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[ateam]

Hey all… I’m really new to the GBA and supercard but I’m well versed in forum etiquette.  I tried my hardest to search old threads for similar problems with no success so I’m starting a new one.  My apologies if this has been covered but I’m searching the wrong terms…

So, I’m a nostalgia gamer and just got a GBM and a Supercard ordered from Hong Kong.  I only own one GBA game (Metroid Fusion) and so far it has worked with no problems.  I do have a ton of old NES games that I’d love to take with me on the go, however, which is what led me to the Supercard.  When it arrived, I immediately updated the firmware to 1.50 and downloaded the 2.40 version of the patcher software.  

I formatted my card and tried to patch Zelda but I was hesitant as it said under the Patch column “Failed” as shown below.  


I checked the “Out” folder and it made two new files, a .sav and a .sci along with the .nes which is the ROM.  I transferred them to my SD and tried to load it in the Supercard.  After booting up the GBM, I was able to see the ROM as shown below.


However, as soon as I selected the ROM with the “A” button, I saw the following scrambled screen.  It only lasted for maybe a second or so (which is why the pic is so fuzzy).


Then the screen turned black but it was clearly still on as the picture below shows (visible backlight).


When I tried to reboot, I could see the game in progress…


But if I tried to select it, this time it went to a white screen…


If I tried to select the normal ROM (not in progress version), I got the scrambled screen followed by black again.  So I started my search and found this site.  I tried to update the firmware to 1.52 and the accompanying 2.42 patcher but I get the same problems as above.  I searched this site as well as I could with my limited knowledge but didn’t come up with anything similar.  

Is there anyone out there who can help?  Do I have a bum card?  Am I doing something wrong with the patching?  I didn’t try to rename the ROM or anything… It was my understanding .nes files would just play as is…?

Thanks in advance for your help!

[MottZilla]

I don't think you should run the .NES files through it at all. Just put them on the card and try them. Also, you might want to try actually using the PocketNES ROM builder to build a GBA ROM including all your NES games you want to play. Then just load that GBA ROM on the SuperCard. It'll definitely work then.

[Koji]

Yes, super card has the NES emulator built into it. You don't need to run the patcher on it, just put it on your SD card and run it and it'll play fine (though it'll either play really scrunched, or it will play unscrunched with parts of the picture missing to fit the screen)

[ateam]

WHACK! (the sound of me smacking my head on my desk)


Sorry for bothering everyone.  It works fine now... I can't believe I didn't just try that!  Well in my defense the instructions are all but useless. Thanks for straightening me out!

Well as long as I have an audience, can sneak in a few more...

1. MottZilla, you recommended the PocketNES ROM builder... will that fix the aspect ratio problems (I assume adding black bars)?

2. While search for an answer for this question, I think I came across something where people were playing SNES games on their DS...?  Is this possible on a GBA/GBM as well?  What about Genesis games?

Again, thanks a bunch... feel free to post this blunder in the "What not to do" sticky  :roll:

[Koji]

1. The only way to fix the aspect ratio is to set scaling too off, but this cuts off part of the top and bottom of the screen.

2. Yes and no. There is an SNES emu for GBA called SNESadvance... it's got pretty low compatibility, doesn't support sound, and you are 2 buttons short when using it (since GBA has 2 less buttons). There are no genesis emus for GBA or NDS. This is mainly because genesis runs very different from how the GBA does. While the SNES and GBA use completely different hardware, the DS was more or less designed to be similar to the SNES to ease programming costs. Therefore, you can do a sort of high-level emulation for a lot of parts.

Genesis is structured nothing like GBA and therefore you couldn't even get a poorly working Genesis emulator on GBA. Don't think it's very probably it could be done on the DS either... though I'd loathe to say it's an impossibility.