No$GBA Converter

Great program. However, I'm having a little trouble using this in conjunction with Pokemon Emerald. I've been able to convert my Pokemon Emerald battery save file from No$GBA to VBA with no problems, but when I try to convert it from VBA back to No$GBA, I run into a couple of problems:

1) Most of the time, I'm not able to find a battery file for the VBA save file. This may have something to do with the fact that, whenever I start up Pokemon Emerald in VBA, it gives me the message "The save file is corrupted. The previous save file will be loaded." Is there any fix for this?

2) Failing that, sometimes I'm actually able to create a battery file of the VBA version of Pokemon Emerald (by going to File -> Export -> Battery File). Then I try to run this program to switch the exported VBA battery file to No$GBA. However, when I try to start up No$GBA to load that converted file, I get a message similar to the one I get when I start VBA, but No$GBA won't even start the game (VBA will). It makes me start a whole new game. Any fixes for this one?

Interesting problem. The majority of users who are having problems with this converter are using Pokemon Emerald. I am guessing that you have already tried the following but its worth a shot.

When I created the program (about 3 years back) I was able to load Visual Boy Advance exported battery files into no$gba without needing to convert the file using the converter.

If you can do me a favour, and email me the battery files to kermed(at)gmail(dot)com (the normal one, the no$gba version, and the visualboy advance version) I'll check the files and see if they work on my end.

The old version of no$gba I used to create this program also required that the battery file have the same filename as the gameboy advance rom.

ie: poke_emerald.rom & poke_emerald.sav

I might need to boot up the old computer and update this program sometime. Its entirely possible they may have updated their programs and I might need to re-code the program.

Thanks for posting, hope I can help!

- KermEd

No need to send me those .SAV files. I've done some research and heres what it looks like ::

No$GBA is extending the header information with the new version, now using almost 8kb of junk header data:

Exported from No$GBA with uncompression on ---- 139,632 bytes
Exported from VBA with flashsize set at 128 ---- 131,072 bytes

What is interesting, is you can see where the data from VBA starts a few screens down on the No$GBA version inside the hex-editor, making me suspect the header has grown.

Will investigate.

Also, interestingly, I found that VBA always loaded a batteryfile with the "battery has run dry" error even when the sav file was only used in VBA.

--- Update Nov 21st, 2007

Testing is still underway using Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (which the converter was made for) and Pokemon Emerald to research the problem.

I have tested with 6 different versions of No$GBA. All 6 versions are providing the same size battery file at 139,632 bytes uncompressed, and all 6 converted files are incompatible with VBA. Meaning I was incorrect in saying No$GBA has changed its header information, it seems to have remained the same. Also contrary to what I said before, the VBA version is also not simply found to be offset in the No$GBA version.

I will continue testing, this time working with older versions of Visual Boy Advance to see if that is the problem.

If I don't reach a conclusion soon I will have to boot up my old PC with the source code and information on the hard-drive. And see what versions, and settings, the two programs are using.

I just wanted to let you know I am researching this problem.

Update:

I made the battery file handler a little more solid, and uploaded a new update of the converter which seems to be handling everything a lot better.

Two things to note: No$GBA will not always overwrite a .SAV game that is origionally compressed, with an uncompressed version, even though the .ini file tells it to. This is a bug on No$GBA's part, you may need to work off a .sna snapshot, delete the .sav files (back em up of course), and resave the game.

Also, when you download the new version of the converter, check the readme for the versions of no$GBA and VBA that the program was tested with.

Hope that helps.