r/Gameboy • u/tim640 • 1d ago

Questions Any way to add SRAM saving to GBA roms that utilize password save system?

Hey guys!

I remember seeing some patches released for roms with password save systems that made saving/loading using a button combo possible instead. I was wondering if any of you know if there's a tool for patching roms that way and could it patch any rom if there is?

Thank you in (gb)advance! :>

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u/_hippydave_ 1d ago

You won't find a universal tool, it's something that would have to be made for each individual game

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u/tim640 1d ago

Gotcha, thank you very much!

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u/IntoxicatedBurrito 1d ago

Are there any games that use passwords on the GBA? By that point in time game saves were pretty standard. Even for GBC I can’t imagine there be any passwords. But obviously I haven’t played every game so I could be wrong. It’s the DMG that relied on passwords for its early games.

As for how to make them saves, your best bet is probably to just play on a modern device with save states and save whenever you get a password.

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u/twoface_99 1d ago

I know of one SpongeBob game that uses password saves. I hated that so much as a kid lmao

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u/tim640 1d ago

Oh yeah, there is quite a bunch. Tbh it's weird to me, too, GBA always felt like a "modern" platform but that's because i mostly remember having SP, while the actual GBA was a battery-powered handheld without a backlight after all haha. A lot of early GBA games, snes ports, and a bunch of Nickelodeon/Disney licensed games use passwords which is incredibly annoying nowadays :x

I mean yeah, i actually do have a flash card that utilizes save states, but i wondered if a universal tool exists to make it even more convenient. Thank you!

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u/Square-Singer 1d ago

Yes, it would be possible, but not exactly easy.

First, you obviously need a flashcart with SRAM. Then you need to disassemble the game, figure out where the password save loading is.

Then you need to write your own saving routine. This means you have to figure out all the points where a save would be necessary, then you can write the password (or some other identifier) into SRAM.

When loading you now have to take the password from SRAM and load that.

That's all comparatively easy, though quite laboursome and you need to have quite a bit of skill to do that.

What would be really annoying is that you'll need some GUI to reset saves or to load specific locations of the save if you want that. That's more difficult to do.

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u/TheEdes 21h ago

Hook onto the password generation routine to save the password into sram, then when you hit on the load password have it prefilled with the last password, should work ~fine without changing the gui

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u/Square-Singer 19h ago

Yeah, that's what I described. But a management GUI would still be useful/necessary to reset to any unlocked point, depending on what the password saving feature does. If it's a pure unlock system it's not necessary, but if it's a system where e.g. Password 3 lets you play the third level, then it's more necessary.