Guide (instruction) for G6 Flash cartridge for Game Boy Advance

What does the cartridge look like?

What else do we need to buy?

Out of the box, this cartridge is completely ready to use, just take it and use it.

The only thing you can buy additionally is a USB extension cable. Because if your USB port is only on the back of your computer, you will experience some inconvenience trying to constantly plug the U-Disk Burner there.

Application for writing games

To be able to play games, there are two options.

1. The developers assure us that many games will work if they are simply written directly to the cartridge. That is, you insert the cartridge into the G6 U-Disk Burner, it opens as a flash drive, and you write games there.

But many games do not work that way. And to make them work, we need the second option.

2. The developers created special software G6 U-DISK Manager. This program is similar in its meaning to the application from the Supercard cartridge, that is, it writes the game to the cartridge and creates save files for the game.

The latest version of this program is 5.1. You can download it G6U-DISKManagerV5.1.rar <- here.

Let's take a closer look at the program:

As soon as you launch the program, it prompts you to select the desired drive, that is, our cartridge. Select it.

The main menu opens. It has three tabs:

GBA – for writing ROMs for the Game Boy Advance console.

NDS – for writing ROMs for the Nintendo DS console. In fact, this cartridge is suitable not only for playing GBA games, but also for writing NDS games to it and playing NDS games from slot 2. To do this, the cartridge must be launched in NDS mode (this is not the same as inserting it into the Nintendo DS and launching it as a GBA game. The slot is the same, but the firmware is different). To launch it in NDS mode, you need either a special Passkey device (which is hard to find now), or a flash cartridge for Slot 1 of the Nintendo DS, and if you have it, then the whole procedure loses its meaning..

Config – in general, here you can set the language and the starting folders for ROMs.

So, open the GBA tab, or rather it should already be open. In front of us are three tabs and a number of buttons.

The top long tab Long File Name – already written games.

Saver name – game save files. These are saves that are made by the game itself. That is, as on the original cartridge.

RTSaver Name – Real Time save files. Software save, when you save "Save State".

Let's move on to the buttons:

Write – write a game to the cartridge.

Read – back up a save from the cartridge.

Delete – delete a game.

Config – a strange name for this button. Here a menu opens where you can change the default wallpapers for games and the menu wallpapers.

Help – opens a txt file with help. A useful file, but it does not describe all the functions.

How to write games to the cartridge?

Click the Write button and select the game file. After that, a window with 4 tabs opens: Main, ROM Patch, CheatCode and IPS Patch.

The Main tab has three checkboxes:

Enable Real Time – the function allows you to exit games without restarting the console and make saves in real time.

Enable Compress – respectively compresses the size of the game.

Same method – repeat the settings for all games.

The next tab ROM Patch has three settings, and to understand what these settings do, I spent more than a day. Because neither in the built-in Help file, nor in the guides for this cartridge, nor in the official FAQ is there an answer to this question. But I figured it out, almost completely, I hope.

Software – this is just an SRAM patch, that is, for games that have problems with saving. In fact, the function duplicates the same function in the GBATA application (and according to knowledgeable people, GBATA handles this better).

Hardware + Software (in some applications there is a typo Hareware) – this function patches the game and makes it possible to run it on this cartridge. (here are my guesses, by analogy with Supercard, it changes the waitstate of the cartridge, because if you run the game without a patch, there will be the same symptoms as with Supercard). Also, this function removes Copyright Protection.

Hardware (Hareware) – does nothing with the ROM image of the game, only creates save files.

By default, you need to use the Hardware + Software option and only if you have problems with the game, then you need to try other options.

The CheatCode tab we will not consider in detail.

IPS Patch – respectively, you can immediately attach an IPS Patch to the game (for example, with a game translation)

After you have written the game, close the program, click safe removal of the device, insert the cartridge into the console and then we will look at what to do next.

How to use the cartridge?

Using the cartridge is surprisingly very simple. Everything is intuitive and similar to a simple operating system. Control is done with a cursor. Hover over a button and press A. To exit from the corresponding submenu, press Start.

In the menu you will see 5 buttons.

MyCard – actually, this is a file manager, from it you can launch games if you just copied them to the card, and did not use the G6 U-DISK Manager program.

Game – a button where the games written to the cartridge are displayed. Only games written through the G6 U-DISK Manager program.

MediaPlay – a media player for playing videos, music, and reading books. In any folder in the appropriate format, you write video or audio, then find this folder in this program and launch the desired file.

