Homebrew GBA GBA Exploader on modern libnds...

Apache Thunder · May 18, 2024

Thanks to ArcheyChen's efforts in getting in contact with Rudolph we now have public source code for GBA Exploader. I have taken the liberty of porting it to current devkitarm/libnds standards and recompiled it. I gave it a new version string/icon and also added partial support for SuperCard Lite! (and possibly other versions of SuperCard slot2 devices that support GBA games)

https://github.com/ApacheThunder/GBA-Exploader/releases

Another important addition is that I added an error message for if user attempts to run this on 3DS/DSi consoles. I have recently acquired a EZFlash 3 in 1 and it appears to work properly with that cart so I finally got around to building a release for it on the github repo. I've also given it a new icon to seperate it from the original builds of GBA Exploader.

Note though Rudolph could not find the source to 0x58b (The last version he made I think which had proper EZ Flash 3 in 1 Plus support). As such EZ Flash 3 in 1 Plus isn't fully supported in this build. I managed to at least get it to detect the card though so using ram mode for GBA games...should work. NorFLASH stuff is broken though as I have one user who has one confirm that it appears to not cause any change with games. As the 3in1 I obtained isn't a Plus revision I can't attempt to fix this. The source code is available on my Github for those interested in improving this.

SuperCard needs further work as saves currently not working yet. So still open to improvements!

By the way the 3 in 1 I have is the C11 revision with 227E2218 flash ID. I invite others with other revisions of EZ Flash 0.57 was known to work for to test this on their cards to confirm if it still works properly for them as well. My cart currently has a dead SRAM battery so I have not fully tested the save system but I see no reason why it wouldn't work. It only is non functional for most part for the newly added SuperCard as I suspect new code needs to be added for writing to it's save. At least with the SuperCard Lite variant I have as that one doesn't use a sram battery like the others.

Flame · May 18, 2024

you did it @Apache Thunder you crazy son of a bitch, you did it.

Apache Thunder · May 19, 2024

3 in 1 Plus now fully implemented. Thanks to stl25 for testing and to cory1492 for providing updated source code for gbaldr which is how I found the missing code to get NorFlash stuff working.

https://github.com/ApacheThunder/GBA-Exploader/releases/tag/0.60

The only minor issue left is you can't use X to soft reset to GBA mode after flashing a game to NorFlash on 3 in 1 Plus. Resetting the console manually gets around this (as the game was still succefully written to it). Entering NorFlash mode and using X to boot to gbamode without flashing anything still seems to work though.

eosia · May 19, 2024

What is this hombrew for?

mrparrot2 · May 19, 2024

I think this is for using an expansion Pak as a way to load GBA games into It and then boot into GBA mode so one can load GBA games from a DS flashcard? Is that correct?

Indy13 · May 19, 2024

It is a homebrew which allows you to use the EZ Flash 3in1 tool (see photo), a device which connects to slot-2 of the Nintendo DS Lite/Phat, it is effectively a ram expansion pak, which allows you to read/launch (without writing/injection) gba games up to 16mb, beyond this size (32mb to 64mb) the game is written or injected into the cartridge and works like a normal gba cartridge and it is also a rumble pack. Unfortunately these tools are increasingly rare to find new (and even second-hand) but with the DSTwo+ it remains a "must have" for Nintendo DS Lite/Phat owners.

Apache Thunder · May 20, 2024

https://github.com/ApacheThunder/GBA-Exploader/releases/tag/0.61b

3in1 Rumble Menu softreset code overhauled. It should now work more reliably.

Refer to the readme.txt included to find out how it's changed and how to set it up correctly.

EDIT: 0.61b hotfix released to address mistake that broke DS mode Slot-2 softreset.

assassinz · May 21, 2024

Will this work with a Super Card CF cart?

Apache Thunder · May 21, 2024

Probably not but as I don't own one I can't really test that. This was intended for SuperCard Lite MicroSD, Super Card SD and maybe SuperCard Mini SD. Pretty sure the CF version uses separate code. I do not have one to test ether. If it responds to the same mode switch commands as the SD versions then it will maybe work. Otherwise no.

EDIT: Checked the source code for SCCF dldi. Looks like it does use same mode switch code. Assuming it's ram mode is enough to store GBA games then it should work with GBA Exploader as it should be detected as a SuperCard with my SC specific code that does a test write to SC ram after switching it to ram mode. Assuming it responds the same way as the other SuperCard versions GBA Exploader should be able to detect it as a SuperCard.

But like with SuperCard Lite you'll probably have issues with save with most games. That part I have not fixed/implemented.

assassinz · May 21, 2024

Apache Thunder said:
Probably not but as I don't own one I can't really test that. This was intended for SuperCard Lite MicroSD, Super Card SD and maybe SuperCard Mini SD. Pretty sure the CF version uses separate code. I do not have one to test ether. If it responds to the same mode switch commands as the SD versions then it will maybe work. Otherwise no.

EDIT: Checked the source code for SCCF dldi. Looks like it does use same mode switch code. Assuming it's ram mode is enough to store GBA games then it should work with GBA Exploader as it should be detected as a SuperCard with my SC specific code that does a test write to SC ram after switching it to ram mode. Assuming it responds the same way as the other SuperCard versions GBA Exploader should be able to detect it as a SuperCard.

