Following a series of public beta tests the EZFlash Team have released a final version of Firmware 4 and Kernel 1.04e for their EZFlash Junior flash cart. The main change for most is the kernels have now been split between Chinese language and English language. The English language one then losing the limitations it had on file count within a directory and getting a bit of speed boost as a result. There are still limits but if you fit more than 7000 files in a folder, and have the names of said files exceed 254 characters each (unknown if this means total file + directory name(s) length), on a GBC flash cart then you are doing well.

With this we can now consider the kernel as mature so expect a GBAtemp review before too long. Short version of that is it after having been sent it a while back we went on a GB/GBC kick this last little while and it is a solidly built and highly compatible Gameboy and Gameboy Color compatible flash cart, and done to modern standards with many features people want (though the potentially 8 kilobytes of memory the original GB rocked and backed with a screaming just over 4MHz processor means some of the stuff you got used to on your nice shiny DS flash carts are not going to be there). If you have a yearning to play GB/GBC games as they were rather than emulated it will very much do that for most things you will consider using. It also turns out we are still getting brand new GBC releases even in the current space year and it ran that just fine; the hardware shots there using it without the need for any updates or new patches. There is more to be done but the team is there (long present on these forums even) doing stuff.

SHA1(ezgb.dat)= 43c76dc2b206907a68a1b3d320324d2d4438b7f3
SHA1(Update_FW4.gb)= d61bc32c41a378be491eced4244a84abe7c84d7c

Removed Chinese support and filename sorting
Fixed booting sequence halt in OS INIT which caused by disk fragmentation
Fixed random File System Error
Added a battery dry notice
Some interface rearrangement
Some scroll timing tweak
The total length of the filename is 254 characters
The maximum number of files in the folder is 7000

Note: For the best performance and stability. MicroSD must be formatted with FAT32, cluster size 32KB

Firmware update method:
Run Update_FW4.gb as a game. Press A as prompted. The screen will flicker in the upgrade progress, it is normal. The progress will cost 10+ seconds. The screen goes normal when upgrade is done. Power off your console as prompted!!! Not press the reset button!!!

Power up your console. Check the FW version in the HELP tab by press SELECT, if the FW version displaying FW0, you have to do the update progress again until the FW version change to FW4. Full charged batteries will help to prevent the upgrade failing.

EZFlash.cn EZFlash Junior page and downloads
http://www.ezflash.cn/product/ezflash-junior/
GBAtemp download mirror
https://gbatemp.net/download/ezflash-junior.36295/

Feel free to discuss things on this thread.

 

[raxadian]

So has anyone used this thing?

I tend to use the Gameboy emulator on DS that's good enough unless you need trading Pokemon and linking to another game. And when it comes to Gameboy Color games, I haven't played those in a while.

 

[FAST6191]

Obviously I have been using it. Mostly day to day stuff rather than stress tests and trying to make it fall over (though done that as well -- indeed upon flashing to this I promptly stuck a whole bunch of ROMs in the root beyond the original limit). Bunch of others on the test flight thread as well seem to have it.

I agree that with the quality of even GBA emulation of the GB/GBC, and the features that emulation affords even on the GBA and DS, and the not so modern nature of GB/GBC hardware (other than a very rare Japanese only original gameboy model that was hardly amazing none had lit screens until you hit the GBA SP, though there are apparently some drop in replacements for not a lot these days) that this is a more niche device than many other flash carts in this day and age -- "I like games as they were on the system", non emulation pokemon trading and little sound dj (such people have tests like http://www.herbertweixelbaum.com/comparison.htm for a reason) probably being the main draws to this sort of thing.

That said it is around "just because" type money for quite a few people and while it says GBA here I think we can stretch to GB/GBC that most were still running on it while we waited for GBA games, and have done in emulation ever since.

 

[scroeffie1984]

i hope they wil make a cart for the nes snes and megadrive

 

[xs4all]

I got mine a couple of months ago, still haven't got around to using it it.

I'm probably the few that like to play gb/gbc on the original hard ware, yeah it's nice that you can do all this stuff and more with emulation but for me, nothing beats playing on original hardware. I have still on the fence about getting a drop in LCD replace for either my DMG, GBP or GBC, be aware that these so called drop in replacements are not actually drop ins, most need your case to be modified, however the latest LCD drop in from BennVenn is are actually drop in, no case mod needed, HERE for more details.

