EverDrive GBA's SNESAdvance Release Thread

A Work in Progress Add-on for smokemonsters EverDrive GBA & EZ Flash List

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Changes:
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2018-08-17 The SNESAdvance Revival (USA A-Z) - COMPLETED!
2018-09-15 The SNESAdvance Revival (EUR A-Z) - COMPLETED!

A word from Richard "I noticed immediately just how crisp and nice looking the AGS-101 LCD screen looks playing these games on the Game Boy Advance. It looks fantastic when a Super Nintendo game is running on it and I was really surprised actually when I read on the Everdrive topic stating it had really poor emulation... ok sure it's no Raspberry Pi or a Linux processor but the important thing is it runs games that the Game Boy Advance can limit itself to. That alone makes it awesome even after reading that information in the EverDrive Packs Release Thread's EverDrive GBA & EZ Flash List section describing SNESAdvance is rather unplayable or sampling tjstogy's Emulator Packs titled SNESAdvance - Super Nintendo & Famicom was the best it could do... a lot of those games have been vastly improved one in particular is Knights of the Round and many more infact there is so much... much more to experience and I am having a great time checking what games are playable. If you download the files be sure to let me know what you think of them. Thank you"

A update from Richard

Spoiler warning:

In quite a shocking unexpected turn of events I managed to do the impossible out of nowhere on November 14th.

And just a few days later in November I found a new way to vastly improve the SNESAdvance application and by playing around with the More settings and Even more settings it's more playable.

In fact it was playable enough years ago when I read about the compatibility on the homepage when people were saying for a first release and after reading on what games it played I was pretty shocked at how good it is.

Though these days it's not something obviously that you would boot up and playthrough your favourite SNES game or maybe you do if you wanted to see how it looked on a AGS-101 LCD screen but expect some weirdness at first though considering the time it was made was just a single few months before the Nintendo DS came out and they made one for it too which according to YouTube videos shows it running a bit better with the progress on trying to keep up with the GBA version it was an incredible feat especially when the Nintendo DS has a slot to play GBA and GB/C games in it along with small carts the size of SD Cards.

In fact just going onto both links at the bottom of this post and reading back to the very first date of when SNESAdvance or we could say PocketSNES with the incredible effort when it was released and it is a little different when you likely would be more used to playing it on a Raspberry Pi or a Linux processor or course accuracy is a thing and due to the fact it was never finished it will never be accurate so those are all things to be considered but it's still kind of mind blowing that this was made so many years ago.

I have also reached out to M4XB3T4 and they cofirmed some broken games such as Super Metroid work on a device that is not a Everdrive GBA X5.

And asked if there was any plans now that there may be a way to change the HEX value lock out screen at least making the Europe version work and so far I haven't heard back from them as they were brand spanking new I don't think their really active on this forum.

Hopefully I'll see how it turns out but for now I'm keeping my eyes glued to this topic for any new messages cause the progress I will be hopefully putting out at the end of this year to the year after will be just as incredible though as I am now making several attempts to fix the graphics by default it will take a bit longer which may slow down my updates of games but everything will eventually progress a lot more quickly... so watch this space - Richard

What is the SNESAdvance Revival about?

Spoiler warning:

Back in the 2000's Flubba made an emulator for GBA which made it possible to play SNES games on a GBA though around 2006 everything went quiet be it the project never finished or it was just forgotten about.

As it was such a great idea I would like to relive this dream and am patching the Super EverDrive, SD2SNES, Super NT List that smokemonster created in his Everdrive Packs Releace Thread so the games can be played on a GBA and am following the same layout by separating it into parts of regions.

Nearly all games from how they were added are showcased in the same way the folder shows them but with the help of mentioning which game can work or not.

The revival of 12 year old project of the past has finally been carved into the stone of history the chance to play SNES games on your GBA is here though it was never finished so this will be whatever was made which I will use!, including the use of both the PocketSNES v0.1 and SNESAdvance v0.1f for the best of both worlds.

For some games I used PocketSNES with a combination of the offset scroll feature which focuses on the more important parts of the screen selections as they were never seen on SNESAdvance with idea of trying to add extra stuff in it.

