Hacking EZ flash Omega - Don't Buy - Save Issues - Honest Opinion.

[vree]

So I've been using an Omega on a GBA-SP AGS101 (backlit) since May 14, 2018 .

There where issues at the beginning where things could not save in combination with an AGS101. But the devs fixed that issue after a while. So I was happy, didn't really use it in months. But now I thought why no play some more on it. But yeah you guessed it. Save issues arised again....

Nothing changed, the flashcard wasn't touched in months. So I thought why not update the firmware and kernal to the latest. But no dice, didn't help. Couldn't save a single game... Even after completely formatting the SD-card. This Omega card has given me more headaches than I had fun out of it.

I even tried deleting every single savefile and try from scratch. No dice....

Tried it on my old AGS001 same issue couldn't save games...

@EZ-Flash2

See my other topic in the past. So yeah I was at square one again:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/ez-flash-omega-doesnt-save-a-single-game-ags-101.503885/

EVENTUALLY I FOUND A SOLUTION:
In a desperate attempt I got clean backups of all the games on my card and put those back on there. I can save now, in the few games I tested, that didn't save anymore before. This means the only thing I can think of is that the EZ-flash Omega someway managed to corrupt the actual .gba files so they could still launch but not save. This might be due to the autopatcher of the firmware or whatever. The point is the EZ flash Omega succeeded in breaking perfectly working roms (including being able to save). And I needed to replace them all to fix the issue.

PS: I never turned the GBA SP off while saving and I always waited like 10 seconds before turning it off after saving. So no I did not corrupt the games by my own action. The SD card also was never removed in between sessions from the Flashcard, no games/saves where edited removed in between sessions. Also no mods/cheats options where used, ever!

MY OPINION ON THE EZ-FLASH OMEGA (after owning it for almost 2 year):
While I got everything working again I rather would get rid of this thing, nothing but issues and I'm not the only one if you see all the posts here and on reddit. The only thing I can advise people at this point is to avoid EZ-flash their quality isn't what it used to be before the Omega. So don't cheap out (like I did) and get an Everdrive. Especially if you want to play RPG's where you can loose hours upon hours of playtime.

Also don't expect to use it for GB and GBC games, because that is even more of a mess with the save not writing away immediately and having to count ingame and in the emulator menu. Even when people did that they still had issues that even lead to corrupting the SD-card itself. I luckily never had my SD card corrupt itself.

And completely forget about PKM romhacks, most of those won't save at all...

In short this Omega flashcard just loves to corrupt saves, games, the sd card itself when it feels like it. Some people might be luckier than others. But it is not a question about if it will happen, just when will it happen....

This is coming from someone who loved and used the "EZ-Flash Advance Realtime 256M" and the "EZ-FlashIV" a lot back in the days, with zero issues. This "EZ-Flash Omega" thing is just plain horrible. And from what I read the new "EZ-Flash JR" for Gameboy isn't doing much better....

Anyone want to buy an EZ-Flash Omega?
^not actually selling here, just a joke.
EDIT: I finally sold it! Good riddance!

 

[Sterophonick]

While the EZ-Flash Omega is a great cartridge for the price, there are still numerous issues that really should get ironed out in a future cartridge. Hopefully EZ-Flash can release a later revision with all the problems fixed.

 

[EZ-Flash2]

Let me make it clear: in the end, this card can still be saved normally. You just reformatted the microsd card and copied all the GBA files again.

This indicates that the microSD card is on the verge of crash, even you can launch a game properly. but the file allocation units of SAVER folder were damaged which is caused by a previous write interruption. so it can not create or modify save file in the folder. it looks like none game can be saved.

But I doubt that the topic which you said Omega will damage the GBA file on the card, unless you have hash verified the ROMs stored on the card and the original version of ROM. And you also said that the GBA files can be saved normally after it is copied to the card again. If it is a damaged GBA file, it should not be launched or saved properly. Anyway, it just for a clarify not an accuse.

