# Best GBA flashcart?



## kbf (Jan 21, 2019)

What's the best,cheapest option? I haven't messed with flashcarts in years (still have my acekard 2i for my DS) I think I heard of something called "no$gba" or something like that but that was a long time ago. I wanted to ask cuz I didn't wanna go on a fishy site or something as I know there's alot of fake rom cart sites out there. I am looking for a GBA cart that can hopefully play GB/GBC games as well and use micro SD..


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## FAST6191 (Jan 21, 2019)

no$gba is an emulator for the PC which emulates the GBA and DS with increasing abilities for the DSi as well, also PS1 pocketstation for code reasons.
http://problemkaputt.de/gba.htm is its current home if you wanted a copy.
If you wanted a GBA emulator then the two ones people point at these days as well as no$gba are mgba ( https://mgba.io/ ) and vba-m ( https://vba-m.com/ ). The only other DS emulator for the PC most people care about is desmume ( http://desmume.org/ ).
Various ones of those will have fun mods to do different things if you go looking (indeed vba-m was originally a project to unite all the various mods around the place).

GBA flash carts are a different thing entirely.

These days there are four main choices

If you have a DS/DS lite and a DS slot flash cart for it then the EZFlash 3 in 1 is a good choice. It needs the DS slot cart to manage it but will play just about everything and can be found cheaply in some cases (mostly the DS lite sized version).

EZFlash 4 and EZ4 redux. Might still be able to find these and will likely be fairly cheaper, or cheaper than the things to follow. They added the ability to patch GBA side fairly recently as these things go so no need for windows programs any more. If you somehow manage to find an EZ4 lite compact then don't do it.

EZFlash Omega
EZFlash came back and released their EZFlash Omega which aimed to be the definitive GBA flash cart. It is very very good.
https://gbatemp.net/review/ez-flash-omega.795/

Everdrive.
https://gbatemp.net/review/everdrive-gba-x5.489/
Probably the most expensive, and direct competitor to the EZFlash Omega.

My usual list of troublesome games is http://gbatemp.net/threads/buying-a-gba-flash-cart-in-2013.341203/page-18#post-4756995 , do note both the EZFlash Omega and the Everdrive have real time clock aka RTC onboard so yeah. Bar the things I mention in a moment GBA flash carts are typically "does it fit? Then you can make it run, possibly with a patch like those on the link at the start of this paragraph".

Don't buy a supercard or one of the clones thereof for GBA use. Also don't buy a fire card unless it is really cheap. There are some legacy devices that will also work well as GBA flash carts (various things from M3 and G6 for example) but they will be harder to find and not really worth it unless they are going cheap. There are some even older devices still but I would say most of those are for people with a specific need or a desire to have a collection.


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## thetechbros (Jan 22, 2019)

the everdrive is the best on that i have seen


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## kbf (Jan 23, 2019)

What would be the best option if I was gonna use  a GBAsp? and do the two flash carts mentioned in this thread play gba/gbc games?

EDIT: where can the EZ omega flash be bought?

EDIT: https://gamesconnection.ca/collections/everdrive/products/everdrive-gba-x5 http://www.gamersection.ca/product_info.php?products_id=1154&osCsid=b7d9400453c4e245c2757fd8bb8e7021  i'm looking at this one possibly, is it true the EZ flash omega's in game saves for games can fail sometimes? is this one more reliable? and can x5 play gb/gbc games?


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## FAST6191 (Jan 23, 2019)

Afraid I have not kept up with flash cart sellers. The EZFlash people have a dealer page
http://www.ezflash.cn/dealers/

Forgot about the GB/GBC stuff last post.
GBA flash cart don't natively play GB/GBC games save for one very old one with a special bridge device. It is effectively a different piece of hardware (the small black lever/switch in the slot -- that activates it, indeed if you ever put something GBA in a GBA/GBA SP and it looks squashed like GB/GBC mode check said switch).
There are however emulators. Originally only the gameboy was emulated, typically via an emulator called goomba, and later the GBC (and GBC mode for those games which had a backwards compatible mode*) via an emulator called goomba color. Goomba color was quite stripped down compared to plain old goomba (or some of the forks it had) so some opt for said same for those things which can work here. Quality wise there are better emulators out there but most games will play just fine and if you get good on such a thing you will be able to go right onto original hardware and will be just fine.
The flash carts which offer any kind of support for this will have a version of these somewhere in the mix.

You will not be doing link cable with original GB/GBC games using said emulators.

