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Releases: ApacheThunder/GBA-Exploader

0.66 Release Build

23 Nov 06:53
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  • Can now use gbaframes specific to a gba rom being loaded to ram/flash. Have a bmp file with filename matching the game rom being flashed in GBA_SIGN path. If it finds a matching BMP it will use that before falling back to the default gbaframe.bmp paths.
  • nds-bootstrap now used for booting retail NDS roms from file browser. Note that currently GBA-Exploader does not create new save files so only games with existing save files (currently hardcoded to GBA_SAV path like with GBA games) can be booted with this.
  • libnds329 (modified version of libnds with 32KB DLDI support) is no longer required to build GBA-Exploader. Now works with standard version of libnds thanks to a work-a-round found that involves overriding the default DLDI asm with custom version with 32KB size specified.

Note that GBA-Exploader is currently not setup for libnds2, the newest version of libnds that just came out. I do not have plans on migrating this project over to that as the changes libnds2 have are significant and calico likely lacks support for 32KB DLDI which I wish to maintain for GBA-Exploder to allow use on older flashcarts like N-CARD that currently require 32KB DLDI support.

0.65 Release Build

12 Aug 05:27
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  • Now prompts if user is using DE or regular Omega if EZFlash Omega is detected during intial boot. Regular omega can be used if soft reset method is used (aka, a cart like EZ-Flash Parallel is used to cause console to reboot on reinsert) after saving a game so that it can be backed up before power loss. If DE mode is selected setRamPage is set to normal range and will make it use FRAM chip. Since that is non-volatile soft-resetting in this manner would not be required. Regular Omega will use page 0x40 for RTS section of SRAM. (normal range is read only for some reason. FPGA must unlock it after sending specific table data to SD card buffer register which I have not got working yet)
  • NDS files can now be booted. Since bootloader from nds-hb-menu was added to fix soft-reset stuff I might as well just add in support to boot NDS files. :P

0.64 Release Build

12 Jul 03:56
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  • 3 in 1 Plus remaining issue with x button option to boot to nor flash game after having completed a norflash flash operation has now been resolved. :D
  • NorFlash menu appearing when hitting L after entering rumble selection menu on Omega/Omega DE has been resolved. NorFlash menu now fully disabled for Omega to avoid possible bricking of this cart.
  • Screen init process for GBA Frame loader optimized.

Credit to stl25 for help testing the 3in1 Plus as I did not personally own one. :D

0.63 Release Build

28 Jun 20:42
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  • Patching system from SCFW implemented for SuperCards. Prepatched roms no longer required for use with GBA-Exploader for SuperCards! This also resolves all remaining save issues for SuperCards!
  • dat file system used for storing save meta data on current save for EWIN cards now used for SuperCards as SuperCards do not have a spare ram page for storing this. This was also why there was save issues initially with random games even ones with 64KB or smaller saves. This resolves that.
  • Initial EZ Flash Omega/Omega DE support! Note that there are still save issues right now. DE has partial saves working with just 128KB saves not working. (so Pokemon games do not hold saves currently)
  • Progress bars added for most UI actions that result in writing sram to/from file so that it doesn't look like UI is frozen. This is especially important for some slower cards like Supercard where SRAM read/writes is a bit slower (on SC Lite anyways)

0.62 Release Build

25 May 06:07
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  • Subdirectories now only display ".." at the top of the file tree. The "." directory entry is not useful (as it just causes you to navigate to the current directory you are already in).
  • TTMenu folder now a possible alternate path for gbaframe.bmp if gbaframe.bmp is not found in the other possible locations.

0.61b HotFix

20 May 04:51
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  • Fix mistake that caused DS mode Slot-2 booting to not work. (accidentally removed needed arm7 code in previous commit after optimizing code relating to Rumble Menu softreset)

0.61 Release Build

19 May 23:28
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  • Soft Reset for Rumble Menu fixed. New scheme is now used for loading SoftReset.xxxx. Now instead it will look for R4TF.nds (R4TF = 4 character ioType code for DLDI user is currently using with R4TF as an example). If not found it will look for a few specific NDS files to try. If those aren't found it will try boot.nds. If boot.nds isn't found then rumble menu will not be available.

0.60 Release Build

19 May 07:27
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  • NorFlash read/write now working for 3 in 1 Plus! Big thanks to cory1492 for he had managed to make available the version of source code of gbaldr that had the code needed to make this work. Also thanks to stl25 for helping test 3in1 Plus support as I do not own a 3 in 1 Plus myself.
  • 64MB roms appear to write to NorFlash correctly with 3 in 1 Plus however note that this does not mean retail roms that used that size will work (not without patching anyways). 3 in 1 Plus had 64MB NorFlash but doen't use normal page switch commands so retail roms will need patching to use this.
  • r4tf bool set to false for SuperCard and Rumble menu disabled for SuperCard. Program would crash if user attempts to use R shoulder button to access rumble menu if a SuperCard is inserted and a NDS file for soft reset was available. This has been fixed by disabling this menu for SuperCard. The rumble menu will not work as intended for SuperCards anyways.
  • Soft Reset for rumble menu is currently broken. (has been since initial rebuild). The method the program uses for loading NDS files likely needs to be rewritten.
  • Hitting X after flashing a game to NorFlash on 3 in 1 Plus may cause hang. The game flashed will still be bootable provided the user power cycles the console and boots the card as normal. No plans to fix as I'm unsure why it's happening and it's a minor issue. Hitting X after switching to NorFlash without flashing anything seems to still work though. Feel free to create a push request if you managed to fix this. ;)

0.59 Initial Release Build

18 May 19:42
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  • Initial rebuild to new libnds.
  • Add new error message for detecting if run on DSi/3DS consoles as this program isn't really compatible with those consoles for obvious reasons.
  • Add initial support for SuperCard Lite (and possibly other SuperCard varients). Note that saves are not currently functional though.
  • Add back initial support for EZ Flash 3 in 1 Plus. Note that NorFlash commands appear to not be working at the moment. RAM mode untested. New code added for detecting 3 in 1 Plus when detecting max allowed file size. This should allow writing 64MB gba roms to 3 in 1 Plus...once NorFlash stuff is fixed that is. :P
  • Tested as working properly with regular EZ Flash 3 in 1 carts.
  • Note that version 0.58 already exists but we do not have source code for it. (source was released only for 0.57. Rudolph could not find the last version's source code unfortunately. This is why 3 in 1 Plus support is incomplete. (it at least detects it now which original 0.57 could not do and will in theory allow writing 64MB GBA roms once NorFlash stuff is fixed for that cart)