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Game Boy Advance
Check the dumping hardware overview for a list of known preservation hardware.
If you need help, please come chat with us on the VGPC or No-Intro discord servers.
Introduction
[ This template was moved to dumping_important_notes ]
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 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ (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.