Hacking Everdrive GBA??

[FAST6191]

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.

Batch conversion was added in EZ4client very early on. You can even leave them in the zip/rar (no 7z unfortunately) if you want.

On renaming I keep meaning to do a final update of the naming list (it is kind of tedious, especially as I will probably have to remake the scripts I used to do it), do you have any suggestions other than make sure to put the Mario games as 8:3?

 

[Adrian-E-C]

Batch conversion was added in EZ4client very early on. You can even leave them in the zip/rar (no 7z unfortunately) if you want.

On renaming I keep meaning to do a final update of the naming list (it is kind of tedious, especially as I will probably have to remake the scripts I used to do it), do you have any suggestions other than make sure to put the Mario games as 8:3?

Shoot maybe I am using an out of date client!

As for the Boktai games, I find that only some kernels actually run all three, and it is fairly random which ones. The most recent has problems with Boktai 3 using the solar and the English patch, and Boktai 2 is one of the least compatible. I found the most compatible kernel/firmware (whatever you call it) was one that was customized by some guy with a Boktai theme ( he said he selected the one most compatible with all 3 boktais)

Aside from those 3 games all my favorites ( Megaman Bass, Drill Dozer, CT Special Forces, Pinball of the dead, The Resident Evil 2 blueroses demo, and Tony Hawk ( all of em except downhill jam) work with just about any card.

On the Gameboy color note, if this Cart supports drag and drop GB and GBC games I will be in love! I need to have my Metal Gear Ghost Babel, Megaman Extreme and Resident Evil DEmake and Resident Evil Gaiden on the same cart as my GBA games.

On a side note, I have a guy down the street from me selling a purple GB Boy Color...do you guys think it is worth buying one and getting the GBC Everdrive?

 

[FAST6191]

Said client would have to be really out of date -- it was probably about the third ever released where batch support was added (it was before long name support even) and that would have been in late 2006.

I have heard of the boktai issues, I never really managed to replicate it properly though I did not try hard. Usually such things boil down to soft reset vs hard reset though -- compared to the likes of the NES mappers, SNES special chips, N64 oddities, GB/GBC memory bank controllers and things like that there is really nothing troubling on the GBA. To this end having a cart that has fast enough memory (all but supercards, supercard clones and some of the really early stuff) means it usually boils down to minor software quirks.

I doubt the potential GBA cart will support GB/GBC games in a drag and drop capacity, unless it bundles them with an emulator (which would be a nice feature I guess) and that is fairly easy to pull off (goomba and goomba color are not hard to find/set up). GB/GBC hardware is a fairly separate entity inside the GBA and SP (it does not exist in the GBM).

By most accounts (including GBAtemp's own -- http://gbatemp.net/review/everdrive-gb.141/ ) the GB/GBC everdrive is a great cart, and probably the foremost ROM focused ones. Most other modern GB/GBC carts with SD support and whatever else are a bit limited in the save/multirom department, mainly by virtue of being aimed at LSDJ, but that does not stop you from being able to play games. However those more used to the quick and easy stuff on the GBA, and especially DS, not to mention the likes of the Wii then yeah. Personally I go with emulation -- easy cheats, easy mods, nice extra features, basically perfect play for most things...
Equally GBCs are not especially hard to come by these days, not to mention if you have an SP then you also have a nice backlight.

 

[Adrian-E-C]

Has anyone on here had hands on time with the GB boy Color? For those that don't know this is a clone system that usually comes with 188 built in GBC games ( keep in mind it is actually 66 games repeated 3 times) and plays 100 percent GBC games, however how well it plays these games is I guess what I am asking

Back on topic, how long does it usually take Krikxx to develop one of these carts? If he is teasing it now, what kind of wait are we looking at for the actual release?

 

[FAST6191]

Can't say I have had a go on the clone, mind you there are surprisingly few clones out there that match or exceed the original (maybe some of the NES and some of the megadrive ones, not much else), though many get very close.

