Table of Contents
Guide (Instructions) for the SuperCard Cartridge
The SuperCard MicroSD cartridge is a flash cartridge.
Essentially, a flash cartridge is like a hard drive for the Game Boy Advance. Just like on a computer, it can be used for piracy or for regular work. You can write pirated games to the flash cartridge (if you download the ROM file of the game from the internet), or you can use the flash cartridge for other purposes, such as downloading open ROM files or using your own program. That is, using the flash cartridge as a development tool.
There are four versions of this cartridge: two of them are no longer available, and two can still be purchased. They differ
in the type of memory card they support.
Let's take a closer look:
The first cartridge is designed for Compact Flash memory cards. The second - for SD memory cards. And the third, respectively, for Mini SD.
These versions of the cartridge are almost impossible to find now. However, the fourth version of this cartridge can still be found. This cartridge was not officially released for Micro SD memory cards, but the Chinese modified it from the Mini SD version to the Micro SD version. This is just my speculation. But in fact, nothing has changed except for the use of a more modern memory card.
Let me elaborate on my assumptions. The official website supercard.cn existed until around 2007. After that, it disappeared. At that time, there was already an article on the site: how to distinguish a fake cartridge from an original one. You can read about it under the cut.
Next, we will talk about this cartridge, which uses a MicroSD memory card and can be freely purchased on Aliexpress and Ebay. And by SuperCard cartridge, we will mean SuperCard MicroSD.
SuperCard Video Review
Watch our video review of this cartridge! We tried to show you all the pros and cons of this cartridge in a visual way ;)
Where to Buy?
What Else Do We Need to Buy?
To use this cartridge properly, you need to purchase a few more things:
1. A Micro SD memory card.
2. You need a memory card reader to write games from your computer to the memory card.
All of this needs to be purchased separately. And once you have the cartridge, memory card, and card reader - you can start using it.
What Format Should the Memory Card Be?
The MicroSD memory card should be formatted in FAT format. Not FAT 32, but FAT.
How to Write Games to the Cartridge?
The first thing to understand is that you cannot simply write games directly to the memory card for this cartridge, they will not run. You need special software that will patch the games and allow them to run.
You can download the ROM patching program here: setupsdV271en.zip
After you install and open this program, you will see this window:
There are three buttons here: Add, Del, and Out. Add - add a ROM
file of the game to the program, Del - remove the added ROM file, and Out - write
the patched file to the hard drive.
After you add a ROM file using the Add button, it will automatically be patched. It will look like this:
Next, you need to press the Out button, and the game will be written to the location specified in the program settings.
For each game, three files will be created: the game itself, a save file, and a real-time save file.
Let's move on to the settings. To do this, press the Options button, and the following window will open:
Out Path: this is the location where the patched ROM file will be copied.
Language: choose between Chinese or English, leave it as English.
On the right side of the Game Default Set table are the game settings.
Saver Patch: allows you to save games on the cartridge. Here is an explanation of this process, but
it's also in English: «it also supports normal saves, not sure what that means". There is a
single SRAM chip on the cartridge that is the same as used by the majority of genuine game
cartridges for battery-backed save. Most versions of SuperCard have a battery to maintain the save
in the same manner, but because they are intended to run more than one game (you add a bunch of ROM
files on your SD-Card), the SRAM gets cleared every time you start a game - it's actually
reintialised with a file from from SD-Card. After you modify the data in SRAM by saving your
progress in-game, you also have to use the hotkey menu for "normal save" to copy the contents of
SRAM to a file on SD-Card. Which is to say of course extremely stupid - instead they should have
used a tag file». In simpler terms, every time you save in the game, you need to press a special
key combination to finally write this save to the memory card, and not leave it on the SRAM chip, which will be reset when you start another game.
Enable Restart: this option allows you to exit the game without constantly restarting the console.
Enable Add Cheat: enables cheat codes.
Enable Compress: can compress games by up to 50%. However, this feature is disabled by default, as it may somehow affect the game. Considering that 2 gigabytes is a lot, there is no point in enabling this feature.
Enable RTS: (RTS - Real Time Save) allows you to enable the real-time save function using a specific key combination (this will be discussed later).
The default settings are shown in my screenshot (see above).
ADD button, and then changed something in the settings (Options), you need to
remove the game from the program and add it again using ADD.Supercard Patch Fail and Why Patching is Needed
First, let's understand why patching is needed.
There is a concept called Wait State – this is the delay experienced by the processor when accessing external memory or another device that responds slowly.
In our case, there is fast memory access and slow memory access. Nintendo started producing cartridges on slow memory (slow ROM - read-only memory), which required a delay to read the data. Later, Nintendo started producing all games on fast memory (fast ROM). The GBA can work with both modes. The cartridge is already configured with WaitState Control, but ROM images of the game, which are pirated from cartridges, copy this WaitState control state.
Now let's return to our Supercard flash cartridge. The Supercard cartridge is implemented on slow ROM memory, and most later games (which we copied from "fast" cartridges) will not run on it without modification. Usually, you just get a white screen.
This is why game patching is needed.
You can read about WaitState here: GbaSystemControl
Sometimes, Supercard writes that Patch "Fail", but the game still runs fine. This happens because there is no need to modify the game, it is already adapted to work with slow memory.
On the other hand, such an error can occur if you run the program without administrator mode.