History

Spoiler warning:

It all goes back to the time I played on the PCEAdvance emulator in my GBA off the Supercard SD.

As I was amazed by how you could either speed up the gameplay by disabling the TimerIRQ and turning the sound to on with the mixer then pressing reset in the menu to get a full speed game with audio that was what the GBA could do or sometimes with no audio at all.

It was also great fun using the feature which let you scroll up or down the screen by using the unscaled feature which zoomed into either the top or bottom screen area via pressing L or R on the GBA itself.

Years past and I got a GBA Everdrive X5 I already knew this device could play what the Supercard SD could and more but I was more interested in playing SNES games on it.

It was only after downloading smokemonsters last official available GBA pack back in 2017 that there was a folder in the game series collections which had a emulator called SNESAdvance the thing about this inspired me to think how well they would work if more were added.

The folder had variants with versions on them but the odd thing was only half of them let you scroll up and down the screen pressing select and up or down, while some others had a feature which made the camera follow the sprite in game with no adjusting the camera at all.

After playing all of the available games in that folder I decided to find the emulator myself but with no luck I couldn't find anything other than PocketSNES so with its limited use I patched every single game on the SNES taking a lot of months.

It was only when I was on pdroms site which hosts various emulator devices that I learned that my version was outdated but it was not all bad news due to the fact the new one didn't come without problems on its own (A good example is the game Demon's Crest oddly only works on PocketSNES while on SNESAdvance it blacks out)

The confusing thing of this is that it seems PocketSNES was the main thing worked on, it seems SNESAdvance went under the radar and was made later on the thing is nether site seems to have the latest version on what games work or what does not.

Take for example this info - http://www.pocketsnes.net/snes_roms.htm

And this info which only got halfway and didn't help much - http://www.pocketsnes.net/Compatibility.doc

Along with this lastly - http://archives.dcemulation.org/gba/...ompatlist.html

It all seems like it was based around the older version before you could a just the camera which is why they say to set the offset to what it is so the part of the screen above can be seen, but this gets more confusing on the readme too and it's that most games stated that work I couldn't get them to work be it the one from pdroms or the one off their site.

Apart from that I can honestly say that this is a great way to play SNES games on a GBA it is like PCEAdvance and more though it takes a while to get used to the camera being adjusted via select and up or down... it all comes down to a beautiful package and best off all seeing 16bit games on such a sharp GBA screen is true popping eye candy ^^

And with that said I hope this becomes a great addition to anyone's GBA device which can play SNES games now

The 15 Step Process On How The SFC Files Get Converted Into GBA Files

Spoiler warning:

Step 1: It all begins by accessing the A-Z directory of the region that needs to be done.

Step 2: The file is selected one by one and the file name is copied to be used after conversion.

Step 3: The SNESAdvance application is opened and the file path has to be accessed via selecting the file.

Step 4: Depending on which version is used it is either the [!] button or the save... button.

Step 5: The file will be converted saying SNESAdvance.GBA and the copied file name will go over it.

Step 6: The game is then cut and pasted back into the A-Z directory deleting the 25/12/1996 one first.

Step 7: Then the process begins again though all the steps.

Step 8: After a portion of the directory is done e.t.c games which are A name they are put on the SD Card.

Step 9: Each game has a 15 second test to see if it works or not the rule of my thumb goes by...

Step 10: If a game shows a non glitched image it gets a [p] tag indicating it is playable.

Step 11: If a game shows a glitch it gets a [g] tag indication it is glitchy.

Step 12: If a game blackout whever in game or halfway it gets a [b] indicating it is broken.

Step 13: On the above 3 if it works and has some glitches it will always get a [p][g] rarely ever a [p].

Step 14: A real hardware SNES will be used along with a code to make sure later parts are playable.

Step 15. And lastly the games are added in the folder and added here for you to enjoy on your GBA device.

The Extra Steps On How My Camera Follow Feature Is Done

Spoiler warning:

Extra 1: The game is played with both the Scale and Offset set to 0 as seen in the A-Z game folders.

Extra 2: It is checked for an hour to see how much is lost and what needs to be done to correct it.

Extra 3: The pre-made one is also played to see how they decided to do it.

Extra 4: Normally their method is to have the screen focus on the sprites movement so it always moves.

