Cartidge save files, backup and restore

[a_profile_name | 230]

I'm interested in backing up my save data from cartridge games, currently for GB/C games but maybe also for N64 games. I'm asking here mainly on options for GB/C games but I'll also be happy to read comments and insights regarding N64 games (I know most N64 games use eeprom and hence are pretty resilient).

I'm interested in solutions which allow not only to backup the save file, but also to load it back to the cartridge.

The options that I know of are:

1. The Retrode with the necessary adapters. This seems like the solution most people recommend. The only problem is that it seems that currently it's out of stock, and even when it is in stock it's on the pricey side. To my understanding it lets you drag and drop save files and works great with GB/C and N64 games.

2. The GB01 by Module. This seems like a cheaper alternative which has only a port for GB/C games. Again, lets you almost drag and drop save files.

I also know that there are solutions which only let you backup save files, but not restore them. One example that always comes up is "Joey Joebags". Another one is a usb adapter for the N64 controller + a transfer pack + appropriate software.

 

My qusetions:

1. Does anybody here have any experience with these devices? I'll be very happy to hear how well they work, problems that come up, etc. .

2. Any other options that I'm missing? I'm pretty comfortable tinkering with stuff on the softawre side of things, but not with stuff on the hardware side.

3. Since some of these products are not in stock, I'm thinking about buying a cheap dumper only to backup the save files, so that in the future I'll be able to restore them to the cartridge. Is that possible? It seems to me like it should be, since at the end of the day I'll have a binary of the save data that the game should know how to deal with after maybe some hex editing to remove padding or whatever. But maybe I'm oversimplifying how this works.

4. Can someone eli5 why this stuff is so complicated? I'd imagine an sram chip is pretty primitive, just a bunch of transistors, and that if I have the hardware to write on it then it should be super simple to backup and restore the data one-to-one to the chip. However, some solutions which "should" be able write into the game memory can't do that. For example, Joey Joebags can only write into Chinese bootlegs, and to my understanding the transfer pack solution can only be used to read the data.

Thanks!

[Tyree_Cooper | 794]

For GB / GBC / GBA, I use the GBxCart RW that you can purchase from the creator's website (ships from Australia). Seems to be the cheapest on the market. Works great to backup ROM and saves. You can also write back saves and it has further support for homebrew carts. It has small GUI program that works well, although sometimes it seems to have backuped properly when in fact it has not. Always test to make sure the ROM is working.

The only problem I found is that all ROM backups have the same byte size of the chip (so all games that use a 32K memory will have the same byte size). This doesn't reflect the real game size so it's annoying for comparing software revisions and betas.

[a_profile_name | 230]

9 hours ago, Tyree_Cooper said:

For GB / GBC / GBA, I use the GBxCart RW that you can purchase from the creator's website (ships from Australia). Seems to be the cheapest on the market. Works great to backup ROM and saves. You can also write back saves and it has further support for homebrew carts. It has small GUI program that works well, although sometimes it seems to have backuped properly when in fact it has not. Always test to make sure the ROM is working.

The only problem I found is that all ROM backups have the same byte size of the chip (so all games that use a 32K memory will have the same byte size). This doesn't reflect the real game size so it's annoying for comparing software revisions and betas.

Thank you. May I ask - what does "byte size of the chip" mean here an how does it affect the usage of reader/writer?

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

Regarding saves themselves, I've found that the Retron5 will actually do that, and with properly updated firmware, is supposed to load them back to the cartridge it came from (or another).  I don't recall exactly how to get the saves off of the system and onto an SD card (it's in the menu options somewhere, but it's been at least a couple of years since I've had that system out and messed with it at all and couldn't advise specifics), but I know it's possible as I've done it in the past.  I know people give the system a lot of grief, but it's actually a fairly capable AIO system when compared to other clones and definitely a decent tool when it comes to backing up save data.

[Jeevan | 9,099]

1 minute ago, darkchylde28 said:

Regarding saves themselves, I've found that the Retron5 will actually do that, and with properly updated firmware, is supposed to load them back to the cartridge it came from (or another).  I don't recall exactly how to get the saves off of the system and onto an SD card (it's in the menu options somewhere, but it's been at least a couple of years since I've had that system out and messed with it at all and couldn't advise specifics), but I know it's possible as I've done it in the past.  I know people give the system a lot of grief, but it's actually a fairly capable AIO system when compared to other clones and definitely a decent tool when it comes to backing up save data.

I was gonna mention this, but didn't want to feel the hate 

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

22 minutes ago, Jeevan said:

I was gonna mention this, but didn't want to feel the hate 

lol, it's ok, I'm immune to most of it.  Just got done putting some fool on FB on blast for trying to defend a local high school hosting and participating in a regional bowl football game while 128 students and 4 faculty members at the school were just quarantined (roughly 5-10% of the student body).  I'll take the fire for you. 

[Tyree_Cooper | 794]

It doesn't affect the usage at all, it's just that if you have games that use the same ROM size, the ROM backup file will have the same size. Say game 1 and 2 use a 32K ROM, and game 1 is actually 24K of data and game 2 is actually 27K of data, the backup files of the games will show 32K. Maybe other copiers have the same "problem", I don't know.

edit: just contacted the dev on discord and they said it's normal for gb rom files to be padded that way, as the unused ROM space is padded and removing the padding may cause issues. so it's working as intended.

it's a nice product i've used to dump 50+ GB games, i recommend it

Edited October 23, 2020 by Tyree_Cooper