Dwedit's Board

Adrian

Guest

Import/export battery saves to GoombaColor

Hi Dwedit! First of all, thank you for this awesome emulator, I'm using it everyday with my Game Boy Micro!
I was wondering if you can please make a simple program to import/export battery .sav files from/to other emulators to GoombaColor. The only info I found was a link to pocketheaven which seems to be down, and my attempts to fiddle around with VisualBoyAdvance have no success. Thanks and keep up the good work!

Dwedit

Administrator

From: Chicago

Registered: 2004-12-12

Posts: 1,023

Website

Re: Import/export battery saves to GoombaColor

The SRAM for the game boy is stored in memory at 0x02038000.

Exporting the SRAM:

In VisualBoyAdvance:
Tools > Memory Viewer
Click the Save... button
Address: 02038000
Size: 2000 for most games, 8000 for games that use 32K sized bigger saves (like Pokemon), if you're unsure, just use 8000
Save the file using quotes around the name, and use a .sav extension.

Importing the SRAM:

In VisualBoyAdvance:
Tools > Memory Viewer
Click the Load... button
By default, it only shows ".dmp" files, if you want to see other files, type * into the file name and hit enter.
Address: 02038000

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"We are merely sprites that dance at the beck and call of our button pressing overlord."

Adrian

Guest

Re: Import/export battery saves to GoombaColor

Thanks for the reply. I managed to load a save to VBA, but size is 64K and GoombaColor are 8K and maybe because of this it doesn't work. I tried all options for Options>Emulator>Save Type, with no luck. Save works on VBA but not on GoombaColor. Thanks in advance.

Dwedit

Administrator

From: Chicago

Registered: 2004-12-12

Posts: 1,023

Website

Re: Import/export battery saves to GoombaColor

64K saves are the EMULATOR's data, not the save for the individual game.  Only the emulator will accept the save file of the emulator itself.

You need to use the Memory Viewer to export and import the saved games from the individual game.  Need to do it after selecting a game, and the game is running.

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"We are merely sprites that dance at the beck and call of our button pressing overlord."

Adrian

Guest

Re: Import/export battery saves to GoombaColor

Ok, i was almost to giving up, because it wasn´t working for me (It worked on PC with VisualBoyAdvance, but not when i put the files on my GBA) then I found a link which explains I need a program called EZ4-64 to patch my ROM to permit saves of 64Kb. After using that, I got my patched ROM and a 64Kb battery SAV file i can play with. Used that to load my previously saved game as you explain above and voila! It works!
PD: Thanks for the help, but maybe you should explain in a forum stick or inside the first post of the emulator that the emu needs a 64Kb SRAM SAV, and that it the .GBA ROM needs to be patched as I explain, sice is confusing for newbies like me (EZ4 default saving or EZ4Client patches DO NOT WORK)
And thanks again Dwedit ;)

Dwedit

Administrator

From: Chicago

Registered: 2004-12-12

Posts: 1,023

Website

Re: Import/export battery saves to GoombaColor

Patching might be specific to the EZ4, other flash cartridges don't need any patching at all.  I don't have an EZ4, so I don't know much about them.

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"We are merely sprites that dance at the beck and call of our button pressing overlord."

BenMcLean

Member

Registered: 2016-06-27

Posts: 3

Re: Import/export battery saves to GoombaColor

Is there any way we could convert this process you described into the form of a batch script? It would take a Goomba sav file as input and it would output a save state file that can be understood by another Gameboy emulator?

morbid27

Member

Registered: 2008-06-13

Posts: 104

Re: Import/export battery saves to GoombaColor

Is this process the same for PocketNES??? or could i get the correct offset I assume you use 2000 for size 8kb saves works in goomba color so far can't do it in PocketNES

vree

Member

Registered: 2017-08-28

Posts: 1

Re: Import/export battery saves to GoombaColor

Ok, i was almost to giving up, because it wasn´t working for me (It worked on PC with VisualBoyAdvance, but not when i put the files on my GBA) then I found a link which explains I need a program called EZ4-64 to patch my ROM to permit saves of 64Kb. After using that, I got my patched ROM and a 64Kb battery SAV file i can play with. Used that to load my previously saved game as you explain above and voila! It works!
PD: Thanks for the help, but maybe you should explain in a forum stick or inside the first post of the emulator that the emu needs a 64Kb SRAM SAV, and that it the .GBA ROM needs to be patched as I explain, sice is confusing for newbies like me (EZ4 default saving or EZ4Client patches DO NOT WORK)
And thanks again Dwedit ;)

First sry for bumoing an old topic. But believe me it was the only one I could find that remotely gave a solution.

Hi Adrian, could you explain, in great detail, exactly what you did to convert your savefile from a normal GBC .sav file to a one that is compatible with the converted .gba game?

I'm also using a EZFLASH IV. Also is there a way to revert the progress and create a normal .sav?

libertyernie

Member

Registered: 2017-09-09

Posts: 1

Website

Re: Import/export battery saves to GoombaColor

I made a program to do this.
https://github.com/libertyernie/goombasav/releases
goombasav_cs.exe is probably want you want if you're on Windows. Otherwise, there's a command line version that you can compile with gcc.

The GBC .sav data is stored inside the GBA .sav data (compressed) so instead of just converting, you need to extract and/or replace.