We apologize for the poor experience brought to you by the product. We will further improve file system compatibility and save file security through software upgrade in the future. We respect users' choice of our products and actively respond to each user's questions. After all, we are the one of few development teams in the current market that can actively interact with the user community.

 

[Clydefrosch]

Can you also do something about that thing where using this cart reduces battery time by half?

 

[Deleted User]

Can you also do something about that thing where using this cart reduces battery time by half?

Or better yet..where the card will randomly delete your saves folder and all the saves in it

 

[vree]

Let me make it clear: in the end, this card can still be saved normally. You just reformatted the microsd card and copied all the GBA files again.

This indicates that the microSD card is on the verge of crash, even you can launch a game properly. but the file allocation units of SAVER folder were damaged which is caused by a previous write interruption. so it can not create or modify save file in the folder. it looks like none game can be saved.

But I doubt that the topic which you said Omega will damage the GBA file on the card, unless you have hash verified the ROMs stored on the card and the original version of ROM. And you also said that the GBA files can be saved normally after it is copied to the card again. If it is a damaged GBA file, it should not be launched or saved properly. Anyway, it just for a clarify not an accuse.

We apologize for the poor experience brought to you by the product. We will further improve file system compatibility and save file security through software upgrade in the future. We respect users' choice of our products and actively respond to each user's questions. After all, we are the one of few development teams in the current market that can actively interact with the user community.

Untrue the SD card was not on the verge of crash. Because the first thing I did was remove every single thing from it, BUT copied the games from it to my pc. You know those games that could perfectly start? After that I placed the games back and added the needed other folders and files from scratch (new), including a new SAVER folder. Even updated the firmware. And you know what? It still could not save the games. After that I did the exact same thing but first formated the SD card, and you know what? Still couldn't save. This confirming 100% that it corrupted the games itself.

So it was only after I replaced those GBA files with fresh copies that it worked again. When I copied the new games I didn't change a single other folder. This had NOTHING to do with the SD card itself. You may deny it all you want to save your precious sales. But there are enough people out there that have issue with this thing even after doing everything right.

I've been modding almost every single console out there. Even the DS where you first had to short circuit the battery to make it able to boot DS games from the GBA slot. So I know what carefull is. Just blaming it over and over again on the user not being carefull enough is an easy solution to the problem isn't it?

You might actively respond to each user, but that doesn't solve a single issue. Your cart has been out for almost 2 years. You have done nothing to improve the save problems at all...

Anyway, it is just for a clarify not an accuse.... Sounds great doens't it >_>

I don't really care about it being fixed, because I don't see it happen without a hardware revision and you guys being in denial. The only thing I want to achieve here is to atleast warn new users that this card might be nice for it's price. But it's unstable as hell. So they can atleast read some opinions before they purchase it just because it's cheap.

Again I was a big fan of the older EZ GBA cards and other branded DS cards and so on. Never have I encountered this much issues with a card. So this isn't me...

I appologise if this might sound a bit rude. But I could have guessed you blamed the user or the SD card or whatever again...

 

[lamvuong]

I think the corrupted save or not able to save games is an issue and easily replicated on the GBA SP. I changed my system to the NDS lite and didn't have the issue any more. It has a better screen anyway.

I also find the cheat engine for the system works but most of the time it is in Chinese.

On the plus side, you don't need to patch your GBA roms run it.

I wish they just fix the cheats, or make the cheat system open source to allow other people to work on them. Overall I am pretty happy with my EZ flash omega.

 

[vree]

I think the corrupted save or not able to save games is an issue and easily replicated on the GBA SP. I changed my system to the NDS lite and didn't have the issue any more. It has a better screen anyway.

I also find the cheat engine for the system works but most of the time it is in Chinese.

On the plus side, you don't need to patch your GBA roms run it.

I wish they just fix the cheats, or make the cheat system open source to allow other people to work on them. Overall I am pretty happy with my EZ flash omega.

This might be true about the gba SP, see the link I posted in my opening post about the issues at the beginning.

