Hacking I am in need of a GBA flashkart

[Nathan Drake]

Just to note, for those of you opting to purchase this Supercard, more demanding GBA games such as Mario Kart do suffer from some lag, but the majority of games should run at normal speed. It isn't quite the EZ Flash IV in terms of overall operations, but it's a fine alternative if you don't want to go the DS + Flash Cart + EZ Flash 3in1 route.

 

[Lemmy Koopa]

Just to note, for those of you opting to purchase this Supercard, more demanding GBA games such as Mario Kart do suffer from some lag, but the majority of games should run at normal speed. It isn't quite the EZ Flash IV in terms of overall operations, but it's a fine alternative if you don't want to go the DS + Flash Cart + EZ Flash 3in1 route.

I heard it's basically like my M3, but with some minor lag on some games. I was actually originally going to get a SuperCard way back in like 07, but heard of the M3 being a better version.
Right now my M3 is in bad shape, and I want something to fall back onto if my M3 becomes unrepairable. It's not like they're easy to find.

 

[Darkipod]

What parts usually need to be re-soldiered on these supercards?

 

[Aqua1234]

Just to note, for those of you opting to purchase this Supercard, more demanding GBA games such as Mario Kart do suffer from some lag, but the majority of games should run at normal speed. It isn't quite the EZ Flash IV in terms of overall operations, but it's a fine alternative if you don't want to go the DS + Flash Cart + EZ Flash 3in1 route.

I'm thinking of going EZ Flash 3 in 1 route, I already have DS Lite with a R4 card, do most games work on it like a charm? Such as Mario Kart, Pokemon Emerald, and Mother 3? Just want to play these games with no lag at all.

 

[DanTheManMS]

For anyone who has bought or is buying a slot-2 Supercard, please consider this information which can possibly speed up laggy games: http://wiki.pocketheaven.com/index.php?title=SupercardGBASlowdowns (also check the same wiki's page for the Supercard in general)

EDIT: And here's a comprehensive users' guide, can't believe the link still works after so many years - http://danthemanms2.googlepages.com/ea05th_s_SuperCard_Guide_v1.1.pdf

 

[Nathan Drake]

I'm thinking of going EZ Flash 3 in 1 route, I already have DS Lite with a R4 card, do most games work on it like a charm? Such as Mario Kart, Pokemon Emerald, and Mother 3? Just want to play these games with no lag at all.

The EZ Flash 3in1 is a brilliant tool for those that have a DSlite (or Phat). Every game I've tried on mine has worked flawlessly, and I have nothing bad to say about it. It's a good, inexpensive, reliable route if you don't plan to use it in a normal GBA, a GBA SP, or a GBA Micro.

 

[checkvec]

I have some Ez flash iv still available i bought more than one from a man in ontario and im reselling

 

[NickRay]

I have some Ez flash iv still available i bought more than one from a man in ontario and im reselling

PM sent

 

[msgohan]

If anyone has money burning a hole in their pockets, I'm interested in selling mine after all these years. I tried eBay but they removed it swiftly even though I saw an auction for one that ended successfully even after mine was removed.

http://shoptemp.net/products/EZ%2dFlash-IV.html#wtb

Pics/vids available upon request.

 

[Kouen Hasuki]

You can still buy the Supercard Mini SD from here, though I can't cite at all how good of a cart it might be.

But those are terrible

While I do have a EZ4 I dont use all the time Im keeping a vice grip on mine

 

[Prans]

Just to note, for those of you opting to purchase this Supercard, more demanding GBA games such as Mario Kart do suffer from some lag, but the majority of games should run at normal speed. It isn't quite the EZ Flash IV in terms of overall operations, but it's a fine alternative if you don't want to go the DS + Flash Cart + EZ Flash 3in1 route.

I'm planning of getting one GBA flash card myself for my GBA. So I'd like to know which of these flash cards are compatible with the original GBA? (lanndscape, awesome-looking one)
I heard that the SuperCard Mini SD can have some issues with it.

Also, do any of these cards use a battery like original GBA games? If so, do they last long? Or if they die out, can you change them easily?

 

[FAST6191]

Pretty much all of them bar the supercard rumble are compatible with the GBA in the sense that if you can get it to fit in the slot it will boot and run whatever it can run.

Supercards (and their clones, team cyclops made a clone as their first flash cart and if you count it the very first GBA flash carts which were things from the GBC era slightly retooled) have a great many issues with a lot of games, every other GBA flash cart will run whatever it can fit give or take http://gbatemp.net/threads/buying-a-gba-flash-cart-in-2013.341203/page-18#post-4756995 which is the same for all flash carts really and in all but two edge cases quite solvable.

