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[cory1492]

This post pertained to ETool 2.2 (see my post below on 3.1 info)
Halloo all, with the new firmware out, I dug up an old non-experimental copy of ETool (not SMS) and did a bit of coding.

I tossed together a little archive and some instructions, its a little tedious, but you can now backup your 2mbit save in 4 chunks, copy them to the PC and then use the batch file to create a compatible save that will work with the new patcher's .sav system (tested with advance wars (u))

Please note, that on some SuperCards useres were having problems with EToolSMS, as the first and last couple bytes of SRAM were unreliable, while this is fixed in the SMS version the ETool version cannot withstand any data loss need all the space for the save.

When I get compression down correctly, I will also make a PC tool to extract the saves to the different cart formats - but time is limited, I was lucky to get the PC long enough to try the new patcher and fix up ETool today, huh business people think they need a $2500 PC to make phone calls... darn brothers anyway.

any rate, head over to my page if you want to move a 2mbit sav to the new compatible SuperCard ones. It will not touch the save on the DS card other than reading it (DONT HIT FORMAT THOUGH!!!) and I think I explain it fairly well in the readme on how to do it.

gratzi and enjoy

2mbit save Usage (NDS SuperCard)
With the new release of the SuperCard firmware, I thought it may be handy to be able to
create a single save file from 2mbit saves that is compatible with the new firmware.

While it should work with any NDS compatible flashcart, I am only giving instructions for SC

Its a little more lengthly, but once you have it backed up then use the batch file to
create the save (only for 2mbit ones!!) and copy it directly over to the SC with the
same name as the game for which it is for, making the last of the extension sav instead.

Method: (you will need to do this 4 times)
1 - copy the 4 numbered *.sav files from the 2mbit dir and the tool to the SuperCard
2 - start in NDS mode with the 2mbit DS cart in the DS slot
3 - run ETool.nds
4 - press A on backup EEPROM
5 - pick which portion to backup (Up = 1, right =2, down =3, left =4)
6 - QPC and save to the appropriate numbered sav file
7 - repeat until all 4 have been backed up.
8 - copy the 4 numbered *.sav files back to the PC and put in a folder with the make2mbit.bat
9 - double click on the make2mbit.bat and it will create a single 256k save file "2mbit.sav"
10 - rename it to match your game save, for example:
   if the game is called: "Advance Wars.nds.dsq"
   then save should be called: "Advance Wars.nds.sav"

*** I have only tested this with Advance Wars, and it loads the sav perfectly with 1.52 firmware.

Just occurs to me too, you can also backup other saves with etool, make 4  copies of that .sav file or an empty 64k save and rename them 1.sav (1 being the backed up data) thru 4.sav, and use the batch file to make a single compatible save as well (instead of using a hex editor like I did earlier today to be sure they would be compatible).

[ratx]

Great work! Now I have this AND the new firmware to try out Thanks!

[754boy]

Works great man! Didn't want to start a new game of Advance Wars so I used the tool to grab my save from my Madden 06 cart. Sweet!!!  

[cory1492]

Glad I spent the time on it, thanks for trying it out too, works with Nintendogs saves as well

[jweaver]

I wanted something to allow me to extract the saves from my originals, but overlooked this application.

I just read a post which implied that it could be used for this, so I tried this on my 'originals' and now my SC games have the saves games from my originals..

It worked for:

Super Mario World
Zoo Keeper
Wario Ware

Now I am dead happy as I can sell all my original titles.. Ebay here I come

Jon

PS. Is it just me who thinks that the SC is amazing.. I never expected DS support when I bought it, but now to have DS AND Saves working, it truley fantastic.. Its a shame that a few games dont work (notibly Kirby Canvas), but I can't complain!

[satanduck]

me too! me too bought it for my GBA and now i'm using it with my NDS! ROMMAN DA MAN!

[pg65]

I have used this tool to back up all my ds game cards before using them on nds roms

[cory1492]

well well, little sleep and some messy coding (thanks to some idiotic bugs) and I now have for your SuperCards pleasure:

an excellent method of taking the saves off EEPROM/FLASH (or just backing them up)
http://nds.cmamod.com/files/ETool_v3.zip  see the readme for instructions. (copy paste the link if the redirect protection wont let you download)

2mbit now supported, PC side bat/exe to decompress or extract the sav files to... you guessed it, SuperCard compatible save sans(without) hex editing   I will add restore 2mbit after I finally sleep some, trivial but at least the stuff is here to make it all that much more easier on you now.

Drag and drop is working... sort of, the out.sav winds up in your "documents and settings/USER/" dir. Gotta fix that too.

Single pass for 2mbit saves too, if you catch any problems lemme know. I tested extracted saves with SD sav loading roms, using NintenDogs, Advance Wars, Bomberman and Meteos (all US) and so far I have not seen any problems.

[Rion]

Great work.

But how do i convert saves that i have from the NDSpatcher 0.1?

I need to convert my Castlevania save to the new format that the new patcher program has.. But how?

[cory1492]

you mean the QPC save that was working with SC and ndspatcher? Just hex edit the save file and 256k and it will work, or using a hex editor copy the first 8192 bytes and paste them over the first 8192 bytes of the output save from the SuperCard patcher.

Etool 3.1 is released now, backup and restore any save size, the PC app is fixed so the file will output to the directory you drag it onto the exe from, with .out added to the name.

[BLYND]

is there a guide on hex editing anywhere? also what software would i need?

[Rion]

is there a guide on hex editing anywhere? also what software would i need?

I think i need some help here to. (Im stupid lol)  :oops:

[hkpatv]

Am I missing something with this etool software?  I can't get it to work.
I copy the .nds and .sav onto the SC and run the application.
I then choose to copy EEPROM to SRAM.
However when I then look at the files on the SD card the .sav has not changed.
Is there an extra step I need to do to dump the SRAM to the SD card?
I am running the new SuperCard firmware.

[sneef]

you have to QPC (quick power cycle) and then save the SRAM data to SD/CF card from the supercard's 'saver' menu.

research it on this forum.. the info is there.

[hkpatv]

Thanks for the info, sneef.
Have now sucessfully converted Mario & Nintendogs.