GBA homebrews to cartridge

[SS]

So, if I was interested in getting ONE Game Boy Advance homebrew (Gorf) put onto a cartridge, does anyone know how I might go about doing so fairly inexpensively? I was looking around a bit at the various flashcard options available but what I've seen looks to be more expensive (and/or more complicated!) than what my needs are. GBA bootlegs are not uncommon so this must be a process that is relatively easy for someone who has the right tools at their disposal. Does anyone have any ideas that might steer me in the right direction? Thanks.

[+5-11under]

I'm working on a solution, but it's a way off still. I have a prototype, but I need to write some code and do testing (and find time to do both of these). Hopefully later this year. In the meantime, I think there's some other solutions out there.

[SS]

Thanks for the response. Please keep me apprised if you make any progress. Thanks.

[Jess Ragan]

My ears are burning!

 

Good Deal Games was selling this game, although that was a very long time ago. They found that it was easier to just buy cheap flash carts from China and write the game on them than to have copies of the game specially manufactured.

 

Their cart didn't work perfectly with my game, and I had to change the code slightly to accommodate it. That was a major headache.

 

I think some people wound up with an early revision that wouldn't let them unlock some of the game's bonus content. That was not an issue with the SuperCard I used for testing, but their own cart didn't take well to the code, forcing me to make some adaptations.

 

I can tell you that Gorf works fine on both the SuperCard and on the M3 Perfect, which I recently purchased. I can't vouch for anything else, though.

[SS]

Did you make this game Jess? I really like it! I'm a lifelong fan of Gorf and wasn't even aware of this GBA homebrew until very recently. It's good on an emulator but I'm really itching to play it on a real GBA.

 

Do you like the SuperCard? I see that it's for sale on Amazon but some of the reviews made me question purchasing one. However, if you give it a thumbs up then I'll probably just pick one up and give it a try.

 

Thanks for the response and thanks for the game!

[Jess Ragan]

Sure did! I did get some help- the Space Warp stage wouldn't have been possible without a little advice from AtariAge about sine and cosine- but the majority of the coding and design were mine. Glad you're enjoying it... it was a labor of love for me, because I wasn't satisfied with any of the other home ports of Gorf.

 

The SuperCard will work just fine for Gorf. If you only plan to buy it for that game, it should suit your needs. I've found that it works better for some games than others... you can forget about playing Mother 3 with it. The M3 Perfect uses less energy and has higher compatibility overall, but you can have only one active save at a time, which is an annoying limitation. If you save with a different game, the save for the last one disappears.

 

I didn't even realize Amazon was selling Game Boy Advance flash carts. I'll have to check that out.

[SS]

Well, I picked up the SuperCard based on your recommendation. As long as it'll play GORF correctly, then I'm happy. Actually, most of the other stuff that I will want to put on it will be B&W GB titles anyway and it looks like it'll be good for those too. I'm looking forward to getting it. I'll let you know how everything goes once I have the cart and set it all up. Thanks again!

[SS]

I can report that the SuperCard is certainly a bit of a mixed bag. GORF plays great and at full speed. A few of the other GBA titles play fine as well. Some GBA games, however, run just pathetically slow. There's seemingly no rhyme or reason to it either. Street Fighter II is slow as molasses whereas Street Fighter Alpha 3 runs at full speed. Weird. I've had worse luck with GBC and Sega Master System games. Most of what I've tried for those systems is running fairly slow. NES titles run slowly but the emulator that they run off has a "speed hack" feature which, when run, is bringing me up to a pretty consistent 60 FPS on most of games that I've tried so far. I can live with a few extra steps in order to get some portable NES action going on, I guess. The best use of the card, outside of GORF, is B&W Game Boy games. I haven't thrown any original Game Boy titles at the thing yet that haven't been running at 100%.

 

All in all, I guess that I'm pretty happy with this purchase. Since all that I was originally interested in was GORF, anything else is just a bonus any way. I figure that I'll just load it up with a handful of NES games and just about every B&W GB game that I'm even remotely interested in and call it a day.

 

Thanks for steering me in the right direction, Jess. And thanks again for making the GORF homebrew. I am really enjoying finally getting the chance to play one of my all time favorite arcade games on real GBA hardware.

[Goochman]

Sure did! I did get some help- the Space Warp stage wouldn't have been possible without a little advice from AtariAge about sine and cosine- but the majority of the coding and design were mine. Glad you're enjoying it... it was a labor of love for me, because I wasn't satisfied with any of the other home ports of Gorf.

 

The SuperCard will work just fine for Gorf. If you only plan to buy it for that game, it should suit your needs. I've found that it works better for some games than others... you can forget about playing Mother 3 with it. The M3 Perfect uses less energy and has higher compatibility overall, but you can have only one active save at a time, which is an annoying limitation. If you save with a different game, the save for the last one disappears.

 

I didn't even realize Amazon was selling Game Boy Advance flash carts. I'll have to check that out.

 

Have you played the Jag version?

 

[Jess Ragan]

I have not, no. Not exactly easy to find!

[thegamezmaster]

Great work Jess! love Gorf.