Battery. All of them bar supercards which have their own very serious/annoying issues with saving use SRAM, this means they have a battery. Lifetime is in the order of several years, changing them bar one rare type of GBA flash cart involves soldering. Though it is the type of soldering that anybody that can claim to solder electronics can do.

These days you will be lucky to find GBA flash carts other than fire cards (don't, compatibility wise they beat supercards but they are very small and extremely fiddly to operate), supercards (don't), DS expansion packs like the EZ 3 in 1 (great if you have a DS, can't suggest it for use in a GBA though), possibly still an EZ4 lite deluxe here and there (will need to mod the case a bit) or the EZ4 (easier than a few months ago but still not trivial, will also want a miniSD card).

Similarly I do have to mention if you find a M3 professional/m3 pro or EZ4 lite compact they have limited GBA capabilities so avoid them.

Short version. You are looking for an EZ4 and a miniSD to go in it.

 

[Prans]

Pretty much all of them bar the supercard rumble are compatible with the GBA in the sense that if you can get it to fit in the slot it will boot and run whatever it can run.

Supercards (and their clones, team cyclops made a clone as their first flash cart and if you count it the very first GBA flash carts which were things from the GBC era slightly retooled) have a great many issues with a lot of games, every other GBA flash cart will run whatever it can fit give or take http://gbatemp.net/threads/buying-a-gba-flash-cart-in-2013.341203/page-18#post-4756995 which is the same for all flash carts really and in all but two edge cases quite solvable.

Battery. All of them bar supercards which have their own very serious/annoying issues with saving use SRAM, this means they have a battery. Lifetime is in the order of several years, changing them bar one rare type of GBA flash cart involves soldering. Though it is the type of soldering that anybody that can claim to solder electronics can do.

These days you will be lucky to find GBA flash carts other than fire cards (don't, compatibility wise they beat supercards but they are very small and extremely fiddly to operate), supercards (don't), DS expansion packs like the EZ 3 in 1 (great if you have a DS, can't suggest it for use in a GBA though), possibly still an EZ4 lite deluxe here and there (will need to mod the case a bit) or the EZ4 (easier than a few months ago but still not trivial, will also want a miniSD card).

Similarly I do have to mention if you find a M3 professional/m3 pro or EZ4 lite compact they have limited GBA capabilities so avoid them.

Short version. You are looking for an EZ4 and a miniSD to go in it.

Thanks a lot for the detailed review! I think I know what to get now!

 

[Prans]

So I did a bit of searching and came across this 'Fire Linker' flash card. What is it about? From what I get it's something like a CD-RW for GBA roms, like you 'burn' your games on it. Or is it like the other flash cards with SD/microSD? Sorry if my question sounds weird but I would like to know more about it. Please help!

 

[FAST6191]

Fire linkers/fire cards/whatever other names they go by (and there are a few) are somewhat similar to the first style of GBA flash carts. They are typically a bank of NOR memory (memory fast enough to run GBA games) and you copy ROMs to them using the link port of the GBA or maybe a link port on the cart itself, either way not the fastest process.

Typically they are 16 megabytes in size though ones up to 32 megabytes have been seen in the wild. GBA games go up to 32 megabytes though most do not get above 16, a full list of the 256Mbit aka 32 megabytes titles is in the link in a moment/that I gave in the last post.

Unlike supercards if it fits (and it might need a patch for some things -- http://gbatemp.net/threads/buying-a-gba-flash-cart-in-2013.341203/page-18#post-4756995 ) then it should play and save on a fire card.

Build quality varies a bit but I would never expect a truly good one and it skews towards the "hope you do not have to take it out of your GBA" side of things.

That said they are usually pretty cheap and if you do not mind only having a game or two to play at once then you could do worse, indeed I would rate them above supercards even though supercards can hold a lot more.

 

[Prans]

Fire linkers/fire cards/whatever other names they go by (and there are a few) are somewhat similar to the first style of GBA flash carts. They are typically a bank of NOR memory (memory fast enough to run GBA games) and you copy ROMs to them using the link port of the GBA or maybe a link port on the cart itself, either way not the fastest process.

Typically they are 16 megabytes in size though ones up to 32 megabytes have been seen in the wild. GBA games go up to 32 megabytes though most do not get above 16, a full list of the 256Mbit aka 32 megabytes titles is in the link in a moment/that I gave in the last post.

Unlike supercards if it fits (and it might need a patch for some things -- http://gbatemp.net/threads/buying-a-gba-flash-cart-in-2013.341203/page-18#post-4756995 ) then it should play and save on a fire card.

Build quality varies a bit but I would never expect a truly good one and it skews towards the "hope you do not have to take it out of your GBA" side of things.

That said they are usually pretty cheap and if you do not mind only having a game or two to play at once then you could do worse, indeed I would rate them above supercards even though supercards can hold a lot more.

Thanks for your quick reply! Really appreciate that on gbatemp