Hacking Is there any point updating to EZFlash IV 2.XX FW from 1.78 (Pros / cons?)

[oneWonders]

So, the new FW with autopatch your roms but i heard it takes quite a bit longer to load them due to this.
When it does this, is it patching the ROM files on the SD card or is it patching every time?

Also, can the new FW detect if you have already patched certain ROM files and therefore not try and repatch them?

I heard of benefits of flashcarts that use unpatched ROMs allow for more compatibility with games that have interconnectivity with each other (so, DS, other GBA games or Gamecube games).
However I am guessing this benefit doesn't apply in this instance as the new FW is still using patched ROMs, it's just that it patches them on the fly itself? And so game save data and SRAM contents will still be patched.

I guess sleep and reset to ezflash menu patches could be helpful although a lot of games have their own internal native sleep functions that usually work okay without any patching (although on some it didn't seem to work). I don't know how to get the reset to flash menu working with 1.78, whenever I tried patching roms with it and pressing the button combination it didn't seem to work.

So, have I got this completely back to front, or is there a good reason to update even though I am comfortable with manually patching ROMs?

 

[Deleted-236924]

The rule of thumb is "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

If all of your games are currently working properly under 1.78, and you aren't running into malfunctions, there is no advantage from updating to 2.XX. You'd only be spending time updating the flashcart and re-dumping/re-downloading clean roms for no real gain.

How it works on 2.XX: the firmware on the cart scans the rom file on load to find the offsets it needs to patch; it patches for SRAM saving along with any other differences the cart may need, such as the EZ4 header.
On 2.00, the cart repeats this same process of scanning then patching the rom every time it loads, but more recent releases now store the patch data to a file in a ./PATCH/ folder to make subsequent loads much quicker by skipping the rom scanning step entirely and just patching directly. This may still be very slightly slower than running pre-patched roms, but the increase in load times is negligible.

Newer versions have also implemented the EZ4 reset patch derived from kuwanger's sleephack (which is itself derived from dwedit's sleephack.) This is not compatible with every game and may cause issues requiring you to load problem games while holding a certain button combination, or adding the games to a blacklist. There is no option to use the EZ4 Client's own implementation of the EZ4 reset patch, even though it is compatible with games that kuwanger's EZ4 reset patch doesn't work with.

If you are comfortable with manually patching roms? Do yourself a favor and stay on 1.78, because the update to 2.XX will, at best, not result in any gain, and at worst, break things that were previously working (or cause things to not work quite as as well and efficiently as they used to.)

The automatic patching is a great initiative from the EZ-Flash team; I admire their efforts in continuing to support a GBA card which was released more than 10 years ago. That being said, the EZ4 is a budget card in nowadays' world, and unless they spent a whole lot more time implementing workarounds and specific fixes for games for which the EZ4 reset patch does not work, so as to ensue perfect compatibility with 99.9% of the GBA's library, you will be better served by manually patching your games.

If you are interested in the EZ4 reset patch, I recommend patching every game using EZ4 Client 2009 release (2014 has a broken soft-reset implementation.) There will be a few games for which the reset function won't work, at which point you can try a rom of a different region (as far as English language goes, most North American and European roms are interchangeable and play the same, but one may patch properly where the other does not.)
Either that, or you could try kuwanger's implementation of the EZ4 reset patch, which work on many games for which the default EZ4 Client reset patch does not work.

It might take you a few minutes to patch a game, or a bit longer if you have a problem game and need to find a workaround, but at the end of the day you patch your roms once and then they work perfectly.

For anyone interested in a drag-and-drop GBA cart, the EZ4 really isn't made for that; you would be better served by the Everdrive GBA.

 

[oneWonders]

Thanks for the reply!

So i'm just as good sticking with 1.78, that's nice to know. I guessed as much. It's nice to read that they have improved the later versions to store patch files though.

I wasn't aware that the EZ4 reset patch was broken in the two 2014 versions client, that might be why i assumed it didn't work. What / where is the 2009 version? Their site only lists a 2007 version.


Considering the Everdrive GBA is around 4 times the price of the EZ Flash IV, and also the fact that Krikzz seems kind of arrogant and with a bad attitude, the EZ Flash IV is a no brainer for me (despite originally having a faulty NOR cart :/).
I saw posts by Krikzz actively mocking someone who had bought an original version of one of his carts and was understandably upset that he had dropped support for it. The way he tries to segment and milk all the different designs as an excuse to charge as premium price as possible just shows he only cares about money and it's kind of sad.
It's not like he cared enough to put a solar sensor, gyro or tilt sensor in his carts.

To be honest it would be cool if the community came together to work on open source carts that people could make themselves.

 

[Deleted-236924]

Filetrip has it.

https://filetrip.net/nds-downloads/flashcart-files/download-ez4-client-2009-04-03-f31119.html

 

[oneWonders]

Thanks!