Progress on N64/GBA save support?

[DieKatzchen]

I also simply want to back up the SRAM based saves. I can use the Gameshark64 to back up some of them, but that thing is buggy and prone to failure. It also can't get at the saves for the WCW games, which I care less about but what if I want to replace a battery for someone else, someone who really cares about their WCW save?

[Nori]

Yeah I've always been saying I think a Retrode that does only backup and restore of saves and promoted as such exclusively would be a huge huge hit, especially in these years where gamers are becoming aware of retro games having dying batteries and many have started replacing them

[BlinksTale]

This is the biggest draw to Retrode for myself and the N64 community I think. I'd love to hear where that firmware went.

[chesteraarthur2]

A Retrode user just contributed some code that can read GBA/N64 saves - but it hasn't been merged into the firmware yet. We'll have to give it some time to make sure we don't break existing functionality.

2017 bump and progress inquiry

Any luck on the firmware update? Also, has anyone tried to do a Master System backup as well (need it for Phantasy Star!)?

[Wannado]

Sorry, nothing has changed since reply #26.

Also, this is not the top item on my list. In the past six months, I often thought about at least trying to merge the simple pieces that work (according to justin89). But I didn't even get close to having time for that.

[chesteraarthur2]

nuts

[Raw64life]

I'm in the same boat. Been waiting years for this or any other way I could back up my N64 cart saves and play them on an emulator. I backed up what I could using a DexDrive/Gameshark 3.0 but it only works for eeprom and AFAIK still no way to get those saves working on an emulator.

Hopefully one of these years someone comes up with something before my carts start to rot lol

[skaman]

The Arduino Cart Reader can backup all of your N64 saves.

Current build info is here:  https://github.com/sanni/cartreader/

Project started here:  https://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=158974.0

All of my SNES enhanced code that was recently added to the Retrode started on the Arduino reader.

[skaman]

Since many people have asked about the N64 saves, I took a look at the SRAM and it is possible to read out the saves.  The timing used to read out the save data seems critical so it isn't working 100% perfect at the moment.  If I can get the routines right, then I'll open a new BETA firmware test.

[skaman]

N64 cart SRAM reads are working.  Added a lookup table to identify the SRAM carts by cart ID.  I still need to add Dezaemon 3D's large SRAM then I'll be working on the SRAM writes.

[skaman]

N64 SRAM save support is complete.  I'm sending out the BETA firmware to the members of the test group.

[newbie2]

Really appreciate the work you put into this!

[skaman]

If you want to use your SRAM save in the PJ64 emulator, then you'll need to save swap the file.

You can use saturnu's ED64-Saveswap program:  http://krikzz.com/forum/index.php?topic=1396.0

If have an Ocarina of Time save and want to check it without using an emulator, you can use this page:  https://bkacjios.github.io/OOT-Save-Converter/

After saveswapping the OOT .SRA, then use the first option "Import save file".  The save data will show in the bottom.  Click on the File# to see the details on each save slot.

I'm going to work on adding FlashRAM save reads.

[Lennart]

I've been a long-time lurker of these forums, but I just registered to say that I also really appreciate the work you're putting into this! Can't wait to backup my N64 saves with the Retrode The enhanced SNES support sounds terrific as well. Keep up the good work!

[skaman]

Thanks!

Quick update.  FlashRAM save reads for both flashtypes (old and new) are working. 

I don't have all 3 types of flash chips as I'm missing a MX29L1101 cart.  I did test a MN63F81 flash chip which is  the same category (new flash) as the MX29L1101.  I'm hoping that one of the testers has a MX29L1101 cart and will be able to confirm the operation.

I'm moving on to see if I can implement the FlashRAM write code.