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GBA Link Cable Dumper

Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2016 10:27 pm
by FIX94
So I finished up work on a simple gba rom dumper through the gc gba link cable, while it does take quite a while depending on the game you dump (up to 48 minutes for 32mb) it is a usable method. Save and bios dumping is supported as well.
You can use it on both wii and gamecube, download it on github and if you care about the source its on github as well.
If you have any issues such as a wrong rom or save size detection please let me know.
Enjoy this super-slow way of dumping your old gba games through a gamecube or wii :)

Re: GBA Link Cable Dumper

Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2016 1:01 pm
by AC_Orange
Thanks, this is definitely useful

Re: GBA Link Cable Dumper

Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2016 6:53 pm
by Ikewise
Despite taking relatively long, this is a great programm and very useful.
It opens up one question I'd like to ask, though. Would it also be possible to backup and restore savedata from/to GBA cartridges in a similar fashion?
Might be something you'd be interested to look into.

Re: GBA Link Cable Dumper

Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2016 7:45 pm
by FIX94
Ikewise wrote: It opens up one question I'd like to ask, though. Would it also be possible to backup and restore savedata from/to GBA cartridges in a similar fashion?
already done, I made v1.1 and v1.2 already adding in save support ;)

Re: GBA Link Cable Dumper

Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2016 7:58 am
by Ikewise
Oh! Well nevermind then, that's perfect. Will check it out later. GG

Edit: So I quickly tested it and it works fine for most games. For some reason, a few games launch anyways once you insert the cartridge (Fire Emblem TSS for example), but this can easily be prevented by booting up the GBA with the game inserted and holding Start + Select.

Re: GBA Link Cable Dumper

Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2016 2:19 pm
by FIX94
Ikewise wrote:For some reason, a few games launch anyways once you insert the cartridge (Fire Emblem TSS for example)
Wait, do you mean that it restarts the GBA even though you are in the dumper already? Never heard of something like that happening.
Also I just added in GBA BIOS dumping in v1.4 because why not ;)

Re: GBA Link Cable Dumper

Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2016 5:57 pm
by Ikewise
FIX94 wrote:Wait, do you mean that it restarts the GBA even though you are in the dumper already? Never heard of something like that happening.
Yes, I assume that is what's happening. You pop in the cartridgde, Game Boy Logo appears and the game starts.

Re: GBA Link Cable Dumper

Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2016 9:22 pm
by PokemonAcer
Thanks Fix94! :D

Re: GBA Link Cable Dumper

Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2016 9:44 pm
by FerozElMejor
It's possible to transfer/restore GB and GBC saves (or at least in the future).

I don't understand too much how does this work, but I can use it only with a Wii or I need a GameCube?

There's any GC homebrew to backup saves with GameBoyPlayer. I have the GC-GBA cable too.

Re: GBA Link Cable Dumper

Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2016 10:21 pm
by FIX94
FerozElMejor wrote:It's possible to transfer/restore GB and GBC saves (or at least in the future).
no, they are too different.
FerozElMejor wrote: I don't understand too much how does this work, but I can use it only with a Wii or I need a GameCube?
it runs on both wii and gamecube, if you download it you'll see it contains releases for both.
FerozElMejor wrote: There's any GC homebrew to backup saves with GameBoyPlayer. I have the GC-GBA cable too.
the gameboy player is just regular gba hardware so you can just connect the link cable to that directly and it'll work just like with a real gba.

Re: GBA Link Cable Dumper

Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2016 10:51 pm
by FerozElMejor
Then there's no hope to mess with saves from GB/GBC without any mod?

Re: GBA Link Cable Dumper

Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2016 11:22 pm
by FIX94
FerozElMejor wrote:Then there's no hope to mess with saves from GB/GBC without any mod?
you would have to probably modify its hardware yea, nothing we can do from software side alone.

Re: GBA Link Cable Dumper

Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2016 11:25 pm
by FerozElMejor
Thank you for the answers.

Re: GBA Link Cable Dumper

Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2016 1:11 pm
by suloku
Wow, this is awesome work, thank you very much!

Re: GBA Link Cable Dumper

Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2016 2:29 pm
by nutinurmacaroni
Super unfortunate this won't work with regular gb/gbc carts but this is still a really cool development.. thanks!

