Final Fantasy V Advance on Supercard SD

StepIntoThisReality · December 04, 2006, 03:05:48 AM

Hey everyone! It's been a while since I've been to this site, but it's good to be back.

So my newest toy on my Supercard is Final Fantasy V Advance. I just have to relive the memories in a portable fashion. However, I've noticed that the game slows down considerably during battle and while I'm in towns. I played through Final Fantasy IV Advance, and the few slowdowns I experienced were tolerable. They were never nearly as bad as what I'm experiencing with FFV.

I checked the forums for a solution, and people mentioned stuff about using GBATA to trim the file and then I patch it using fastrestart.exe. However, whenever I do that, the game actually runs a little bit slower than usual.

Does anyone have a solution for me? Thanks a bunch; I appreciate it!

jgemzik · December 04, 2006, 08:55:14 AM

my suggestion would be to pick up a cheap gba flash cart, i got a ez flash ii powerstar for 50.00 which i use for all gba games, only holds 2-3 games, which for me is fine, since i dont play that many gba games

Joey Ravn · December 04, 2006, 09:51:00 AM

Yeah, get an used GBA flashart for those GBA roms. It would be wise, as FFVI Advance was announced recently and, trust me, you'll want to play it.

Mota · December 04, 2006, 10:55:49 AM

Quote from: "StepIntoThisReality"Hey everyone! It's been a while since I've been to this site, but it's good to be back.

So my newest toy on my Supercard is Final Fantasy V Advance. I just have to relive the memories in a portable fashion. However, I've noticed that the game slows down considerably during battle and while I'm in towns. I played through Final Fantasy IV Advance, and the few slowdowns I experienced were tolerable. They were never nearly as bad as what I'm experiencing with FFV.

I checked the forums for a solution, and people mentioned stuff about using GBATA to trim the file and then I patch it using fastrestart.exe. However, whenever I do that, the game actually runs a little bit slower than usual.

Does anyone have a solution for me? Thanks a bunch; I appreciate it!

I posted a solution near the end of this thread: http://scdev.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7253&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15

Using the method I describe will make FF4/5 run as fast as is possible on a supercard. If you have SC Lite though, you're basically screwed.

bionicspider · December 04, 2006, 08:40:04 PM

Quote from: "Mota"If you have SC Lite though, you're basically screwed.

I've tried the fastrestart and SC patcher method with every setting turned off on my SC Lite (not saver, though), and I've noticed that this speeds up the battles a bit. There are still slowdowns in towns when a lot sprites are running around, but it's tolerable.

What's your definition of screwed?

StepIntoThisReality · December 04, 2006, 09:01:51 PM

Thanks a lot, Mota! It works much better!

If FFV has this much trouble, how the hell will FFVI work?

bionicspider · December 05, 2006, 02:22:33 AM

Quote from: "StepIntoThisReality"Thanks a lot, Mota! It works much better!

If FFV has this much trouble, how the hell will FFVI work?

That's a good question. I'd try the Japanese release to gage how the English version will fare when it comes out. I hope it runs decently, and I'm hoping the SC team brings back QPC in the next firmware update.

Mota · December 05, 2006, 06:49:29 AM

Quote from: "bionicspider"
Quote from: "Mota"If you have SC Lite though, you're basically screwed.

I've tried the fastrestart and SC patcher method with every setting turned off on my SC Lite (not saver, though), and I've noticed that this speeds up the battles a bit. There are still slowdowns in towns when a lot sprites are running around, but it's tolerable.

What's your definition of screwed?

Well, the fastrestart patch(es) are for CF and SD cards, not micro-sd. Theoretically, you would be unable to save your game even if the menu was accessible. I don't own a SC Lite to test this theory but other users have told me it doesn't work. Mind you, maybe they just didn't follow my instructions correctly

I would imagine that FF6 would have similiar performance to 4/5 - I'll go test it out for you guys in a minute.

EDIT: I tested FF6(J) and you'll be happy to know it actually runs a lot better than the previous two games. There's no slowdown during the early fights or when using the beam weapons, the first village scrolls nicely. There might be the tiniest bit of slowdown in the first cave, but it's nothing compared to FF4/5... in fact it might even be present on the real cart for all I know.

