Having trouble dumping saves of any Flash and SRAM save type N64 games

[KayodeBakker]

Hello,

I recently bought a V3 reader from save the hero builders and I've been in the process of dumping all my old Nintendo cartridges and I'm stuck on a specific few of the N64 cartridges. All problems seem to be with N64 games that use SRAM or Flash for save game storage. The games specifically are:

• Super Smash Bros.
• Pokemon Stadium
• Pokémon Stadium 2
• Pokémon Snap
• The Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time
• The Legend of Zelda - Majora's Mask

The reader I bought has the SNES SA-1 unlock & N64 EEPROM save + RTC options included which seems to work as I have managed to dump other N64 games including EEPROM saves. The games mentioned above are the only games where the saves not what I expect. The roms, however dump just fine.
What do I mean with 'what I expect'? Well the reader doesn't give me any errors and seem to create save files on the MicroSD card except when trying to use these saves via emulators such as Mupen64++ or Project64, I notice that the saves are considered to be freshly made as no data is to be found.

As for the switch settings:

• Volt set to 3V
• EEP set to right (on)
• CLK0 set to left (off)
• CLK1 set to right (on)

I'm unsure what is happening and especially since the game roms are being dumped and are usable AND other games (such as EEPROM type ones) have functional saves.

I first asked this question at the retailer but they mentioned that since the roms are being dumped just fine, that I should check here.
Can someone help me with this by any chance?

[sanni]

Have you tried this? #593

As an alternative you can also use any hex editor. Just create a savegame with the emulator open it up in the hex editor and compare it to the save you dumped from the cartridge, then byte/word swap the cart save around until it matches the emu save.

This could also work: https://savefileconverter.com/#/flash-carts

[KayodeBakker]

I have tried #593 and also the link you posted but neither seem to do the trick.
I honestly don't know where to start with a hex editor so I'm unsure what to do.

[KayodeBakker]

@sanni
I also tried using this https://game-tools-collection.com/super-smash-bros-n64/save-editor and it thinks that the dumped save isn't valid.

[sanni]

Can you put your saves into a zip file and upload them here? Then I convert them for emulator and document it for the Wiki.

[KayodeBakker]

N64 saves SRAM+FLASH.zip
I've added Pokémon 2, Pokémon Snap, Ocarina of Time and Super Smash Bros. in a zip. After your first comment I went back and did all the saves via those tools you mentioned and only Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask seem to work after converting. The rest however didn't change. The saves in this zip is exactly as the reader I have delivered it.

[KayodeBakker]

I'd like to add that I noticed that save the hero builders supplies this reader with a V13.1 sanni release. Would upgrading matter in any way?

[KayodeBakker]

@sanni No rush of course but do you have any inkling what's the issue?

[KayodeBakker]

@sanni
So I can close the discussion here, could you explain the logic behind this solution for me?

[sanni]

After changing the OSCRs read timings a bit the SRAM on my cartridge now dumps consistently even without tricks.
So I would guess the previous timings had a high chance to "confuse" the SRAM which resulted in bad dumps. Playing the cart in a real console probably just "reset" everything back to normal. Waiting until all the capacitors inside the cartridge have drained would probably have the same effect of "resetting" it.

[KayodeBakker]

Interesting! Is there something I need to update in the reader?

[sanni]

I have put together a new release here.
If you want you can update to that and see if this fixes reading SRAM/Flashram saves for you. If not then I will have to go over the code again. 😄

[KayodeBakker]

I'll have to see how to do that, but I will try that today or tomorrow!