Gronis
Dumped SAV doesn't work
I'm following the instructions to the letter and I can't understand why it doesn't work. I'm attempting to dump a Crystal save from a cartridge onto an EZ-Flash Junior. I'm connecting two GameBoy Advance SPs with a GBC Link Cable. The process seems to be working. The little icon flickers while the backup progress bar moves and it seemingly finishes successfully. I then reset the console (tried soft-resetting with the EZ Junior's button also) and choose "YES" when asked whether to backup the saves, as the Junior asks every time upon launch. A file is indeed created, but when opened with PKHeX, it's not a valid Pokémon save file. Any idea what could be wrong?
FALSE ALARM Turns out the save works properly when used with a ROM on the flashcard, it's PKHeX that isn't reading it properly. Any idea why that is?
I haven’t used pkhex, but from the error message, it looks like the problem is the save file size.
It’s probably because the save file is 132kB rather than 32kB that Pokémon crystal uses. gb-save-manager uses that big save file to support nearly all gb and gbc game cartridges, it was bumped from 32 to 132 in version 1.2, mainly to support gb camera.
If you re-save after playing the save file in an emulator or the flash cart, it should set the right save file size for your game, does it still give an error then?
Also, feel free to try using https://savefileconverter.com/#/utilities/advanced?tab=resize to resize save files
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Gronis left a comment (Gronis/gb-save-manager#3) https://github.com/Gronis/gb-save-manager/issues/3#issuecomment-2923936870
I haven’t used pkhex, but from the error message, it looks like the problem is the save file size.
It’s probably because the save file is 132kB rather than 32kB that Pokémon crystal uses. gb-save-manager uses that big save file to support nearly all gb and gbc game cartridges, it was bumped from 32 to 132 in version 1.2, mainly to support gb camera.
If you re-save after playing the save file in an emulator or the flash cart, it should set the right save file size for your game, does it still give an error then?
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The link helped, but no, saving while playing the ROM doesn't, the save file size doesn't change. Will I lose anything if I use the 1.1 version of the Manager? The camera support doesn't matter to me, so if that's the only thing…
Most emulators resize the save file. You could use version 1.1 but it would be interesting to see if the resize would fix it.
Would you mind sharing the save file? Or does it contain sensitive information?
I'm closing this since the save file does work, it's just too big for some tools (PKHeX in this case), and this cannot be changed in gb-save-manager without limiting game cartridge support for gb-save-manager.
Hey I'm the author of savefileconverter.com, and I can offer some unsolicited advice if you would like:
If you're not able to read the size of the save you're copying from (which surprises me a little, but I've never dug into gameboy code), then I'd recommend making an optional selector for the output save size. There's only a few potential sizes: https://github.com/euan-forrester/save-file-converter/blob/main/frontend/src/save-formats/PlatformSaveSizes.js#L35
It's not just random tools that won't work, you may run into people with flash carts that require an exact size, or I think the MiSTer might too. I don't remember offhand. And pkhex is honestly probably a significant usecase for your tool because a huge percentage of people dumping/copying/etc gameboy save files is specifically for pokemon.
Over the years I've been running the site I've seen a lot of people having issues with file sizes, and so every converter on the site has a dropdown to manually select the size if needed. And I added that specific tool I linked above to resize save files and it's pretty up there in terms of most-used tools on the site, despite being buried under the Advanced tab.
It's your tool and your vision for it -- I just wanted to mention what I've seen in case it's helpful.
@euan-forrester
It's not that I can't read the save file size from the game cartridge, I can and I do. I only transfer the save data that is needed. However, the size of the save has to be defined in the header of the gameboy ROM for gb-save-manager, and that is what the flash cartridges or emulators use when creating the save file on the SD card inside the flash cartridge. So I basically have to know at compile time when building gb-save-manager which size the user wants (which is impossible). I increased it to 132kB to support more roms like the GB camera.
I don't know about other flash cartridges, but at least for the everdrive X7, if you copy the save file from gb-save-manager.gbc to the save of the game that you ripped, for example pkmn crystal, and the launch it using pkmn crystal ROM, the save will load just fine, then on save, it will shrink the file size to the same as defined in the ROM header of the game (so for pkmn crystal its 32kB).
I could have several rom versions for different file sizes. But at that point, it's just better to use a tool like yours to shrink the file size afterwards. Maybe I could add a message that the file sizes will be wrong and you might need to resize it and link to your tool with a QR code or something.
Maybe I should make a guide for all the steps to get the correct file size of the game save.
I tried just now with pkmn crystal. A file size of 132kB didn't work when trying to open it in PKHeX. So I moved the save file and started it using the pkmn crystal ROM inside SameBoy, it resized the save file for me, and then it works with PKHeX. At least with the online version at https://pkhex-web.github.io/
Ah, that makes sense now!
Yeah I think your ideas sound pretty good.
On my site I have some help text saying to create an example save file with the destination emulator/flash cart/mister core/etc of their choice so that they know the desired size. You might want to have some similar verbiage in your guide since this stuff definitely is challenging for some users.
I can just write out the correct file size for them. Like "The save file will be 132kB, but this game uses 32kB, some tools or emulators might reject the save file if the size is larger than expected".
@ewormPL
I've updated gb-save-manager to be able to resize the save file using a QR code with a link to a online tool. Hopefully this will help you and others out with the file size problem so that any other tool can be used with the save file.