Our Mission
GBA ROM Patcher was born from a simple, shared frustration in the retro gaming community: the heartbreak of a lost save file. If you've ever invested hours into a Game Boy Advance game on a reproduction (repo) cartridge, only to find your progress mysteriously wiped, you know the feeling. Our mission is to provide a reliable, accessible, and user-friendly solution to this common problem.
We believe that everyone should be able to enjoy the vast library of GBA classics and modern ROM hacks on real hardware, without the fear of data corruption. This tool aims to make cheap, unreliable hardware functional, empowering gamers to play with confidence.
How Does It Work? The Magic of Patches
This tool is a web-based implementation of brilliant patches created by the homebrew community. It doesn't do anything magical on its own; it simply provides a user-friendly interface for complex command-line processes.
- SRAM Patching: Most repo carts use a different type of save memory (SRAM) than official games (which often use FLASH or EEPROM). This patch modifies the game's code to "reroute" the save function to the hardware that's actually present on the cartridge.
- Batteryless Patching: Some repo carts don't even include a battery to power the SRAM. This patch cleverly copies the save data from the temporary SRAM to a permanent spot on the main game chip, making your save file permanent without needing a battery.
Most importantly, your privacy is guaranteed. The entire patching process happens securely within your web browser. Your ROM files are never uploaded to our servers.
A Tool Built on Community Foundations
This project would not exist without the foundational work of talented developers in the GBA scene. GBA ROM Patcher is a graphical front-end built to be compatible with the logic of these essential tools:
- The batteryless patch logic is based on gba-auto-batteryless-patcher by metroid-maniac.
- The SRAM patching logic is based on Flash1M_Repro_SRAM_Patcher by bbsan2k.
If you find this tool useful, please consider supporting the original creators or contributing to the homebrew community in any way you can.