Fix your broken Pokemon FireRed/Leaf Green saves here!

Squall-Leonhart · November 15th, 2008, 15:39

This is a guide on how to recover Pokemon saves made using the wrong save settings (i.e. Flash 64K instead of Flash 128K). At this moment, I cannot fully guarantee that it will work under all circumstances, but chances are that the following procedure will produce viable results.

Required files

A save state that was made using the Flash 64K save type
An unpatched version of the rom of the game used to create the save state above (note that you may need to re-dump if you patched your existing rom)
A copy of VisualBoyAdvance

Instructions

Create a new folder somewhere on your hard drive
Copy the save state, the rom, and the emulator into the new folder you created in step 1. NO OTHER FILES SHOULD BE IN THAT FOLDER
Open the emulator, but do not load the rom. DO NOT CHANGE ANY SAVE SETTINGS
If you are playing Ruby, Sapphire, or Emerald, you should turn on the Real Time Clock by going to Options -> Emulator -> Real Time Clock
Load the rom. You may get a white screen - that is normal behavior, so proceed to the next step
Load the save state by going to File -> Load... and selecting the save state (it should show up on the screen without requiring you to change directories)
Your saved game should be loaded. Then change the save type by going to Options -> Emulator -> Save Type -> Flash 128K
Use the in-game save (i.e. press Enter to open the in-game menu and choose Save)
After going through the entire saving process, close the emulator. If you look in the new folder you created in step 1, you should see a 128KB save file corresponding to your rom.
Create another new folder within the folder you made in step 1
Copy the emulator and the rom into the folder you created in step 9. DO NOT COPY ANY OF THE OTHER FILES
Open the copy of the emulator you copied in the last step (i.e. in the newest folder). Do not load the rom
Change the save type to Flash 128K by going to Options -> Emulator -> Save Type -> Flash 128K
If you are playing Ruby, Sapphire, or Emerald, you should turn on the Real Time Clock by going to Options -> Emulator -> Real Time Clock
Load the copy of the rom found in the newest folder you made - it should be the one that shows up automatically on the screen
There should be NO white screen. Now go to File -> Import -> Battery File... Click on the icon with the folder and an upward-pointing arrow (i.e. go to the folder you created in step 1). Load the 128KB save that was created in step 8. At the confirmation screen, click "Yes"
After the initial intro screen, you should get an error message like "The save file is corrupted. The previous save file will be load." That is correct behavior, so proceed to the next step
Choose to continue with the existing save file
Now use the in-game save again (i.e. press Enter to open the in-game menu and choose Save)
Reset the emulator (File -> Reset)
When the rom loads again, there should be no error message pertaining to the save. If you close the emulator, you will find a 128KB save file corresponding to the rom in the newest folder you made (in step 9). Delete all the files in the folder you made in step 1 so that you don't confuse them with the good saves (don't delete the folder you made in step 9 of course).
Continue playing using the in-game save that was generated in steps 19-22. You may want to make a save state immediately just in case

There seems to be some issues with Fire Red saves that makes them impossible to recover. Recovery with Leaf Green saves seems to be possible. However, if you have a Leaf Green rom it is possible to fix the firered save using these instructions, with the Leaf Green rom.

Note, i ripped this guide from another site, and i don't care if the punk cuts a **** about it, i edited out all his lamer illegal bs and made it ngemu friendly.

Last edited by Squall-Leonhart; December 31st, 2008 at 05:14..

Kwyjibo_90 · January 11th, 2009, 21:55

Was wondering if theres a solution for Firered saved states yet. I've tried doing it with Leaf Green's rom, but it says it cant open Fire Red's saved states.

Last edited by Kwyjibo_90; January 11th, 2009 at 22:43..

Kwyjibo_90 · January 11th, 2009, 23:40

If someone's bored enough to fix it for me, its greatly appreciated. Here's the saved state.

Last edited by Prafull; January 12th, 2009 at 09:18..

Squall-Leonhart · January 12th, 2009, 06:29

Firered can;t be fixed, i've found it can't generate the battery.