But like with SuperCard Lite you'll probably have issues with save with most games. That part I have not fixed/implemented.

Tested it out on my SCCF and I got some homebrew games to load, but so far no commercial games. I noticed that the homebrew games that did load are under 4mb. I almost got a 7mb pocketnes.gba file to work, but it loaded to a scrambled static screen. The SCCF can handle larger rom files fine without using the GB Exploader. Any idea why I can't get commercial GBA games to load with GBA Exploader?

Indy13 · May 21, 2024

Hello @Apache Thunder , thank you for your work and for this unexpected development, I have just tested v.61b and it works wonderfully! :grog:

I noticed that with v0.58b0MX the number of games in a directory was limited to 199 games after which the additional games no longer appeared in the browser, currently, this is not a real problem, it just suffices to create a second directory to add more games. I imagine it's the same with this new version, but I was wondering if this restriction was the same for the GBA_SAVE and GBA_SIGN system directories?

Apache Thunder · May 21, 2024

Yea that restriction still applies. I think it was an arbitrary choice to ensure ram limits aren't hit though I'm sure there's plenty room to expand that if needed. I could look into doing that.

assassinz said:
Tested it out on my SCCF and I got some homebrew games to load, but so far no commercial games. I noticed that the homebrew games that did load are under 4mb. I almost got a 7mb pocketnes.gba file to work, but it loaded to a scrambled static screen. The SCCF can handle larger rom files fine without using the GB Exploader. Any idea why I can't get commercial GBA games to load with GBA Exploader?

Like with SuperCard Lite you will need to use their patcher first. Unpatched games will not boot and GBA Exploader doesn't have SuperCard patches so must be done manually.

Indy13 · May 21, 2024

Apache Thunder said:
Yea that restriction still applies. I think it was an arbitrary choice to ensure ram limits aren't hit though I'm sure there's plenty room to expand that if needed. I could look into doing that.

I never pushed the test to exceed the number of .sign and .sav files to more than 199 files but when I realized that it was possible to create a second directory to add games, I asked myself the question about the consequences and the impact on the proper functioning that this could possibly have, so to avoid any problems, I regularly delete the contents of the GBA_SIGN and GBA_SAV directories (with the exception of the last game launched of course) but actually it would be cool not to have any restriction for these two directories, for the games directory, it is not very important given that it is possible to create several even if they are limited to 199 games but for .sign and .sav files would be a gain in comfort when using GBAExploader

JORGETECH · May 22, 2024

Woah, blast from the past!

I remember this homebrew from back in the day, I've always wanted to use it but I didn't have any Slot-2 expansion cartridges (except for the rumble pack that was bundled with the M3 DS Real).

Now I own a SuperCard micro SD, one of the newer clones (?) from Aliexpress. I've read in this thread that you can't boot commercial games in the SuperCard without patching them manually but I'm really tempted to try that, but I wonder if it's possible to implement it in the software now that we have source code.

I was also thinking this is now a bit redundant with the existence of TwilightMenu++ and it's ability to load GBA games with Slot-2 expansion carts, does Exploader have any additional features?

Apache Thunder · May 25, 2024

https://github.com/ApacheThunder/GBA-Exploader/releases/tag/0.62

Directory tree no longer displays both "." and ".." at the top. Like original GBA Exploader only ".." is the top directory entry when in a sub folder. The "." entry is a special entry provided by FAT for going to "current" directory and is not useful in GBA Exploader and was accidently left visible with the new code changes that allowed the old file browser to work again with modern libnds. This has been corrected so leaving to previous directory from subfolder should be a smoother process for the end user.

I've also allowed TTMenu as a possible folder path for gbaframe.bmp should users want to share their YSMenu's gbaframe with GBA-Exploader if a gbaframe.bmp is not present in one of the few other folder paths GBA-Exploader already checks for.

JORGETECH · 2024-06-01T10:55:35+0100

I was wondering about the advantages of the Supercard Lite (non-rumble) over the miniSD model.

Does it have the same slowdown issues in some GBA games (Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Mario & Luigi Partners in Time, etc.) as the miniSD version?

I was also interested to know if it has the same kind of RAM as the miniSD, I know for a fact that one has slowdown in issues in some NDS homebrew such as QuakeDS.

And I was also wondering if it offers any kind of NDS-GBA connectivity that some Pokemon games use.

Apache Thunder · 2024-06-01T20:50:48+0100

Yeah it has the same slowdown that the others have...I think they all have this issue? It's an inherent flaw with the SuperCard carts I think. Not sure on the Pokémon games. Never tested that aspect of it.

boots_n_cats · 2024-06-01T21:01:26+0100

JORGETECH said:
And I was also wondering if it offers any kind of NDS-GBA connectivity that some Pokemon games use.

There's no built-in support for this in the cart but there is a janky workaround with a 3rd party patch tool (pokepatch) that I've never gotten to work correctly. There's also a thing you can do with DSONE and DSTWOs by naming the GBA ROM and save a certain way but it's even jankier (menu option: GBA Extend->Link). TBH, if you want to do DS-GBA link stuff just bite the bullet and get the EZ-Flash Omega DE.

Homebrew GBA GBA Exploader on modern libnds...

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