For those old enough to remember, back in the early 2000's, I believe the early GB/GBC flash carts was a the FlashAdvance carts for the GBA, even though this was for the GBA, you had to purchase a GB Bridge Adapter. This enables you to play gb/gbc roms on your GBA and also on the dmg, gbp and gbc, it was bulky but it got the job done, I had money to splash around back then and got myself one, oh and the joys or transferring games to the cart via the printer parallel port! They later updated and released a Flash2Advance USB Linker cable where you can just leave the flash cart in the gba and use the ext port to upload the roms directly to from the pc to the cart via the GBA/SP.

How times have changed, you new generation have it easy.

As for them making NES, SNES and MD carts, as far as I know, they have only been interested in the handheld market, I would imagine, depending on your region, the cost will be around the $100 for a console flash cart. Look at how much the Everdrive carts are, through the roof and even the Chinese clones of the ED drives are expensive as well but not too crazy expensive and does the job, I got myself a cheap chines know off SNES and MD cart, it works, on my wish list is also the N64 clone carts.

These days the easily availability of emulators, it's a niche market for die hard fans in my opinion, and probably not much profit to be made, you make stuff to make money.

Just my 2 cents..

 

[nashismo]

So has anyone used this thing?

I tend to use the Gameboy emulator on DS that's good enough unless you need trading Pokemon and linking to another game. And when it comes to Gameboy Color games, I haven't played those in a while.

If you have no intention to ever buy this cart, why bother trolling here? It is obvious that there are people who purchase these products, people wouldn't build them and sell them if it wasn't the case.

People like me, who never were rich pricks like you, and now we can finally afford to have all these things we couldn't when we were kids. And here in south america, you "really" had to be rich to have a Gameboy, the word actually applied.

 

[raxadian]

If you have no intention to ever buy this cart, why bother trolling here? It is obvious that there are people who purchase these products, people wouldn't build them and sell them if it wasn't the case.

People like me, who never were rich pricks like you, and now we can finally afford to have all these things we couldn't when we were kids. And here in south america, you "really" had to be rich to have a Gameboy, the word actually applied.

I am not rich and I live in South America.

And the Gameboy wasn't that expensive, at least at the time I bought it, when it was on sale due to the GBC having been just released about a year ago.

Heck the best time to buy a Videogame console used to be a year or two after the next Generation is out. That has changed with online gaming being a thing since that means when a console is outdated you can't fully enjoy all the games anymore due to said console losing it's online capabilities.

I admit Gameboy games were expensive, but there was also used games you could buy. I got most of my Nintendo 64 games used due to people selling them to get a Gamecube or a PS2. It was harder to get used Gameboy games since the games were harder to find.

Most of the Gameboy games I played was on an emulator.

And last time I tried to buy one of these flashcards for GBC they were outrageously expensive, so O just used an emulator instead.

 

[nashismo]

I am not rich and I live in South America.

And the Gameboy wasn't that expensive, at least at the time I bought it, when it was on sale due to the GBC having been just released about a year ago.

Heck the best time to buy a Videogame console used to be a year or two after the next Generation is out. That has changed with online gaming being a thing since that means when a console is outdated you can't fully enjoy all the games anymore due to said console losing it's online capabilities.

I admit Gameboy games were expensive, but there was also used games you could buy. I got most of my Nintendo 64 games used due to people selling them to get a Gamecube or a PS2. It was harder to get used Gameboy games since the games were harder to find.

Most of the Gameboy games I played was on an emulator.

And last time I tried to buy one of these flashcards for GBC they were outrageously expensive, so O just used an emulator instead.

Y nosotros hablando en inglés como idiotas! But I guess we have to because of the forum rules. Well, I thought you were one of those rich 1st world country assholes that simply don't understand other realities.

And in my case I was mostly referring to the 1st Gameboy back in 1989, were to have it, you really had to be rich here in Chile. Different times, I even remember my mother bought us Megaman 4, the only NES game we had for about 70 thousand pesos, about 140 dollars of the time, it was HUGE the amount of money, almost an entire salary back then. But we used that game to play every NES game in the city, because we were friends with a guy who rented games (at 10 years old me and my brother were good business little men).

Ok, then sorry for the misunderstanding raxadian.

 

[delta nite]

Speaking of niche market flashcarts, is there any solution for a GBC flashcart in a GBA form factor? Similar to how the EzFlash Omega can be used with a NDS slot 2 style shell so it doesn't stick out.

