A problem with my NES Game Action Replay...

[endingman]

It has amnesia! That's right, I read the forums scattered around about how the battery, upon expiration, will cause the volatile sram to be erased. This is all fine and good but I kinda like having this rare cart around *and* I kinda like using it since I snatched it up workin at Funcoland about 8 years ago.

I could acquire a copynes soon (to re-flash the cart), but I wanted to at least the knowledge pool in this forum the following risky question: Does anyone have a game action replay with which I could dump the rom and reflash my cart? Or even if they have the rom itself?

Yes, yes, I know I can't really ask for the rom. However, for the purposes of preservation and future inquiries on this forum, I would like to get it working. Any thoughts? I'd appreciate your input.

[Blitzwing256]

rom requests are bad, but the action replay was succesfully dumped (NOT an easy process) if you look around you should find it fairly easily.

[endingman]

Oh no, don't assume I was sniffing around for a request. Please know that my intent was pure, not lame. It wasn't so much that I wanted a rom request for emulation purposes. It seems ridiculous to me to mount a binary save-state cart, when that capability exists in most emulators.

Rather, I was intending to find a local (NJ) person who might also have a working cart and, with fair use on my mind, somehow do a cart to cart transfer or whatever. So, you say a rom is floating around? Good. But, know that I was seeking an alternative to "hey dudez u have romz plz?"

OK, now I look like a toolbag after my post. The cart now works. :oops:
I messed around with the cart for like 30 minutes with a dozen games. It would always boot to a static blue; no game would even pass through. However, on Hudson/Capcom's Mickey Mousecapade, the game worked.

Huh? All these games were thoroughly cleaned, nothing to really interfere with the GAR's lockout chip bypass. Whatever, this worked, and I pulled up the GAR menu which seemed OK in the usual non-intuitive fashion. So, it works, but it's a more finicky bastard than I remember.

The *new* question is: Is there a method to exchange batteries without cutting power to the chip? As you can tell now, I'm trying to avoid the copyNES route because it *is* technically working. Let me know if you guys have any info on this. Thanks.

[Blitzwing256]

if you're very quick about switching the battery is it possible (the sram will stay saved for a short amount of time) but its a risky gamble.

I swapped the battery out of my ultima exodus game fast enough where i didn't lose the save. but i've never tried it with a Gar so try at your own risk.

[endingman]

Thank you. I'll proceed with caution.

[rbudrick]

Iirc, the ROM in question is included with the CopyNES software, which is a free download.

The good news is, it is quite obvious you own an original copy of this item, so I think this request is rather innocent and falls under fair use. That, and the GAR was made by a shadow company of Bung, so they are definitely not going to come knocking on your door.

-Rob