Help im New

burt · October 18, 2005, 09:33:18 AM

Hi everyone, new member and completley new to this, I am looking to figure out how to play back ups on the kids GBA. Ive figured out i need a supercard and a Sd memory card, but can someone point in the direction of what to do next?

If i have a disc of roms how do i convert and load to sd card?? As i said im completley new to this and not very technical so an idiots guide would be good, with 3 kids driving me mad for new gba games im hoping you can help me get up and running on this
thanks in advance

burt

DeVS · October 18, 2005, 10:33:58 AM

Welcome to the site! Doing some reading around the forums will answer most of your questions. Real brief though, go to our download section and download the v1.52 firmware for the SD cards. Put it on your SD card and then put it in the Supercard and fire it up (making sure you have the Superpass in and a game in the Superpass). When you start the system it will see the new firmware on your Supercard and install it. After that get the Rom patcher (also from our download section) and choose "Add" add a game you have to the program. Double click on the roms name and a "properties" box pops up. Choose SD and SD for both those options. Choose "out" and that will out put your patched game. For GBA games you will have 3 files (file.gba, file.sav, and file.sci) and the DS roms will out put 2 files (file.nds.dsq and file.sav)just copy all the files over to your Supercard and fire up your supercard. To do real time save in a GBA game press L+R+B+SELECT and it will ask you to save or load a save. Saving for DS games is just like a normal save in the game, get to a place if it ask you to save then save like normal. Hope this helps, it's was a fast class,lol, so if you have any other questions just ask.

satanduck · October 18, 2005, 11:07:12 AM

I think the reason why we kept getting the same kinda "help me i'm new" posts is because its quite a chore to navigate through the forums for information. The official supercard site is no help either. Maybe somebody can come up with a sticky how to? I don't remember seeing a "guide" mostly those "I'm having this problem what do I do".

burt · October 18, 2005, 11:13:34 AM

What is the difference between the supercard and the gba flasher and cart that is also available to allow the playing of homebrew? maybe a stupid question but as a newbie im struggling to find the best way to allow the kids to play hombrew

thanks
burt

DeVS · October 18, 2005, 11:22:51 AM

The Supercard uses either SD or CF which cheaper and expandable then the flasher carts which are set at something like 256mb. If you get a 256mb flash cart then your stuck with 256 mb unless you pay for a new flash cart, with Supercard you can just buy new SD or CF cards which are waaaay cheaper then flash carts.

satanduck · October 18, 2005, 11:28:29 AM

Hi Burt

From what I see you will only need to play GBA games right?

Download the latest firmware and patcher here : http://www.scdev.org/index.php?cat=downloads

1) Format your CF/SD as FAT. Use a card reader for this
2) Place the downloaded firmware in the root directory of your CF/SD
3) Put CF/SD in your SC, put SC in GBA and turn it on
4) When prompted whether you want to do an upgrade say YES
5) Once that is done, take out the CF/SD from SC, and through your PC via a card reader remove that firmware file to prevent it from asking you everytime.
6) Now to patch your roms. ROMs need to be patched to play on SC.
7) Install the SC patching software, click on ADD and choose the ROMs you want.

Be sure to set up the output directory under the "Option" tab.
9) you can also double click on the rom when they are added into the list to set specific settings for the ROM.
10) once happy, click OUT
11) Copy the resulting OUT files to your CF/SD, load it into the SC and GBA, start and choose in the menu to play.

Look around the forum for specific roms and specific options that work with it if you need help about the patching options.

DeVS · October 18, 2005, 11:32:56 AM

Isn't that what I said in the 2nd post?

satanduck · October 18, 2005, 11:35:59 AM

I noticed your post was about NDS and his was question sounded more like GBA specific?

satanduck · October 18, 2005, 11:36:59 AM

Oops yeah seems like i repeated your post in point form. My apologies!

burt · October 18, 2005, 11:54:55 AM

hi Guys

thanks for your replys very helpful, unfortunatley cant try it yet as i dont have supercard ( just sending of for one) im sure when it arrives i will have more questions for you!!!. I was thinking of buying a psp but as per usual here in england we seem to get ripped of with the price, hopefully if i can get this working it will keep the kids entertained for a while and save me a few quid

thanks again its much appreciated

burt

satanduck · October 18, 2005, 12:11:53 PM

I think you can get it cheaper at http://www.liksang.com/

Once they even had free shipping for PSP and NDS, and Sony even sued them for parellel importing the PSP into the UK because they were selling it cheaper than Sony is in the UK!

Hey look at the bright side, you guys have got the best roast beef I ever tasted! I'm having a hard time looking for good english roast here in Malaysia .... sigh....

DeVS · October 18, 2005, 01:38:05 PM

I got a PSP too and can honestly say, save your money. The DS has waaay better games. Sure Madden looks better on the PSP then the DS, but the DS has some of the best games out right now. Trama Center, Phoniex Wright Ace Attorney, Lost In Blue, Wario Touched, Nintendogs, Advance Wars, Castlevania, ect, are all orginal games that have awsome gameplay. PSP has about 2 good games right now (Virtua Tennis, Lumies) and if you want to to be able to do homebrew/play backed up games, your gonna need a big Memory stick card which cost about $80 us dollars for 1 gig. It's really just not worth the cost right now for the PSP, and your gonna love your DS even more when you get the Supercard.

sneef · October 18, 2005, 01:43:00 PM

i agree with DeVS...

I really only use my PSP these days as a video player on trips, and for the occasional game of medievil or metal gear acid. it's really not all that much fun.. something is lacking. If only my DS had a brighter, more vibrant screen, it would be the best! i have the 'new' GBA SP with the backlit screen, and if they would put something that bright in the DS, it would really make me sell my PSP.. (or maybe i'd keep it to use as a video player)

satanduck · October 18, 2005, 03:18:09 PM

I think one game that blew me away on the NDS was Wario Touched.

Scratching and blowing never been so much fun! (ok maybe blowing can be fun at OTHER times but lets not go there...)

Too bad it was over way too soon...

As for the PSP, after some research I went the Nintendo way because the only game i REALLY wanted to play on the PSP was Burnout Legends. Which I already have Burnout 3 and Revenge on PS2. Why do I want to play the same games on my PS2 and my portable console?

Then I was pleasantly impressed with the gameplay of games like Meteos and FIFA 06 on the NDS... I think Nintendo has got a winner here...

burt · October 24, 2005, 08:02:52 AM

Ok guys i have downloaded software and got some roms im now just waiting for supercard to arrive, i have put a rom through the patching software and the end result is 3 files (gba,sav,sci) which of the 3 need to be transfered to sd card or do all three? any help much appreciated

thanks
burt