How I manage to edit save files in GBA repro cartridges

[el briga]

Hi all!

Yesterday I passed all day in this website finding a way to edit a GBA repro cartridge savefile because I bought a used GBA SP and it come with some repro carts.

First I followed this guide to import a custom savefile in my cartridge 

But when click on save restore with the custom rom that i've downloaded in different websites, and tried to boot the game, my savefile was the same as before. I was suspicious that the problem was the cartridge or the save file, but apparently this cartridges are not compatible with save restore using GBA Backup Tool (I tried three different versions). But when I tried to import my save to PKHex it gave me the error: Binary is not campatible with save file. Current SAV Generation: 9. 

my savefile: POKEMON_EMER_BPEE_00.sav

I cannot open my own savefile to edit. So I founded this guide, dowloaded all homebrew and prepared the file for the extraction. Bootleg Pokémon GBA Extractor and Injector and Gbabf both available in the guide below.

But in the initial backup step it gave me the error "Unable to open file" (I tried to use the Launch Slot-2 Game function and it worked well). So after all, I cannot use this guide too.

After a few hours of research, I found this homebrew called Burn2Slot, instead of change the savefile, it changes all the GBA file in the cartridge.

With this application I could alter my savefile in my repro cartridge with a few more steps than the other guides, but it works fine. So let's get our hands dirty:

Required homebrew

Burn2Slot:  https://github.com/vrodin/Burn2Slot/releases/tag/0.4.3

GBA Backup Tool: https://www.gamebrew.org/wiki/GBA_Backup_Tool

Put them all in your preffered folder in the flashcart root. I decided to put in different folders.

Required programs

PKHeX (if you will edit your save file, if you already have a savefile download, you will not need) https://projectpokemon.org/home/files/file/1-pkhex/

Bootleg GBA Save Extractor and Injector (if you wanna play in your GBA console https://projectpokemon.org/home/files/file/4104-bootleg-pokémon-gba-save-extractor-and-injector/

Required items

Nintendo DS with cartridge reader

Flashcart (I'm using a R4 Plus SDHC Snoopy)

Repro Pokémon cartridge (i'm using Emerald version from US)

USB SD Card reader 

IT'S VERY IMPORTANT TO MAKE A BACKUP OF YOUR CARTRIDGE GBA FILE WE WILL ERASE AND WRITE A ROM, IF ANY STEP IS DONE WRONG, IT CAN BRICK YOUR CARTRIDGE.

Step 1. Open GBA Backup Tool and press two times the R button, until you found "Rom Backup" press B and A to create a backup of your gba file, it should look like this after the progress bar reaches the end:

 

Step 2. take your flashcart out the ds and plug in to your computer.

Step 3. Open the root of the flashcart and you will see that the GBA Backup Tool created a folder named GBA_Backup, like this.

Step 4. Access the newly created folder and MAKE A COPY OF THE GBA FILE, STORE OUT OF THE FLASHCART, IN A SAFE PLACE.

Step 4.1 I made a folder in my desktop named GBA FILE BACKUP and created another copy of this file and folder (I named GBA BACKUP Altered), we will work on it. Like this:

Step 5. Open Bootleg GBA Save Extractor and Injector and select the option "Open" (this steps are for you that will edit the save with PKHeX).

Step 5.1 Select the folder with the second backup (GBA BACKUP Altered in my case). The green bar will load and it should present like this after the loading:

Step 5.2 Select Extract option

Step 6. Open the folder, we will have 1 to 2 .SAV files. In my tests both files are the same. Do not close Bootleg GBA Save Extractor and Injector for now.

These files should look like this: 

Step 7. Now you can open this sav files in PKHeX without the binary compatible error mentioned before and edit in the manner you want.

Step 7.1 After the edition, you will click File>Save PKM> Select the gba file directory (GBA BACKUP Alteredd in my case)> Save. You can alter the name any way you prefer. I saved as Pokemon - Emerald Version (U).sav.

Step 8. Now you will select the Inject option in the program and select the Save file that you have edited or downloaded: 

It's pretty fast and should look like this:

 

Step 9. Now you can delete the other save files if you want and transfer the folder with the altered gba file to the root of your flashcart and eject:

Step 10. Put the flashcart in your ds with the cartridge as well and start the file manager. You will open the Burn 2 Slot homebrew in the folder that you choose.

Step 10.1 The home screen is pretty simple just press A

Now look for the folder with the altered GBA file using the D-Pad and press A

Connect the NDS to the charger and select the GBA file pressing A again 

A progress "bar" (it's not a bar, but a score) will appear in the upper screen with ERASE "counting from 0 to 100) like that.

Right after the ERASE step (the fastest part, around 3-4 minutes to complete), it will begin to "Writing", this part is more slow, around 8-10 minutes in my cartridge. When it reaches 100, you can restart your NDS and boot the game. If you made all steps right, the cartridge will load normally, with the savefile edited. If it don't boot, you will make a copy of the backed up file from your computer to the root of the flashcart and repeat from step 9.

Before:

After

 

So that's all guys. Fell free to reply if you have any doubts.

 

See ya!!