Extra 5: When I make my ones I always focus on how the GBA would do it via moving the screen by height.

Extra 6: This makes sure the screen only moves when you go at the top of the screen etc Castlevania stairs.

Extra 7: The floor is also important to me so I make sure the offset allows the ground to always be seen.

Extra 8: But some games wont move up so jumping in midair allows the top of the screen to be seen like SMW.

Extra 9: I prefer the camera moving slowly up with the sprite but hectic games Contra III need it instant.

Extra 10: After everything is done the game is added and can be played for a more fun experience..

The 15 Burning Questions

Spoiler warning:

#1 Q: What smokemonster pack are the roms based on? A: The set I will and always will use was as of 10.31.2017 being the last officially released set before it was decided to create your own these days.

#2 Q: Do I require any additional patching tools to play these games on my GBA? A: All roms have been thoroughly checked by myself to at least allow them display the Gameboy logo with Nintendo under it and will load either a black screen or the game with no patching device needed as it was done for you by me. There should be no missing Nintendo name like if you used a SNES rom on a GBA naming the .sfc or .smc. directory .gba in hopes it would work.

#3 Q: How did the games work on my GBA when they have the tag .sfc instead of .GBA? A: To make it less mistakable of having a GBA game by the same name etc Phalanx I gave it the end tag name as it was shown on the smokemonster folder itself. The game is made for GBA so the end change will always be recognized as a GBA file.

#4 Q: With so many games that seem half playable and not I cannot decide which is worth trying. A: The best games to try are ones such as The Megaman games or the Castlevania series ones and go through ones that say [p][g].

*As I now learned how certain number values work a lot of [p][g] games can now be fully restored like the example at the bottom of this 1st post with the imgur links, this may or may not make a lot of them change to [p] but as I intend to fix a lot of them in 2019 there is a good chance in the overhaul... though keep in mind if the SNESAdvance app was never able to run broken games they will remain unplayable regardless of any values changing*

#5 Q: How long did it take you to patch a region of games? A: Around a few months give or take it also required a lot of checks by inserting and ejecting the SD card from the GBA Everdrives spring!

#6 Q: Why do games such as Super Mario World work but others like Super Metroid, Kirby and Donkey Kong not work? A: These games apparently require a device that can change the hex value or the RAM data which removes the "LOCK OUT screen" which I cannot fix myself as I have no knowledge on how to do it.

#7 Q: Are the conversions from SNES to GBA straight up accurate to the original game? A: Sadly not a lot require speed hacks or compress backgrounds or images a good example is playing Super Bomberman to see what I mean.

*From adjusting values some compressed backgrounds can be restored back to normal but so far the only game that did that was Shounin yo, Taishi o Idake!! turning a crushed sea into a nice one with a sun reflection glare... it may just be one game but it's a good chance others may work though sadly Bomberman whever the value is altered or not stays with a compressed background with actual full sized sprites. On how these compressed games work you have to imagine the map and move where you see it above when you hit a wall drop a bomb and the bomb will show you where you are then use it as a guide but for what it's worth your better off playing the PC Engine version of the 3 Bomberman games as they have full sized sprites and best of all music... on yeah on the PC Engine ones the Everdrive GBA has no intergrated one running PCE games directly unless PCE P.E.T is used to some how change a PCE file into GBA to play it though I haven't had the time to test it out as I play my PCE games on my Super Card SD which only runs Japanese games and not the Turbo Grafix equivalent ones*

#8 Q: What region is the SNESAdvance emulator set to? A: It is very hard to say the official site says the final version as of January 24 2006 made all games playable but to me it seems it's set to NTSC only.

*As I just found out it's now set to any region but it will still have that not playable error in certain games*

#9 Q: Do hacks work with these games? A: Adding any hack via the use of game genie guy causes the game to lag and slow down as the speed hack is removed the use of game genie thing however may or may not keep the speed hack in place with codes also you would need the vanilla game to do it not the modified one to work on a GBA first.