But I too have a NDS Lite, but the screen of my ags-101 (backlit) GBA SP is equally good. Plus because of the form factor of the small clamshell I like it much more. Even so a flashcard that is made for gba should work on any gba unless stated otherwise and even if this is true and an usable work around. This doesn't make it an acceptable solution...

So no not happy with the flashcard at all.

 

[Localhorst86]

On the plus side, you don't need to patch your GBA roms run it.

I wish they just fix the cheats, or make the cheat system open source to allow other people to work on them. Overall I am pretty happy with my EZ flash omega.

Nothing is keeping you from making cheats yourself. The cheats are just emucheat format files and are not encrypted. They contain the memory addresses and values in plain text. All you need to create cheats is a device that allows you to poke around in the systems memory. This might probably be possible with gba dev kits but more commonly available are probably PC emulators like mgba or visualboy advance. Once you found the right addresses to poke around with, creating a cheat file is as Trivial as opening notepad.
You can modify the existing cht files with any text editor, they are text files with the extension renamed to cht.

Also, no modern gba flashcard requires you to patch roms anymore. Be it the EZ-Flash IV, the EZ-Flash reform, the EZ-Flash omega or the Krikzz Everdrive GBA X5.

Overall, I understand OPs sentiment in that the saving system of the omega can be confusing and not understanding what the system does at any given point doesn't help users preventing data corruption. The "older" method of handling saves as it is implemented in the EZ-Flash IV, Reform and Everdrive GBA is just less challenging for the consumer and the fact that they went back to this system with the EZFlash Jr tells me they have accepted that fact.
I'd like to point out, that if you're looking at various forums and social media sites and noticing people mentioning issues, it's because people are more likely to create a post if they are running into an issue - be it a defect of the hardware, compatibility issues or user error. The Everdrive GBA is not free from issues and problems either
Overall, the EZ-Flash Omega is about a third of the price of pretty much the only other competitor, the everdrive. And while the omega isn't perfect, once you understand what is causing those issues and how to avoid them, it's still a viable card, but it has its weaknesses.

 

[lamvuong]

Nothing is keeping you from making cheats yourself. The cheats are just emucheat format files and are not encrypted. They contain the memory addresses and values in plain text. All you need to create cheats is a device that allows you to poke around in the systems memory. This might probably be possible with gba dev kits but more commonly available are probably PC emulators like mgba or visualboy advance. Once you found the right addresses to poke around with, creating a cheat file is as Trivial as opening notepad.
You can modify the existing cht files with any text editor, they are text files with the extension renamed to cht.

I just checked for the cht file and there are over 2000 files for English and they are 001, 002 etc what games are they related to? The game name is inside the file under GameInfo but its not the easiest to navigate. Its pretty messy to say the very least and difficult to work with.

 

[Localhorst86]

I just checked for the cht file and there are over 2000 files for English and they are 001, 002 etc what games are they related to? The game name is inside the file under GameInfo but its not the easiest to navigate. Its pretty messy to say the very least and difficult to work with.

That part is a bit trickier. I was under the impression they used the files named like the internal ROM code, but they instead used numbered files. That just adds an extra step, though.

Either way, this is how it goes: the archive comes with a "database" (more like a lookup table, though) that maps the internal ROM code to a number. See the GameID2cht.bin file. Open it in a text editor and you'll find text that looks like "AFZJ0001AMAJ0002... “ etc.
This means that the file 0001.cht belongs to the game with the internal ROM code AFZJ, 0002.cht belongs to AMAJ (the numbers might be related to the order Rom dumps were released back then, but that's just a guess, I don't really know the method ez used to assign the numbers)
You can find the ROM code by looking at the header of the ROM using tools like gbata.
So you need to look in the header of your rom for the code, search that 4-letter string in the bin database, and take the number right next to it. That's the cheat file for your ROM. Thats also how the ezflash determines what cheat file to load. It reads the code from the Rom header, looks up the cheat file from the database accordingly and loads it.

Note that the cheat files are not intended for you to "work with", which is why the process seems a bit convoluted and has therefore not been documented by EZ-Flash. But it's still open for you to work with that, if you really want to.

