Mario Golf GBA/GCN connectivity?

[Andy]

do I have to reach a certain point in Mario Golf Advance Tour before I can load my character into Mario Golf Toadstool Tour?

I got the GBA game yesterday - created and saved a character but I can't work out how to do the connectivity thing.

any advice will be appreciated.

[stiffler]

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!!!MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!!!
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From GameFaqs:

If you have Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour, you can transfer Neil and Ella
to the GameCube to earn experience points and compete in Toadstool Tour.
Here is the necessary equipment to link the two games:

 1 Nintendo GameCube
 1 Game Boy Advance
 1 Copy of Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour
 1 Copy of Mario Golf: Advance Tour
 1 Nintendo GameCube/Game Boy Advance Link Cable

Plug the NGC/GBA link into the GameBoy Advance and connect it to the
GameCube. Turn on the GameCube with Toadstool Tour and wait at the start
menu. Turn on the GameBoy Advance and you will see a red connection screen.
Now you can transfer Neil and Ella to Toadstool Tour.

Neil and Ella will always be availible to use for Toadstool Tour.
The only time you have to link the systems is to transfer experience points
into Advance Tour. Just go to the Link Icon at the main menu and connect.

You gain experience for almost anything you do in Toadstool Tour. Some quick
and easy ways to gain points are:

 Winning Tournaments (the harder the course, the more points you get)
 Playing Near Pin (180 points for just playing 9 holes)
 Character Match

These are the ones that rack up the most exp, points. Like I said, you get
points for doing almost anything, but might be only 7 or 30.
 
When you transfer data for the first time, you unlock Wario, Waluigi and
some courses for Advance Tour. Compete some more, transfer again and you
will unlock Luigi.

[Andy]

thanks. I already found that but I'm not seeing a "red connection screen"

I suspect my PAL version of Mario Golf Toadstool Tour is incompatible with my US Mario Golf Advance Tour.

If so it will be the first compatability problem I've heard of between US/Euro versions of Nintendo games   - not a good sign for the future

[Daveman]

I just tried the connectivity between the two (both US versions) and it worked, but it was fairly complicated.  You have to wait to turn on the GBA until the GC Mario Golf main menu pops up.  You then have to press the A button on one of the controllers (seems like it hops back and forth between pressing the GBA A button and the GC A button) to initiate the process.  Plus, at first the menu screen came and went while the GBA was coming on, then the GBA said it couldn't connect.  Then at one point I was staring at the TV screen while what looked like a memory write was going on and thinking "this is taking a long time" while all along it was waiting for me to press the GBA A button.  Sheesh...

All in all, pretty (needlessly) complicated IMO, but it did work.  I'm not sure if that will help given what you've described, but I'd make sure to read the instructions (on two sets of pages... one on just connecting, (GC controller in port 1, GBA in port 2) the other about when to turn things on and what buttons to press) and follow them to the letter.

[Andy]

thanks Daveman. I just tried again, using every conceivable sequence of menu screens and button pushing but they're not talking to each other