1. I understand that the device was apparently updated to now support several enhancement chips such as the SA-1 and Cx4. If I buy a Retrode 2 from the Dragon Box site at this point in time, am I guaranteed to get this "updated" version?
2. I hear that the GBx plugin apparently cannot dump "multi-game" carts and the Sonic Advance series according to one of the reviews on Dragon Box. Can any other GBx plugin owners confirm this? Also, it can dump save files as well right? I need my save file from Legend of Zelda - Link to the Past because it has Four Swords enabled bonus content in the main game.
3. The plugins are still planned on being put back in stock on Dragon Box, correct?
EDIT: Can the Super Gameboy be properly dumped? I want to try out Donkey Kong and Mega Man V with the Super Gameboy enhancements.
You'll probably have to update the firmware yourself, but it isn't hard to do.
As far as SGB is concerned, there isn't anything to dump AFAIK, except maybe the built-in stock borders? Most good GB emulators have SGB support, so you can play games with special SGB palettes and borders, as that content is already in the GB cart. The special "Help!" samples in Donkey Kong require SNES emulation that no GB emulators handle, so the only way to get SGB sound enhancement is to play on a real SNES.
I have another question. Apparently the reason the GBX can't dump multi game gba carts is that it dumps only the game selector. In the thread I read, forcing the Retrode to detect the cart size via editing the [forcesize] option in the config file should produce a good dump. However, it would appear that it only supports integer values. So if I wanted to dump Super Mario Advance 4, which is apparently 2.43 mb according to No-Intro, would I just put 3 as the value in [forcesize]?
Quote from: Damned on 12/Jul/2018 05:10:14 PM
I have another question. Apparently the reason the GBX can't dump multi game gba carts is that it dumps only the game selector. In the thread I read, forcing the Retrode to detect the cart size via editing the [forcesize] option in the config file should produce a good dump. However, it would appear that it only supports integer values. So if I wanted to dump Super Mario Advance 4, which is apparently 2.43 mb according to No-Intro, would I just put 3 as the value in [forcesize]?
I remembered dumping my copy of Super Mario Advance 4 just fine, so I pulled it out, along with my Retrode and GBx plugin to verify.
My Retrode did overdump it when forceSize was set to the default of 0, but that was easily solved by using this Linux command to trim it down to the size that DAT-o-MATIC (http://datomatic.no-intro.org/) said it should be:
head --bytes=4194304 SuperMariod.AX4E.gba > trimmed.gba...then it matched the DAT-o-MATIC signature perfectly well:
% ucon64 -rdat trimmed.gba
uCON64 2.0.1 UNIX (Linux) 1999-2006,2015
Uses code from various people. See 'developers.html' for more!
This may be freely redistributed under the terms of the GNU Public License
Renaming "trimmed.gba" to "Super Mario Advance 4 - Super Mario Bros. 3 (USA, Australia) (Rev 1).gba"You may also want to apply these IPS patches to undo the changes made when porting from SNES to GBA which weren't really improvements:
- Super Mario Bros 3 Voice Removal (https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/2566/) (I find them irritating.)
- SMA4 Game Boy Player/SNES Palette Hack (https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/3315/) (force "Gameboy Player" color palette for backlit screens rather than the brightness-tweaked palette for the original GBA's reflective LCD.)
.
To apply them, if your emulator doesn't support auto-patching, you'll need either Lunar IPS (http://www.romhacking.net/utilities/240) (Windows), Multipatch (http://projects.sappharad.com/tools/multipatch.html) (MacOS), UniPatcher (http://www.romhacking.net/utilities/959/) (Android), ips.pl (https://www.zophar.net/utilities/patchutil/ips-pl.html) (Linux CLI), or JIPS (https://zerosoft.zophar.net/jips.php) (GUI for anything with Java).
That's awesome. I hate how GBA titles have repetitive voice samples.