/NDS Lite, while the Bootleg GBA cart is inserted into Slot-2 (the GBA slot).

20. Select Flash ROM


21. Select the game to flash


22. Select Auto Detect


23. Wait as it proceeds to flash the game. The status will show up on your bottom screen.


24. Once it is done, it'll show the status in the top screen


25. Now play the game. If it's all went well, it should show the progress of the save you injected!

I cannot stress this enough. I am not sure how many flash read/write cycles these carts can take, so constantly reflashing your cart is likely to shorten its lifespan. If you can, grab the save and transfer it to a retail legitimate cart and carry on playing from there.

Also, I am aware there is a Flash data option, which you can specify size of save and location to flash to. But that doesn't seem to work for Pokémon games, as their saves are too far into the ROM, in terms of offset.

In any case, congratulations on your quest to edit your save on your bootleg cart!


 

View full tutorial

[Trisomique]

Would you be able to do this with an gbxcart? GBABF just really doesn't seem to work for me, it won't flash anything and says all my cartridges (even an official one)'s ROMs are a bunch of 0s, so I'm wondering if I could inject the save back with gbxcart?

Spoiler

(Sorry for the terrible lighting, hope you can read that, it says it can't detect the cart even when there's very clearly one, the pins are squeaky clean and the game just perfectly well on the NDS)

EDIT : Yeah, GBABF doesn't like me very much, when I dumped my official cartridge and tried to extract the save from your software, it said there wasn't any save, so it seems to dump an empty 16Mb size file. 

[theSLAYER]

a) not sure how gbx would work

b) this method is for unofficial/bootleg carts. Don’t know. How it’ll interact with official carts. Furthermore it’s not guaranteed to work with every kind of bootleg cart.

[Trisomique]

Then where do I buy compatible repros? Everywhere I'm looking just leads me to this cartridge, which isn't compatible:

Spoiler

 

 

 

[javier_himura]

If your GBA cartridge is an official Nintendo cart instead of a reproduction, then you should use this other guide instead. In an official cart, you can't overwrite the ROM into the cart, only the savefile can be written. In most reproduction carts, instead, only the ROM combined with the savefile can be written.

 

[theSLAYER]

14 minutes ago, Trisomique said:

Then where do I buy compatible repros? Everywhere I'm looking just leads me to this cartridge, which isn't compatible:

We don't advise people to get repros. It's just a guide here for when people happens to already have repros.

Also, if you Launch Slot 2 game from GBABF, what happens?

[Trisomique]

Figured it out after so long: It was just my R4 card. Not sure why, but using another one fixed the problem.

[Tafarino]

A question. Do you know how to extract a saved game from a bootleg Pokémon game from GB or GBC? 

[theSLAYER]

Sooty I don’t.

[mboi]

wait so can i put the save onto the physical repro?

[theSLAYER]

if you got it working, yes

[yasingunaydin]

Quote

Neither DSi nor DSi XL

Sorry, what? Why wont dsi's work? They have gba slots.

[BlackShark]

28 minutes ago, yasingunaydin said:

Sorry, what? Why wont dsi's work? They have gba slots.

There's no GBA slot on any NDSi or NDSi XL, only on NDS and NDS Lite.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_DS#DS_family_Comparison_Table

[Leif6174]

I got no idea whats wrong with my repro, I can launch the game through gbabr, but I cannot dump the cart's data. When I boot into the game through any mean, I get a message that pops up at the start saying:
"The save file is ok"

 

[theSLAYER]

On 5/4/2024 at 12:31 PM, Leif6174 said:

I got no idea whats wrong with my repro, I can launch the game through gbabr, but I cannot dump the cart's data. When I boot into the game through any mean, I get a message that pops up at the start saying:
"The save file is ok"

 

Yeah, repro ROMs are edited/modified to display that instead of the typical shtick about save files being corrupted and a backup being loaded and what not.

