Hacking Are there any SDHC SLOT-2 devices?

[Kael1]

I really require the ability to play GBA games and since no NDS GBA emulator exists and you cannot use GBA from SLOT-1 I was wondering if there are any SLOT-2 devices that can use 8GB microSD's... And a good dev team that update the OS etc

 

[FAST6191]

To my knowledge there are none but 2 gigabytes is more than enough for pretty much all the decent gba games (they are pretty much all 8 or 16 megs and trim pretty well too and even compress if you want), some hacks thereof and some homebrew.

 

[Kael1]

OK... What do you guys reccommend o.o

 

[OSW]

If you get a SDHC compatible slot one card, getting an expansion pack that loads the roms from slot one (ezflash, ewin, m3 real etc) would work fine.

 

[FAST6191]

Assuming you want a full on GBA card (as opposed to a minimalistic one like the EZ 3 in1 or ewin) the list tends to come down to
All have nigh on perfect compatibility where it matters (the usual stuff like nes classics which people use emulators for). Cheats are available for all as far as I am aware (trainers and stuff like GABSharky are available if you need too).

As for memory cards pretty much any old cheap card will do as stuff is loaded to other memory sections before running.

EZ4: 4 versions. Original (uses miniSD and GBA cart sized)
The following all use microSD
lite (lite sized but otherwise the same as the original)
lite compact (lite sized and lacks serious GBA support)
lite deluxe (lite sized and has larger onboard memory)

The EZ4 and EZ4 lite have 16 megabytes of RAM for loading roms and 32 Megabytes of NOR for roms larger than 16 megabytes (or instant loading of others).
The EZ4 lite deluxe has 32 Megabytes of RAM and 48 of NOR.

The latter three are all lite sized but if you mod the case/swap it for something else it will work fine in a GBA/original DS (I have been using an EZ4 lite for nearly 2 years in my GBA and original DS).

Real time clock (RTC) was removed from the EZ4 as only a handful of games use it (pokemon is the main one here and boktai is the other.
You can patch roms to have the clock move when playing the game (game days are around 6 hours) but stuff like berries (which grow in 24 hours real time) can be a pain.

There is also the EZ3 which has a few more features like rom compression and savestates but is again embedded memory and a nice pricetag. RTC is on this as well.

m3:
Several versions but like the EZ4 compact above the m3 professional is lacking in GBA support. You can probably find CF, SD, miniSD and microSD versions.

g6: Features onboard memory only and a nice pricetag for it. Made by the same company as the M3.

Finally supercards, I would not consider them for GBA use. Compatibility list here if you wanted clarification:
http://rothmans.joskeonline.com/supercardsite/

There were also a whole slew of threads a few months back on this.

As for updates: nothing has changed in GBA world for nearly 2 years (other than the rise of rom hacking/translation) and I doubt it will ever again. New dumps are at the rate of 5 a month if you are lucky and they are mainly 2 in 1s, film cash in titles and obscure stuff like Korean localisations of tetris.

 

[DanTheManMS]

I heard the slot-2 M3 products received a firmware update that allows for SDHC support. Can anyone confirm this?

 

[PikaPika]

I heard the slot-2 M3 products received a firmware update that allows for SDHC support. Can anyone confirm this?

The update doesn't allow launching games or homebrew, and doesn't even work in GBA mode. The only use for SDHC on the M3 carts is for the built in media player.

 

[DanTheManMS]

Ah, gotcha, thanks for sorting that out.

 

[innercy]

if u use slot-2 device, keep in mind that u need no pass device in slot-1...
try consider
m3 real bundle + 2GB(for slot-1~nds) +1GB(for gba expansion card~gba)... or
ttds bundle + 2GB(for slot-1~nds) +1GB(for gba expansion card~gba)

 

[Kael1]

thanks guys