Hacking [Q] Best flashcart for GBA SP/Micro in 2018 ?

[icelaglace]

Hello everyone,

I've been looking around this forum & across the web about which flashcart to get for my GBA SP and Micro.

The new EZ-Flash Omega looks great but it seems that it was reported with a very high power consumption...? (Reported by FAST6191 on another thread)

I really don't mind not having fancy features as long as there's a flashcart that does not destroy the battery and runs most of the GBA games, I don't mind having to patch games if the flashcart does not support RTC, for example.

I've seen that the EverDrive X5 does have a very good power consumption but the fact that the cartridge isn't flush is a deal-breaker for me

Should I go for an older version of the EZ-Flash or another clone or just the latest Omega or something else ?

Thank you very much!

Hoping this is the correct place to post this...

 

[Jayro]

You will not find a better feature-rich GBA cart than Stoneage Gamer's Everdrive X5: https://stoneagegamer.com/flash/game-boy/system/everdrive-gba/

 

[Localhorst86]

Basically, the currently best cards are the Everdrive X5 and the EZ-Flash Omega. They both have their pros and cons. I am not able to compare the external build quality of the cards since I don't have an Everdrive GBA X5

What both cards have in common:
High compatibility with the entire GBA game library
All save types supported, no ROM patching required
Fast Loading (most games load within 1 - 2 seconds)
256Mbit PSRAM (32MByte) ROM memory
Real-time clock support (RTC)
SD, SDHC and SDXC cards are supported
Supported with gamecube player, super retro advance adapter and other GBA accessories
NES, GB and GBC games support via emulation


Everdrive X5
Pros:
Low power consumption
Battery replaceable (used for RTC and saving)

Cons:
FAT32 support only
RTC causes troubles when using multiple games with an RTC function
larger than a regular GBA game (will stick out in GBA consoles, even farther in DS-Lite consoles)

EZ-Flash Omega
Pros:
FAT, FAT32 and exFAT support
smaller than even a regular GBA game, sits flush even in a DS Lite
Savestate functionality
Cheat functionality
Reset to menu
less than half the price of an everdrive X5
RTC works perfectly with multiple games

Cons:
higher power consumption
Battery soldered in - soldering required to replace if it runs dry (only used for the RTC)

NOTE: regarding older EZ-Flash Cards (IV/Reform): They are slightly cheaper than the omega. They also don't require patches to run the games if you're using the latest kernel (2.05). IIRC @FAST6191 reported a comparable power draw between the IV and the omega, I'd assume the reform wont have any significantly different power draw either. That being said, I have been using the EZFlash IV for years in my GBA. Yes, it was noticeable that it draws more power than a GBA Game but it was certainly not abbysmall (sp?) or unacceptable. If money is a big concern, the EZFlash IV and Reform are still valid options, imho if you're willing to live without some added features.

 

[slaphappygamer]

I have an everdrivex5, ezflashIV, and ezflashIII. I may sell the everdrive and/or the ezflashIV and get the omega.

 

[Rune]

How are the saves dealt with on the Everdrive? Does it require a reset or a wait while it writes to the SD card?
Or does it simply just save via the battery and transfer to the SD card instantly?

 

[Hyro-Sama]

Buy from Krizz direct if you decide on the Everdrive. It's the only way to purchase one IMO.

 

[Jayro]

How are the saves dealt with on the Everdrive? Does it require a reset or a wait while it writes to the SD card?
Or does it simply just save via the battery and transfer to the SD card instantly?

I wish all flash carts would just freeze the game for a second and write directly to the SD from the SRAM.

 

[Rune]

That would be nice, but possibly annoying if there was a game that constantly wrote to the SRAM in the background as you played.

If we're going to wish for things, I'd like a physical button on the cart that dumped the SRAM to the SD card whenever it was pressed. So you can play uninterrupted as long as you want whilst using a internal battery for SRAM, then when you're done you hit the button and dump the save.

 

[icelaglace]

I have an everdrivex5, ezflashIV, and ezflashIII. I may sell the everdrive and/or the ezflashIV and get the omega.

Would you mind explaining why please? I'm very curious.

Basically, the currently best cards are the Everdrive X5 and the EZ-Flash Omega. They both have their pros and cons. I am not able to compare the external build quality of the cards since I don't have an Everdrive GBA X5 [...]

Thank you very much for the details with pros / cons! Very useful ​

And thanks everyone for the fast replies!

Seems that most of you are actually recommending the EverDrive X5, I guess i'll just have to accept the fact that it doesn't fit perfectly fine on a GBA

My main priority is battery life as I mostly use my GBA outside of home.
But then I wonder, will the EZ-Flash Omega improve in terms of power consumption or is it just how the hardware is done ?

I was also looking into older flashcarts too but I've seen the Reform on a comment give people only 1 hour of battery life on a Micro which is crazy (Only one guy though, can't really confirm anything, I don't own any flashcart yet ) I thought older carts as they have way less features would be more efficient ... but seems not lol.

If the price isn't an issue, should I still go for the EverDrive X5?
Thanks!

 

[FAST6191]

My main priority is battery life as I mostly use my GBA outside of home.
But then I wonder, will the EZ-Flash Omega improve in terms of power consumption or is it just how the hardware is done ?

I was also looking into older flashcarts too but I've seen the Reform on a comment give people only 1 hour of battery life on a Micro which is crazy (Only one guy though, can't really confirm anything, I don't own any flashcart yet ) I thought older carts as they have way less features would be more efficient ... but seems not lol.

