There's a new revision of an old GBA flashcart hitting the market. Krikzz has just announced that their latest release, the EverDrive GBA X5 Mini, can finally be ordered through their official website. The X5 Mini comes in a smaller form factor than the previous version, and will retail for $99. It'll support all save types, has 256Mbit ROM memory, can be used with the GameCube Player through use of the super Retro Advance adapter, and can play NES, GB, and GBC backups through an emulation mode.

Features:

• All save types supported, no ROM patching required
• Fast Loading (most games load within 1 - 2 seconds)
• 256Mbit PSRAM (32MByte) ROM memory
• 1Mbit SRAM (128KByte) save memory
• Real-time clock support
• Low power consumption
• micro SD cards are supported. Tested with micro-SD cards up to 64GB
• FAT32 support
• Supported with GameCube player, some revisions of Super Retro Advance adapter and other GBA accessories
• NES, GB and GBC ROM formats are support (emulation mode)

Source
Store Page

 

[playstays_shun]

what is the best way to play GBA: AGS-101, the regular with AGS-101 fitted, regular with IPS v2 or SP with IPS v2?

 

[Sizednochi]

what is the best way to play GBA: AGS-101, the regular with AGS-101 fitted, regular with IPS v2 or SP with IPS v2?

GBA SP is too uncomfortable if you have adult hands... Way too cramped. The original model is the best, it's the best to hold and you can use high duty rechargeable AAs for better battery life. You also have a headphone jack, which the SP lacks.

The screen is a matter of taste. The 101 screen looks more authentic, with the "dot matrix" effect if you like that, but I dislike the heavy ghosting effect it has due to low refresh rate.
IPS V2 screen is crystal clear without any ghosting, and much brighter, also with killer viewing angles... but doesn't have that dot matrix thing. IPS also has slightly less battery life, but not by much. Something like 10 to 15%.

Having owned but a 101 GBA SP and an IPS V2 modded original GBA... The IPS modded GBA is the best possible combo I feel. I sold my 101 after getting it.

 

[Amilord]

Geeeeez ! 99$ ? I'm gonna stick with my 20$ chinese flashcart then. I'll be happy to pay up to 50$ for a non chinese cart but here it's really too much

 

[playstays_shun]

GBA SP is too uncomfortable if you have adult hands... Way too cramped. The original model is the best, it's the best to hold and you can use high duty rechargeable AAs for better battery life. You also have a headphone jack, which the SP lacks.

The screen is a matter of taste. The 101 screen looks more authentic, with the "dot matrix" effect if you like that, but I dislike the heavy ghosting effect it has due to low refresh rate.
IPS V2 screen is crystal clear without any ghosting, and much brighter, also with killer viewing angles... but doesn't have that dot matrix thing. IPS also has slightly less battery life, but not by much. Something like 10 to 15%.

Having owned but a 101 GBA SP and an IPS V2 modded original GBA... The IPS modded GBA is the best possible combo I feel. I sold my 101 after getting it.

I had the OG one back in the day too so it would be nostalgic

so IPS V2 vs AGS-101 screen, the IPS V2 doesn't look like playing retro sprites on an HDTV? IE blocky?

In general I'm sure IPS is a higher quality panel than whatever came with AGS-101

Is the price better too? ie OG with IPS v2 easier and cheaper to find?

thanks

Didn't know there was no headphone jack either. Why are people all about SP? They just like the clamshell?

I love my N3ds so much (and XL is cool too, but the smaller one is my preference)

but theres a lot to hold onto there, its not vertically strained like GBA SP seems to be as you mentioned

--

funny a thread finally actually on GBA on **GBA**temp.

 

[Sizednochi]

I had the OG one back in the day too so it would be nostalgic...

IPS would look "blockier" yeah, but not by much. It's a tiny screen still compared to say, a smartphone, so the PPI are very high. It looks very enjoyable for me, and I'm a purist as well (I play my old console on a CRT, lol). After playing with it for a while, I prefer the look myself, makes it hard to go back to 101 if I'm honest.

But yeah, it is also cheaper to buy the IPS screen these days, because they are still being manufactured, while the 101 screens are much more rare. You can buy a full modkit on Aliexpress, including a pre-cut case and the mod is fairly simple to do, no soldering required if you don't want the brightness adjustment. I play on default brightness and it's great.