No fret, i'll talk to the vba-m devs and see if a battery injector can be made for vba-m which will inject a working battery into the state.

Kwyjibo_90 · January 12th, 2009, 14:04

That would be great. Thanks for the answer.

n00bz0r · April 1st, 2009, 23:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by Squall-Leonhart

However, if you have a Leaf Green rom it is possible to fix the firered save using these instructions, with the Leaf Green rom.

Could you explain how, please?

jimmyrose · March 29th, 2010, 14:35

I have the same problem as everyone else.I have a fire red rom and after beating the elite four i can't continue because i can't save the game in the game.i followed the steps but when i got to step 8 i couldn't save the game and i got this error about my Battery i ignored it at first because i saw a SAV file created and continued following the steps untill i got to step 16 where i couldn't load the SAV file.I am new at this so can sb help me??you also mentioned there is a way to fix it using leaf green rom can you be more specific??

afreakinwookie · March 29th, 2010, 18:57

when i try to save my game in leaf green it says that the 1m sub circuit board is not installed. what do i need to do to fix this?

Kyou Kitsune · March 30th, 2010, 08:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by afreakinwookie

when i try to save my game in leaf green it says that the 1m sub circuit board is not installed. what do i need to do to fix this?

means you have to switch the save file to 128k flash. Close out VBA-M then delete your battery file then restart VBA-M and switch the battery file type to 128k flash and then reload the game. Have to switch it back auto detect when you play something else or it will corrupt other games. YOU MUST EXIT VBA-M OR IT WILL NOT WORK.

I found out something interesting about POKéMON battery files. They are compatible between versions Fire Red/Leaf Green and i think Ruby Sapphire and Emerald. If you change the battery file to the name like if you're playing Fire Red and you with to catch Leaf Green specific POKéMON change the battery file name to Leaf Green or whatever name you have your Leaf Green ROM named as. Load up Leaf Green Catch your POKéMON then save your game to the battery file. Exit the game then rename your battery file back to Fire Red or Leaf green whatever your playing and it will be on your list of POKéMON you have currently in your possession. I hope this helps some people might actually be a way to fix broken battery files too.

Xcelcio · April 1st, 2010, 09:46

Care to elaborate?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Squall-Leonhart

However, if you have a Leaf Green rom it is possible to fix the firered save using these instructions, with the Leaf Green rom.

----------------------------------

Or is there any update on this?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Squall-Leonhart

No fret, i'll talk to the vba-m devs and see if a battery injector can be made for vba-m which will inject a working battery into the state.

Many thanks.

majom · April 8th, 2010, 11:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by Squall-Leonhart

...
No fret, i'll talk to the vba-m devs and see if a battery injector can be made for vba-m which will inject a working battery into the state.

I made a battery injector, injected a proper save into a savestate (the injected save loads after resetting the rom), but it's still no good.

ninmario4life · April 12th, 2010, 05:34

now i have not had a save file from before and i am playing these games fresh with no prior save now i have pokemon fire red and leaf green and i am having the same problems i cannot save correctly i also have pokemon emerald and when i load the game i just get a white screen and its stuck at that.is there any solution to save normally so i can play after the elite 4 and can the devs fix this in the next release?

ninmario4life · April 12th, 2010, 21:00

I found this ''I mean, the save size for pokemon games is 128kbit, whereas most GBA games only use up to 64kbit. To get pokemon working, you will have to make a blank 128kbit file and rename it "Pokemon Emerald.sav" or whatever your rom name is. To create a blank 128kbit save file easily, just go into MS DOS and type something like this: copy /B "sav1.sav"+"sav2.sav" "128kbit.sav" where sav1.sav and sav2.sav represent any 64kbit saves you happen to have. they can have data in them already, it doesn't really matter. the output will be 128kbit.sav, a save that is... 128kbit. rename that to Pokemon Emerald.sav (or whatever your rom is named.) and put it in the VBA GX saves folder. Pokemon Emerald should then work just fine'' now i dont understand how to make a blank sav file thru ms dos.

