ReadMe for No$GBA to VBA

What Is It?

This little program I wrote up simply converts No$GBA battery files to Visual Boy Advance battery files.  I wrote this program because my TTFA save state was crashing on Mission 005 and well, I felt like playing the game still!  So, me being me, I figured I'd browse the net and find a converter that someone had made.  And low and behold, I can't find a working converter anywhere.

So a pack of smokes later and with one slightly angry girlfriend, I wrote up this little program to convert the .SAV files for me.


What To Do?

Alright, prepare yourself.  Because I need you to do something huge.  Well, not really.

Go into your No$GBA directory and edit a file called the No$GBA.ini in notepad or any other little editor.  

Now, scroll down the list until you see this:

SAV/SNA File Format == Compressed

and change it to saying this

SAV/SNA File Format == Uncompressed

Make sure you load your game up, save the battery file by saving In-Game!  That means going to a save slot and saving it as if you were actually playing the game.

Now just a quick note here, most of the time No$Gba is stubborn and will not re-write the file without compression.  You may need to BACKUP your battery save files (found in no$gba\battery usually), and delete them the hell out of there.  

How do you load your game now?  Load from a snap-shot, and re-save the battery.

Load up this program and let it do the work for you.


How does it work?

This program basically deletes the first 76 characters from the binary .SAV file which is junk no$gba throws in there to make our lives hell and stops VBA from recognizing it.


How do I use the battery file?

Easy go into VBA.  Click on Import->Battery, browse to it.  It should say, well, not a damn thing (not so helpful I know).  Then go to your games main screen, select Load like you normally would on a real Game Boy Advanced, and you should be able to load your saved slots from No$Gba.


What!  I messed something up!

Well, too bad, cuz this thing probably wont work 95% of the time anyway and now your game is gone!  

Well, probably not, everytime a .SAV file is converted I set the program to auto-save a copy (ie:  ttff.sav  =>  ttff.sav.bak)  Simply make a new copy of the .BAK file, removing the new extension.

Be sure to copy the bak file and not use it.  Why ?  Because something went wrong and if it happens again then your last backup will be destroyed.

Other than that, back everything up regularily and good luck!  Hope someone finds this program useful, peace.

---- kermed@gmail.com

ps:  Any requests for extra features etc.  I can't really do anything with this %$!%ing thing because I'm not a programmer.  Sorry.  

Versions Changes & News:

--- Version 3.0
Tested VBA -> No$GBA Conversion, header is not needed, and VBA files should be
	able to import directly over without modification.  Still gave the user the ability
	to reattach the header in case of problems with .SAV files in the future.
*Added Auto No$GBA.INI modification through config options.
*Added Ability to run No$GBA from inside the program
	*you must set the directory properly to the real No$GBA battery directly however
*Minor Tweaks & Modifications

--- Version 2.0
Added VBA > No$GBA Conversion
Added Autodetect for File Type
Added Colour & Progress Bar

--- Version 1.0
Created No$GBA > VBA Conversion