Hardware GBA Krikzz teases a new flashcard for GBA

[Trip_Away]

Me interesó hasta que vi el nombre del tipo...

Explain yourself.

 

[Jayro]

Cool, I hope it has rumble.
Yes it's expensive, but it seems like some people are having issues with the new ez flash air.
So it's nice to have a premium choice that has all of the features and works without any issues (as long as that is truly case!), for those who can afford it.

EZ-FLASH uses BGA chips to save board space, but it costs them high yields.

Post automatically merged: Nov 18, 2025

Explain yourself.

Krikzz price-gouges for his products. His profit margins are set way too high, especially now that people make competing products (some superior to his own) for less than half the price.

 

[asiekierka]

Krikzz price-gouges for his products. His profit margins are set way too high, especially now that people make competing products (some superior to his own) for less than half the price.

I think Krikzz's prices relative to BOM are roughly on par with most other Western flash cartridge manufacturers.

On one hand, you can save money by taking advantage of lower prices on and greater variety of second-hand/recycled components, but this comes at the potential cost of reduced product lifespan or stability. If you're based in China, the strong domestic electronics market probably helps a little by not having to spend as much money on shipping. These are all things Western sellers can't or don't want to reach for, but will get your manufacturing costs down. Running your own store also costs money. Providing good support to customers, if you want to build your brand on that, is not free either.

To get a feel for this part, you can compare prices from Western manufacturers vs. AliExpress sellers for something like the SummerCart64, where the original design is open source, so both of them are starting from the same spot.

On the other hand, you can cheat. If you're a cloner, your R&D costs are much lower than if you have to design the cartridge from scratch - hardware really is complicated, and it's cheaper to copy a design than to come up with something new. Combined with some tricks from the previous basket, you can significantly undercut the original device's seller while still pocketing enough of a margin to make it worthwhile.

For mass market/retail products, R&D costs can be amortized by product volume much more effectively - but a lot of flashcarts are niche devices, especially the more expensive ones. In addition, some costs do not get amortized as well - for example, if one tries to provide good support, it doesn't exactly get easier the more customers you have.

What I'm trying to say is that, in my opinion, "less than half the price" would require Krikzz to sell the cartridges at an effective loss. Of course, that doesn't mean you have to buy them - that's market competition for you! But I'm not sure it is fair to describe it as "price-gouging", I really don't anticipate he's doing that well ^^;

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Exactly. He's still pricing stuff like he's the only one pioneering this shit.

He kinda is... Ezflash are copycats that can't get basic functionality working right. There's constant complaints about reliability. I haven't heard any complaints about everdrives. So they're probably worth the money.

 

[asiekierka]

As much as I wouldn't call Krikzz a "price-gouger", I also wouldn't describe EZ-Flash as "copycats". They very much can do original engineering, and their cartridges have their own lineage going all the way back to the 2000s. The back-and-forth between the two has been going on for a while now.

 

[Wokann]

The sad truth

EDIT: Now I'm hoping for a version of ChisFlash with gyro sensor.

In fact, it already exists. And support gba & sp mode for correct direction.

 

[JORGETECH]

In fact, it already exists. And support gba & sp mode for correct direction.

You're talking about the one sold by InsideGadgets, right? A bit steep in price for me. After checking it's web page, it seems to be an original design rather than something based on ChisFlash

 

[Wokann]

You're talking about the one sold by InsideGadgets, right? A bit steep in price for me. After checking it's web page, it seems to be an original design rather than something based on ChisFlash

No, I'm referring to the Chisflash gyroscope card.
Third-party manufacturers currently sell it for around 65-128 RMB (≈ 9-18 dollar) . Here's some of their sales description: (Google Translate)
1. SRAM saves are permanently stored, no battery required, saves have an AB file system to prevent data loss.
2. 32MB (256Mb) game ROM capacity, supports burning all original ROMs.
3. Gravity (tilt) card mode: GBA and GBASP versions available, save file size is only 32KB (256Kb).
4. Gyroscope mode: save file is a full 128KB (1Mb).
Vibration function is available in both modes; the save process starts with the RAM light on and ends with the CPU light off.
And here is a test video in bilibili (https://bilibili.com/video/BV1DBCABKE2t/)

 

[The Real Jdbye]

As much as I wouldn't call Krikzz a "price-gouger", I also wouldn't describe EZ-Flash as "copycats". They very much can do original engineering, and their cartridges have their own lineage going all the way back to the 2000s. The back-and-forth between the two has been going on for a while now.

They could at one point. Ezflash of today is not the same as the ezflash of the GBA era. They are a shell of their former selves. Their old hardware is often better than their current stuff.

 

[Taiyotenko]

That's very impressive.

I just got a Chisflash with rumble only and flashed Drill Drozer. It plays pretty well.

Any ideia if this is already avaliable? I couldn't find it anywhere.

No, I'm referring to the Chisflash gyroscope card.
Third-party manufacturers currently sell it for around 65-128 RMB (≈ 9-18 dollar) . Here's some of their sales description: (Google Translate)
1. SRAM saves are permanently stored, no battery required, saves have an AB file system to prevent data loss.
2. 32MB (256Mb) game ROM capacity, supports burning all original ROMs.
3. Gravity (tilt) card mode: GBA and GBASP versions available, save file size is only 32KB (256Kb).
4. Gyroscope mode: save file is a full 128KB (1Mb).
Vibration function is available in both modes; the save process starts with the RAM light on and ends with the CPU light off.
And here is a test video in bilibili (https://bilibili.com/video/BV1DBCABKE2t/)
View attachment 541221

I share that feeling about EZ Flash.

I have an old EZ Flash IV mini SD (yes, mini SD, not micro SD) and it works well after years.

