Hacking Ez Flash IV for GBA SP

[KSIXephos938]

Hi guys, my first post here, this is about the GBA but there isn't a forum for it but you could use the Ez Flash IV on the DS.

I have just bought the Ez Flash IV and Its a pain trying to pt the games onto it. I have already downloaded all the ROMs from coolrom.com but need to find out how to install them.

What are the files for:

GBA Games
GB Games
GBC Games
NES Games
SNES Games
GameGear Games
Lynx Games

Thanks, I am a n00b at emulators and ROMs. Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you.

 

[mthrnite]

Moved to appropriate subforum.

 

[KSIXephos938]

Thanks for moving the thread.

 

[RodrigoDavy]

You must use a program called ez4client to patch the roms. The gba games and homebrew must be in the root of the SD card

 

[KSIXephos938]

Yes I've got the EZ4 Client V1.03 but do you have the instructions on how to patch them? Each time I patch the games they either remove the name or change it to another name. For example Advance Wars turns into Advance Wars2 Black Hole. Also any ideas on the other games like GameGear and GBC? I know that you need an emulator but don't know how to install them. Thanks.

 

[cracker]

I've only come across one game that didn't run ok after the EZ4 Client had patched it so that shouldn't be a concern. The output files are named according to the internal name. If you patch one game at a time then you can edit the name. (Unfortunately, they stopped development right around the time they were going to be adding the ability to rename games, etc. in batch patch mode.) Alternately, you could rename the .gba and .sav (in /saver) after they are patched.

For emulators you will need to patch them with a DLDI patch. This let's the emulator access the filesystem directly to load games and read/write saves. Get this tool to easily patch the emulators. Then just place them into the root directory of your SD card. Copy over the .nes, .gb/c, etc. to the root directory or into folders if you want -- some don't support the latter. You shouldn't get your hope up with emulation on the GBA except for NES, some GB/C, and a rare SNES game that will run at a decent rate w/o problems. From what I recall the SMS emulator was rather poor and only the final beta that was released was able to run a small handful of games decently. I'm not sure if the Lynx emulator that was rumored about was ever even released. I would just stick with NES and some GB/C until you get a DS or PSP to play the rest.

 

[KSIXephos938]

Thanks for telling me that the Client takes the name of the internal file. I guess the only way is to mill across every single ROM I have. (I have 150 GBA ROMs) I haven't heard of the DLDI Patch but does the Goomba Color Work? Also I know that GBA, GB, GBC, NES and GameGear games work on the GBA, thanks.

 

[cracker]

I guess I forgot how Goomba Color operated. It doesn't use DLDI so the games need to be stuck onto the .gba.

To do this in Windows:

copy /B goomba.gba + *.gb + *.gbc > goomba_games.gba

In *nix:

cat goomba.gba *.gb *.gbc > goomba_games.gba

I think then you should run it through the EZ 4 Client so it can create the save file and possibly patch it so it saves correctly.

I don't have the time to look into how to retain the saves in the games but I know sometimes you would need to power cycle to save properly on those older emulators.

 

[KSIXephos938]

Uhhh, in English??? I'm 13 and this is my first emulation project. (yes, I'm calling this a project.) I've done a bit of research and thes are the emulators I'll use.

GBA - EZ4 Client
GB - Goomba
GBC - Goomba Color
NES - PocketNES
GameGear - SMSAdvance

Heard of them before? Any tutorials? Thanks.

 

[Jayro]

Youtube is your best friend for tutorials. Stop being lazy and use key words.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Uhhh, in English??? I'm 13 and this is my first emulation project. (yes, I'm calling this a project.) I've done a bit of research and thes are the emulators I'll use.

GBA - EZ4 Client
GB - Goomba
GBC - Goomba Color
NES - PocketNES
GameGear - SMSAdvance

Heard of them before? Any tutorials? Thanks.

You can use Goomba Color for both GB and GBC, so the old (and outdated) Goomba is not required.

There are also a couple SNES emulators for GBA that run decently with some games, Snezzi and SNESAdvance. Compatibility will be hit and miss though so you likely won't be able to play some of the games you have.

Both of these use the same method as Goomba Color for embedding roms IIRC.
As far as I know, DLDI patching does not exist for GBA homebrew as the DLDI system was first created for the DS, and while it would be possible for GBA homebrew to employ the same methods,

I don't think a library exists for GBA homebrew to do so (plus GBA homebrew is no longer updated so most homebrew would probably not have DLDI implemented into it anyway)
So, most likely every emulator you find will require you to embed the games in the same way (some may come with a patcher to make it simpler to do, however)

There's the old libfat library that works on GBA homebrew, but only for a certain and very limited amount of slot-2 flashcarts (the EZ4 isn't one of them), and I can't recall any emulators actually supporting that library, just obscure ROM/save dumping tools and similar things.

 

[cracker]

The Real Jdbye is correct about DLDI. I glazed over the fact that you are using a GBA and not a DS. PocketNES roms must be built in the same way as the GB/C, SNES ones are in order to run. PocketNES ROM Builder simplifies things and gives the bonus of applying cheats, fixes as well.

 

[KSIXephos938]

Ok so any walkthrough for the Goomba Color? How do you convert .gbc to .gba?