A recent HDD crash has made me re-write Joey's firmware from scratch, again. During the re-write I was thinking of the best way to support OSX, Linux, Windows on both GB and GBA carts. The solution, the Gen3 Reader Writer (Name TBA). I'm about 6hrs into the firmware + software of Gen3. What I can say for now is that Gen3 firmware will run on Gen2 hardware and the PC side software is coded in Python 3. To get the GBA functionality it is strongly recommended you use the dedicated Gen3 hardware which will have onboard 3.3/5v logic switching.
For the programmers, all data is handled via Bulk In and Out endpoints. A driver is included for Windows. OSX and Linux will not require one. The protocol will be fully documented and open source. The Python scripts will also be freely available. I don't intend on releasing the firmware source though I am open to any and all feature requests.
This new software will add support for the rare GB/C MBC's (certain Japanese games, FF series etc) as well as generic MBC's. Support for modifying a carts RTC will be there, SRAM, EEPROM, GBCamera, re-writing a vast number of flash carts including EMS32,64 and BennVenn carts. All the complex stuff will be handled on the PC end giving the Gen3 the absolute widest compatibility with all known carts.
So that's what's new!
“Gen3 firmware will run on Gen2 hardware” Where can I download the Gen3 firmware? And how do I install this on Gen2 hardware?
Hi,
I got my reader/writer today and it works fine on win7 (after some trial and error), but on win8.1 the drivers won’t install. Just thought I’d let you know in case it was unknown if it would work with win8.1, since there’s no mention anywhere if it being incompatible.
Good thing I have a win7 notebook so I can have some fun with my new toy already :)
Yes, it can dump GBA SRAM, and re-write GBA SRAM. It can also dump GBA FlashRAM , I’ll add FlashRAM Writing in the next release.
When will the Gen3 be able to dump SRAM of GBA carts? Or does it do this already?
Yes, It will support Generic flash carts like that. Depending on the flash IC you use, it will work right away, Or you may need to add the chip erase and byte write instruction into the source.
I build about 10 a week and they sell almost right away. Send me an email if you want an alert as they are listed.