I'm very happy about this as I never played this one through.

bionicspider · December 05, 2006, 09:07:59 AM

Quote from: "Mota"
Well, the fastrestart patch(es) are for CF and SD cards, not micro-sd. Theoretically, you would be unable to save your game even if the menu was accessible.

EDIT: I tested FF6(J) and you'll be happy to know it actually runs a lot better than the previous two games. There's no slowdown during the early fights or when using the beam weapons, the first village scrolls nicely. There might be the tiniest bit of slowdown in the first cave, but it's nothing compared to FF4/5... in fact it might even be present on the real cart for all I know.

I'm very happy about this as I never played this one through.

I wasn't aware that fastrestart wasn't intended for microSD memory. For some odd reason, it's speeding up the battles in FF V for me; however, there's still slowdown inside of towns when too many sprites are occupying the screen.

As for the saving issue, the newest SC Lite firmware won't allow me to do a normal QPC save, but fastrestart seems to patch the rom so I can do a L+R+Select+Start to reboot from FF V to my SC Lite's saver menu, where I'm able save my game's data. I've experienced no loss of saved data this way.

Are you playing FF6 with just normal patching settings and without the use of fastrestart? If so, I can't wait to play it with minimal slowdown!

Mota · December 05, 2006, 09:11:43 AM

I never thought of using fastrestart to simply access the saver menu! I'll be sure to pass that info on to any SCLite users I speeak to.

RE: FF6, I was using the fastrestart patch just like I did with FF4/5. It slows down without it. For some reason fastrestart seems to be more effective with this game than the others. Even so, by the sounds of it you should be able to play it with minimal slowdown anyway

bionicspider · December 05, 2006, 09:33:59 AM

Quote from: "Mota"
RE: FF6, I was using the fastrestart patch just like I did with FF4/5. It slows down without it. For some reason fastrestart seems to be more effective with this game than the others. Even so, by the sounds of it you should be able to play it with minimal slowdown anyway

Cool, thanks for testing it out and posting your results, Mota. I can't wait for the English dump now! FF6 (FF III in the states) is my favorite SNES game of all time, and I can't wait to relive the experience in hand-held form.

StepIntoThisReality · December 05, 2006, 06:30:52 PM

I couldn't agree with you more, bionicspider! But, tell Square Enix to get on "Chrono Trigger Advance" soon, and I think I might die in heaven!

Mota · December 06, 2006, 07:03:06 PM

@bionicspider: You're welcome

I'm having to try very hard not to start playing FF6 on Zsnes, cus I've nearly finished FF3 now. Maybe I should play another one to tide me over - any recommendations for 1/2/4/5?

@stepintothisreality: I hear ya, portable Chrono Trigger would be great. Especially if they did it on the DS. In the meantime, it's pretty playable on SnezziDS at the moment, albeit without sound. You have to do some layer swapping now and then but it's better than nothing.

...I hope one day we'll see a near-perfect SNES emulator on DS. Nintendo releasing every title as GBA/DS ports would be sufficient, though :lol: I wish.

mmm...Killer Instinct... *drool*

bionicspider · December 06, 2006, 07:57:28 PM

Quote from: "Mota"@bionicspider: You're welcome I'm having to try very hard not to start playing FF6 on Zsnes, cus I've nearly finished FF3 now. Maybe I should play another one to tide me over - any recommendations for 1/2/4/5?

The FF that got me hooked on the series was FF 4 IV (released as FF 2 here) on the SNES. If you haven't already played the GBA FF IV, it's good fun, and it'll tide you over until FF 6 VI comes out next year.

I wish they'd just break down and port all the wonderful RPG/Action games to the GBA that made the SNES such a joy: Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Secret of Evermore, Illusion of Gaia etc. I'd be in game nostalgia heaven!

Better yet, near flawless SNES emulation on the DS would be excellent!

Mota · December 13, 2006, 12:54:34 PM

Well, I'm 2 hours into FF4 now and loving it

I doubt we'll ever see near-perfect snes eumulation on DS, as the 2D hardware cannot allocate layers on a per-tile basis - this is why you have to do lots of layer swapping in SnezziDS.