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How to write your own Game Boy Advance cartridge?
On the secondary market and AliExpress, there are many pirated cartridges for sale, but we have always been interested in one question: how to rewrite such a cartridge? Despite the fact that pirated cartridges use ROM memory (read-only memory), it is possible to rewrite it using special equipment.
As of 2021, there are two ways to rewrite pirated cartridges:
1. Using GBxCart RW – a special reader that can be purchased separately (you can read more about this device in our article: «GBxCart RW Review»).
2. Using the Burn2Slot program for Nintendo DS/DS Lite.
In this article, we will discuss the second method, writing to a cartridge using the Burn2Slot program.
Personally, I use this feature to create test GBA cartridges and check the functionality of consoles.
What do we need?
1. Nintendo DS or Nintendo DS Lite.
2. Flash cartridge for Nintendo DS consoles. For example, R4 from AliExpress, you can read more in the article: «R4 NDS Cartridge».
3. Download the Burn2Slot.nds program from github.com.
4. Prepare the ROM image of the GBA game you want to write to the cartridge.
Please note, if you want to rewrite some pirated cartridges, you can rewrote these cartridges:
How to rewrite a pirated GBA cartridge?
The first thing you need to do is copy the Burn2Slot files and the GBA game ROM image to one folder on the flash cartridge for Nintendo DS.
Then you need to launch the Burn2Slot program on the console, and you will enter a menu where the top screen will be black, and the bottom screen will be a file manager:
I recorded the ROM image of the game Sims 2. You need to select it and press the A button.
After that, there will be two possible outcomes.
1. You will get an Error Unknown Flash.
This means that the program did not recognize the cartridge, and it cannot be rewritten.
2. Or the process of erasing information from the cartridge will start.
After the erasing process is complete, the process of writing the ROM image of the game to the cartridge will begin.
The erasing and writing process will take about 10-20 minutes, depending on the size of the ROM image.
After everything is written, the console will try to launch the GBA game, but in most cases, it will fail, and you will need to restart the console and launch the game again.
Problems
As with GBxCart RW, you need a cartridge with SRAM memory for saves. However, all old pirated cartridges usually use this type of save. To patch the ROM image to use SRAM save type, you can use the GBATA program (you need to use the SRAM Patcher function).
Update. Read the article: How to add a battery to a cartridge from AliExpress?
Since the release of the GBA Auto Batteryless Patcher program, all problems have disappeared. Watch the video:
