Hacking Everdrive GBA??

[emmanu888]

I can't wait to see what he's gonna do with that, i'm already really happy with my Everdrive 64. So happy that it convinced me to get the Everdrive GB when i get the money for it.

I would so buy an Everdrive GBA and see how it fares against the EZ Flash IV that i have.

 

[Deleted User]

I didn't think Krikzz would ever tackle GBA. This will probably be the best flash cart of the system when its released.

 

[FAST6191]

I didn't think Krikzz would ever tackle GBA. This will probably be the best flash cart of the system when its released.

No doubt it would be special, and I would be excited to see something a bit more available. However I am not seeing the room to do something especially earth shattering -- the NES has lots of mappers and annoyance, the SNES has its special chips, the N64 is not so troubled but it is not without issue and options for N64 flash carts were somewhat lacking, as were most of the others on this list come to think of it, the GB/GBC does have memory bank controller stuff but did not have a multigame focused device (all for LSDJ really).....

There are GBA flash carts though (there were ones for the others but GBA stuff ended up pretty mainstream), ones with basically full compatibility (or indeed all if you do not count the supercard, its clones and the very first attempts at GBA carts), ease of use and a focus on having multiple games and I doubt they are going to change that for the everdrive.
No doubt they could some damage if they coded a really nice menu -- savestates have already been demonstrated on GBA carts, multiple/selectable saves is a useful thing, if they can get it to drag and drop level then that is nice, if they want to include IPS patching support/autopatching for AP/hardware then great, if they want to have a solid cheat engine then OK. However in terms of hardware limits we are back to jokingly suggesting tilt sensors, solar sensors, the connections used for the Legendz series or giving me the option to pirate a glucoboy. Real time clock is mainly just pokemon, and not even all of them, though I would put those considerably ahead of even rumble support.

 

[misery13]

I'd buy it If it could play Robopon and Hamtaro.

 

[FAST6191]

Are robopon and hamtaro secret AP/extra hardware games I was not aware of? I did have robopon in my list of pokemon clones that are probably better than pokemon but I could have overlooked something. Depending upon which hamtaro games you want to play you might even be able to fit both on a cheap and cheerful fire card.

 

[Jayro]

Hopefully this will have a full 32MB NOR so I can play Flora Sky on actual hardware.

 

[FAST6191]

Hopefully this will have a full 32MB NOR so I can play Flora Sky on actual hardware.

I do not know if I grabbed an old version or something but flora sky looks like it trims a fair bit, should be more than enough if you have a cart without the full NOR allocation. Even if it couldn't it looks like the hackers left a load of space you could use to shrink things down.

 

[Jayro]

I trimmed my 32MB Flora Sky down to 26MB, but the NOR of the EZ FLASH IV is only 16MB, so it won't work. :/

 

[tbb043]

Ok, so I already got EZ Flash IV for under 40$

What real advantages would Everdrive GBA have for double price?

Right now all games worked perfectly in my EZ4...

Well, for starters, I doubt an EverdriveGBA would use that abominable, relatively hard to find, mini SD format. Would that be worth double the price? Probably not, but it would be worth something.

 

[Vipera]

I am still waiting for a flashcard that can play rom hacks.

 

[FAST6191]

I trimmed my 32MB Flora Sky down to 26MB, but the NOR of the EZ FLASH IV is only 16MB, so it won't work. :/

The EZ4 NOR is 32 megabytes (it was done to allow the handful of 32 meg games to run, alternatively/later on to have speedier launching if people preferred), unless you have a lite deluxe model, in which case it is 48 megabytes.

The lite compact had a smaller NOR/RAM (it not even originally being designed to run GBA games) and tops out at 64Mbit (8 megabytes) but you probably do not have one of those.

Edit.
Forgot to say.
Some hackers seem to change parts of the header in such a way that it makes ROMs apparently vanish (seen it a few times for a few pokemon hacks and some other hacks), offset BE hex wants to be 0000. I did make a patch once if you are not inclined to spend a few seconds with a hex editor
http://ezflash.sosuke.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=17720

 

[Jayro]

I forget the error code I get, but I just remember it saying something about the game being too large or something. I'm no stranger to a hex editor, so don't be afraid to get down and dirty with hex screenshots.

 

[cracker]

Yeah, FAST, flash him a little hex.

 

[FAST6191]

Well that was literally the fix -- offset BE hex needs to be 0000. It is that way in normal ROMs, I am not sure why some hackers changed it* but even no$gba does not flag it when in paranoid mode so I guess they figured it was OK. If you prefer then stick 50415443480000BE00020000454F46 in a file (as hex) and call it an IPS patch.

*my guess was as a basic flag when people check the "protect my hack" option in whatever editor.

Anyway as for the error code did you try to launch normally? If so there is no failover for too large for PSRAM (not sure whether that was for larger PSRAM or to give people the option to force a NOR write for smaller games, either way I do not think UI design is much of concern in these circles unfortunately). You need to press select to force a write to the NOR, at which time it will appear in the NOR menu (the screen you see before the SD contents), bonus is it will now launch instantly.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Nice. Everyone's been asking for a new, perfect GBA flashcart, and this just might end up being it.

 

[Adrian-E-C]

This is amazing! If it runs the same GB GBC and NES emulators that the EZflash IV run and does not use the incredibly hard to find Mini SD or a useless adapter that causes all sorest of problems (not working, lag, corrupted saves etc) then it is well worth 80 bucks. Also if it writes saves to solid memory and

 

[purupuru]

First GBA cart that's drag and drop!

 

[FAST6191]

First GBA cart that's drag and drop!

Did they say drag and drop? That would be a reasonable feat if it otherwise does not have much onboard processing on the cart, that or potentially fiddly. Equally some of the GBA expansion packs when combined with DS launcher programs were drag and drop in as much as you dragged the ROM onto the microSD and launched it directly from there, no patching on a PC.

Mind you if they wanted to do a savelist based, FPGA driven save emulation (a la some DS flash carts) flash cart then I would be interested to see it. I am not sure it is all that useful for the GBA (GBA save patching is trivial on a PC, and available for most OSes) but ease of use can be appealing.

 

[Adrian-E-C]

First GBA cart that's drag and drop!

My frig...didn't even think of that. My EZ Flash IV and IV lite are both annoying as the dickens when it comes to all the ridiculous patching and REnaming...and sending one at a time.

If this Everdrive runs Boktai 1-3 with the solar patches...I am beyond sold. I'll buy two.

 

[raulpica]

NO RTS = NO PARTAY

My frig...didn't even think of that. My EZ Flash IV and IV lite are both annoying as the dickens when it comes to all the ridiculous patching and REnaming...and sending one at a time.

If this Everdrive runs Boktai 1-3 with the solar patches...I am beyond sold. I'll buy two.

Errr, both of my EFA Linker and EZ4 run perfectly Boktai 1-3 with solar patches. Heck, even my no-brand chinese GBA flashcart did.