GBA games and NDS GBA Save issuesProblems this may resolve:- loss of saves in GBA mode
- loss of saves with GBA Saves
- only one saved game at a time in GBA mode
GBA_Saves in NDS mode- these are known to be not working correctly with some carts, it is due to the SRAM memory being corrupted by power cycle or cart swap. ROM files that have a designated 2mbit save seem to not be affected even on the problem carts. Use NDS saves if at all possible.
GBA in GBA modeThe software that is currently being used to multiboot GBA roms included in Neo Power Kit does not have Save Management Support (SMS), and sometime overwrites saves as games try to use the same area to save to when you use GBA roms.
Therefore, the NeoMax program (based on XGPro) is recommended as it has SMS support for saving multiple gba roms.
The XGPro software mentioned was originally downloaded from the xgflash2.com
forum (this link)** not 100% up to date, make sure if you dont have a MK2/3 to not choose SD for SMS!! **
1- download :
NeoMax 1.52 - run the file, and it will ask you a couple questions and then install
3 - plug in the slim loader 3 and you NeoFlash cart
4 - run the NeoMax software with the link that is installed
5 - if its not in English, select the 3rd tab, and 1st dropdown to pick it, you can also change the skin here. You can also select English by opening up the Neo Max.ini file and changing the LANGUAGEID to a value of 2.
6 - in the game tab, press format (dont worry, this does nothing permanent) and then yes
7 - pick the language, and size of SMS - note, that SMS size is taken from available ROM space, as ROM area will be used to backup the save files to once used on the DS/GBA - then press OK
8 - it will take a bit of time, but it puts a single ROM on the cart that takes up the entire carts space, and it will tell you "format OK"
9 - press add and pick a single file to add, note that you can use many types of games with the included emulators (.gba, .nes, .pce, .sms, .gg, .gb, .gbc) and then press open
10 - choose enable compress if you want to compress the rom to save space
11 - once done adding files, right click in the game window and press multi-write
12- it will then write the ROMs with whatever patches are selected in the "rom settings" window to the cart. If there is an error on a rom, you may need to disconnect the Slim 3 and reconnect it and then delete and reburn the problem rom.
13- once you have items on the cart, and start NeoMax, you will need to press 'detect' for it to load the current list of what is on the cart.
14 - after burning a couple of roms to the cart, and restarting the program and pressing detect, you will see some [default] entries in the SMS area of the window.
These are the default saves that are saved to without backing up using the bootmenus SMS function on the DS/GBA. When you create some new saves (see below) they will also appear here. You can back them up and restore them from the allocated ROM area as you wish.
Once they are on the flashcart1 - start the GBA or DS in gba mode (see help tab in menu for options)
2 - select the game you wish to play, and play it, save ingame
3 - turn off the DS/GBA and restart, and the loader/SMS menu will come up again
4 - it will say in the bottom right corner what is stored in SRAM (press right to select SMS, press start to backup to ROM allocated area as a new save, or simply load a different game to back SRAM up to the Default location)
Some additional notes:- when you wish to make a save backup, be sure to pick the correct game you are making the backup for in the GAME menu before pressing right to go to the SMS menu
- play a different game and save it, optionally backing up the SRAM to the Default location before loading
- when you wish to remove a save backup, use the arrows to pick it and press select, then confirm the delete
- there are many options to the app, and lots of thing you can patch before you burn the ROM to the cart. I will not go into detail, but needless to say, some of them will make the ROM not work.
- you can also change the wallpaper/background to suit your taste in the GBA menu.
A very nice piece of work, although somewhat buggy it works well for GBA games and even has some inbuilt logos for already known games.