Development timeframes, I am not sure people have measured tease to release before. Equally it would not be great to speculate based upon past events here -- if they have to maintain their existing lines (and there are now several) then that might take some time up/away, I was also not kidding when I said the GBA has nothing really standing in its way compared to the likes of the SNES special chips (which were extra processing chips that have to be emulated), the N64 anti piracy/lockouts (and a few special chips), the NES mappers (not as bad as SNES special chips but a definite frustration for emulator authors and flash cart makers), the GB/GBC memory bank controllers (seldom anything major but again a frustration/stumbling block) or things like that. The only real hardware addition that really makes sense (though I have already debated its merits) would be RTC for those few games that have it, though said few games does include a generation of pokemon and generally pokemon fans are the whiniest bunch of flash cart users out there (though also some of the most spendy). Some of the tilt chips are not bad these days (thanks to android and co for that one) so if they have space then that might be interesting to see, however that would be something I would think long and hard about adding (there were a few different types used by the different games, said games not having the impact of pokemon).
Going further I would love to see it but I am not seeing a massive call for this -- they.. I do not want to say easily but there was serious scope for them to swoop in and dominate the NES, SNES, N64.... markets. For the GBA the EZ4 and 3 in 1 are by no means perfect (one is a DS intended flash cart that also plays GBA pretty well by virtue of being a slight upgrade to a legendary GBA era cart and the other is an expansion pack that allows people to play games) but they are still available in reasonable quantities, they do play basically every game, the GBA actually had a proper flash cart culture/scene compared to said earlier consoles (things are actually pretty good in GBA world) and it goes on. If I am in business doing something I am not going to spend all my time working on something that might earn me some beer money when I can do it when I feel like it, and especially not if my other projects can net me that little bit more.

Related to this I once listed every single trouble GBA game and oddity I knew of (something I am fairly confident in calling complete) in a thread once
http://gbatemp.net/threads/buying-a-gba-flash-cart-in-2013.341203/page-18#post-4756995

 

[Home_Rowed]

Component price, PCB space, circuit complexity... sure. However the battery requirements it then brings do change things from "until the battery eventually dies" to "needs to be charged reasonably often" and that is a fairly big change from where I sit.

What I am curious to hear about though we be how people feel about save patching. I have long been curious about seeing save types emulated in hardware, however SRAM patching is trivial (though perhaps not in straight GBA hardware) and patching does help for sleep, soft reset and to a lesser extent some of the cheats.

I too would want to see save type emulated in hardware, that way GameCube linking with GBA games could potentially work. Sure there aren't too many GameCube games that directly link with a GBA game, all I can think of are Pokemon and Fire Emblem. That would be a feature that would convince me to buy Krikzz's GBA Everdrive, if that's actually what it is. Boktai also uses RTC. A wishlist feature, along with RTC, would be to have a small light sensor like on Android devices in this GBA cart to emulate the Solar Sensor in the Boktai games, and have a way to custom calibrate it. Obviously it can't protrude out like original Boktai games just to satisfy a small niche. I think placement of the sensor on the top of the cart would be good enough, it could still get indirect sunlight, and calibration could set the intensity limits.

Edit: And rumble for the few games that used it, Pokemon Pinball Ruby & Sapphire, Drill Dozer, Wario Ware Twisted, Yoshi Topsy Turvy, rumble is also in GameBoy Player introed games: Mario & Luigi SuperStar Saga, Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros 3, that's all I can think of. Thinking of those last 2 just made this a really important feature to me.

And this.

Why not go the whole hog and include sensors to play Warioware Twisted? Still happy with my ezflash 4 but if this is sold for the right price, I would like to grab one.

 

[misery13]

I'd be interesting if it works with Game Boy Player.

 

[Home_Rowed]

I'd be interesting if it works with Game Boy Player.

My EZ Flash IV works with GameBoy Player. So I would assume a newer cart would as well. Everdrive in general seems to me to be better than EZ Flash.

 

[FAST6191]

I'd be interesting if it works with Game Boy Player.

Is there any reason for it not to? The GB player does nothing differently to a GBA, save for games being able to detect they are on a GB player; a couple of games have brightness/colour modes (though I am not sure those are autoset when it detects it is on a GB player) and the GBA videos stop themselves from playing because they would look like a pixelated mess (workarounds are available if you really want http://www.caitsith2.com/gba_video_arv3.htm ).