Then, I decided to get a EZ Flash Jr., but it had so many issues, that I went back to a generic clone GB flashcard.

Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of options for GBA nowadays.

They could at one point. Ezflash of today is not the same as the ezflash of the GBA era. They are a shell of their former selves. Their old hardware is often better than their current stuff.

 

[JORGETECH]

No, I'm referring to the Chisflash gyroscope card.
Third-party manufacturers currently sell it for around 65-128 RMB (≈ 9-18 dollar) . Here's some of their sales description: (Google Translate)

This is exactly what I'm looking for. But I can't find any for sale on Aliexpress, I guess it will arrive to western markets in short time

 

[The Real Jdbye]

That's very impressive.

I just got a Chisflash with rumble only and flashed Drill Drozer. It plays pretty well.

Any ideia if this is already avaliable? I couldn't find it anywhere.



I share that feeling about EZ Flash.

I have an old EZ Flash IV mini SD (yes, mini SD, not micro SD) and it works well after years.

Then, I decided to get a EZ Flash Jr., but it had so many issues, that I went back to a generic clone GB flashcard.

Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of options for GBA nowadays.

I had one of those too and I am still kicking myself for selling it cheap to someone I know who wanted to "hack their GBA". I thought, I bought it for cheap so I'll just buy another one if I need it. Well, I never did that and eventually they more than doubled in price and then went out of production. I thought I wouldn't need it anymore since I had a 3in1 and that was true for a while. But since I'm looking to IPS mod my OG GBA I could really use it now.
Not a lot of good GBA flashcart options left these days and the EZIV was a bargain at $15. I'd buy one again in a heartbeat if I could still get them for that price. Now you're looking to pay minimum ~$70 for a decent GBA flashcart with MicroSD storage.
With the more recent on the fly patching addition the EZIV became even better. It might not be perfect, RTC is a notable omission, but it was way better value for money than what you can get these days and it wouldn't really make sense to pay 5 times as much for a cart with (buggy) RTC if the EZIV was still an option.

 

[realtimesave]

Those of you complaining about Krikzz flash cart prices don't know what you're even talking about. I wish I could filter such posts out of my web browser.

 

[Taiyotenko]

I had one of those too and I am still kicking myself for selling it cheap to someone I know who wanted to "hack their GBA". I thought, I bought it for cheap so I'll just buy another one if I need it. Well, I never did that and eventually they more than doubled in price and then went out of production. I thought I wouldn't need it anymore since I had a 3in1 and that was true for a while. But since I'm looking to IPS mod my OG GBA I could really use it now.
Not a lot of good GBA flashcart options left these days and the EZIV was a bargain at $15. I'd buy one again in a heartbeat if I could still get them for that price. Now you're looking to pay minimum ~$70 for a decent GBA flashcart with MicroSD storage.
With the more recent on the fly patching addition the EZIV became even better. It might not be perfect, RTC is a notable omission, but it was way better value for money than what you can get these days and it wouldn't really make sense to pay 5 times as much for a cart with (buggy) RTC if the EZIV was still an option.

EZ Flash IV had a minor issue too with bigger ROMs. It couldn't run them from PSRAM (which was fast) and it was necessary to load them from NOR, which worked, but it was very slow to write the first time. Nevertheless, the EZ Flash IV is still a solid option, if only it wasn't out of production.

I think that minor issue with big ROMs and the lack of RTC made me get an Everdrive GBA X5 (the first revision with bulky cartridge). At that time, the EDGBA wasn't so expensive and there wasn't a lot of options.

 

[Nephiel]

EZ Flash IV had a minor issue too with bigger ROMs. It couldn't run them from PSRAM (which was fast) and it was necessary to load them from NOR, which worked, but it was very slow to write the first time. Nevertheless, the EZ Flash IV is still a solid option, if only it wasn't out of production.

That's correct, the PSRAM on the EZFlash-IV was half the size of the NOR flash, so the larger ROMs did not fit into PSRAM. On the other hand, unlike PSRAM, ROMs stored in NOR persisted after reboots, and booting them was instant, so you only needed to wait when you changed them. And you could have several smaller ROMs stored on the NOR at the same time.

 

[Technicmaster0]

I haven't heard any complaints about everdrives. So they're probably worth the money.

Just check the everdrive forums. There are many complains about card defects.

That's correct, the PSRAM on the EZFlash-IV was half the size of the NOR flash, so the larger ROMs did not fit into PSRAM. On the other hand, unlike PSRAM, ROMs stored in NOR persisted after reboots, and booting them was instant, so you only needed to wait when you changed them. And you could have several smaller ROMs stored on the NOR at the same time.

But NOR also tends to get corrupted, at least for these old cards

 

[LoggerMan]

I have analogue pocket. If this was cheap enough I might buy it just for Twisted. I bought a rumble cart but I can't play Twisted because the board for that alone is quite expensive.

 

[maimai]

About the solar sensor, there's already the EpicJoy cartridge, which is very cheap, but needs some hardware to write the ROM.

Unfortunately, the only option right now for motion sensor is Inside Gadgets, but their supply is limited and the price is on the high end too.

A ChisFlash or SuperChis with motion sensor would be nice.

It's already on sale.

【虚铁陀螺仪震动卡】 https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1w...eb&vd_source=21e80d43911063bd247063a8c54014cf

 

[Nephiel]

I see an "EverDrive GBA Pro" now on Krikkzz site, $129 but out of stock.

 

[ChronoCrossfangirl2002]

I see an "EverDrive GBA Pro" now on Krikkzz site, $129 but out of stock.

129$ bro i can get an EZFO DE for like 60$ what the hell?