Post subject: Bizhawk Problem (Gameboy) 2 questions (cheats and savefile)
The_Trust
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I want to use cheats for Pokémon Gold, but I have nu clue how to add those cheats. The type of cheat system Bizhawk uses is unknown to me. I also want to import save files for Pokémon Gold (not savestates), but it seems that it doesn't recognize them. Even when I change the name of the save file to the Orginal game name (if I say that correct). I drag the save file into the emulator and I get a popup that says it doesn't recognize it. Basicly, I want to know how to add cheats and import savefiles for short.
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Bizhawk, like every other emulator (?), does not respond to dragging of files for importing save files. That really needs to be done while the game isn't running. Change the filename to the correct name and replace the savefile that bizhawk drops. I'm sorry you don't know about game genie cheats. Even without using google to gain knowledge about them, adding them should have been straightforward. You may be more familiar with action replay cheats, which aren't supported.
Pokota
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The_Trust: The cheats don't actually work very well - Poking an address (that is to say, setting the address to a specific value but not forcing it to stay there) works just fine since it's a direct, one-time modification of the memory, but in my experience Freezing (that is to say, continually setting the address to the same value, which is what AR, GS, and Game Genie do) doesn't work right within BizHawk. It's not been reported as broken yet simply because it's outside the primary concern of the main userbase, and I suspect that in my case it's really just PEBKAC. Since you're doing Pokemon Gold, you'll probably be better off with simple pokery instead of outright freezing - it's more work but it gives you better control. As for importing battery saves, I don't see an explicit option to do a running import als VBA, but under the default settings BizHawk will look for the battery file in $BizHawk/Gameboy/SaveRAM, where $BizHawk is the directory BizHawk is installed to, and it'll pull whatever battery file matches the ROM name. For example, if your game's name is 2.gbc, the battery file would be 2.SaveRAM
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The_Trust
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Thank you for your help, im going to try it out tomorrow :)
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Pokota wrote:
The_Trust: The cheats don't actually work very well - Poking an address (that is to say, setting the address to a specific value but not forcing it to stay there) works just fine since it's a direct, one-time modification of the memory, but in my experience Freezing (that is to say, continually setting the address to the same value, which is what AR, GS, and Game Genie do) doesn't work right within BizHawk. It's not been reported as broken yet simply because it's outside the primary concern of the main userbase, and I suspect that in my case it's really just PEBKAC.
You're both right and wrong. Yes, freezing is broken. However, it has been reported and consequently fixed. You can have a look at BizHawk's issue tracker to search for these things. Be sure to select "all issues" in the drop-down, or you won't find things that have already been fixed.
Pokota
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Ah, okay. I figured it was just a bad case of PEBKAC.
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The_Trust
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$BizHawk/Gameboy/SaveRAM I need a SAVERAM file and a BAK file for my Pokémon Gold (not sure about the BAK). But I only have a SAV file and not a SAVERAM. Is there a way to change the file type?
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create a .sav in emulator X and a .saveram in bizhawk and then check whether theres one whit of difference
Pokota
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change the extension from .sav to .SAVERAM and see if that works.
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The_Trust
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Changing the extention didn't work :/ and there is no .SAV to .SAVERAM converter.
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creaothceann
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What do the different file types look like in a hex editor?
The_Trust
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Idk how to use hexeditor :/
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If you could post your save file on some public fileshare, I'd like to take a look at it.
The_Trust
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I've added the ability to load VBA-style RTC saves to bizhawk, although you'll get a "clock wrong" message on doing so.
The_Trust
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And how can that help me XD, I starting to think that any of this is going to work :/
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Changing the extension from .sav to .saveram will now work, since the file format VBA dumps will now be (mostly) correctly recognized by bizhawk
The_Trust
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@zeromus could you please download my files that I put in the 2nd previous comment and give the fixed files back? (with the extention and such). It still doesn't work when I do it.
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Fortranm
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I have a related question. What is the required hash value for GBA Pokemon games? Does the rom version have to match exactly for in-game clock to work?
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Fortranm wrote:
I have a related question. What is the required hash value for GBA Pokemon games? Does the rom version have to match exactly for in-game clock to work?
You must match the SHA-1 in the gamedb_gba.txt file. If it doesn't match, BizHawk won't do RTC for you.
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zeromus wrote:
Changing the extension from .sav to .saveram will now work, since the file format VBA dumps will now be (mostly) correctly recognized by bizhawk
If you're using the SVN betas; if you aren't, it's not until the next release.
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Fortranm wrote:
I have a related question. What is the required hash value for GBA Pokemon games? Does the rom version have to match exactly for in-game clock to work?
You must have exact hash matches for pokeymans gba rtc to work. The exact list of all SHA1 for all RTC enabled games in bizhawk-gba is: http://pastebin.com/tG5NwTbd If you'd like to add to that list, you can edit the files in the gamedb/ folder with any text editor. Customarily, you'd add your new entries to the gamedb_user.txt, not gamedb_gba.txt, but that's not a requirement.