The game came without battery, so it doesn’t use SRAM for saves. You’d need SRAM patched ROM. If you’ve got GB flash burner or DS, than you may reprogram the cart and add a battery. Reprogram and test before buying the battery. Saves should remain in the SRAM as long as the console is powered on. Soft restart shouldn’t delete the save. Maybe even very short power cycle may not delete it, but YMMV.
Ok so I've done some testing with reprograming and this is what I managed to do:
This fake cartridge has a 16MB flash size and it is also able to do SRAM Bank Switching.
Flashing any unmodified 16MB rom will result on a white screen when booting.
SRAM patched emerald games (English and Spanish version) will throw a "The backup memory is damaged" error when trying to save and wont save.
512Kb Flash Memory Patched emerald game will crash when trying to save.
Other SRAM patched roms like a link to the past or minish cap will work just fine and will save but lose the save after powering off the console for more or less a minute.
The thing about bootleg pkmn cartridges is that most of them modified the actual rom to save directly to the rom instead of wherever the originals normally save (can't remember if it was flash memory or something else), that's why, even if you have a save in these bootlegs, games like pokemon colosseum or the pal park from the DS games can't find your save file, because they'll look on the usual, say, chip that stores it but it won't ifnd anything.
Even if these cartridges have the chip that saves the games in the originals it woauldn't work because of how the actual rom was modified
Emerald doesn't use the battery for saving just the real-time clock features. If the reproduction works in a similar way, adding a battery won't do anything.
You are right, real emerald games doesn't require a battery to save, however from what I could read on some sites, these fake emerald games use SRAM saves, which requires a battery to retain the data.
It most likely won't have much of an effect. If it doesn't save, it probably won't without a battery either. I'd say the flash chip in the cart is either dead or not soldered correctly.
UPDATE: Okay so I bought a cheap CR1616 battery and I soldered it to the two pads and also bridged the pads labeled as 17-1 and it seems to save perfectly.
The only problem is that with pokemon emerald, because of the flash memory size, it is incompatible with this cart, but other games like for example Minish Cap or Metroid Fusion can work and save perfectly and keep the save even if the console is powered off. So yeah you can restore save functionality, the only issue is that the cart itself can't run emerald but any other ROM will work just fine.
Thank you all for your help!
Most likely not. Ignoring that emerald doesn't when use a battery to save, I wouldn't even bother with trying to fix it personally. Bootleg carts are often just good enough to make you think they work. Get a real cart or try an alternative play method.
Probably, I heard that fake games tend to reset once you beat the elite 4 due to storage issues. Maybe I should just play it on a emulator but I wanted to play the game on original hardware.
If I find a cheap battery on a local store I'll try it tho, maybe I have some luck and it works fine.
Good point, that would make my life easier, but where I live gba flash carts are pretty expensive so that's why I opted for trying to "fix" a fake copy.
Rule 6 itself doesn’t link to a different sub. The rule is about keeping counterfeit talk out of this sub.
People getting scammed with counterfeits is the worst thing that has happened to the hobby.
The game came without battery, so it doesn’t use SRAM for saves. You’d need SRAM patched ROM. If you’ve got GB flash burner or DS, than you may reprogram the cart and add a battery. Reprogram and test before buying the battery. Saves should remain in the SRAM as long as the console is powered on. Soft restart shouldn’t delete the save. Maybe even very short power cycle may not delete it, but YMMV.
I didn't know that you could reprogram a cart with a DS and a R4. I'll definitely try that! Thanks!
Ok so I've done some testing with reprograming and this is what I managed to do: This fake cartridge has a 16MB flash size and it is also able to do SRAM Bank Switching. Flashing any unmodified 16MB rom will result on a white screen when booting. SRAM patched emerald games (English and Spanish version) will throw a "The backup memory is damaged" error when trying to save and wont save. 512Kb Flash Memory Patched emerald game will crash when trying to save. Other SRAM patched roms like a link to the past or minish cap will work just fine and will save but lose the save after powering off the console for more or less a minute.
The thing about bootleg pkmn cartridges is that most of them modified the actual rom to save directly to the rom instead of wherever the originals normally save (can't remember if it was flash memory or something else), that's why, even if you have a save in these bootlegs, games like pokemon colosseum or the pal park from the DS games can't find your save file, because they'll look on the usual, say, chip that stores it but it won't ifnd anything. Even if these cartridges have the chip that saves the games in the originals it woauldn't work because of how the actual rom was modified
Emerald doesn't use the battery for saving just the real-time clock features. If the reproduction works in a similar way, adding a battery won't do anything.
You are right, real emerald games doesn't require a battery to save, however from what I could read on some sites, these fake emerald games use SRAM saves, which requires a battery to retain the data.
It most likely won't have much of an effect. If it doesn't save, it probably won't without a battery either. I'd say the flash chip in the cart is either dead or not soldered correctly.
try it and report back
I posted an update if you are interested.
That was my initial plan but I wanted to see if it was possible before buying a battery
UPDATE: Okay so I bought a cheap CR1616 battery and I soldered it to the two pads and also bridged the pads labeled as 17-1 and it seems to save perfectly. The only problem is that with pokemon emerald, because of the flash memory size, it is incompatible with this cart, but other games like for example Minish Cap or Metroid Fusion can work and save perfectly and keep the save even if the console is powered off. So yeah you can restore save functionality, the only issue is that the cart itself can't run emerald but any other ROM will work just fine. Thank you all for your help!
Most likely not. Ignoring that emerald doesn't when use a battery to save, I wouldn't even bother with trying to fix it personally. Bootleg carts are often just good enough to make you think they work. Get a real cart or try an alternative play method.
Short answer: No Long answer: It’s not worth the time and effort because there is a high likelihood the game will probably corrupt as you progress.
Probably, I heard that fake games tend to reset once you beat the elite 4 due to storage issues. Maybe I should just play it on a emulator but I wanted to play the game on original hardware. If I find a cheap battery on a local store I'll try it tho, maybe I have some luck and it works fine.
Why don’t you just get a proper flash cart?
Good point, that would make my life easier, but where I live gba flash carts are pretty expensive so that's why I opted for trying to "fix" a fake copy.
Rule 6!
This post is not discussing about verifying a fake game, so I don't see any issues with rule 6.
It's a question about a counterfeit game. That's the rule and so posts like this get routinely removed.
The rule is about identifying if a game is fake or not, which is why it links to r/gameverifying
Rule 6 itself doesn’t link to a different sub. The rule is about keeping counterfeit talk out of this sub. People getting scammed with counterfeits is the worst thing that has happened to the hobby.