How To Flash NES/Famicom Games on GBA Cartridges?

[Vanessa__]

My boyfriend's birthday is coming up and I was originally gonna translate a certain game for him, but I found out that said game has an Famicom version with a translation.

I saw online, people selling GBA cartridges with NES games flashed on them, and was wondering if that's at as possible?

I have a BennVenn Joey Jr. GBA flasher, that we've used to flash GBA games onto cartridges.

But would it be possible for me to convert the .nes file to a .gba file to be able to flash it on a GBA cartridge?

-Best Thanks! Vanessa!

 

[Localhorst86]

There is a NES emulator for the GBA called "PocketNES" that you can use to create a GBA ROM with an NES game.
Not sure what the most updated version is, but this is from 2020:
https://github.com/Dwedit/PocketNES/releases

As to flashing it to an actual GBA cartridge: I recall people were able to reflashing bootleg cartridges from china, but other than knowing it has been done, I wouldn't know specifics on how to do that.

 

[Jayro]

As to flashing it to an actual GBA cartridge: I recall people were able to reflashing bootleg cartridges from china, but other than knowing it has been done, I wouldn't know specifics on how to do that.

OP should invest in a GBxCart RW v1.4 by InsideGadgets, they won't be disappointed. I even use mine to make money, selling my homebrew on real carts. But back to the subject at hand... All bootlegs on AliExpress can be reflashed using this device, and the maintainer for the FlashGBX software (Lesserkuma) is really friendly and always adds new chip support as new bootlegs are rolled out. So compatibility with all carts out there is really, really high.

The best bootlegs to get are as follows.

Batteryless saving:

Kingdom Hearts - Chain of Memories for GBA. (This one is recommended for Lesserkuma's batteryless Goomba Color fork and batteryless PocketNES fork.)
(32MB ROM and 512K SRAM)

Shantae for GBC.
(4MB ROM space)

Battery-backed SRAM saving:

YuGiOh Dual-Pack for GBA.
(32MB ROM with 512K battery-backed SRAM)

Perfect Dark or Dragon Warrior III for GBC.
(4MB ROM space and battery-backed SRAM)

For Pokemon games:

There's really no bootleg cart that's good for these since they need a real-time clock and 1M of SRAM to save properly. I highly suggest just buying a premium GBA flash cart that has RTC built-in for Pokemon:

For Pokemon on GBA, I recommend the EZ-Flash Omega or Omega DE.
For Pokemon on GBC, I recommend Bennvenn's MBC3000 RTC cart, as you can store two separate Pokemon ROMs on it, and they each have their own RTC and save file. You switch between them using a dip switch on the PCB. And it's under $40, which is fantastic.

 

[Xyvir]

@Jayro

This is really good info, do you have any recommendations of particular bootleg carts that will work with GBABF?

https://gbatemp.net/download/gbabf.37005/

I'd be interested in reflashing them directly with my phat ds.

Oh also I'm intersted in any multi-bank bootleg carts I can reflash with this:

https://github.com/lesserkuma/GBA_MultiMenu

Anyway, any tips for kinds of single or multicart booglegs to purchase would be greatly appreciated, the listings on aliexpress are little overwhelming and I don't know exactly what to look for.

 

[Jayro]

@Jayro

This is really good info, do you have any recommendations of particular bootleg carts that will work with GBABF?

https://gbatemp.net/download/gbabf.37005/

I'd be interested in reflashing them directly with my phat ds.

Oh also I'm intersted in any multi-bank bootleg carts I can reflash with this:

https://github.com/lesserkuma/GBA_MultiMenu

Anyway, any tips for kinds of single or multicart booglegs to purchase would be greatly appreciated, the listings on aliexpress are little overwhelming and I don't know exactly what to look for.

For the multi menu, I use the 369 in 1 cart. Gives you 256MB of romspace. Not good for Pokemon tho, as it only has half the SRAM needed. And you need to patch the games to work batteryless.

But to answer your first question, if you don't need pokemon, most GBA carts are flashable with no problem with GBABF.

 

[Xyvir]

For the multi menu, I use the 369 in 1 cart. Gives you 256MB of romspace. Not good for Pokemon tho, as it only has half the SRAM needed. And you need to patch the games to work batteryless.

But to answer your first question, if you don't need pokemon, most GBA carts are flashable with no problem with GBABF.

SWEET THANKS

 

[Xyvir]

OP should invest in a GBxCart RW v1.4 by InsideGadgets, they won't be disappointed. I even use mine to make money, selling my homebrew on real carts. But back to the subject at hand... All bootlegs on AliExpress can be reflashed using this device, and the maintainer for the FlashGBX software (Lesserkuma) is really friendly and always adds new chip support as new bootlegs are rolled out. So compatibility with all carts out there is really, really high.

The best bootlegs to get are as follows.

Batteryless saving:

Kingdom Hearts - Chain of Memories for GBA. (This one is recommended for Lesserkuma's batteryless Goomba Color fork and batteryless PocketNES fork.)
(32MB ROM and 512K SRAM)

Shantae for GBC.
(4MB ROM space)

Battery-backed SRAM saving:

YuGiOh Dual-Pack for GBA.
(32MB ROM with 512K battery-backed SRAM)

Perfect Dark or Dragon Warrior III for GBC.
(4MB ROM space and battery-backed SRAM)

For Pokemon games:

There's really no bootleg cart that's good for these since they need a real-time clock and 1M of SRAM to save properly. I highly suggest just buying a premium GBA flash cart that has RTC built-in for Pokemon:

For Pokemon on GBA, I recommend the EZ-Flash Omega or Omega DE.
For Pokemon on GBC, I recommend Bennvenn's MBC3000 RTC cart, as you can store two separate Pokemon ROMs on it, and they each have their own RTC and save file. You switch between them using a dip switch on the PCB. And it's under $40, which is fantastic.

For GBA Pokemon you also have the option of insidegadgets RTC-supported GBA carts:

https://shop.insidegadgets.com/prod...with-rtc-flash-cart-works-with-pokemon-games/

 

[iball]

For GBA Pokemon you also have the option of insidegadgets RTC-supported GBA carts:

Can confirm the IG carts are quality. Currently playing through Pokemon Unbound on that cart in a GBA SP with no issues.

As for the 150-in-1 NES GBA carts, I reflashed mine with Mother 3. That cart has an SRAM battery in it.

1) Check ROM with GBATA, verify save is SRAM.

2) Flash ROM to cart via FlashGBX w/GBxCart flasher hardware.

Now the 369-in-1 cart was a wee bit more difficult and involved more steps including patching all non-SRAM ROMs for SRAM saving then running the batteryless patch on each ROM, then creating a giant ROM of all the ROMs via the ROM builder GBA_multimenu tool from lesserkuma.

Turns this:

Into this:

 

[Jayro]

Can confirm the IG carts are quality. Currently playing through Pokemon Unbound on that cart in a GBA SP with no issues.

As for the 150-in-1 NES GBA carts, I reflashed mine with Mother 3. That cart has an SRAM battery in it.

1) Check ROM with GBATA, verify save is SRAM.

2) Flash ROM to cart via FlashGBX w/GBxCart flasher hardware.

Now the 369-in-1 cart was a wee bit more difficult and involved more steps including patching all non-SRAM ROMs for SRAM saving then running the batteryless patch on each ROM, then creating a giant ROM of all the ROMs via the ROM builder GBA_multimenu tool from lesserkuma.

Turns this:
View attachment 439376

Into this:
View attachment 439377

I made custom menu colors, so I'll have to post the alternate color pack eventually.