My preferred way of playing GBC is on my AGB but the cartridge sticking out really annoys me. I'd be up even for a homemade solution, if anyone knows.

What I'm not looking for is emulating GBC using GBA flashcarts. But rather a native GBC flashcart that fits a GBA cart shell.

 

[FAST6191]

I got mine a couple of months ago, still haven't got around to using it it.

I'm probably the few that like to play gb/gbc on the original hard ware, yeah it's nice that you can do all this stuff and more with emulation but for me, nothing beats playing on original hardware. I have still on the fence about getting a drop in LCD replace for either my DMG, GBP or GBC, be aware that these so called drop in replacements are not actually drop ins, most need your case to be modified, however the latest LCD drop in from BennVenn is are actually drop in, no case mod needed, HERE for more details.

For those old enough to remember, back in the early 2000's, I believe the early GB/GBC flash carts was a the FlashAdvance carts for the GBA, even though this was for the GBA, you had to purchase a GB Bridge Adapter. This enables you to play gb/gbc roms on your GBA and also on the dmg, gbp and gbc, it was bulky but it got the job done, I had money to splash around back then and got myself one, oh and the joys or transferring games to the cart via the printer parallel port! They later updated and released a Flash2Advance USB Linker cable where you can just leave the flash cart in the gba and use the ext port to upload the roms directly to from the pc to the cart via the GBA/SP.

How times have changed, you new generation have it easy.

As for them making NES, SNES and MD carts, as far as I know, they have only been interested in the handheld market, I would imagine, depending on your region, the cost will be around the $100 for a console flash cart. Look at how much the Everdrive carts are, through the roof and even the Chinese clones of the ED drives are expensive as well but not too crazy expensive and does the job, I got myself a cheap chines know off SNES and MD cart, it works, on my wish list is also the N64 clone carts.

These days the easily availability of emulators, it's a niche market for die hard fans in my opinion, and probably not much profit to be made, you make stuff to make money.

Just my 2 cents..

They did make some PS3 addons a while back, though they were simpler bridging adapters rather than active mod chips or anything. The NES and SNES, slightly less so the megadrive, then representing a far more annoying thing to handle (see NES mappers and SNES special chips) with some pretty stiff competition already on the market.

As for original hardware. In the case of the GBA you are playing with a device that as far as Nintendo were concerned has a suitable screen and buttons, so much so that some games received perks for being on it and it was sold as a doing it. It is a bit more abstract for the DS but given it was sold as able to play GBA games and also features suitable buttons.
That said I would probably dismiss it entirely -- rewind/fast forward, savestates, easy cheats, button remapping, possibly dodging mbc issues, turbo buttons, general ease of use... emulation from where I sit offers a superior experience in a lot of ways.

Speaking of niche market flashcarts, is there any solution for a GBC flashcart in a GBA form factor? Similar to how the EzFlash Omega can be used with a NDS slot 2 style shell so it doesn't stick out.

My preferred way of playing GBC is on my AGB but the cartridge sticking out really annoys me. I'd be up even for a homemade solution, if anyone knows.

What I'm not looking for is emulating GBC using GBA flashcarts. But rather a native GBC flashcart that fits a GBA cart shell.

On the GBA size cart but actually a GB/GBC flash cart then I am not aware of any, much less ones done to commercial ROM running flash cart standards.

Looking at the PCB I imagine you could do it, and there are some homebrew carts that might be more easily done but most of those are not really there with the software to do games (they will play but if you are wanting some kind of nice menu, drag and drop, RTC and the like then not so much).
https://web.archive.org/web/20171019084458/http://www.reinerziegler.de/readplus.htm for a start there. You likely will be redoing a PCB and/or possibly cannibalising a game for its chips and not just its PCB.

If sticking out is the problem and you don't mind a bit of bulk then I would probably sooner make something like the the GB bridge the poster above mentioned, the action replays on those consoles, or like those adapters some companies made to swap between 3 DS games -- solder a slot on there and send it through 180 degrees to have it tuck behind the thing. PCB wise it should literally be a PCB to go into the GBA, just some straight tracks to get as far as it needs to go, then a standoff* or ribbon bridge, another PCB with straight tracks ending with a replacement GBA slot from something (they might still be available as straight up replacement parts, though it was mostly only DS slots that were), the shell then being easy enough to get somewhere like shapeways to make (don't know if the local rent a 3d printer services will do for this, though you might find someone with a good one), or possibly cannibalise a GBA game (remember to fill the GB/GBC slot cutout to trip the little switch in the GBA slot, and for super safety might want to make GBA similarly impossible to insert the other side) and play with some epoxy.