*5 types of GB/GBC ROM.
1) Plain old GB and only GB. Usually made long before the GBC as a twinkle in some designer's eye.
2) Super gameboy. http://loveconquersallgam.es/post/2350461718/fuck-the-super-game-boy-introduction for that one. There was a device series which attached to the SNES and allowed a few processing extras, few games did much in the end but it is a thing. For me the multiplayer bomberman version made for it is one of my favourite examples of that game. No GBA emulator emulates any functionality here as it more or less means emulating a SNES on top of things and the GBA barely managed more than proof of concept SNES emulation.
3) GBC with backwards compatible mode. Had a GBC mode with some colours, possibly some less slowdown and a few other things but mostly just the colours for those things which supported it.
4) GBC and only GBC. Used the extra hardware of the GBC to do games. A few people once hacked games to bypass the checks -- they glitch massively and crash in the best cases.
5) GBA perks. Normally I don't count these as it is a simple check and no processing extras but owing to something I cover shortly there is a bit of nuance. The Zelda Oracles games are the main things people look at here, though Shantae had some stuff here. Goomba color will emulate this detection method if you wanted it, though you can also patch it in. Speaking of Shantae it also upped the brightness in GBA mode (the original GBA screen being what it is) so there is a hack which will give you the bonus content while keeping the brightness normal. https://www.romhacking.net/games/2769/ for more on those.

Many GB only era games got enhanced ports to the GBC, typically with the name DX added onto the end of it but not all of them. There were also a few things that were GB and GBC in Japan but turned into GBC only when it made it out of Japan.


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## kbf (Jan 25, 2019)

egh I guess GB/GBC games run fine on my vita, reason why i'm looking into getting a flashcart was mainly for GBA games as they don't seem to run very well on my PSvita. (depends on the game though)


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## the_randomizer (Jan 25, 2019)

kbf said:


> egh I guess GB/GBC games run fine on my vita, reason why i'm looking into getting a flashcart was mainly for GBA games as they don't seem to run very well on my PSvita. (depends on the game though)



Sounds like just bad GBA emulator optimization.


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## kbf (Jan 25, 2019)

the_randomizer said:


> Sounds like just bad GBA emulator optimization.




idk, I just use retroarch and the two options are VBAnext and gpSP with similar results although VBAnext is a little better.


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## the_randomizer (Jan 25, 2019)

kbf said:


> idk, I just use retroarch and the two options are VBAnext and gpSP with similar results although VBAnext is a little better.



You'd think the Vita would have enough processing power though.


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## kbf (Jan 27, 2019)

the_randomizer said:


> You'd think the Vita would have enough processing power though.



Yeah...egh. Do settings save for every individual game in retroarch for vita? Maybe I could play around with settings to make things run better?


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## a7mag3ddon (Jan 21, 2021)

is the EZ Flash Omega still the best/cheapest combination for GB/GC on GBA hardware?  Can any of the Flash Carts handle real time saves?

Ive just dug out my old Bung flashcarts and GBA SP but think its time to upgrade to an Micro SD solution now, no more flashing games to 512Mb game cards :-P


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## darkgunsou86 (Jan 21, 2021)

EZ Flash Omega definitive edition have been announced. just wait for that.


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## a7mag3ddon (Jan 21, 2021)

Thanks for the quick reply, will that support real time saves?

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I see them listed on ebay, are these fake?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EZ-Flash...356986?hash=item28a73b0d7a:g:JAAAAOSwJYBgCH98


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## FAST6191 (Jan 21, 2021)

Other than an ancient cart with even more rare adapter no GBA cart does GB/GBC on GBA natively. Everything is emulation and everything more or less runs it just as well as it is all the same emulator, even the supercard stuff should be OK and its general GBA abilities are seriously wanting.

As far as definitive edition.
https://www.ezflash.cn/product/ez-flash-omega-definitive-edition/
Yes savestates/real time save is claimed as a feature. Such things will never be emulator grade and you will often want to do things like get to a quiet point in the game, or get to a point where you can force refresh sound/graphics (new room/level or something) -- trying to get to all points from within hardware (the GBA having less write only stuff than the DS but still some) whilst trying to keep sound and graphics (both rather timing sensitive operations) happy is a tricky thing and being a good coder only gets you so far there. When they had them on the EZ3 some years ago then they were quite useable, though if you are going to use them emulator style to hover over the save and reset each enemy in a scrolling beat em up then... find one of those nice hardware emulators and see what they can do or hope your psp/vita/phone emulators play nicely.


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## KOman (Apr 30, 2021)

Bumping for updated recommendations.
Looking for something that will run nes, gb/gbc, sms games without much trouble in addition to gba games. From what I have skimmed through seems like some have issues with saving.


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## The Real Jdbye (Apr 30, 2021)

KOman said:


> Bumping for updated recommendations.
> Looking for something that will run nes, gb/gbc, sms games without much trouble in addition to gba games. From what I have skimmed through seems like some have issues with saving.


EZFlash Omega Definitive Edition. It's not cheap but it's the best on the market right now. You can go with the original EZFlash Omega, it's much cheaper and also great.


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