One of the kernel updates did improve the performance enough to be noted, even on my crude setup. Whether they continue to pursue that I don't know. There is scope to do so as I saw power draw at points during the test but down there with the older stuff that everybody seems happy with.

Equally you can charge the thing from USB if you have one of those USB power banks that are so popular these days.

 

[Localhorst86]

If the price isn't an issue, should I still go for the EverDrive X5?
Thanks!

I would go for the omega, really. Not only is it less expensive but it also has more features and doesn't stick out from the GBA.
I always felt that the EDGBA simply wasn't worth the premium price it asks for.

There really never was a point where I though "damn, battery life with my EZ-Flash is really short."

 

[slaphappygamer]

Would you mind explaining why please? I'm very curious.​

​

I’d go for the omega because, it’s cheaper, it fits better in the Gba, the NOR is much larger than the usual 32MB, and I’ve always like the interface better. Sure the battery is soldered in, but changing it isn’t that bad. On my ezflashIII, I broke the tabs from the original battery and slid a new battery in there. Works great.

 

[Plstic]

I’d go for the omega because, it’s cheaper, it fits better in the Gba, the NOR is much larger than the usual 32MB, and I’ve always like the interface better. Sure the battery is soldered in, but changing it isn’t that bad. On my ezflashIII, I broke the tabs from the original battery and slid a new battery in there. Works great.

I would not recommend that. Just hold the soldering iron on one of the tabs and pull the battery up. It's not hard like some people would like you to believe.

 

[slaphappygamer]

I would not recommend that. Just hold the soldering iron on one of the tabs and pull the battery up. It's not hard like some people would like you to believe.

I was talking about the tabs right on the battery. Replacement batteries don’t have similar tabs as they are unique to the ezflashIII.

 

[666]

Ok, it's 2019, whats the best option for the GBA Micro? From my forum trawling & googling it looks like the EZ Flash Reform? I want it to sit flush and work. It's finally time to play the translated Mother 3.

 

[Rune]

Nothing's changed since 2018.

 

[666]

Nothing's changed since 2018.

What happened in 2018? Is the reform the way to go?

 

[FAST6191]

What happened in 2018? Is the reform the way to go?

The EZFlash Omega was released, and generally got up to speed.

The Reform is an older EZFlash product and while it, along with just about everything they did before, is "if it fits then it runs" (give or take various amounts of fun and games from the likes of http://gbatemp.net/threads/buying-a-gba-flash-cart-in-2013.341203/page-18#post-4756995 ), the Omega has more features so would probably represent the better bet.

To that end choices are
Absolute top tier
Between the everdrive mentioned at the start and the Omega. The everdrive sticks out a bit, the omega gobbles a bit more power but they got that down (though not to original or the even better some really old school carts used) but feature wise they are the best we ever saw, and likely about as good as it gets until we start playing with replica hardware and twisting that. The Omega is considerably cheaper in most vendors.

Whatever was left standing prior to everdrive and omega. Again most things here are going to play just about everything with the tricky stuff being on that list. For many years all you could really find was the EZFlash 3 in 1 if you wanted to use it on a DS/DS lite and had a DS flash cart to manage it, and the EZ4. If you could find a good m3 or g6 though then it was good.
Said EZ4 was the last thing available in the dedicated GBA cart range for a while, and the EZTeam put out a few new runs of it, then a version with microSD instead of mini and finally the reform which is a sort of new but still essentially an EZ4 type device, which was then obviated by the omega. Other than the really fancy features it should be noted the EZ4 line lacks real time clock aka RTC which most like for the gem named pokemon games which have a clock onboard and use it for a few things. More on the link at the start for patches on how to sort that.

Older stuff.
Older NOR and NAND-RAM stuff from the GBA era was running GBA stuff like original hardware, or original hardware with cheats, reset, savestates in some cases and hacks if you wanted them, for years and years and did not suddenly stop here. Storage capacity was smaller, many had batteries to sort or will need sorting if you found one, not to mention you will probably need Windows XP and some software fiddling, maybe also a serial port and special cable.

Supercard and the supercard clones (team cyclops made one, though there are others).
Supercard cheaped out on GBA RAM and thus what little it could run needed speed patches and other hacks. Because of this, and them continuing the support the DS side of things for quite a while, you could still find them from time to time.

The non GBA GBA slot devices.
As memory to make GBA games run is expensive then before we all went to DS slot flash carts the various flash cart makers made cheap versions with limited (ROM size rather than speed) or no support for GBA stuff. EZFlash's take was the EZ4 lite compact (the EZ4 lite deluxe on the other hand being one of the most sought after flash carts during the "only the EZ4 is available days" owing to it having 256Mbit of PSRAM and 384 of NOR).

Everything else.
This is mainly stuff like fire cards (usually 128MBit/16 megabyte NOR based things) and some of the really cheap GBA carts made, as well as most homebrew designs on such things.

 

[Ryccardo]

In short, if you want an Ez-Flash (having already struck Everdrive due to price and/or size):

the Omega has a clock (woo hoo), saves directly to SD after software saves to the virtual save chip (can be better or worse than the classic design depending on how often and what the title saves, whether or not the card has issues with your console, and most importantly how much the operator is familiar with this system and can appropriately adjust his power off habits), has 32 MB of RAM (instead of the previous de facto standard 16) for under-30-seconds loading of any commercial game;

the Reform has an easy to replace battery, no soldering required (which is a fairly significant advantage given the extremely limited capacity, value, and availability of CR1220s even before you restrict yourself to looking at models with tabs) and the classic SRAM method for saves (see above); also they're already moderately hard to find

 

[kuwanger]

Storage capacity was smaller

I like your classy level of understatement.