 

Edited January 20 by el briga

[asdrubael Vect]

so i followed this guide, up until the saving after PKhex, it saved it as a pk3 file?? do you have any suggestions on how i fix this?

 

**EDIT** i fixed this by exporting the save, 

however i am now faced with a new issue. i'm on the burn2slot step, and it just keeps crashing on me. (step 10 for ease)

 

Edited January 24 by asdrubael Vect

[el briga]

26 minutes ago, asdrubael Vect said:

so i followed this guide, up until the saving after PKhex, it saved it as a pk3 file?? do you have any suggestions on how i fix this?

 

**EDIT** i fixed this by exporting the save, 

however i am now faced with a new issue. i'm on the burn2slot step, and it just keeps crashing on me. (step 10 for ease)

 

Can you send a picture of the error?

 

[asdrubael Vect]

4 hours ago, el briga said:

Can you send a picture of the error?

 

attached is the pictures of me about to hit the burn2slot, then the screen after that, its just black screen with the line at the top, and then a dot

do i maybe have it in the wrong place?

[el briga]

57 minutes ago, asdrubael Vect said:

attached is the pictures of me about to hit the burn2slot, then the screen after that, its just black screen with the line at the top, and then a dot

do i maybe have it in the wrong place?

try to remove from this folder, create a new folder in the root of the flashcart with names like "homebrew" or anything you prefer, and put the .nds files in that folder, then try to open burn2slot, all you need to do is press A and it will show the folders in your flashcart

[asdrubael Vect]

57 minutes ago, el briga said:

try to remove from this folder, create a new folder in the root of the flashcart with names like "homebrew" or anything you prefer, and put the .nds files in that folder, then try to open burn2slot, all you need to do is press A and it will show the folders in your flashcart

i think i'm struggling to find the root of it..

i put it in this part of it, under homebrew, and that didn't work, so i moved it into R4iMenu, and it still didn't work.. i'm really stumped at this point 

 

**EDIT**

also, do i only need the burn2slot.nds file? or do i need the source code as well? 

 

 

 

Edited January 25 by asdrubael Vect

[el briga]

15 minutes ago, asdrubael Vect said:

i think i'm struggling to find the root of it..

i put it in this part of it, under homebrew, and that didn't work, so i moved it into R4iMenu, and it still didn't work.. i'm really stumped at this point 

 

 

 

 

this is the root, now you create a folder named "homebrew" and copy/paste burn2slot on it and try to open the burn2slot normally, pls

[asdrubael Vect]

3 minutes ago, el briga said:

this is the root, now you create a folder named "homebrew" and copy/paste burn2slot on it and try to open the burn2slot normally, pls

alright i did that, it opens to that black screen with nothing there. 

 

is there a way you and i could video call so i could show you what i'm doing? 

[el briga]

contact me via e-mail pls gabrielnbga@gmail.com

[el briga]

Just an update, guys, for the problem that Asdrubel has, it was an issue with his r4 card firmware, just download another one, install on the root and should work properly

[parham39]

Hi maybe im missing somthing here, but did any of you try the gbx cart flasher? Just pick "unlicenced batteryless sram" as the save type and you're good to go, no need for any extractor/injector tool

[theSLAYER]

3 hours ago, parham39 said:

Hi maybe im missing somthing here, but did any of you try the gbx cart flasher? Just pick "unlicenced batteryless sram" as the save type and you're good to go, no need for any extractor/injector tool

Don’t think everyone has the flasher you’re using. Also don’t think it works with every repro type. I tried doing something similar to one of mine (supposedly it is able to save proper save sizes if tweaked correctly) but to no avail.

[el briga]

8 hours ago, parham39 said:

Hi maybe im missing somthing here, but did any of you try the gbx cart flasher? Just pick "unlicenced batteryless sram" as the save type and you're good to go, no need for any extractor/injector tool

I tried all the guides available here, and just this frankenstein works for me, but thanks for the reply 

[parham39]

14 hours ago, theSLAYER said:

Don’t think everyone has the flasher you’re using. Also don’t think it works with every repro type. I tried doing something similar to one of mine (supposedly it is able to save proper save sizes if tweaked correctly) but to no avail.

But did you actually try it? It does work with every repro i threw at it including different pokemon rom hacks and completely different bootlegs like wario world, metal slug, hamtaro etc. Just need to select unlicenced batteryless sram and backup saves data and write saves data Anyway, just tried to help in case you diddnt know because all this stuff seems like a huge struggle

[theSLAYER]

6 hours ago, parham39 said:

But did you actually try it? It does work with every repro i threw at it including different pokemon rom hacks and completely different bootlegs like wario world, metal slug, hamtaro etc. Just need to select unlicenced batteryless sram and backup saves data and write saves data Anyway, just tried to help in case you diddnt know because all this stuff seems like a huge struggle

I used a different software and tried a similarly named step. Also tried to cobble together separate patches to see if I can make it work. To my understanding GBxCart RW is a hardware, but if the software you’ve shown works well without the hardware then I can give that a shot

[el briga]

23 hours ago, parham39 said:

Hi maybe im missing somthing here, but did any of you try the gbx cart flasher? Just pick "unlicenced batteryless sram" as the save type and you're good to go, no need for any extractor/injector tool

This software needs specific hardware to work, right?