Hacking Why are GBA Flashcarts so expensive?

[DarkFlare69]

Can someone quote me when they answer? I never look in this section.

Lately, I was looking at GBA Flashcarts, like EZ-Flash IV and stuff. Just wondering, why are they so expensive? What's the very cheapest one? I don't care if it's shit.

They're so expensive it'd hardly even be worth it. I could get like 25 games for that price.

 

[leandogo]

I just bought an EZ FLASH MICRO SD IV in chollomedia for a good price, I'm hoping to get the package for review.

P.S: http://www.chollomedia.es/epages/61488288.sf/es_ES/?ObjectPath=/Shops/61488288/Products/nds_ez

 

[how_do_i_do_that]

Can someone quote me when they answer? I never look in this section.

Lately, I was looking at GBA Flashcarts, like EZ-Flash IV and stuff. Just wondering, why are they so expensive? What's the very cheapest one? I don't care if it's shit.

They're so expensive it'd hardly even be worth it. I could get like 25 games for that price.

NOR flash memory cost alot back then. The PSRAM also costs alot back then. This was before removable media showed up and became cost effective.

Compared to a DS flashcart, the DS flashcart has no NOR or PSRAM. You are basically accessing storage on the microSD for the ROM data and save data as well.

Nearly everything you can find in a GBA cart was internalized in the DS to make the cost and development of DS games relatively cheap for them. Due to this, everything that is cheap for legit manufactures also made it cheap for DS flashcart makers.

 

[160R]

I just bought an EZ FLASH MICRO SD IV in chollomedia for a good price, I'm hoping to get the package for review.

P.S: http://www.chollomedia.es/epages/61488288.sf/es_ES/?ObjectPath=/Shops/61488288/Products/nds_ez

Exactly, you can find it for about 30eur there. They do worldwide ship.

 

[xy1154]

Some of them are very expensive due to superior hardware and RTC, like M3 Perfect or EZ-Flash 2/3.
As for the cheapest one, I did find cheaper cards which are usually sold at about $10 (in China), like Supercard-SD or some low-capacity ones.

 

[160R]

Supercard SD original and clones suck at game compatibility and framerate. For about 35usd better get a nowadays EZ-Flash IV for microSD SDHC support, RTC patch for Pokemon games, good game compatibility and no framerate problems.

M3 Perfect or EZ-Flash 2/3 makes not such a big difference, even worse in some aspects, and are hard to find nowadays. Makes no sense to pay +100usd for cards which doesn't even support more than 2GB memory.

 

[albertar]

actually the m3 perfect and the latter carts are considered superior as it has a rtc and can support up to 32mb of ram as opposed to other devices that have to be loaded onto the NOR. I have an m3 perfect sd and I think it's one of the best carts out there! I can only get the 1gb card to work however.

 

[160R]

actually the m3 perfect and the latter carts are considered superior as it has a rtc and can support up to 32mb of ram as opposed to other devices that have to be loaded onto the NOR. I have an m3 perfect sd and I think it's one of the best carts out there! I can only get the 1gb card to work however.

And where can I get M3 Perfect actually?

 

[Lemmy Koopa]

And where can I get M3 Perfect actually?

Nowhere ever. No one has them. Anyone who does will never sell them.

I don't get why people complain about Flash cart prices. I had to pay almost 100 each for my 2 flash carts I've had. How much are they now, 40? Pfft. That's cheaper than a new game for a system these days. 40 dollars for every single GBA, NES, GB/GBC, Famicom, Master System, Colecovision, etc. On the go, or on a TV via GB player. Why complain?

 

[Localhorst86]

I have also been looking for a cheap GBA flash cart. I still have my old Flash2Advance 128M card but that is basically useless. there are no drivers for my windows 8.1 x64 system and I do not really want to run a VM with an ancient OS like XP.

So I have been looking around and found the prices for GBA flashcarts - allthough a lot cheaper than in the olden days - to still be surprisingly high. I was able to find the Supercard Mini for 20$ and an ezflash IV MicroSDHC for $35, both on aliexpress. So I decided to get the EZIV as that's probably better than the Supercard.

 

[160R]

Again, you will find it cheaper on chollomedia.es than Aliexpress.

 

[Localhorst86]

damnit, didn't find that shop in my google search. That would have been perfect since they ship from EU so there's no chance this will be held at customs. But my order from china has already shipped. Oh well, I'll survive. But that shop is bookmarked. Thanks.

