#38057 - tweder - Mon Mar 21, 2005 5:25 am
Hey guys.
Well, as the title suggests, some folks over in japan have figured out how to extract save data from their DS games in hopes to transfer songs created in Band Brothers over the internet. They've built their own software to extract each song as well as put new songs back onto the game.
I've known about this for a little while, so it may be old. I've just been too lazy to sign up.
http://www.maid.gr.jp/jubai/bandbrothers/bbme_devicekit.html
#38062 - Dwedit - Mon Mar 21, 2005 8:44 am
Could that also be done with a passme and flashcart, or are the saves too big?
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#38065 - ampz - Mon Mar 21, 2005 12:17 pm
| Dwedit wrote: |
| Could that also be done with a passme and flashcart, or are the saves too big? |
Eeh, no, they are not very big.
Extracting saves is not very hard. They are stored in a standard serial EEPROM.
#38066 - MumblyJoe - Mon Mar 21, 2005 12:18 pm
I see no reason why it could not be done with a passthrough. But on the other hand I haven't tried.
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#38069 - Spheros - Mon Mar 21, 2005 4:12 pm
In a few weeks it can be done much easier, check it out:
| Quote: |
Mar 21 2005 18:02:05 Hong Kong Time - Nintendo DS - GameBoy
Datel announced their first product for the Nintendo DS. The Action Replay Duo goes into the GBA slot of your GBA or your Nintendo DS and comes with a USB link and a Windows Software. The product is supposed to be out in a couple of weeks.
Here is some info from Datel about the device including screenshots:
This cool device slots into your GBA or the GBA slot of your DS and enables you to access cheats and manage game saves. It comes with a PC application which you can use to download cheats and saves from the CodeJunkies server to be transferred to your DS or GBA. Isn't it annoying how GBA carts usually only have room for one game save? Well, with Action Replay Duo you can back up your GBA and DS saves to the Action Replay vault itself, or on your PC. Great if you share your GBA or DS with your friends.
We'll have more detailed info on Action Replay Duo when it's released (within a couple of weeks), but in the meantime, why not feast your eyes on a selection of screenshots from the PC Application and the devices on screen display (click on the screenshots for a larger view). |
From: http://www.lik-sang.com/news.php?artc=3598
Some more pics:
PC Software screenshots:
http://image.lik-sang.com/content/action_replay_duo/01_AR_DUO_PC.jpg
http://image.lik-sang.com/content/action_replay_duo/02_AR_DUO_PC.jpg
http://image.lik-sang.com/content/action_replay_duo/03_AR_DUO_PC.jpg
Console:
http://image.lik-sang.com/content/action_replay_duo/01_AR_DUO_console.jpg
http://image.lik-sang.com/content/action_replay_duo/02_AR_DUO_console.jpg
http://image.lik-sang.com/content/action_replay_duo/03_AR_DUO_console.jpg
Really cool huh?
#38071 - Boeboe - Mon Mar 21, 2005 4:19 pm
true, without a doubt the action replay will allow you to easily exchange songs for band brothers. Just download them from the net and put them on your DS. Easily share your own compositions with people on the other side of the world.
#38072 - Lynx - Mon Mar 21, 2005 4:37 pm
| MumblyJoe wrote: |
| I see no reason why it could not be done with a passthrough. But on the other hand I haven't tried. |
Uhh.. I don't see how a passthrough fits into this at all. Not that I could read the original page post, but from the pictures, it's a USB interface to dump/write save game data from a cart. A passthrough it to run DS code from a GBA cart. Totally different devices.
I'm guessing it works like my linker. I can insert a GBA game and save the "save game" data to a file on my computer. I could then e-mail that file to you, and if you have a linker, save the "save game" data to your GBA cart and be at the same point I am in the game. As BOB saves your songs as save game data, it's the same concept.
#38081 - tepples - Mon Mar 21, 2005 9:38 pm
| MumblyJoe wrote: |
| I see no reason why it could not be done with a passthrough. |
You are so completely thinking backwards. If a device like this can modify savegames, it would be useful for turning a buggy game into a passthrough. See any of the various descriptions of MechInstaller for the theory behind savegame buffer overflows on another platform.
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#38083 - ampz - Mon Mar 21, 2005 9:55 pm
| Lynx wrote: |
| MumblyJoe wrote: | | I see no reason why it could not be done with a passthrough. But on the other hand I haven't tried. |
Uhh.. I don't see how a passthrough fits into this at all. Not that I could read the original page post, but from the pictures, it's a USB interface to dump/write save game data from a cart. A passthrough it to run DS code from a GBA cart. Totally different devices.