PDA – an attempt to expand the functionality of the cartridge with functions from a personal digital assistant. Here are two types of calculators.

G6Update – a program for flashing the cartridge. We will consider it further.

How to save in the game?

This is the first cartridge that has its own saving system, and it is great. If in other cartridges saving happens in stages: you save in the game, and then exit the game (or restart the console) and write the game from SRAM memory to the memory card. On this cartridge, this happens automatically, when you select a game and load it, the cartridge automatically transfers information from the save file ХХХХХХ.0 (where ХХХХХХ is the name of the game) to the SRAM chip, after you finish playing, the cartridge automatically transfers the data from the SRAM chip to the file ХХХХХХ.0.

On this cartridge, there are several types of saving.

Real Time saving.

If, when writing the game, on the Main tab, you activated the Enable Real Time option, then in the game you will have the ability to save the game in real time. For understanding, games with Game Boy do not have the ability to save at any point, for example, before a difficult spot. Saves happen at the beginning or end of the level. Therefore, some games are very difficult to play. The Enable Real Time function allows you to save at any point.

To save, press A + B + L + R and the corresponding menu appears.

Here are 3 save options: Save (main option), Save Backup 1 and Save Backup 2 (just two more save slots) and respectively Load.

Press Save and that's it, the game is saved.

Normal Save.

Normal saves are saves that are made in the same way as if you were using a regular licensed cartridge.

Why is this needed if there is Real Time Save. For some reasons, RTS saves may not work in some games. Sometimes you may need real saves. For example, in Pokemon games (Pokemon Fire Red, Pokemon Sapphire and others in this series) some Pokemon evolve only if you get them through a trade from another player. That is, to evolve a Pokemon, you will need either to find your colleague with the same set + buy a cable or download your save, and on the computer via the GBA emulator, run two of your saves in parallel and connect them via the Emulator (a special function in the Emulator, as if you are playing over the network) to trade Pokemon. Also, the save file may be needed for Backup and for other reasons.

To make a "Normal save", you need to do the following: just wait for the moment when in the game you pass a checkpoint (where the game automatically saves) or the save point or you yourself press the save button (if the game supports saving) and that's it. You can exit, no need to press any additional buttons.

Save management on the console.

If on the console in the Game section you select a game (without entering it) and press Select, then the corresponding menu with 5 options will open.

To understand what this is, you need to go back to writing the game to the cartridge. If you write a game to the cartridge via the G6 U-DISK Manager program, then three save files with the extension .0, .2 and .3 will be automatically created.

XXXXXX.0 (Here, initially, any saves in all games are written, XXXXXX – the name of the game).

XXXXXX.1 (Backup 1 for the save, this file can be used by yourself, if for some reason you need to save and leave this save, for example, before a fork in the plot)

XXXXXX.2 (The same as the previous backup)

Now we go back, we selected the game and pressed Select.

Default -> 1 - copies the save from XXXXXX.0 to XXXXXX.1

Default -> 2 - copies the save from XXXXXX.0 to XXXXXX.2

1 -> Default - copies the save from XXXXXX.1 to XXXXXX.0

2 -> Default - copies the save from XXXXXX.2 to XXXXXX.0

SRAM -> Default – respectively copies from the SRAM chip to the save XXXXXX.0. I don't really understand why this function is needed, because, in theory, the SRAM chip cannot have other information than in XXXXXX.0. As I wrote above, when loading the game, the information from XXXXXX.0 is copied to SRAM, and when exiting the game, it is copied back.

Then select the option you need and press A, after which you confirm the save replacement.

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Save management on the computer.

Above you could see the description of the Read button – it makes a save backup.

To make such a backup, you need to select the desired game in the Long File Name menu, then in the Saver name menu select the file we need and the Read button will be activated on the right. Click it, select the save location and that's it. The backup is done.

In turn, to write the save back to the cartridge, you need to select (an already installed game), then right-click on Save (in the Saver Name menu) and a window with three functions will appear: Read (duplicates the button in the main menu), Config (the same, duplicates the button in the main menu) and Write, and this button just restores the save. Click the Write button, select the save file and that's it.

Can you exit the game without restarting the console?

If, when writing the game, on the Main tab, you activated the Enable Real Time option, then you can exit the game by pressing the buttons A + B + L + R and select the Main Menu option.

The second option is to simply turn off and on the console.