Disregard rambling, see proper answer below.

 

[EZ-Flash2]

quote from the the user manual. about the the user defined cheat.

The cheat library is collected from the Internet, we provide it only for the convenience of the users. It may have the wrong cheat code which cause cheating fail or game crash.

User can put a cht file which have same file name with game into CHEAT folder to override the cheat library.

mario.cht     <==>     mario.gba

 

[veikkos]

We will further improve file system compatibility and save file security through software upgrade in the future. We respect users' choice of our products and actively respond to each user's questions. After all, we are the one of few development teams in the current market that can actively interact with the user community.

Hi, thanks for the great product. If you can improve the saving it would make your flash carts almost perfect.

Is there anything you could share about your future updates, either their content or schedule? It's been a while since last update has been released.

 

[MrCokeacola]

Bring back EZ-Flash IV

 

[Shadow#1]

Bring back EZ-Flash IV

OH HELL NO!!!

EZ-FLASH OMEGA IS SUPERIOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Psy-Phi]

Heya vree,I've lost saves on my EZ-Flash IV as well as previous carts I've forgotten the name of. I was hoping to replace my IV with an Omega.... but this is disheartening to read.

I've been ridiculously careful with the EZ-Flash IV, always turning it off, then back on to write the save, and off again.

Playing an english-patched game I made it 11+ and lost a save, then 20+ hours and lost again. I learned the first time to back up saves so I only had to go back to 6 hours previous but it's quite infuriating and kills the momentum of playing a game to lose your save and have to repeat things again. So I feel like I should heed your advice... But the allure of faster load times for games is too appealing!

I know you posted this to give a sort of PSA to folks, but if you're serious about getting rid of yours, I'd be interested in taking it off of your hands.... if only we were in the same country. So, should I really avoid it? Have you implemented a backup regimen and continue to use it? What are you using now?

I've begun buying repro's of the translated games I want to play instead. It's worth it I think.

 

[vree]

Heya vree,I've lost saves on my EZ-Flash IV as well as previous carts I've forgotten the name of. I was hoping to replace my IV with an Omega.... but this is disheartening to read.

I've been ridiculously careful with the EZ-Flash IV, always turning it off, then back on to write the save, and off again.

Playing an english-patched game I made it 11+ and lost a save, then 20+ hours and lost again. I learned the first time to back up saves so I only had to go back to 6 hours previous but it's quite infuriating and kills the momentum of playing a game to lose your save and have to repeat things again. So I feel like I should heed your advice... But the allure of faster load times for games is too appealing!

I know you posted this to give a sort of PSA to folks, but if you're serious about getting rid of yours, I'd be interested in taking it off of your hands.... if only we were in the same country. So, should I really avoid it? Have you implemented a backup regimen and continue to use it? What are you using now?

I've begun buying repro's of the translated games I want to play instead. It's worth it I think.

Like I said I'm not selling it here. Will do that locally.

Also do yourself a favour and get the Everdrive. That way you are sure you won't have any regrets and issues.

 

[Psy-Phi]

Like I said I'm not selling it here. Will do that locally.

Also do yourself a favour and get the Everdrive. That way you are sure you won't have any regrets and issues.

I've been looking at that as well. My only hesitation is it's cart height. I primarily play on a GBAmicro and don't' want a cartridge the size of Boktai or Warioware Twisted jutting out from the bottom of my system (unless I'm playing Boktai or Warioware) since it ruins the pocket-ability of it and it won't fit in my case.

It wouldn't be the end of the world to have two carts with me though and just pop in the Everdrive when needed... I'm hoping for an X7 to drop at standard height. But, I appreciate your response, and it's giving me pause for sure. I just need more patience for the X7, or patience in waiting for games to load from the otherwise working Flash IV that randomly loses saves from time to time.

I wish I knew exactly what happened and if it were something I could change in my behavior. Anyway, thanks again.

 

[zfreeman]

I'm hoping for an X7 to drop at standard height.

https://twitter.com/krikzz/status/1222556756691292163

 

[Shadow#1]

That's not the X7