Re: GBA Link Cable Dumper

Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2016 6:02 pm
by KirovAir
Very awesome job. Thanks :mrgreen:

Re: GBA Link Cable Dumper

Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2016 8:56 pm
by GamesXtreme
Thanks FIX94 for this awesome piece of software. Its allways handy to have more than one option to backup GBA games. :D

Sad note: Some games like Contra Advance didn't get recognized. Is there some way to get them to work? :?:

For the GB/GBC games: I tested a few of them and each time I put a cartridge in the slot, the GBA reset. I THINK if you put them in the GBA it resets it to boot into 8-Bit-Z80-Mode cause the GBA part use an ARM processor. :idea:

Re: GBA Link Cable Dumper

Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2016 10:06 pm
by suloku
GamesXtreme wrote:For the GB/GBC games: I tested a few of them and each time I put a cartridge in the slot, the GBA reset. I THINK if you put them in the GBA it resets it to boot into 8-Bit-Z80-Mode cause the GBA part use an ARM processor. :idea:
GBC games use different voltage. Also, there's a phisical switch that gets triggered when inserting a GB(C) cartridge that essentially converts the gba into a gbc.

I'm curious about the technical reason why gba homebrew can't access data in a gbc cartridge though, or might this be only due to voltage difference?

Re: GBA Link Cable Dumper

Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2016 9:51 pm
by Mechageo
suloku wrote:
GamesXtreme wrote:might this be only due to voltage difference?
I read somewhere that GB games are tolerant of the lower 3V voltage the GBA uses.
I wonder if it would be as simple as removing the switch.

Re: GBA Link Cable Dumper

Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2016 3:27 am
by niuus
Daum... this is nice. Thanks FIX94.

Re: GBA Link Cable Dumper

Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2016 6:13 pm
by N7Kopper
This is a nice tool.
I did notice that, one time, the screen flickered like crazy. (Using a CRT at PAL60) And I needed to restart the app (and hard power off my Wii) to get it working.

But once I started it up again, it worked like a dream, dumping FireRed, it's save, and the system BIOS. Unfortunately, I can't find the bootleg cart I actually wanted to dump, but I'll get back to you when I find it and dump it.

One really cool feature would be the ability to connect multiple GBAs at once, for dumping multiple games, saves, and what have you. Perhaps you could use the Wiimote, or even each individual GBA itself, to control things.

EDIT: I found two projects with source code - one relating to dumping GBA video, the other to changing the RTC of games that have one. They might be relevant to someone's interests.

https://github.com/endrift/duplo
http://furlocks-forest.net/wiki/?page=P ... ery_Glitch

Re: GBA Link Cable Dumper

Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2017 1:00 am
by Brendan McCoy
Sorry to necro, but I'm having troubles.

I got a perfect bios dump, but I can't seem to get bootable game dumps. Are there any steps I should be taking to ensure an accurate dump? I'm using all first-party official hardware (With the exception of my homebrew loading, of course).

Edit:

Don't know what I did, but I got 5 perfect dumps in a row after I made this page. I guess just make sure the contacts are solid, and once it's dumping, don't touch it. Maybe my cable/connectors are sensitive.

Re: GBA Link Cable Dumper

Posted: Sun Aug 27, 2017 5:14 pm
by R.J.etro
I know this is an older post and I'm probably a total noob but, I'm having trouble getting the homebrew channel to read the app so I can use it. I renamed the file marked as the Wii version to "boot.dol" and put the unextracted folder from GitHub in the "apps" folder of my SD card. When I pop my card in my Wii it doesn't recognise it. Other apps usually have more than one file so I'm pretty sure that's the case. All my other apps show in the menu.

Re: GBA Link Cable Dumper

Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2017 1:40 pm
by N7Kopper
R.J.etro wrote:I know this is an older post and I'm probably a total noob but, I'm having trouble getting the homebrew channel to read the app so I can use it. I renamed the file marked as the Wii version to "boot.dol" and put the unextracted folder from GitHub in the "apps" folder of my SD card. When I pop my card in my Wii it doesn't recognise it. Other apps usually have more than one file so I'm pretty sure that's the case. All my other apps show in the menu.
All you need to do is make an empty folder (Call it GBA Link Cable Dumper or something) in your apps folder and put the boot.dol file in that folder.

No need to muss around with GitHub's stuff unless you plan on modifying the code. And I don't think you do, honestly.

Re: GBA Link Cable Dumper

Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2018 1:10 am
by welshwuff
Have you considered adapting this to work with the "advanced game port"? Unlike the GBP, the AVP is software based emulation, the hardware it comes with seems to dump the rom on some way to the GameCube before booting, it also read and writes the save to the cart. Being able to dump to sd would be great and much faster than using the link cable. Also, GB and GBC could work if software emulation licencing is it's only excuse for incompatibility.

https://www.gc-forever.com/wiki/index.p ... _Game_Port