Have you tried backing up your save using
1. GBA backup tool (save dumping/backing up)
2. gbabf -> ROM extraction -> Run ROM in Extractor program

If so, lemme know which method you used, and show me the save

(FYI, don't upload ROMs here)

[Leif6174]

On 5/5/2024 at 1:28 AM, theSLAYER said:

Yeah, repro ROMs are edited/modified to display that instead of the typical shtick about save files being corrupted and a backup being loaded and what not.

Have you tried backing up your save using
1. GBA backup tool (save dumping/backing up)
2. gbabf -> ROM extraction -> Run ROM in Extractor program

If so, lemme know which method you used, and show me the save

(FYI, don't upload ROMs here)

I did try backing up the save the non-bootleg way, if you will.

The result was that it had an incompatible file type. (Shows up as PKHeX can't read binary)

 

As for the other idea, whenever I try to dump the gbabf throws an error regarding not being able to open the file. I'll try again and if my findings change, I'll post them. I'll also grab a save from idea 1 as well for you.

[theSLAYER]

52 minutes ago, Leif6174 said:

The result was that it had an incompatible file type. (Shows up as PKHeX can't read binary)

just in case, send that over anyway.

53 minutes ago, Leif6174 said:

As for the other idea, whenever I try to dump the gbabf throws an error regarding not being able to open the file. I'll try again and if my findings change, I'll post them. I'll also grab a save from idea 1 as well for you.

sure, give that a try

[Leif6174]

6 hours ago, theSLAYER said:

just in case, send that over anyway.

sure, give that a try

Alright, I dumped the rom using the GBA Backup tool, it worked, and using the Bootleg GBA extractor I got the 2 save files out. Here is the save file dumped by the same program, and a screenshot of the memory refrences of the save file locations! Ill also attach the 2 that I managed to rip using the extractor tool.

TLDR, I dumped the rom using the GBA Backup Tool, I selected the save file to inject and injected it, however, I do not know how to/if I need to export the rom file.
Moreover, I don't know how to put the rom back on my GBA cart using the GBA Backup Tool. Any advice?

POKEMON_FIRE_BPRE01.sav save0-2024-05-06 11-56-32-0xFC0000-halfpatched.sav save1-2024-05-06 11-56-32-0x1FC0000-halfpatched.sav

Edited May 6 by Leif6174

[theSLAYER]

If you were able to extract the save from the ROM, means likely your save is stored in the ROM. Read everything in the very first post, regarding how to transfer saves back to your ROM, and your ROM back to your cart. Make sure you read everything!

[Leif6174]

13 minutes ago, theSLAYER said:

If you were able to extract the save from the ROM, means likely your save is stored in the ROM. Read everything in the very first post, regarding how to transfer saves back to your ROM, and your ROM back to your cart. Make sure you read everything!

I understand the step I need to do, but to be clear, I used the GBA Backup Tool to get the ROM off as it wouldn't read the ROM with gbabf.

 

Am I supposed to flash that ROM using gbabf?

[theSLAYER]

Oh right, so it definitely can’t be read using GBAbf? Possible to get it to read with a different version?

Also Detect Flash, and take a photo of the option listed.

Probably shouldn’t try writing to it if it can’t be read..

[Leif6174]

28 minutes ago, theSLAYER said:

Oh right, so it definitely can’t be read using GBAbf? Possible to get it to read with a different version?

Also Detect Flash, and take a photo of the option listed.

Probably shouldn’t try writing to it if it can’t be read..

That's fair. I was hoping it'd be that simple since I have already dumped the ROM through the other software.

 

[theSLAYER]

It’s odd that it wouldn’t read it. You could try flashing back, and selecting the same options as what you see above, but it would certainly be a risk, as there’s a chance it can render your card unplayable.

It is at your own risk.

[Leif6174]

5 hours ago, theSLAYER said:

It’s odd that it wouldn’t read it. You could try flashing back, and selecting the same options as what you see above, but it would certainly be a risk, as there’s a chance it can render your card unplayable.

It is at your own risk.

Will do, at this point, I'm trying to gift this to an old friend, if it fails, oh well, I try again next time. Will update with results

 

Edited May 7 by Leif6174