*bit cowboy but pins plus socket will probably do here, though it will mean you might have to kink the tracks a tiny bit to reach the pins in question if it is a double layer set (likely for the amount in question).

Such a thing might even be enough that you can scale it and make a few to help offset the costs (if you are already possibly making a panel of the PCBs then yeah, send a copy of the CAD files for the case with the PCB) as you would probably not be the only one to want this sort of thing.

 

[raxadian]

Y nosotros hablando en inglés como idiotas! But I guess we have to because of the forum rules. Well, I thought you were one of those rich 1st world country assholes that simply don't understand other realities.

And in my case I was mostly referring to the 1st Gameboy back in 1989, were to have it, you really had to be rich here in Chile. Different times, I even remember my mother bought us Megaman 4, the only NES game we had for about 70 thousand pesos, about 140 dollars of the time, it was HUGE the amount of money, almost an entire salary back then. But we used that game to play every NES game in the city, because we were friends with a guy who rented games (at 10 years old me and my brother were good business little men).

Ok, then sorry for the misunderstanding raxadian.

I got the 1989 Gameboy eventually, but sadly while the thing still works the screen is too scratched and I don't wanna risk replacing it because I couldn't find that shade of green glass. So I got a used Pocket Gameboy to play whatever few actually Gameboy games I have.

And yes the LEGAL Nes was really expensive in Latin America. Even the clones was quite expensive, heck by 1996 a real Nes was obsolete and still quite expensive around here. I never got a Super Nintendo because of how pricy it was and because Sega Genesis clones were everywhere and because importing a legal Sega Genesis from Brazil was cheaper than getting a Super Nintendo. Plus it was impossible to get pirated Super Nintendo games but bootleg Sega Genesis games were everywhere.

My first videogame console was a Master System imported from Brazil. Good times even if Alex Kidd In High Tech World sucked. But Aztec Adventure and Hang On were good games.

 

[nashismo]

I got the 1989 Gameboy eventually, but sadly while the thing still works the screen is too scratched and I don't wanna risk replacing it because I couldn't find that shade of green glass. So I got a used Pocket Gameboy to play whatever few actually Gameboy games I have.

And yes the LEGAL Nes was really expensive in Latin America. Even the clones was quite expensive, heck by 1996 a real Nes was obsolete and still quite expensive around here. I never got a Super Nintendo because of how pricy it was and because Sega Genesis clones were everywhere and because importing a legal Sega Genesis from Brazil was cheaper than getting a Super Nintendo. Plus it was impossible to get pirated Super Nintendo games but bootleg Sega Genesis games were everywhere.

My first videogame console was a Master System imported from Brazil. Good times even if Alex Kidd In High Tech World sucked. But Aztec Adventure and Hang On were good games.

I had a NES clone! And decades later I heard those were the best clones ever made, for some reason. What I remember is that the controllers were so much more comfortable than the original NES controller AGAIN, decades later I realised that this was because those controllers were shaped like "famicom" controllers, that's why they where comfy

Ok, cheers and let's not de rail this thread any longer

 

[wiewiec]

I had a NES clone! And decades later I heard those were the best clones ever made, for some reason. What I remember is that the controllers were so much more comfortable than the original NES controller AGAIN, decades later I realised that this was because those controllers were shaped like "famicom" controllers, that's why they where comfy

Ok, cheers and let's not de rail this thread any longer

Yes some clones have good controllers for example I am very happy with Hyperkin's Retron 2 HD both NES and SNES controllers very comfy.

 

[raxadian]

Yes some clones have good controllers for example I am very happy with Hyperkin's Retron 2 HD both NES and SNES controllers very comfy.

90s Nes clones, not modern ones.

Nowadays I am more than happy with Nestopia UE but my Nes clone might still work, thosee things are sturdy, unlike America Original Nes that was shaped like a VHS Player and tended to break and oveeheat a lot.

 

[nashismo]

Yes some clones have good controllers for example I am very happy with Hyperkin's Retron 2 HD both NES and SNES controllers very comfy.

I haven't check those! What I did a few days ago is buying the original Famicom from Japan, using Zenmarket. Let's see how comfortable the "original" controller is!