*As Game Genie thing was just a value maker and is not able to allow games to be added into it kind of like how SNES Advance had an open folder this was a failure, you can still however use Game Genie Guy on certain vanilla games which have had no alterations done to them at the cost of the speed hack being removed. So basically just add the game into Game Genie Guy and let it create a new file that says GG then convert it on SNESAdvance and play it though keep in mind some games with codes will refuse to run on SNESAdvance ones like Final Fight USA and Tetris Attack among others so its trial and error but a lot of games work fine with codes added into them*

#10 Q: The readme says games like Super Mario All Stars work but your folder says it's broken why is that? A: Despite the SNESAdvance notes in the pack saying the game is playable I have yet to get it to work even on the PocketSNES version it shows a black screen if you can fix this by all means it would be much appreciated.

*Super Metroid has been confirmed to work on a EZ-Flash IV or any device that isn't a genuine GBA Everdrive made by Krikzz this means the USA/JAPAN one will run better and faster than the Europe one that works on a Everdrive GBA but has a control deck mention of a alteration device used despite no hacks being added to it... I wont be able to camera position it as I have had no luck running it/Mario All Stars likely runs too on an unofficial Krikzz cart*

#11 Q: Is this considered an add on to smokemonsters EverDrive GBA & EZ Flash List if I want to play SNES games on my GBA? A: It's actually based on the game series collection folder but as it was only a small folder called Emulator - SNESAdvance it was missing a lot of games I wanted to make it a full blown category so yeah it is indeed an add on for GBA and should be added to any update he makes.

#12 Q: Do the games have sound? A: As the emulator never managed to add sound all games are mute.

#13 Q: Some Super Scope and Mouse games such as Mario Paint display fine on a GBA but your tag says it is broken is that an overlook insight? A: Yes those games indeed do work but they can't be controlled so I did say they were broken as they cannot be played you can still enjoy the demo screens of Mario Paint and the super scope games and feel free to rename them [p] as you see fit.

*Mario Paint is now playable via the camera follow sprite feature as it was considered a hack it will not be included in the official game folder but instead added to the said folder instead and has a speed feature by pressing start to move faster across the screen as well as two choices of follow methods either the pre-made locked on accurate follow file that makes it almost impossible to select a pallet let alone moving across the screen or my own fixed accurate attempt that lets you select pallets stuff and more*

#14 Q: Why use sendspace instead of filedownloader, mega nz or what-ya-ma-call-it those other sites that are used to host huge files? A: As I have been around uploading sites from years back going back to those ones such as Megaupload, Rapidshare, Filedropper, Imageshack and even Lycos I never like using huge sites that host lots of files due to preferring the old vintage style of 1 file per link. It's just something I prefer xD

*Files will likely expire after a whole month this is normal for file sharing sites I used years ago, I have no problem updating them regularly as I make improvements to all regions and sprite following games along with revision ones too*

#15 Q: Will you manage to patch every SNES game to work on the GBA? A: I will unless the spring breaks in my Retro Towers Everdrive GBA X5!

*My SD cards condition has developed a worn faded corner from over a thousand insertions but when it becomes unresponsive I am more than happy to get a new one and so on if it means having a way to play SNES games on my GBA it's a sacrifice worth using it for, as of now the spring still works so progress will continue*

Folder Layout: [IMPORTANT: FILES MAY LOOK LIKE SNES GAMES BUT ARE CONVERTED TO WORK ON A GBA ONLY DO NOT PLAY THEM ON A SUPER FAMICOM OR SUPER NINTENDO! THE SFC TAG AT THE END OF THE FILE NAME IS JUST TO KEEP IT TRUE TO THE ORIGINAL FOLDER AND RENAMED FROM GBA TO SPERATE IT FROM A GBA GAME OF THE SAME NAME]

1 America - A-Z (Links will constantly be updated when new graphic fixes are done but for now you can still download my earliest progress)

1 US - A-E

Code:

https://www.sendspace.com/file/b43qut

1 US - F-M

Code:

https://www.sendspace.com/file/gxtjxo

1 US - N-R

Code:

https://www.sendspace.com/file/z56q91

1 US - S

Code:

https://www.sendspace.com/file/nhgig7

1 US - T-Z

Code:

https://www.sendspace.com/file/a8rytk

2 Europe - A-Z (Links will constantly be updated when new graphic fixes are done but for now you can still download my earliest progress)

PAL - A-J

Code:

https://www.sendspace.com/file/ok3b6d

PAL - K-R

Code:

https://www.sendspace.com/file/fa2oga

PAL - S-Z

Code:

https://www.sendspace.com/file/54dgdq

Japan - A-Z COMING SOON!

