EZ-Flash USA Forum

I've researched for awhile now, and have determined that this combination currently does not work. However, I have seen that owners of the EZV and 3-in-1 can make it work. If I understand correctly, they are patching the D/P ROMs to establish the GBA link.

My question is simple: Can a clean ROM be patched in such a way that it allows the GBA link to occur AND does not break the D/P ROM for use on the R4? It seems that it should be possible, but I know so little about the process that I cannot say for certain.

I would guess that the D/P games are looking for a certain memory address on the GBA cart, an address that wouldn't exist on most flashcarts due to differences in the RAM types. The original Ruby/Sapphire/etc. use flash RAM instead of the SRAM that most flashcarts use. A patch would only need to change where the D/P ROM looks for that information, which to me seems simple enough. People hack ROMs all the time to get them to do various things, so why not this?

If I'm off base, let me know. It just seems this would be a simple solution for the many people using this and other similar setups.

You are nearly 100% right, but also re-iterating in "yet another pokemon thread" information that has been discussed elsewhere... in other pokemon and 3in1 related threads no less

The D/P roms are coded to read FLASH wrather than SRAM - as you can see from those links the bank access/switching and writing of FLASH is entirely different than direct SRAM data access, but still at the same addresses. I see no real reason why the FLASH access routine in D/P couldn't have specific SRAM routines transplanted in.

I know, I apologize for starting yet another thread based on this, but it seems as though the problem can be solved easily by someone that knows about patching the ROM. I was just in the process of doing a hex compare between the clean ROM and one patched with the hybrid tool. There are several differences, and I'm not sure which ones are affecting the gba link ability. Someone with more knowledge of that would have to assist.

The hybrid tool does nothing to affect GBALink, that is done per game and related to the ROM and the GBA game header. The migrate patch (entirely different from link, which works as expected on the d/p games by unlocking hidden creatures that you have to find) is done entirely in the EZ5 latest kernels when loading a NDS game with the gamecode "POKEMON ". Hybrid tool does add reset patch to the interrupt handler and hybrid/fast run stuff to the cardi stuff, but nothing to do with gbalink and migrate should have been touched.

----------
Duh... This exe applies essentially the same patch to pokemon ROM in the same way EZ5 does it. No idea if it works, as all the pokefreaks ignored me when I asked about where/how migrate comes into play when I initially looked at it when the english version came out (and I personally can't stand these pokemon games enough to play long enough to figure it out myself). Blame them for their ignore-ability causing this to not appear sooner, I figured then if it was actually wanted bad enough a provided save file and explanation wouldn't be too much to ask for...

It _should_ work the same as the EZ5's patch, with any of the diamond/pearls but I have only inspected the english versions to be certain the stuff it looks for is in them.
pokepatch_3in1.zip
Drag and drop your ROM onto the EXE to apply the 3in1 patch which should make migrate work, it overwrites whatever file you drop if it finds the 'markers' it is looking for, and doesn't check to see if it is an actual NDS file, or for that matter an actual poke game. Let me know if it does not work and I have wasted my time doing something I couldn't actually test due to lack of information and desire to know more than I absolutely have to about pokemon.

You should also be able to see exactly where the FLASH bankswitching routine is by what this patches, though searching through disassembly for the stuff (SRAM address, EXMEMCNT, FLASH bankswitch bytes -take your pick) on gbatek produces that info quite directly also.

Pokefreaks...sheesh. If it wasn't for my daughter, I might not ever have become one.

At any rate, I have good news. Congrats on a successful patcher! I just tested it. and Pearl does see that I have Emerald on the 3-in-1. Unfortunately, when trying to do the migrate, it still gets an error...

"Error reading the Game Boy Advance Game Pak's save file. There may not be a file saved, or the save file may be corrupted."

Seems like other people were having similar problems with the EZV 3-in-1 combo. I tried the whole saving a bunch of times in Emerald thing, but that hasn't made a difference. I'm going to test to see if the basic feature works, which should allow the catching of special Pokemans in the Pearl game. I'll let you know on that.

Also...in the GBA game..."The internal battery has run dry. The game can be played. However, clock-based events will no longer occur."

I'm sure I just need to patch it to fix that, but I don't see how that could make for a corrupt save file. I don't get a corruption message in Emerald...

