Gameboy Advance hacking?

Got Problems or Advice post here. Want to show off your PC bling?
PC, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, Electronics.
Post Reply
User avatar
Snake Oil Salesman
Admin
Posts: 108
Joined: March 27th, 2010, 11:20 pm
Ingame Name: {︣ﺍȜƦס}SnakeOil Salesman
SteamID: STEAM_0:1:19955410
Location: San Diego, CA

Gameboy Advance hacking?

Post by Snake Oil Salesman »

Being a bit of a electronic enthusiast, I always love to mess with things that end up being somewhat difficult to mess with. Recently, I've decided to mess with my Gameboy Advance. Its turned out to be very interesting. So far, I've been able to understand a good amount of its internal stuff (go to http://nocash.emubase.de/gbatek.htm for a complete technical rundown), and been able to hack a Pokemon game (I added a small communist town to the west of littelroot town in Pokemon ruby/sapphire/emerald). Anyways, I'm having some trouble getting some stuff straight, and I'm trying to see how I can build a device to perform a dump of a commercial cartridge (I've seen specifications for a couple, but they're in japanese or spanish). Does anyone else know much about the Gameboy advance, or hack with it?
Image
User avatar
Lord Melchior
Member
Posts: 500
Joined: August 18th, 2010, 2:31 pm
Ingame Name: [ATG] Lord Melchior
SteamID: STEAM_0:1:24385041
Contact:

Re: Gameboy Advance hacking?

Post by Lord Melchior »

I've hacked, mutilated an translated loads of ROMs, including the GBA.

I'm quite experienced with Hex Editing.

What do you need to know?

also, making pokémon hacks isn;t fun anymore because there's so many tools out which makes 13-years-old able to do it :/
Believe, I did it when I was 13.
User avatar
Snake Oil Salesman
Admin
Posts: 108
Joined: March 27th, 2010, 11:20 pm
Ingame Name: {︣ﺍȜƦס}SnakeOil Salesman
SteamID: STEAM_0:1:19955410
Location: San Diego, CA

Re: Gameboy Advance hacking?

Post by Snake Oil Salesman »

Lord Melchior wrote:I've hacked, mutilated an translated loads of ROMs, including the GBA.

I'm quite experienced with Hex Editing.

What do you need to know?

also, making pokémon hacks isn;t fun anymore because there's so many tools out which makes 13-years-old able to do it :/
Believe, I did it when I was 13.
That simply means that your a Japanese sleeper agent, nothing to be worried about. ANYWAYS, I was just wondering how someone would be able to make a flash cart thats compatible with a gameboy advance (I understand it all up to "address latching") Also, how do you perform a sequential read on one of those buggers? There aren't any more cart dumping devices (or even flash carts) floating around, so I've decided to try building my own if it doest prove too difficult.

I'm also having the same problem with pokemon hacking, all of the tutorials are for specific tools that aren't as fun as mucking around with the actual ASM. Btw, what hex editor do you think is best (hexedit doesnt like me, or anyone else I think)? And did you use visual boy advance much? I'm having a problem with that too. :evil:
Image
User avatar
Lord Melchior
Member
Posts: 500
Joined: August 18th, 2010, 2:31 pm
Ingame Name: [ATG] Lord Melchior
SteamID: STEAM_0:1:24385041
Contact:

Re: Gameboy Advance hacking?

Post by Lord Melchior »

haha I haven't actually tried dumping a rom onto a cartridge, so I don't know much about that.
You could simply buy one off the internet, I know http://www.gameboy-advance-roms.com/ has 'em.
I always play my GBA ROMs on my DS, I use TTDS myself.

The best Hex Editing program IMO is WinHex32. simple but effective, and it has that great SNES feeling to it somehow. I use it for everything.

And yes I play with the VBA quite alot. or well, I used to at least, nowadays I just use it fir ripping purposes. What's your problem?
User avatar
Snake Oil Salesman
Admin
Posts: 108
Joined: March 27th, 2010, 11:20 pm
Ingame Name: {︣ﺍȜƦס}SnakeOil Salesman
SteamID: STEAM_0:1:19955410
Location: San Diego, CA

Re: Gameboy Advance hacking?

Post by Snake Oil Salesman »

Lord Melchior wrote:haha I haven't actually tried dumping a rom onto a cartridge, so I don't know much about that.
You could simply buy one off the internet, I know http://www.gameboy-advance-roms.com/ has 'em.
I always play my GBA ROMs on my DS, I use TTDS myself.

The best Hex Editing program IMO is WinHex32. simple but effective, and it has that great SNES feeling to it somehow. I use it for everything.

And yes I play with the VBA quite alot. or well, I used to at least, nowadays I just use it fir ripping purposes. What's your problem?
Now what fun would buying my own be? Anyways, I've been looking for those for ages (those sites only tell you which ones you can use, unless I'm using the site wrong... If you know any other sites, tell me lol). I think they've pretty much stopped producing them ever since the DS became immensely popular.

As for VBA, I'm having problems getting the log functions to work correctly (as in I cannot get it to log a single thing e.g. interupts and DMA transfers) Am I just being stupid, or is Windows Vista X64 naturally not nice to VBA?
Image
User avatar
Lord Melchior
Member
Posts: 500
Joined: August 18th, 2010, 2:31 pm
Ingame Name: [ATG] Lord Melchior
SteamID: STEAM_0:1:24385041
Contact:

Re: Gameboy Advance hacking?

Post by Lord Melchior »

HAHAHA VISTA.
you're fucked.
Even though log functions should work properly.... hrmm...

and if the official websites don't sell 'em anymore, you could always try ebay or amazon or something.

EDIT:
try running VBA in DirectDraw mode.
try installing OEM Drivers
try running VBA in D3D or GDI Rendering modes.
User avatar
Snake Oil Salesman
Admin
Posts: 108
Joined: March 27th, 2010, 11:20 pm
Ingame Name: {︣ﺍȜƦס}SnakeOil Salesman
SteamID: STEAM_0:1:19955410
Location: San Diego, CA

Re: Gameboy Advance hacking?

Post by Snake Oil Salesman »

Lord Melchior wrote:HAHAHA VISTA.
you're fucked.
Even though log functions should work properly.... hrmm...

and if the official websites don't sell 'em anymore, you could always try ebay or amazon or something.

EDIT:
try running VBA in DirectDraw mode.
try installing OEM Drivers
try running VBA in D3D or GDI Rendering modes.
Hm, those seem like they would solve video related problems not why-heck-did-I-choose-Vista problems. When I press OK on the log screen, it just closes out. Is it supposed to do that?
Image
User avatar
Lord Melchior
Member
Posts: 500
Joined: August 18th, 2010, 2:31 pm
Ingame Name: [ATG] Lord Melchior
SteamID: STEAM_0:1:24385041
Contact:

Re: Gameboy Advance hacking?

Post by Lord Melchior »

uhm... I'm not sure :S

I'm on XP after all.
User avatar
Snake Oil Salesman
Admin
Posts: 108
Joined: March 27th, 2010, 11:20 pm
Ingame Name: {︣ﺍȜƦס}SnakeOil Salesman
SteamID: STEAM_0:1:19955410
Location: San Diego, CA

Re: Gameboy Advance hacking?

Post by Snake Oil Salesman »

Lord Melchior wrote:uhm... I'm not sure :S

I'm on XP after all.
I just tried it on an XP computer. I think its just me being stupid =| I've tried googling too lol, I cant find out how to log.
Image
Post Reply