Reviving A 15 Year Old Save File

[FOMO]

Hello! My brother is getting married soon and I wanted to give him a special gift for his wedding. When he was 12 he had a Pokémon Diamond save game with a nearly complete Pokédex, and it was his proudest possession. Sadly, at some point during high school, he lost the cartridge, and with it all of his hard work. The good news is he did upload his save file to Pokémon Battle Revolution for the Wii back in the day, and in the cartridge's absence it's been the only record we have of his save game.

Now, 15 years later, I am attempting to rebuild a Pokémon Diamond save file with exact copies of the Pokémon he uploaded to Battle Revolution. I've already retrieved the PbrSaveData and can open all the box information using PKHex (NOTE: if you're attempting to view the data yourself from the PbrSaveData file in PKHex make sure you picked the save slot labeled "mike"). I can read all of the Pokémon's original data. Since I'm trying to write the information directly to a physical cartridge, I'm also using PKSM on my 3DS to edit a copy of Diamond I bought a few years ago.

My process is this: using PKSM I create a new Pokémon and manually copy all data values I find in PKHex into PKSM. The only problem I'm running into pertains to the Encounter Type. When I check the legality of the Pokémon it reads "Encounter Type PID Mismatch" and I presume it has to do with byte 0x85 labeled (Encounter Type) which is set to 00 by default. I can read the encounter type on PKHex, but to manually change the value in PKSM I have to do it via the Hex Editor. And although I know how to get this far in my journey, the coding and hexadecimal rhetoric is still lost on me.

For example, my brother's Infernape shows in PKHex as a "Starter/Fossil/Gift (DP)" encounter. When I copy all the information over though, I don't know what value to set the Encounter Type byte at in order to match the original and it fails the legality check. I have the same problem with Pokémon like Cresselia (who in PKHex reads as a "Tall Grass" encounter on Route 211.)

It's the only thing keeping the copies from being legal and I can't simply use the auto-legality command because I want these Pokémon to me exact copies of the originals. I can assure you that all of the Pokémon from the original game are legitimate, except for Darkrai & Shaymin which my brother action replayed; then he threw out the action replay in shame. I'm simply trying to duplicate the original data manually into PKSM. Any help with my Encounter Type problem would be much appreciated.

If there's a place where I can find what byte values correlate to what Encounter Type I'm trying to edit that would be of great value. I've uploaded the Battle Revolution save data if it's of any assistance (NOTE: if you're attempting to view the data yourself from the PbrSaveData file in PKHex make sure you picked the save slot labeled "mike"). Thanks for the help.

 

 

Edited Thursday at 11:25 PM by FOMO

[Kaphotics]

Why can't you just edit the dumped Diamond save file and drag & drop between PKHeX windows? The program will convert for you; no need to manually try and recreate all the details.

[FOMO]

I’m writing directly to a copy of Diamond on my 3DS. So there’s a window of PKHex on my computer and I’m using the homebrew PKSM app on my 3DS. I do this because I have no way of loading a save file onto my physical copy of diamond (i don’t have a cartridge reader).

Whats also complicating things a bit is that I’m using PKHex on my Macbook, I don’t own a PC. It can be finicky. For instance I would just use the QR code creator to scan directly to PKSM on my 3DS but the QR code generator doesn’t seem to open. And PKSM tends to crash when it does successfully read codes.

[Kaphotics]

You can backup NDS saves using Checkpoint to your SD card, then use FTPD (or the MicroSD management if it's a New3DS) to wirelessly transfer the file between your computer and console.

[FOMO]

1 minute ago, Kaphotics said:

You can backup NDS saves using Checkpoint to your SD card, then use FTPD (or the MicroSD management if it's a New3DS) to wirelessly transfer the file between your computer and console.

Intriguing - hopefully my SD card is still inside my 3DS (it is a New3DS), I haven’t opened it up since I originally homebrewed back in 2017.

When I get home from work I’ll check this method .

[FOMO]

I've run into an issue. Using the method you provided my 3DS is now accessible on my Network, however my computer fails to connect– it only connects for 1/10th a second before it responds "connection failed." I think this has something to do with macOS. The Nintendo website says to use a computer with Windows 7 or 8 and that Windows 10 may not be compatible. I fear that the microSD management software simply hasn't updated. I have no other computer, nor access to a Windows computer in a trusted location.

However, I had already come to terms with the fact that I might have to move all of the Pokémon manually. I can probably do one mon every 10 minutes, and his wedding isn't until October so I have a bit of time. Thanks for the assistance.

Edited December 9 by FOMO