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Game Boy Advance
(See this page for an overview of all known hardware.)
If you need help, please come chat with us on the VGPC Discord.
Introduction
Important Notes
- If you have an unused/sealed game, you should dump ROM and save data from the physical media before using it, and note in your submission if the physical media was new or sealed when you got it. This is to avoid inadvertent modification of the data and to help preserve the data in its unused/“factory” state. Its also a good idea to photograph the cart/packaging in its sealed state, in order to help with verifying it.
- If the dump hashes don't match an already existing item in the relevant database, you should try and verify that the dump is correct before submitting it as a new dump or new version. You can do that by cleaning the contacts (or equivalent) and dumping again.
Luckily there are numerous tools available for dumping Game Boy Advance games, so you should be able to find a great dumper that suits your need.
Tool Overview
| insideGadgets GBxCart RW v1.4 | BennVenn Joey Jr V2++ | Sanni Cart Reader | Epilogue GB Operator | insideGadgets GBxCart RW v1.3 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| tested with FW: R36+L7, SW: FlashGBX v3.14 | tested with FW: V2_02_29 Beta Firmware 64K | untested / source code analysis | untested / according to official website | tested with FW: L1, SW: FlashGBX v3.14 | ||||||
| Media Type | ROM | Save | ROM | Save | ROM | Save | ROM | Save | ROM | Save |
| No Mapper | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ (except Atmel FLASH) | ✓ (some exceptions) | ✓ (some exceptions) | ✓ | ✓ |
| GBA Video | ✓ | – | ✗ | – | ✗ | – | ??? | – | ✓ | – |
| 8M FLASH DACS | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ??? | ??? | ✓ | ✓ |
| 2048M Multi Repro | ✓ | ✓ (embedded in ROM) | ✓ (separated parts) | ✓ (embedded in ROM) | ✗ | ✗ | ??? | ??? | ✓ | ✓ (embedded in ROM) |
| 1M SRAM Repro | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ??? | ??? | ✓ | ✓ |
Methods
Method 1 - GBxCart RW
Supports: GB/GBC/GBA, Game Boy Camera, and Nintendo Power Carts and Bootleg flashing
Please see the the page for Lesserkuma's open-source software for the GBxCart RW, FlashGBX.
Method 2 - The Joey Jr
Supports: GB/GBC/GBA, Game Boy Camera, and Nintendo Power Carts and Bootleg flashing
For latest official instruction on how to use the Joey Jr, please see the official user guide.
Method 3 - Sanni Cart Reader
The Sanni Cart Reader comes with Game Boy / Game Boy Color dumping capabilities by default. Follow the Sanni Cart Reader wiki for proper settings, and dumping instructions.
Method 4 - DS + DS Slot-1 Flashcart (Normal Carts)
Tools needed
- A Nintendo DS or Nintendo DS Lite with a flashcart
Dumping
- Run the .nds for GBA Backup Tool
- Ensure that your GBA cart is inserted, then press A on the pop-up.
- By default, GBA Backup Tool is in Save Backup mode. Press R twice to go to ROM backup mode.
- Press B to make a new backup, then hit A to confirm. Your rom will be dumped to your SD card.
Method 5 - DS + DS Slot-1 Flashcart (GBA Video Movie Carts)
- Use duplo (https://github.com/endrift/duplo), here is a prepared build from Whovian: https://archive.org/details/duplo
- This is not needed (and won't work for) for TV series carts, which don't use the Matrix memory chips
Identifying Game Versions
todo: add info on cart/box serials (and non-standard carts if relevant)
SSS-TGGR-V
S = System (Always/mostly “AGB”)
T = Type (N = Normal)
G = Game code (e.g. MA = Super Mario Advance)
R = Region (J = Japan, E = USA, P = Europe)
V = Version (starts at 0)
There is also a shortened version of the code on the left hand side, in the format TGGR-V.