Hardware Longcard (EFA Linker) Sonic Advance can't save

[mariomaniac33]

Okay, I was trying to play Sonic Advance on my Longcard, and I can't seem to get it to save. I haven't had this problem with any other titles yet. I think it has something to do with the save type of Sonic Advance- it's 512 Flash. Is there any way to change the save type of a rom, like for instance, change Flash to Sram (like those patches that could change eeprom to sram)? Does anyone else have this problem? Does anyone know how to fix it?

 

[Jack-Of-Trades]

Use GBATA it has a SRAM patcher and post here if it works (check sticky s for gbata download link)

 

[Ikz]

Just in case anyone is still wondering, I think lots of cards (I've never heard anyone brag about how well SA works) have problems with Sonic Advance. Mine would save up to a certain point, as in, up until a certain number of stages were cleared by the characters and pick-able from the level select menu.

Then after that, nothing. Kind of like if you picked a savetype of the same style but a smaller write size.

My card auto picked the save type when it was written, and it told me it was using the right one. 512 eeprom. I went through several dumps and decided not to bother anymore. I ended up buying the game again, as I had lost it before I even knew what a flash card was.

My suggestion: use an emulator. Works fine on those. I would also test it on another card, if not for two things; one, I don't care about Sonic games much, and two, my other 512 eeprom games work fine.

Oh, and I know the same type of problem will probably occur in Sonic Advance 2 as well. Does on my card at least.

Edit: And the SRAM patch didn't fix it for me, so don't expect much. In fact, GBA Tool Adv only really helped me getting 2 games working that otherwise wouldn't.

 

[how_do_i_do_that]

the only thing left would be a hardware issue if it isn't the save type issue. That usually points to being a game that requires RTC for some odd reason since everyone complains about SA not working properly.

The SA games work on my M3 lite pro and EZ3, without patching of any kind.

 

[Ikz]

Actually, I had a seriously blonde moment just now. Sonic Advance and its sequel are apparently FLASH 512, not eeprom, but that still doesn't tell me anything, because that's what my card knows it is, too. I just double checked the scene info and my loader. Also, the working dumps of other games that I was comparing it to, that save fine, also have flash, not eeprom. So it's still an oddball, since my card apparently knows what to do with flash.

So if anyone cares I was saying eeprom when it should be flash, but that doesn't solve anything. Weird.

Edit: Just tested it, confirmed working with manual patch with EZ4 client sent to a 3-in-1. No idea why 2 different instances of autopatching failed where manually patching it succeeded.