 

[playstays_shun]

IPS would look "blockier" yeah, but not by much. It's a tiny screen still compared to say, a smartphone, so the PPI are very high. It looks very enjoyable for me, and I'm a purist as well (I play my old console on a CRT, lol). After playing with it for a while, I prefer the look myself, makes it hard to go back to 101 if I'm honest.

But yeah, it is also cheaper to buy the IPS screen these days, because they are still being manufactured, while the 101 screens are much more rare. You can buy a full modkit on Aliexpress, including a pre-cut case and the mod is fairly simple to do, no soldering required if you don't want the brightness adjustment. I play on default brightness and it's great.

Thanks! If I dabbled I'd probably buy a pre-mod. I suck at this kinda stuff

and do you play GB, GBC, or GBA library most?

--

is accuracy with emulating on N3DS no good? have a softmodded N3ds.

 

[Sizednochi]

and do you play GB, GBC, or GBA library most?
is accuracy with emulating on N3DS no good? have a softmodded N3ds.

I play GBA the most. GB and GBC run ok via Goomba, but you'd probably be better getting a dedicated GB flashcard. There are chinese Everdrive GB clones which are pretty cheap and work just as good as the real thing. I'm yet to get one but it's in my wishlist.

The accuracy of GBA injections on N3DS is fantastic, as there is no emulation involved, but i personally don't like the look of the image, since it uses filters. I also don't like how you can't remap buttons, the B and A buttons are in too steep of an angle which make playing action games like Megaman Zero much harder. If you can look past those issues then it's pretty good. Honestly I'd say try it, if it's not enough for you then go the real GBA route.

 

[Xuio]

Also IPS for GBA is little bit larger then original 101.

 

[playstays_shun]

I play GBA the most. GB and GBC run ok via Goomba, but you'd probably be better getting a dedicated GB flashcard. There are chinese Everdrive GB clones which are pretty cheap and work just as good as the real thing. I'm yet to get one but it's in my wishlist.

The accuracy of GBA injections on N3DS is fantastic, as there is no emulation involved, but i personally don't like the look of the image, since it uses filters. I also don't like how you can't remap buttons, the B and A buttons are in too steep of an angle which make playing action games like Megaman Zero much harder. If you can look past those issues then it's pretty good. Honestly I'd say try it, if it's not enough for you then go the real GBA route.

Can you elaborate on the filter?

I forgot 3DS has GBA hardware in it... very cool

And with a dedicated flash card are GB/GBC still emulated on 3ds?

I know that TwilightMenu++ works wonders for DS games without the need for a cart but that took forever

 

[Diego788]

I play GBA the most. GB and GBC run ok via Goomba, but you'd probably be better getting a dedicated GB flashcard. There are chinese Everdrive GB clones which are pretty cheap and work just as good as the real thing. I'm yet to get one but it's in my wishlist.

The accuracy of GBA injections on N3DS is fantastic, as there is no emulation involved, but i personally don't like the look of the image, since it uses filters. I also don't like how you can't remap buttons, the B and A buttons are in too steep of an angle which make playing action games like Megaman Zero much harder. If you can look past those issues then it's pretty good. Honestly I'd say try it, if it's not enough for you then go the real GBA route.

using some software for injecting roms (like NSUI) you can remove those filters and even add a manual sleep mode with a button combination

no button remapping, sadly
but hey, at least they run perfectly

 

[gnmmarechal]

That's like 20 bucks plus shipping. Is it good?

I mean, as far as I've used it, it works fine. Mine's the old one with the miniSD slot, so I guess that's my main issue with it rn.

 

[raxadian]

I mean, as far as I've used it, it works fine. Mine's the old one with the miniSD slot, so I guess that's my main issue with it rn.

MiniSDs have got quite big, so whatever is the problem? It can only take up to 32GB or something?

 

[Charli]

MiniSDs have got quite big, so whatever is the problem? It can only take up to 32GB or something?

MiniSDs aren't actually that easy to get anymore and they never were really common in the first place. I guess because they became quite obsolete as soon as MicroSDs started coming out.

I'd read that a real MiniSD should be used for the EZ4 instead of an MicroSD with an adapter. So I bought a 2GB MiniSD for my EZ4. And then I learned that MicroSD support was added later with a software update. But... the update breaks compatibility with MiniSDs... *sigh* So I didn't update the software on my EZ4 since I would need to get a MiniSD to MicroSD Adapter and a new MicroSD card.