Extras

Ex1 SNESAdvance USA Screen Follows Your Controllable Sprite Games

Code:

https://www.sendspace.com/file/vv0jmp

Ex2 USA Revision and Non Revision SNESAdvance games

Code:

https://www.sendspace.com/file/y1w9sn

Ex3 Europe Revision and Non Revision SNESAdvance games

Code:

https://www.sendspace.com/file/wfjuur

(Default controls)

Spoiler warning:

Y = B
B = A
X = L
A = R
L = Select+L
R = Select+R
Scale Up the screen = Hold Select and press either Up or Down

Select+Start+B+A brings up the emulator control menu.
Push Start to exit the menu.

(My preferred controls via Key Config)

Spoiler warning:

Y = B
B = A
X = L
A = R
L = L
R = R
Start = Start
Select = Select

Links of interest

The Official PocketSNES page - http://www.pocketsnes.net/download_pocketsnes.htm

The achieved SNESAdvance page - http://archives.dcemulation.org/gba/...org/index.html

Special Thanks to Flubba and the rest of the SNESAdvance team for making it possible to play SNES games on a GBA with it's limits and capabilities.

Edit: If you would like the process to be sped up feel free to help me bring this dream into reality as they say the more the merrier. And if you know how to change Hex value addresses to make locked out games playable this would be an even bigger help ^^

Edit 2: Broken graphics can now be fixed up below are 4 images of before and after More settings and Even More settings are changed around (To see the 2nd image in the link scroll below the above one)...

https://imgur.com/a/lpxsOam

https://imgur.com/a/EFVLq5l

https://imgur.com/a/KW8jkJP

https://imgur.com/a/j3vH4Jb

Brand spanking new here.

First of all before I do any tinkering I would like to know how well does Super Metroid fare in terms of compatibility on the GBA?

I currently own a EZ-flash IV and recently came across this:
https://gbatemp.net/download/super-m...Nla5w49YddUPc8

Its a hack of Super Metroid that more than anything it changes the original SNES game style to behave like GBA Metroid Fusion and Zero Mission.

EDIT
I just spent the last 10 minutes reading your entire post and found out Super Metroid does not work.
Regardless, this is mindblowing work you have done here.

I hope to play it someday on GBA.

Quote:

Originally Posted by M4XB3T4

Brand spanking new here.

First of all before I do any tinkering I would like to know how well does Super Metroid fare in terms of compatibility on the GBA?

I currently own a EZ-flash IV and recently came across this:
https://gbatemp.net/download/super-m...Nla5w49YddUPc8

Its a hack of Super Metroid that more than anything it changes the original SNES game style to behave like GBA Metroid Fusion and Zero Mission.

EDIT
I just spent the last 10 minutes reading your entire post and found out Super Metroid does not work.
Regardless, this is mindblowing work you have done here.

I hope to play it someday on GBA.

Hi M4XB3T4 firstly and formostly thank you so very much for checking out my revival project.

Secondly the compatibility with Super Metroid at least according to this compatibility list...

http://archives.dcemulation.org/gba/...#Super_Metroid

It seems like it should work on the achieved pages list of games that work. Sadly my rom packs list it as [b] being broken as it just shows a black screen (It was thoroughly checked on both the .sfc and .smc one... however if you know anything of RAM addresses and values it may work... if it helps the Europe version is locked out so if there is a way to bypass that it should run.

In short this is the rom it mentions the use of a control deck altering device if this can have a value changed it will likely work

Code:

http://www.rapidshare.com.cn/oOv9KlN

And finally feel free to check out the premade USA set camera follow games and my fixed camera follow games in the link below I hope they are fun to try out while I finish off the rest of the Japanese games

Code:

http://www.rapidshare.com.cn/ZMKcaf0

Are there any other mirrors to this project, it seems all the files are dead links?

Quote:

Originally Posted by boogiemanspud

Are there any other mirrors to this project, it seems all the files are dead links?

1 America - A-Z and Ex1 re-uploaded