Ammanurt · May 9th, 2011, 00:37

Woo, I know I'm necroing this thread, but..I can't find anything else I've found to work. Please help.

I've spent 15 hours playing Pokemon - Fire Red and would hate to have to restart the entire game again. Same problem; can't save ingame. It works just fine if I start a new game since I've already worked my way through the steps in this guide. Is there any way to fix the savefile?

Quote:

There seems to be some issues with Fire Red saves that makes them impossible to recover. Recovery with Leaf Green saves seems to be possible. However, if you have a Leaf Green rom it is possible to fix the firered save using these instructions, with the Leaf Green rom.

Reading that made me smile, only to cry again after seeing how old this post was and, while reading on, noticing that it didn't actually work. Is there ANY way to save my save?

Failing that, is there a way to create a new game and use cheats or something else to get the exact (or more or less exact :P ) same pokemon (and progress, badges, positing on the map etc.)?

__________________
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Conroe e6400
1 gb ram Kingston
7900GT

And my other pc:

AMD Athlon 64 3000+
nvidia 7600GT
1 gb ram

disturbed9191 · May 5th, 2012, 21:16

so i just got the move cut from the ss anne on firered and whenever i go into the tm case, i get the black screen and have to reload my game, so i cant get anything done. plz reply how to fix this

November 15th, 2008, 15:39	#1
Squall-Leonhart Banned Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 23,270	Fix your broken Pokemon FireRed/Leaf Green saves here! This is a guide on how to recover Pokemon saves made using the wrong save settings (i.e. Flash 64K instead of Flash 128K). At this moment, I cannot fully guarantee that it will work under all circumstances, but chances are that the following procedure will produce viable results. Required files A save state that was made using the Flash 64K save type An unpatched version of the rom of the game used to create the save state above (note that you may need to re-dump if you patched your existing rom) A copy of VisualBoyAdvance Instructions Create a new folder somewhere on your hard drive Copy the save state, the rom, and the emulator into the new folder you created in step 1. NO OTHER FILES SHOULD BE IN THAT FOLDER Open the emulator, but do not load the rom. DO NOT CHANGE ANY SAVE SETTINGS If you are playing Ruby, Sapphire, or Emerald, you should turn on the Real Time Clock by going to Options -> Emulator -> Real Time Clock Load the rom. You may get a white screen - that is normal behavior, so proceed to the next step Load the save state by going to File -> Load... and selecting the save state (it should show up on the screen without requiring you to change directories) Your saved game should be loaded. Then change the save type by going to Options -> Emulator -> Save Type -> Flash 128K Use the in-game save (i.e. press Enter to open the in-game menu and choose Save) After going through the entire saving process, close the emulator. If you look in the new folder you created in step 1, you should see a 128KB save file corresponding to your rom. Create another new folder within the folder you made in step 1 Copy the emulator and the rom into the folder you created in step 9. DO NOT COPY ANY OF THE OTHER FILES Open the copy of the emulator you copied in the last step (i.e. in the newest folder). Do not load the rom Change the save type to Flash 128K by going to Options -> Emulator -> Save Type -> Flash 128K If you are playing Ruby, Sapphire, or Emerald, you should turn on the Real Time Clock by going to Options -> Emulator -> Real Time Clock Load the copy of the rom found in the newest folder you made - it should be the one that shows up automatically on the screen There should be NO white screen. Now go to File -> Import -> Battery File... Click on the icon with the folder and an upward-pointing arrow (i.e. go to the folder you created in step 1). Load the 128KB save that was created in step 8. At the confirmation screen, click "Yes" After the initial intro screen, you should get an error message like "The save file is corrupted. The previous save file will be load." That is correct behavior, so proceed to the next step Choose to continue with the existing save file Now use the in-game save again (i.e. press Enter to open the in-game menu and choose Save) Reset the emulator (File -> Reset) When the rom loads again, there should be no error message pertaining to the save. If you close the emulator, you will find a 128KB save file corresponding to the rom in the newest folder you made (in step 9). Delete all the files in the folder you made in step 1 so that you don't confuse them with the good saves (don't delete the folder you made in step 9 of course). Continue playing using the in-game save that was generated in steps 19-22. You may want to make a save state immediately just in case There seems to be some issues with Fire Red saves that makes them impossible to recover. Recovery with Leaf Green saves seems to be possible. However, if you have a Leaf Green rom it is possible to fix the firered save using these instructions, with the Leaf Green rom. Note, i ripped this guide from another site, and i don't care if the punk cuts a **** about it, i edited out all his lamer illegal bs and made it ngemu friendly. Last edited by Squall-Leonhart; December 31st, 2008 at 05:14..