 

[raxadian]

MiniSDs aren't actually that easy to get anymore and they never were really common in the first place. I guess because they became quite obsolete as soon as MicroSDs started coming out.

I'd read that a real MiniSD should be used for the EZ4 instead of an MicroSD with an adapter. So I bought a 2GB MiniSD for my EZ4. And then I learned that MicroSD support was added later with a software update. But... the update breaks compatibility with MiniSDs... *sigh* So I didn't update the software on my EZ4 since I would need to get a MiniSD to MicroSD Adapter and a new MicroSD card.

I feel your pain, I keep using an original R4 for DS because Wood is really good but has a 2GB limit on the micro sd things it can take so I can only play a few games at a time.

Now back on topic, there are cheaper alternatives to this Everdrive if one just wants to play GBA games.

 

[Charli]

Almost bought the x5 mini just now, but I'll try to be patient until the x7 gets released by Krikzz Would really like to play Touhoumon Purple and some other Pokémon Hacks on real Hardware (Touhoumon is crashing on my EZ4 :\)

 

[PROTOBOY]

Wish I had one this in my gba days..

 

[FAST6191]

Would really like to play Touhoumon Purple and some other Pokémon Hacks on real Hardware (Touhoumon is crashing on my EZ4 :\)

If a hack does not work on one non supercard* flash cart which is otherwise in good working order it is unlikely to work on another. It might be that whatever real time clock bothering happened (don't know if this is one of them in the base game) caused something but I would be surprised there.
I did help someone a while back that had made a hack but used the wrong compression/handled compression wrongly but it still worked on less accurate emulators. That, the obviously emulator only Lua hacks, and said RTC stuff, is the only sort of thing I expect not to work on an otherwise good flash cart. I could see something like the compression thing happening here as the tools that led to my helping someone are also common within pokemon hacking circles. Simple test though what does no$gba debug version tell you http://problemkaputt.de/gba.htm
If it is RTC related then yeah a flash cart with it might do something, however in most cases I would expect you can still patch the game to work as you might have done with the original. There might be some additional work and there might be a collision if the RTC patch uses extra space/the same space as the fancier hack but that should also be able to be worked around easily enough.

Basically it is not like the NES or SNES where some ROM hackers routinely played into inaccuracies in emulators of the day to allow them to do things more easily at the cost of hardware compatibility, and thus far I have not seen anything fancy like the texture replacement stuff that is endemic in N64, GC, Wii and the like hacking/translation/emulator using circles.

*for others just joining us. The GBA era/slot supercards (and the team cyclops clones of them) cheaped out on memory so most games are slow, crash and the program patching the games themselves makes extensive use of speedpatching. A hack might do some extra reads and not be within whatever speedpatching was done by supercard's patcher, and then cause problems. Essentially every other flash cart out there barring some really really early stuff used nice fast memory and does not have this issue.

 

[2Hack]

Every time a new everdrive releases I am reminded of how poor I am ;A;

I just want to throw money at krikzz

Literally. I want the whole collection but sometimes my landlord asks for money

 

[gnmmarechal]

MiniSDs have got quite big, so whatever is the problem? It can only take up to 32GB or something?

Are you thinking about microSDs or something? miniSDs aren't super easy to source.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

MiniSDs aren't actually that easy to get anymore and they never were really common in the first place. I guess because they became quite obsolete as soon as MicroSDs started coming out.

I'd read that a real MiniSD should be used for the EZ4 instead of an MicroSD with an adapter. So I bought a 2GB MiniSD for my EZ4. And then I learned that MicroSD support was added later with a software update. But... the update breaks compatibility with MiniSDs... *sigh* So I didn't update the software on my EZ4 since I would need to get a MiniSD to MicroSD Adapter and a new MicroSD card.

Yeah, I never upgraded mine to support >2GB because it broke support for non-SDHC cards.

 

[FAST6191]

Re SD cards.

There are three main form factors

1) SD cards. I am sure we are all familiar with these.
2) MinSD cards. Mainly made for mobile phones where SD cards were too large. For a hot moment miniSD was cheaper than micro but also smaller than SD. Kind of stopped being made when microsd got cheap, good speed and good storage density.
3) MicroSD cards. I am sure we are all familiar with these.

Electrically speaking they are all the same thing, hence the adapters that are little more than shells with some wire in.

