Requesting specific game dump compatibility information (just a few)

[lovs]

Has anyone dumped any of these cartridges successfully using the Retrode 2? I'm interesting in buying the device and would like to jump in without compatibility surprises.

MOTHER 1+2 (GBA, NTSC-J)
MOTHER 3 (GBA, NTSC-J)
Bahamut Lagoon (SFC, NTSC-J)
Tales of Phantasia (SFC, NTSC-J)
Fire Emblem games on the SFC

Thank you.

[HowlingBlue]

For the Super Famicom games you should be fine, because I don't remember those games having any special enhancement chips.

For the GBA games, I haven't had a lot of time to play with the adapter yet. However, I would assume they would work, since there are no hardware issues on the GBA that interfere with dumping, unlike with the SNES/SFC.

[azrael4h]

I've dumped most of my GBA/GB/GBC games, missing only a few. Only two refused to work outright, Mega Man Zero 4, and Activision Anthology. In both cases, I suspect it dumped the ROM at a smaller size than what it actually is.

X2 Wolverine's Revenge locked up, but I don't know if that's an emulator issue, or an issue with the original cart. Afterall, it has been years since I've actively been able to see my GBA screen well enough to play.

I have yet to dig out my SNES and Genesis games, though I plan on doing so this weekend. I've got to figure out somewhere to store them until they're all dumped. 

[Matthias_H]

I've dumped most of my GBA/GB/GBC games, missing only a few. Only two refused to work outright, Mega Man Zero 4, and Activision Anthology. In both cases, I suspect it dumped the ROM at a smaller size than what it actually is.

You are aware of the overdump functions? Try pressing the HWB button and refreshing your directory. It should cycle in powers of two up to the maximum supported ROM size for the respective system.

[azrael4h]

I've dumped most of my GBA/GB/GBC games, missing only a few. Only two refused to work outright, Mega Man Zero 4, and Activision Anthology. In both cases, I suspect it dumped the ROM at a smaller size than what it actually is.

You are aware of the overdump functions? Try pressing the HWB button and refreshing your directory. It should cycle in powers of two up to the maximum supported ROM size for the respective system.

No I wasn't. I'll have to try that next time I'm dumping my games.

[UnDnU]

Today I tried to dump Mother 3 but it didn't work. Although a file named Mother3.A3UJ.gba is displayed, but it's 0 kb in size. I've tried it several times, but it doesn't work.

Is there a known issue with Mother 3? I use a Retrode 2 (from dragonbox) with the firmware v0.22.

[MrPete1985]

Tales of Phantasia works on the new firmware .22 from Skaman.  The other 2 should be fine as they are standard games

[newbie2]

Today I tried to dump Mother 3 but it didn't work. Although a file named Mother3.A3UJ.gba is displayed, but it's 0 kb in size. I've tried it several times, but it doesn't work.

Is there a known issue with Mother 3? I use a Retrode 2 (from dragonbox) with the firmware v0.22.

Two things to try:

1) Clean the game contacts, sometimes a 0 kb message just means it can't read the game.
2) Try using the "Force" config options to force the size to the correct size.

[UnDnU]

1) Clean the game contacts, sometimes a 0 kb message just means it can't read the game.
2) Try using the "Force" config options to force the size to the correct size.

The contacts were already cleaned, but the suggestion with the configuration was the solution. With forceSystem gba (probably not necessary) and forceSize 32 I was able to dump the ROM. Thank you very much.

[MrPete1985]

1) Clean the game contacts, sometimes a 0 kb message just means it can't read the game.
2) Try using the "Force" config options to force the size to the correct size.

The contacts were already cleaned, but the suggestion with the configuration was the solution. With forceSystem gba (probably not necessary) and forceSize 32 I was able to dump the ROM. Thank you very much.

I had to force the file size to get a good dump on Paper Mario, from what I understand GBA and N64 games do not have any information in the ROM that the Retrode can read to determine the correct ROM size.

[Aleron Ives]

The other way to do it is to overdump and then use a site like Dat-o-Matic to get the correct ROM size and trim the end of your ROM to the correct length. If the checksum matches afterwards, you got a good dump.

[ssokolow]

I had to force the file size to get a good dump on Paper Mario

Good news there.

While I can't confirm it because Paper Mario is still on my to-get list, a fix for that showed up in the changelog for the v0.23e-beta firmware that was sent to me so I could test the EEPROM save dumping support.