Found device that lets you save unsaveable game data.

[KenjutheDenjuu(imported)]

Today I found out about a device called 'Monster Brain' that lets you save games that don't save. It's originally an editor for the Pokemon games that lets you edit things in-game, but it can also be used to back up save files of your games, specifically ones that don't save due to the battery wearing out. Thinking about the Telefang bootlegs not saving, this device is a really handy thing that lets you play the bootlegs without worrying about losing your save data, since it backs it up for you. I thought I should mention this in case anyone wanted to try it out. You can find them on Amazon.com but outside of the US they're pretty hard to come by....

Here's some more info:

Monster Brain info, Click here!

EDIT: Forgot to mention, it can be used for all gameboy games (original, color, advance etc.). Also, it seems to be similar to a physical savestate that lets you reboot data you've saved too, although whether the copy of the game needs to have the ability to load up saved data I will have to test out. I'm hoping this will get around the problem of the bootleg games not loading, since the device will hopefully do it for them.

[RacieB]

IIRC, the problem with the bootlegs wasn't that they didn't save, it was that they didn't load..?

[Sanqui]

Yeah, /some/ of the bootlegs (the dumped variety) couldn't load. So this device couldn't help, unless it operates on savestates (how would you even do that on a gameboy?).

[KenjutheDenjuu(imported)]

Oh, I thought it was because the games wouldn't save rather than load. I was going to try it out on my own copy of Pokemon Diamond to see if it would solve the save issue it has. I don't know whether it replaces the save function on the game or not, but it seems to be a bit like a savestate that you can reload.

[nickz777(imported)]

I used to have Pokemon Jade, and I had no problem saving and loading the game. I think it goes to show that Pokemon Diamond(I mean the bootleg, mind you. ) has that problem, can't load the savefile.

But I'm just wondering where I can find that Pokemon Jade rom,

[RacieB]

There's apparently versions of Diamond that can save as well, it's just that the rom that's available for it was made from one of the "bad" versions. A Jade rom hasn't ever surfaced to my knowledge, though all it would really take was a copy of the bootleg cart and a cart dumping device (but we wouldn't be able to link to it even if we did know where it was available due to forum rules.)

[andwhyisit]

Jade can't be dumped at the moment because the headers are incorrect. I know because I actually attempted it. Dumpers rely on the rom headers to know how large the rom is. The header 0148h of the rom (which is where you specify the size of the rom) was written as 01h (which represents 4 banks or 65536 bytes of data) in Jade, instead of 06h (which represents 128 banks or 2097152 bytes of data), so only a small portion of the rom could be dumped as a result.

I am waiting for the retrode (dumping device I used) to allow the manual setting of the dumped rom size in config via a firmware update so that I can dump the rom. Of course when that day comes I'll pass it on as a patch of Speed rather than an actual rom, or if you guys object I could just keep it to myself and post screenies.

[RacieB]

Oh wow, that's bizarre.. yeah a Speed patch would be excellent though! Man, how many things did they break in that translation...