In addition to that there have been various revisions of the protocol (there is also another technical earlier/at the same time as SD but we will skip that).

SD. These were up to 2 gigabytes, technically there were some off spec ones that went to 4 but these are rare as anything and usually tricky to use (not to mention finding them in microSD is even harder and miniSD I am told exist but money no object I doubt I could find one).
SDHC. These were up to 32 gigabytes.
SDXC. Up to 2 terabytes.
SDUC has been around for a few years but is still rare.

Generally speaking anything newer can use older cards, though there are still some problems with file systems to try to stay with things.

As far as the EZ4 was concerned it started off not even supporting 2 gig cards and needed an update to make it there (though to be fair at the time they were as expensive as the largest stuff is today and it was mainly some kid tried one his dad got for work that we first saw it work with).
They stuck at 2 gigs (the limit for SD) for years and years.
Eventually the EZTeam came back and released updates for the EZ4. Among those was drag and drop and the ability to use SDHC memory (up to 32 gigs, do note this as there are some really nice deals on 64 gig cards in real world shops that people are tempted by. 32 gigs might be small for your phone but the entire GBA ROM set more or less fits in that and you don't want the entire site. 1000 of the best games + all the NES, Master System, Game Gear, PCE, gameboy, gameboy color and whatever else will comfortably sit in it).
The DS lite revisions of the EZ4 all use microSD but the original GBA size ones and a later respin all used miniSD, today it (and the Omega that replaced it) use microSD and are available in full GBA size carts.

Annoyingly as well the micro to miniSD adapters are frequently terrible. I have no idea why this is -- I have SD to microSD adapters that have been bent, crushed, stepped on, dropped, thrown, crashed off motorbikes at 100mph... all just fine for well over 10 years. It is however what it is and 95% of problems that are not just software related are solved by people finding a proper miniSD for those models with it. Back when you used to be able to go find them in shops selling old mobile phones but today they are rare as anything.

Anyway none of this really applies to the everdrive.

Re SD cards.

There are three main form factors

1) SD cards. I am sure we are all familiar with these.
2) MinSD cards. Mainly made for mobile phones where SD cards were too large. For a hot moment miniSD was cheaper than micro but also smaller than SD. Kind of stopped being made when microsd got cheap, good speed and good storage density.
3) MicroSD cards. I am sure we are all familiar with these.

Electrically speaking they are all the same thing, hence the adapters that are little more than shells with some wire in.

In addition to that there have been various revisions of the protocol (there is also another technical earlier/at the same time as SD but we will skip that).

SD. These were up to 2 gigabytes, technically there were some off spec ones that went to 4 but these are rare as anything and usually tricky to use (not to mention finding them in microSD is even harder and miniSD I am told exist but money no object I doubt I could find one).
SDHC. These were up to 32 gigabytes.
SDXC. Up to 2 terabytes.
SDUC has been around for a few years but is still rare.

Generally speaking anything newer can use older cards, though there are still some problems with file systems to try to stay with things.

As far as the EZ4 was concerned it started off not even supporting 2 gig cards and needed an update to make it there (though to be fair at the time they were as expensive as the largest stuff is today and it was mainly some kid tried one his dad got for work that we first saw it work with).
They stuck at 2 gigs (the limit for SD) for years and years.
Eventually the EZTeam came back and released updates for the EZ4. Among those was drag and drop and the ability to use SDHC memory (up to 32 gigs, do note this as there are some really nice deals on 64 gig cards in real world shops that people are tempted by. 32 gigs might be small for your phone but the entire GBA ROM set more or less fits in that and you don't want the entire site. 1000 of the best games + all the NES, Master System, Game Gear, PCE, gameboy, gameboy color and whatever else will comfortably sit in it).
The DS lite revisions of the EZ4 all use microSD but the original GBA size ones and a later respin all used miniSD, today it (and the Omega that replaced it) use microSD and are available in full GBA size carts.

Annoyingly as well the micro to miniSD adapters are frequently terrible. I have no idea why this is -- I have SD to microSD adapters that have been bent, crushed, stepped on, dropped, thrown, crashed off motorbikes at 100mph... all just fine for well over 10 years. It is however what it is and 95% of problems that are not just software related are solved by people finding a proper miniSD for those models with it. Back when you used to be able to go find them in shops selling old mobile phones but today they are rare as anything.

Anyway none of this really applies to the everdrive.