Problems with Patching
Some problems that may occur when using the software:
1. You need to run this program as an administrator.
2. The Saver Patch, Enable Restart, and other settings can break the game,
so if the game does not start - try disabling these settings one by one to identify the one that is causing the issue.
3. For some games, you need to use the gbata7a-en program and use the SRAM patcher (only this and nothing else!) and then use the software (the one mentioned above).
Is the Game Lagging?
A person with the nickname Bubble2k on the internet created a patch that slightly improves WaitState Control.
To use this patch, you need to download this program: Prefetchpatcher.rar
After that, open the game patching program (the one from the "How to Write Games?" section of this
guide), add your game, right-click on it, and press the Properties button, then
activate Enable Save and Enable saver Patch (strictly only these). As shown
in the picture:
Press Ok and then Out.
Next, drag the game file (obtained from the above manipulations) onto the Prefetchpatcher.exe file. A black command prompt window will flash quickly and disappear. That's it, your game is ready, you can write it to the memory card and play.
If you have doubts about whether the patch worked or not, check the size of the game before and after the patch, it should change slightly.
Before the patch:
And after the patch:
Can I Exit the Game Without Restarting the Console?
Yes! You need to press 
+ 
and 
+ 
simultaneously.
Can I Run Anything Besides Gameboy Advance Games?
The SuperCard cartridge BIOS has many built-in emulators that directly (without installing emulators) support games from different platforms: NES games (with the .nes ROM file extension), Gameboy games (with the .gb ROM file extension), Gameboy Color games (with the .gbc ROM file extension), PC Engine/Turbo Grafx-16 games (with the .PCE ROM file extension), Sega Master System games (with the .SMS ROM file extension), and Game Gear games (with the .gg ROM file extension).
If you encounter any problems, try placing the games in folders with the corresponding names: .nes games in the nes folder, .sms games in the sms folder, and so on.
How to Save in the Game?
This is a rather complex issue. Let's conditionally divide all saves into four types:
1. Real Time Save. You can save at any time and in any place. Press + + + 
and a menu will appear,
asking if you want to save the game? Press YES and the game is saved. To load the game, press the same button combination and select LOAD.
2. 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), some Pokemon only evolve if you get the Pokemon through a trade with another player. That is, to evolve a Pokemon, you will need to either find a colleague with the same setup or buy a cable and download your save. Then, on the computer, using a GBA emulator, you need to run two of your saves in parallel and connect them through the Emulator (a special function in the Emulator - as if you were playing over a network) to trade Pokemon. Also, the save file may be needed for backup and other reasons.
To make a "Normal save," you need to do the following: when you pass a checkpoint in the game (where the game automatically saves) or a save point, or you press the save button yourself (if
the game supports saving), you need to immediately press the following key combination + + + 
and a window will appear, in
which you need to confirm the save. Then your game will be written from the SRAM chip to the memory card.
3. What to Do If Normal Save and RTS Are Not Supported by the Game?
In this case, when you pass a checkpoint in the game (where the game automatically saves) or
a save point, or you press the save button yourself (if the game supports saving), you need to immediately
turn off the console. Turn it back on and press right (the Saver tab on the cartridge), find the .sav file for
the game and press the button. A message will appear: Do you save to SD? Press again.
4. How to Save in Games Running in an Emulator?
Emulators support the save function, but to make it work properly, you will have to tinker.
First, we need to create a .sav file for the game. To do this, take any .sav file from a GBA game that we created using the software above and rename it to the same name as the game. For example, if the game is called tetris.nes, we rename the save file as tetris.sav.
After that, write this file to the memory card in the same folder where the game ROM is located.
Then, open the emulator menu (either by pressing + , or in
some cases, the button) and press the
save button (this can be different buttons: Save, Save State, Save Menu, or something similar). After the game writes that it has saved, press + +
+
and save the game as if it were a Normal Save.
The game is now saved.
What About Movies? Can I Watch Movies or Listen to Music?
Yes, but it's not that simple. First, you need special software. Previously, it could be downloaded from the official SuperCard website, but now that site is gone. Second, you need to convert videos and music into a special GBM and GBS format, respectively, to play them. The converters were also stored on the SuperCard website, which is no longer working (to be fair, the converters from that site worked poorly).
But the internet is a great thing, and it has preserved both the software and the converters to this day (although long videos won't work, short clips are better, and music isn't great either, but it's better than nothing).
So, the software (You don't need to patch it, just write it to the memory card and that's it.): FilmPlay.gba.zip
Converter (installer file, works on Windows 10 for me): GBAMEDIA-eng.zip
And three demo files (containing video + music) to try out:
DEMO1.zip
DEMO2.zip
DEMO3.zip
How to Update the Supercard Cartridge Firmware?
Before reading further, please read this article about all the consequences of flashing!!! You must fully understand all the consequences of your actions!
Actually, if you bought the cartridge from China (the version with the Micro SD memory card), you probably don't need to flash it, as it will most likely already be on version 1.85, but you should check this.
To check or update to the latest version (1.85), you need to download the firmware file and write it
to the memory card (in the root directory of the memory card!). You can download the file here: sd_v185.rar
After that, insert the Supercard cartridge into the Game Boy Advance and turn on the console.
The start menu will appear, and you will see this image:
The file sd_185.bin is the firmware file. Launch it by pressing the button, and a menu will appear, where
it will show the old firmware (OLD) and the one you want to install (NOW).
If they match, you don't need to install anything, but if they don't, you can update.