I'm guessing it works like my linker. I can insert a GBA game and save the "save game" data to a file on my computer. I could then e-mail that file to you, and if you have a linker, save the "save game" data to your GBA cart and be at the same point I am in the game. As BOB saves your songs as save game data, it's the same concept. |
A passthorugh allows you to run software on the DS in DS mode. That software has full access to both the DS card and the GBA card. It is easy to read the EEPROM in the DS card and store that information on the GBA card, from with you can transfer it to the PC using your normal linker.
It oviously works the other way asound as well.
Or you could simply use the GBA card as a "savegame bank" for bulk storage of DS saves, without ever having to transfer them to or from the PC.
#38086 - tepples - Mon Mar 21, 2005 10:03 pm
| ampz wrote: |
| Or you could simply use the GBA card as a "savegame bank" for bulk storage of DS saves, without ever having to transfer them to or from the PC. |
How many savegames could the 256 KByte SRAM of a typical GBA flash card hold?
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#38087 - Dwedit - Mon Mar 21, 2005 10:05 pm
A lot more if you consider the ease of writing to F2A cartridges. 32 megabytes perhaps?
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#38088 - ampz - Mon Mar 21, 2005 10:07 pm
| tepples wrote: |
| ampz wrote: | | Or you could simply use the GBA card as a "savegame bank" for bulk storage of DS saves, without ever having to transfer them to or from the PC. |
How many savegames could the 256 KByte SRAM of a typical GBA flash card hold? |
Without knowing the exact size of DS card EEPROMs, I'd say about 64-256.
Probably more if you use compression.
But you are not really limited to the SRAM, there is little keeping you from using the main flash memory as well.
#38091 - tepples - Mon Mar 21, 2005 10:17 pm
| ampz wrote: |
| But you are not really limited to the SRAM, there is little keeping you from using the main flash memory as well. |
Other than that we don't know the specific register access sequences required to write to some brands of GBA flash card, and it in fact seems to be impossible to write to EFA cards (including those paid for before the Nintendo DS was first sold) through the GBA cart bus.
Other than the discontinued Visoly and F2A Classic cards, which GBA flash cards are known to be writable by free software?
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Last edited by tepples on Mon Mar 21, 2005 10:20 pm; edited 1 time in total
#38092 - tweder - Mon Mar 21, 2005 10:20 pm
The only grief I have with the Action Replay is that it will completely replace your save file, including your scores on all your songs. With this japanese device, you can replace individual custom songs. Oh well... there is a special piece of hardware that I can't find to build one of these, so I guess I'll have to settle for the Action Replay.
#38093 - ampz - Mon Mar 21, 2005 10:20 pm
| tepples wrote: |
| ampz wrote: | | But you are not really limited to the SRAM, there is little keeping you from using the main flash memory as well. |
Other than that we don't know the specific register access sequences required to write to some brands of GBA flash card, and it in fact seems to be impossible to write to EFA cards (including those paid for before the Nintendo DS was first sold) through the GBA cart bus. |
Well, there is that. But we have full access to Visoly/F2A/XROM at least (probably more).
And as already noted, the SRAM will be more than enough anyway.
#38094 - tepples - Mon Mar 21, 2005 10:22 pm
| tweder wrote: |
| The only grief I have with the Action Replay is that it will completely replace your save file, including your scores on all your songs. With this japanese device, you can replace individual custom songs. |
Apparently, the proper sequence is DS card -> AR Duo -> PC -> Modify savegame file on PC -> AR Duo -> DS card.
_________________
-- Where is he?
-- Who?
-- You know, the human.
-- I think he moved to Tilwick.
#38102 - Maverick - Mon Mar 21, 2005 11:38 pm
When the WiFi gets worked out, this could also be used to transfer the data over a wireless link to the PC and vice versa
#38112 - Mr DiZZLE - Tue Mar 22, 2005 1:57 am
Well to give you an idea, Super Mario 64 DS is 8K, Spiderman is 512Bytes, while Madden is 256K
#38113 - MumblyJoe - Tue Mar 22, 2005 2:02 am
Hey, I'm not thinking backwards and I wouldn't bother trying it with a passthrough, I was just answering a hypothetical someone else asked.
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