Have any of the Sintax GBA games been dumped?

[MonstersInc]

I was wondering; Have any of the GBA Sintax games been dumped? I know that Digimon Adventure is available, but I'm looking for the others. I read up somewhere that it has a heavy amount of protection, but the weird part is; How did Digimon get dumped, then? Or did they not put any copy protection on this game?

[RVVD4029]

Monstersinc For digimon adventure do you mean both vast fame and sintax versions. For the sintax version. Someone was probably selling it somewhere else. But then the person got someone to open up the cartridge and extract the rom from it. For the vast fame version. Someone was probably selling the rom of it. And someone just brought the rom off the person. I think the rest of the vast fame roms are dumped already. Just that someone is selling it somewhere else. And it is up to someone to buy the roms off the person. For the sintax games the person selling the cartridge for all of them probably wants to get someone to open up the cartridge and extract the rom off it.

[MonstersInc]

I am meaning the Sintax version that was ported from SNES to GBA. AKA the one that uses the same engine as that Rayman IV, Crash Advance IV, etc... Not the one by Vast Fame. I am just a bit confused as to why the Digimon game has no protection applied, but the others do.

[Azathoth]

MonstersInc

Apr 12 2015, 06:15:50 PM

How did Digimon get dumped, then? Or did they not put any copy protection on this game?[/quote]Original printing of the games by the publisher have copy protection measures in place. Carts that exist where you can just dump & play the ROM are counterfeit/pirate carts from cracked ROM images mass produced in a factory.

Because the ROM is already cracked/patched prior to being manufactured, no patching is necessary to get it to work when dumped.

[MonstersInc]

Ah. So, at some point, somebody did crack the protection?

[RVVD4029]

Monstersinc not really i think he means that while the rom image is cracked. It does not mean that all bugs have been removed. It just means the rom can finally start up. And also monsterinc he does not mean the hacks of the same game for example rayman iv can be dumped. It just means that while you can attempt to open the cartridge to dump the hacks of the same game it does not mean that the rom will work properly.

[MonstersInc]

Oh, darn. I wonder why the heck Sintax put protection on these games? It is odd that these companies put more protection on their "games" than actual companies do. I really wish the ROM's for all of the Sintax GBA platformers will surface on the internet some day, because I'd love to have a chance to play them.

[taizou]

yeah unfortunately Sintax GBA games are pretty heavily protected, I've never even seen a generic reprint of any of them (Digimon Adventure came through other sources, apparently). I have Lord of the Rings IV and none of my dumping hardware can read it at all - it won't even play on a DS.

MonstersInc

Apr 14 2015, 09:19:36 PM

Oh, darn. I wonder why the heck Sintax put protection on these games? It is odd that these companies put more protection on their "games" than actual companies do.[/quote]Because they were operating in markets where piracy was the norm, and copy protection was their only defence against it. If they released their games unprotected, they would have been ripped off by 100 other companies as soon as they hit the shelves.

[MonstersInc]

Oh, so in other words, they put all that protection on there so other companies couldn't claim them as their own? I hope some day I can own a Sintax GBA game, since I find them to be fascinating.

[taizou]

Well, not even to stop them claiming them as their own (I doubt most GBA pirate cart manufacturers at the time were putting their name on anything) - just to stop them selling copies without any money going to Sintax.

Every licensed GBA game got pirated instantly, Nintendo just didn't care so much (their focus was mostly on Japan, North America, Western Europe etc - places where pirate carts rarely surfaced and Nintendo could easily sue if they did) - but Sintax were competing with the pirates in the same markets, so if the same thing happened to them they'd be kinda screwed. and Sintax couldn't exactly take other companies to court over games that infringed a ton of copyrights already, so they had to protect their stuff through technical means.

[MonstersInc]

That does make sense, actually. I just wish the protection wasn't as extreme as it is. I mean, I will be 100% honest; I think they will never be cracked, since not even a "normal" ROM can be dumped properly.

[HummerBootlegFan1992]

taizou

Apr 21 2015, 08:24:24 PM

Well, not even to stop them claiming them as their own (I doubt most GBA pirate cart manufacturers at the time were putting their name on anything) - just to stop them selling copies without any money going to Sintax.

Every licensed GBA game got pirated instantly, Nintendo just didn't care so much (their focus was mostly on Japan, North America, Western Europe etc - places where pirate carts rarely surfaced and Nintendo could easily sue if they did) - but Sintax were competing with the pirates in the same markets, so if the same thing happened to them they'd be kinda screwed. and Sintax couldn't exactly take other companies to court over games that infringed a ton of copyrights already, so they had to protect their stuff through technical means.[/quote]Yeah, he's pretty much correct about the whole Nintendo didn't really care thing. Here's another example if you don't understand. Nintendo did (almost, if you count the Lockout chip for the NES) NOTHING to stop Famicom pirates. Why? All of them were only in China, Russia (Dendy), Taiwan, etc, countries that Nintendo didn't have their own services in at the time.

(Some bootlegs come from HONG KONG... I've noticed that alot lately)

[MonstersInc]

Umm, I do understand.

[fcgamer]

MonstersInc

Apr 14 2015, 09:19:36 PM

Oh, darn. I wonder why the heck Sintax put protection on these games? It is odd that these companies put more protection on their "games" than actual companies do. I really wish the ROM's for all of the Sintax GBA platformers will surface on the internet some day, because I'd love to have a chance to play them.[/quote]This will be quite a difficult feat to accomplish, due to the protection, but also because there are so many Sintax games out there.  We are talking over a hundred different games, if ID numbers are to be believed.  Some (if not all) of the GBA releases are just GBC games in GBA cases.  I have one or two Sintax games in both GBC and GBA format, and the games are identical.

[MonstersInc]

I can dream, can I?