March 29th, 2010, 18:57	#8
afreakinwookie Registered User Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: michigan Posts: 1	so... when i try to save my game in leaf green it says that the 1m sub circuit board is not installed. what do i need to do to fix this?

May 5th, 2012, 21:16	#15
disturbed9191 Registered User Join Date: May 2012 Location: michigan Posts: 1	black screen so i just got the move cut from the ss anne on firered and whenever i go into the tm case, i get the black screen and have to reload my game, so i cant get anything done. plz reply how to fix this

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January 11th, 2009, 21:55	#2
Kwyjibo_90 Registered User Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Arg Posts: 7	Was wondering if theres a solution for Firered saved states yet. I've tried doing it with Leaf Green's rom, but it says it cant open Fire Red's saved states. Last edited by Kwyjibo_90; January 11th, 2009 at 22:43..

January 11th, 2009, 23:40	#3
Kwyjibo_90 Registered User Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Arg Posts: 7	If someone's bored enough to fix it for me, its greatly appreciated. Here's the saved state. Last edited by Prafull; January 12th, 2009 at 09:18..

January 12th, 2009, 06:29	#4
Squall-Leonhart Banned Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 23,270	Firered can;t be fixed, i've found it can't generate the battery. No fret, i'll talk to the vba-m devs and see if a battery injector can be made for vba-m which will inject a working battery into the state.

January 12th, 2009, 14:04	#5
Kwyjibo_90 Registered User Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Arg Posts: 7	That would be great. Thanks for the answer.

March 29th, 2010, 14:35	#7
jimmyrose Registered User Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Paradisecity Posts: 2	I have the same problem as everyone else.I have a fire red rom and after beating the elite four i can't continue because i can't save the game in the game.i followed the steps but when i got to step 8 i couldn't save the game and i got this error about my Battery i ignored it at first because i saw a SAV file created and continued following the steps untill i got to step 16 where i couldn't load the SAV file.I am new at this so can sb help me??you also mentioned there is a way to fix it using leaf green rom can you be more specific??

April 12th, 2010, 05:34	#12
ninmario4life Registered User Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: USA Posts: 28	now i have not had a save file from before and i am playing these games fresh with no prior save now i have pokemon fire red and leaf green and i am having the same problems i cannot save correctly i also have pokemon emerald and when i load the game i just get a white screen and its stuck at that.is there any solution to save normally so i can play after the elite 4 and can the devs fix this in the next release?

April 12th, 2010, 21:00	#13
ninmario4life Registered User Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: USA Posts: 28	I found this ''I mean, the save size for pokemon games is 128kbit, whereas most GBA games only use up to 64kbit. To get pokemon working, you will have to make a blank 128kbit file and rename it "Pokemon Emerald.sav" or whatever your rom name is. To create a blank 128kbit save file easily, just go into MS DOS and type something like this: copy /B "sav1.sav"+"sav2.sav" "128kbit.sav" where sav1.sav and sav2.sav represent any 64kbit saves you happen to have. they can have data in them already, it doesn't really matter. the output will be 128kbit.sav, a save that is... 128kbit. rename that to Pokemon Emerald.sav (or whatever your rom is named.) and put it in the VBA GX saves folder. Pokemon Emerald should then work just fine'' now i dont understand how to make a blank sav file thru ms dos.