MiSTer FPGA Forum

Hello dear MiSTer community!

First of all a big THANK YOU to Robert Peip for creating the incredible N64 core!

I have a question regarding save files.

I have backups of my original hardware N64 save files which I dumped using the Retrode2 cartridge adaptor.
All EEP saves work within the N64 core after renaming them to the corresponding rom file name

However I can not get my SRA save files (i.e. F-Zero X) and FLA save files (i.e. Paper Mario) to work I don't have any clue. Is there something to replace in the save file using a hex editor in example?

BTW, I managed to get my original controller pak save files to work too in case someone wants to know or needs some advice. I dumped my original controller pak by using the Hyperkin Admiral controller dongle. It creates a MPK save file by the press of a button. The MPK file contains everything stored on the dumped controller pak. You then have to rename that file to the corresponding game rom name, add 'underscore 1' and change the file extension from mpk to cpk (Example: Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon (Europe)_1.cpk). That's it

Best regards
Gadget

Gadget wrote: ↑Sun Apr 07, 2024 4:32 pm

Hello dear MiSTer community!

First of all a big THANK YOU to Robert Peip for creating the incredible N64 core!

I have a question regarding save files.

I have backups of my original hardware N64 save files which I dumped using the Retrode2 cartridge adaptor.
All EEP saves work within the N64 core after renaming them to the corresponding rom file name

However I can not get my SRA save files (i.e. F-Zero X) and FLA save files (i.e. Paper Mario) to work I don't have any clue. Is there something to replace in the save file using a hex editor in example?

BTW, I managed to get my original controller pak save files to work too in case someone wants to know or needs some advice. I dumped my original controller pak by using the Hyperkin Admiral controller dongle. It creates a MPK save file by the press of a button. The MPK file contains everything stored on the dumped controller pak. You then have to rename that file to the corresponding game rom name, add 'underscore 1' and change the file extension from mpk to cpk (Example: Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon (Europe)_1.cpk). That's it

Best regards
Gadget

Ha, had the same Question.

I can confirm that you can just rename those Files to .sav and they work instantly.

I would really like to get Pokemon Stadium 1 & 2 working.

Edit:
Ok i did it! You need a Program called ED64-Saveswap , i used it back then to get the Save Files i ripped with the Retrode2 working with Project 64 and it seems that Mister also needs a Swap

https://krikzz.com/forum/index.php?topic=1396.0

Thank you very much with the Advice of the MPK Files, does this also work if you generate MPK Files on the Everdrive and export them in that Way?

Azuris wrote: ↑Sun Apr 07, 2024 8:03 pm

I can confirm that you can just rename those Files to .sav and they work instantly.

Renaming original sra-files and fla-files so '.sav' did not work for the N64 core unfortunately. It seems to expect the .sra and -fla file extensions.

Azuris wrote: ↑Sun Apr 07, 2024 8:03 pm

Ok i did it! You need a Program called ED64-Saveswap , i used it back then to get the Save Files i ripped with the Retrode2 working with Project 64 and it seems that Mister also needs a Swap

I downloaded ED64-Saveswap but that did't work either. It would always state an error massage that 'there was a problem reading my save files'.

However, I found a different solution how to convert Retrode2 sram-dumps and flash-dumps for MiSTer
I used the save file converter by Euan Forrester (https://savefileconverter.com). There I converted my files as "Emulator/RAW" saves files to use as "Flash cartridge" save files. The resulting sra-files and fla-files were recognized by the N64 core

PROBLEM SOLVED !

Azuris wrote: ↑Sun Apr 07, 2024 8:03 pm

Thank you very much with the Advice of the MPK Files, does this also work if you generate MPK Files on the Everdrive and export them in that Way?

You're welcome. Honestly I don't know since I don't own a N64 Everdrive. I would say give it a try.

Azuris wrote: ↑Sun Apr 07, 2024 8:03 pm

However, I found a different solution how to convert Retrode2 sram-dumps and flash-dumps for MiSTer
I used the save file converter by Euan Forrester (https://savefileconverter.com). There I converted my files as "Emulator/RAW" saves files to use as "Flash cartridge" save files. The resulting sra-files and fla-files were recognized by the N64 core

I had a similar problem using a Paper Mario cartridge fla save dump (from a Open Source Cartridge Reader/sanni-cartreader). Converting from "Emulator/RAW" to "Flash Cartridge" save did the trick. Thanks for helping me solve this!

EDIT: Just a quick followup, you can do the same in reverse. I took my MiSTer N64 save and did "Flash cartridge => Emulator/Raw", and was able to write it back to a real N64 cartridge.

EDIT (again): I wanted to be able to convert these on commandline, and found this simple utility that compiles easily under Linux.

https://github.com/DarkMatterCore/sbn64

gcc sbn64.c -o sbn64

To convert from a MiSTer save format (pj64) to native raw cartridge format (wii64), only tested with Majora's Mask:

# ./sbn64 -i mister-save.fla -o cartridge-save.fla -s pj64 -d wii64