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! 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 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

You've got a few issues: 1. Some illegal due to incorrect encounter data 2. There's a slight PID and Gender relation. Meaning the PID you are using is the problem.

I’m gonna see if I can replicate it, if so, share your save with the devs to get them to look at it. I’ll let you know.

Upload an example, we can take a look

Yeah nah the newer the game, the more you shouldn’t do that. I’m not saying you can’t, I’m saying you probably shouldn’t. You might miss stuff that the legality for that encounter requires, yadda yadda, it’s a way to avoid issues.

Yeah don’t create stuff from scratch. Load up your save in PKHeX, then use the templates in the encounter database.

When you go into your system settings, what’s the firmware code written. Maybe take a picture to show the whole thing Do you launch the console any differently between going online and injecting/extracting saves?

Do you happen to have Emunand setup, and been using that?

@Whitelion yeah the files won't load for me on PKHeX too. Does the game still function on your Switch? (don't try to restore these saves)

Sorry, I guess my instructions were unclear. You know how when you extract it from JKSV there’s a few named files, such as main and main2? None of the file names there should be changed when you restore the save. Also, I’m asking for the main2 file to be checked. Not that you rename it to main2. To be sure, show me a screenshot of the files in that folder JKSV extracted.

When you import a file into the game, make sure it’s named main, with no other extension (I think that was the name) also, have you tried loading main2 into PKHeX?

Not a proper save. How did you extract it? Are you sure you’re extracting from a legit card? Any chance you’re using an outdated method that doesn’t support HGSSBWB2W2?

How did you extract the save from your device? How did you transfer the save from your SD card to your computer (SD transfer? FTP? USB connection?) Are you on the latest PKHeX? Are you saving in-game (as opposed to using state saves, if on emulator)

I can’t speak for what you can do if you’re banned, but… you can absolutely use CFW on Sysnand and use HOME, and not be banned.

Were those event Pokémon injected to begin with? did their event OT (the text) have a different language from the language specified on the Mon?

I imagine they hacked in a bunch of stuff right before receiving the starter, and maybe the game has checks like "this person hasn't progressed far enough, there shouldn't be all this stuff. they must be cheating". That's my uneducated guess anyway.

@suloku I hope I'm not being too presumptuous with this. I'm writing this cause I was having issues with converting old plugins to work with the current PKHeX.Core; I thought that in general I should share my steps that got it working with the public. For converting from NET framework to NET7.0, in order to use the latest PKHeX.Core nuget (the steps I could remember are): 1. When editing the csproj, change the line <TargetFrameworks>net48</TargetFrameworks> (or whatever applicable netxx) to <TargetFramework>net7.0-windows</TargetFramework> 2. Under Properties for the csproj, enable Window Forms 3. Add new item > Form (Windows Form) 4. Add this within the code of the plugin's namespace that you use static void Main() { ApplicationConfiguration.Initialize(); Application.Run(new Form1()); } 5. Update the nuget 6. You should be able to build the plugin now. If you encounter errors, save and reload. I would imagine there's an easier way to do this, especially without the usage of an untouched Form1, but I couldn't figure it out, and didn't want to port over all my code to the updated Example Plugin.

Just because it worked for one rom hack doesn’t mean it’ll work for all. PKHeX stance is that it only supports saves from official games. If it *happens* to support a save from a rom hack, it’s because that particular rom hack didn’t change the save wildly different enough..

Before you give up, check is anything here works: https://github.com/euan-forrester/save-file-converter

Does analogue pocket give you any settings regarding what size or how to save a save?

1) file looks too small 2) looking at them in a hex editor, and the data looks like gibberish I don’t use analogue pocket so I don’t know the details. Maybe properly save in game, instead of save states.

There’s a plugin for that.