Thrills & Woes of the Super Card (GBA)

[nightrnr]

Well, I'm at a dead end.

My success is that I did flash the firmwares to my DS Lite. They do work and my DS is still functional. It supposedly acts as though you have a passme device to allow DS app access to your GBA slot.

My failure is that neither firmware will load DS roms. They recognize the extension, but when I try to load the game, it still acts like it's a GBA game and copies to the SuperCard RAM (which obviously won't work).

Even poorer results with my EZ Flash IV, but that's beyond my initial plan.

FWNitro seems pretty neat overall, if it would actually do what it's purported to. Trying to dump DS cards to the SuperCard doesn't work, as it just hangs on "initializing FAT" at 0.00%

Not sure what else to try, but I might be stretching staying on topic with my own thread.
I just want to know the full capabilities of the SuperCard.

I have yet to try much for homebrew programs and emulators.
GBArunner doesn't work, but maybe I'm not as surprised there. As odd as that sounds, if it worked, it would allow it to run more games on a DS that the SuperCard struggles with.

Basically, I want to turn the SuperCard into a DS flashcart.

[nightrnr]

So I have learned that DS games need to be patched through the Supercard program, just like GBA games.
This gives them a "dsq" extension (Ex, "Mario Kart.nds.dsq"

So far, I've only tried Mario Kart DS and it just loads to a white screen.
I tried this with and without reset patch.
I could try others, but if it doesn't even play Mario Kart, I am not hopeful.

Anyone know if this is worth further experimentation?

I wonder if there is a way to make emulators work on this (in DS mode). So far I've only tried GBArunner (not an emulator exactly), and jenesisDS.
Genesis in particular would be kind of neat. But both attempts failed.

I'm about ready to go back to my DSi's for most of my DS gaming needs.

[nightrnr]

Need to post a link to this:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/scfw-custom ... rd.647238/

It very well may be the best option for SuperCard users, what with SDHC support and on the fly patching (no involving the patching program that I seem to have so much struggle with.

I will try it soon and report (maybe not soon, as life takes focus away too often).

I never did get any DS games or homebrew to load via passme to SuperCard, even after patching (creates a file with dsq extension). I have no idea why. It's supposed to work, it just white screens everything I throw at it. I even tried DLDI patching, to no avail.
It doesn't help that a lot of SuperCard use is ancient history at this point. I feel like a modder archeologist digging for information from rabbit holes that have been half filled in (dead links that not even archive.org can fully access)

With some luck to the guy programming the alternative firmware, maybe he will get to adding DS support.

[emwearz]

I gave it a go last night, after not having touched my SuperCard for like 5+ years. It makes a monster difference in terms of convenience.


Drop .gba roms onto the memory card, they work (and are auto patched for prefetch and the SC patch).
It saves when turning off your console like any other card would, no more button combos to save to SRAM

I have not tried the SDHC support as installing the firmware is glitchy at the moment, so I have just been running from the .gba file. But cool project, I have seen a few other forks of it popping up at gbatemp as well, so hopefully as a whole it moves forward. As a whole they are pretty average pieces of a kit, which I don't really use or ever really did, but cool project none the less.

[nightrnr]

Very impressive developments in these custom firmwares for the SuperCard.

Here's a couple more links:

https://gbatemp.net/threads/scsfw-simpl ... ts.663797/

https://superfw.davidgf.net/docs/

First one is useful if you want to run in DS mode (via passme) and looks like you can run twighlight menu and gbarunner! That solves almost every issue of the SuperCard if run on a DS or DS lite. Haven't tried it yet, but really interested. I have passme'd most of my lites, so this potentially makes it a really good flash cart for me.
You can also load firmware for GBA mode by copying the file to root (may require a rename).

The 2nd link adds a ton of functions to the SuperCard in GBA mode (so any system). Got a bad SRAM battery, no problem. Just save manually in the menu and you're golden. Also has options whether it saves last game info or not (I like control over stuff like that and most flash carts don't let you choose).

This is awesome stuff.

[SpaceBooger]

Which is the best custom firmware to use if I'm using a good ole GBA?

[nightrnr]

Sorry, didn't answer because I honestly don't know. I'm not really at liberty to test a whole lot due to family responsibilities and time constraints.
I would go for Metroid Maniacs CFW, as everything else seems to be a fork from that.

https://gbatemp.net/threads/scfw-custom ... rd.647238/

But everything is still considered experimental or alpha/beta builds. There's bound to be minor bugs in all of them.
Still, IMHO and from everything I've read, it can only be improvements over the stock Supercard firmware.
Just remember that it still has the same slower ram limitations as the original fw. It's the SDHC card compatibility, simple drag and drop roms, and better save management that makes the cfw so much better.

When I finally get to it, I'm putting one of each on my supercards (or maybe all 3 on the one dedicated to my flashme'd DS lite as you can load the FW files separately).

It's surprising and impressive to me that people are still trying to make this outdated flash cart relavent and useful.