 

[Shadow#1]

LOL the skiddies of today bitching about flashcart prices its because they r spoiled by the $4 R4's my first gba flashcart costed me $300

 

[migles]

LOL the skiddies of today bitching about flashcart prices its because they r spoiled by the $4 R4's my first gba flashcart costed me $300

remember the cost of a doctor v64 for n64? some of them were sold without a cd drive to make it cheaper but it was just ~100 bucks less IIRC
i think the price was over $400?

btw this thread is kinda old :/ but DarkFlare69 with so many options to play gbagames nowadays, like phones tablets comptuter almost any console capable of homebrew etc
we are in 2015
it makes sence they are kinda expensive.. gba is 10+ (almost 15) years old.. only a small group of people will want them.. nowadays if someone wants to play old games they do it on phones...
therefore, if i want to really use my game boy, i will get a card of 50 bucks its the price of a new game anyway..
if you get a card to keep forever your games i think its worth.. i am super happy with 50 bucks price..
if i dont sell them, or damage them... i know in 10-20 years i will grab them and play all the old games..

 

[FAST6191]

damnit, didn't find that shop in my google search. That would have been perfect since they ship from EU so there's no chance this will be held at customs. But my order from china has already shipped. Oh well, I'll survive. But that shop is bookmarked. Thanks.

For what it is worth http://www.flashlinker-shop.com/nin...dhc-slot-2-gba-gbm-sp-nds-nds-lite-p-861.html is based in Germany.

Have there been many/any stoppages in German/EU customs then?

 

[Localhorst86]

For what it is worth http://www.flashlinker-shop.com/nin...dhc-slot-2-gba-gbm-sp-nds-nds-lite-p-861.html is based in Germany.

Have there been many/any stoppages in German/EU customs then?

That's the one I found, but shipping is another 4,90€. I haven't had anything stopped at customs in ages, last time (4 years back) was a shipment of t-shirts from the US. It all depends on how the consignor declares the value on the box so with shipments from non-EU countries there's always a risk, i guess.

 

[Sliter]

these newer flashcard can do stuffs like hm .. play on NDS/ gba player, transfer to pokemon / link with gamecube games and these stuff? õ3o

 

[Vipera]

I remember when DS flashcard cost almost as much as an actual DS

 

[migles]

these newer flashcard can do stuffs like hm .. play on NDS/ gba player, transfer to pokemon / link with gamecube games and these stuff? õ3o

newer? the gba flashcarts are old.. unless you mean the new version of ez iv, but thats just revision, not actually new..

yeah, you can use ez iv (or other gba flascarts) to play on NDS/gbaplayer or the original game boy advance sp micro and knuckles
as for transfer pokemon to diamond pearl etc its not possible.

i don't own a gba (just own a ds lite) can't test link with another gba games..

link with gamecube games i also don't think they work, it depends on the game, on how they link..

you can transfer from a ez 3 in 1 to a Diamond\Pearl on a flashcart. but i dont think its possible with original games

to transfer saves from real gba games to pc\other flashcarts or emulators (basically extract a .sav from a real card) or vice versa you must get a DS flashcart..

 

[Sliter]

newer? the gba flashcarts are old.. unless you mean the new version of ez iv, but thats just revision, not actually new..

yeah, you can use ez iv (or other gba flascarts) to play on NDS/gbaplayer or the original game boys
as for transfer pokemon to diamond pearl etc its not possible.

i don't own a gba (just own a ds lite) can't test link with another gba games..

link with gamecube games i also don't think they work, it depends on the game, on how they link..

you can transfer from a ez 3 in 1 to a Diamond\Pearl on a flashcart. but i dont think its possible with original games

to transfer saves from real gba games to pc\other flashcarts or emulators (basically extract a .sav from a real card) or vice versa you must get a DS flashcart..

actually I have an ezflahs 3in1 but I'm not using it much .. I would like to have one I could play on my actuall gba XD and I wanted do stuffs like the communication with gamecube .. I Know if you do it ingame (like sonic advance ) it would work, but if it need to load your save I'm not sure if will work :/ some gba games are jard and expensive to get, if this works would be great :B lol

And actually you can't do ez3in1 to original game, unless you use an code or something , I saw you need a modded DS rom to make it work :v