Let me know what else I can test for you. This is already leaps and bounds better than where I was yesterday!

Ok, more news. Aside from the myriad problems I've had with saves with the gba side, I will have to say that this patcher does little to nothing. It does, as previously stated, allow the gba game to show up in the Pearl menu, but it won't let you do anything with it. I tried a commercial Ruby rom in there, and it gets the exact same message.

Also, after having the 3-in-1 with Sapphire on it, I went to a known area to get one of the special pokemon. I ran around there, having over 30 encounters, but not the one expected. I rebooted and switched with the real Ruby rom, and the 2nd encounter was one of the specials. So, something still isn't right with this.

It is, however, better than it was before. I don't imagine it would take much tweaking to get this right. I'll do some compares tomorrow to see if any of it makes sense to me.

We all want to blame the wee litte 'uns... I call 'em "pokefreaks" because they were all freaking out when the game came out and creating multiple threads on pretty much every NDS forum regarding the game. It was pokemon creating a wrather freaky effect which seems to occur around every poke into the market. I'm still trying to be my usual helpful self though, regardless of the evident frustration...

Just to be clear...
- the exe is meant to patch the clean diamond/pearl NDS ROM - I did not scan/dump the entire EZ5 patched binary though so there is a chance I missed some other patch... I'll try getting a full dump a bit later
- when doing GBALink or migrate, you should use an unpatched/unmolested GBA ROM on the 3in1, it's quite possible if "no-intro" has changed the header to skip an intro, or EZ4 has patched the ROM, it won't work as the GBA header is altered (which it would never be on a real GBA cart)

To test it myself and make sure it is working I still need to know where migrate takes place, and from what I understand I'd need a save to get me to a point where I can try it. If you feel like sharing that info, it would indeed speed up my process.

edit:/ I know the exact problem now, and it has to do with how the EZ5 kernel launches the game. Something else is required, it is quite simple (prod the actel to tell it to wait for commands so the bankswitch command is recognized - there is not enough room to add the entire bankswitch where the patch goes).

So, for continued clarity...

Clean GBA roms are preferred--however, since these games are 1024k flash, they have to be patched to work with SRAM.

Migrate occurs after the title screen. So, if it would be easiest, I can put up my save somewhere or send it via email. Let me know, I can put the save on my server for you but I'll have to give you a temp username/password to access it.

The games themselves need to be patched to use SRAM, as well the NDS game that reads a FLASH save would also need to be patched to read SRAM. When using gbalink or anything that touches the save data from a DS game, it is best to use a clean ROM as chances are that is what the DS game will be looking for - but to actually play the game one usually needs to patch it to work with the card it is running on.

cory1492 [at] gmail [dot] com
I'm re-working the patcher, the poke NDS games seem to have enough free space at the end of the Arm9 binary to allow the necessary command to be put in.

Sent you a pm with my server info...

I see what you're saying, I think. I'm going to try something and get back to you.

EDIT: I thought I'd try to load the untouched GBA rom and its associated save file, but after it failed I realized that it wouldn't be any different for the transfers--the save is still in SRAM, no matter what. I also tried the "find certain pokemon with xxxxx game inserted", using the clean rom, but still nothing. Just FYI.

cory is your site down or is it just me?

Yeah, the entire host is down right now. Not sure what is going on on that end... was going to update the save list and get a directory backup of cmamod's site today (just finished some nasty to install updates to the CMS software) when I found out it was down.

kettek: I am trying your save, but it is telling me (emerald in the 3in1 is recognized at least) "You are using a different Nintendo DS, or its internal clock has been altered... If the game's time setting is changed, you will not be able to migrate Pokemon for another 24hrs" (does the same on EZ5) -- all I can say to that is "arrrgggh." I'll toss you a link to the current iteration that you can try if you like, if it works feel free to post the link back in here. If not, well there is always 24hours or more from now, and I updated the clock on both R4 and EZ5 saves so it should be good to go.

Thanks much

Sure, I'll try it now if you can send it. Email is devitek [at] gmail [dot] com.

cory after ya pull the patcher off you'll be a super hero for pokemaniacs all over the world.

that will include me of course!

Yeah, seriously, this will be a pretty big win in terms of patching. I've seen posts all over the place with people trying to do this and failing, so this will be pretty exciting!