I too would want to see save type emulated in hardware, that way GameCube linking with GBA games could potentially work. Sure there aren't too many GameCube games that directly link with a GBA game, all I can think of are Pokemon and Fire Emblem. That would be a feature that would convince me to buy Krikzz's GBA Everdrive, if that's actually what it is. Boktai also uses RTC. A wishlist feature, along with RTC, would be to have a small light sensor like on Android devices in this GBA cart to emulate the Solar Sensor in the Boktai games, and have a way to custom calibrate it. Obviously it can't protrude out like original Boktai games just to satisfy a small niche. I think placement of the sensor on the top of the cart would be good enough, it could still get indirect sunlight, and calibration could set the intensity limits.

We saw something like this happen in the DS with the pokemon pal park stuff. In the end it was easier to edit the DS game to read from the flash cart SRAM rather than the Flash it expected (patch http://filetrip.net/nds-downloads/rom-hacks/download-pokepatch-4-2-f27240.html ). Seen as the Wii took off and caused some nice tools and people that can also fiddle with gamecube stuff to happen then that might be the better option. I do not know whether the GC game will want try to speak to the flash from the GC's powerpc or if it will send a multiboot game to the GBA and funnel that back (which would be coded in the GBA's ARM code rather than normal GC code) but I do not imagine particular traumas either way.

On sensors... if we are heading down this path it might be better to consider how the extras work ( http://problemkaputt.de/gbatek.htm#gbacartridges has a bit, mostly it seems to be GPIO or fiddling with the save memory, neither of which are anything strange for electronics) and making things that bolt on to the cards. That is not ideal from where I sit (if the extras/protocols were open sourced then maybe) and would probably look quite ugly but for me it is that or hard decisions on what is really necessary.

 

[Adrian-E-C]

I too would want to see save type emulated in hardware, that way GameCube linking with GBA games could potentially work. Sure there aren't too many GameCube games that directly link with a GBA game, all I can think of are Pokemon and Fire Emblem. That would be a feature that would convince me to buy Krikzz's GBA Everdrive, if that's actually what it is. Boktai also uses RTC. A wishlist feature, along with RTC, would be to have a small light sensor like on Android devices in this GBA cart to emulate the Solar Sensor in the Boktai games, and have a way to custom calibrate it. Obviously it can't protrude out like original Boktai games just to satisfy a small niche. I think placement of the sensor on the top of the cart would be good enough, it could still get indirect sunlight, and calibration could set the intensity limits.

Edit: And rumble for the few games that used it, Pokemon Pinball Ruby & Sapphire, Drill Dozer, Wario Ware Twisted, Yoshi Topsy Turvy, rumble is also in GameBoy Player introed games: Mario & Luigi SuperStar Saga, Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros 3, that's all I can think of. Thinking of those last 2 just made this a really important feature to me.

And this.

Is it possible that this cart will not require a battery to save? As some later generation GBA games saved minus the irritating battery.

 

[FAST6191]

Is it possible that this cart will not require a battery to save? As some later generation GBA games saved minus the irritating battery.

The later stage SRAM saves but not with a battery stuff is typically FeRAM instead, this is pretty unrelated to flash cart design. If the GBA everdrive did emulate the save chip/save chip protocol in hardware (and if they have a nice FPGA on there like most other flash carts then this is definitely a possibility) then yeah they could make it so the games saved and read saves from what it thinks is its original memory type (or something else), however without the need to emulate the whole "needs battery" part. They should probably also make it so that said emulated save autowrites to the SD card as well, thus sparing the write save on next boot/soft reset to loader thing seen with basically all flash carts since they moved away from pure NOR memory.

 

[misery13]

Is there any reason for it not to?.

It depends on the size of the flashcart and whether of not it fits.

 

[Adrian-E-C]

The later stage SRAM saves but not with a battery stuff is typically FeRAM instead, this is pretty unrelated to flash cart design. If the GBA everdrive did emulate the save chip/save chip protocol in hardware (and if they have a nice FPGA on there like most other flash carts then this is definitely a possibility) then yeah they could make it so the games saved and read saves from what it thinks is its original memory type (or something else), however without the need to emulate the whole "needs battery" part. They should probably also make it so that said emulated save autowrites to the SD card as well, thus sparing the write save on next boot/soft reset to loader thing seen with basically all flash carts since they moved away from pure NOR memory.

So there is literally no downside to doing it this way, ya?

 

[FAST6191]

To emulate a save you have to know what the save is. This is as "simple" as doing a text search of the game (seriously, do a search for SRAM, FLASH, EEPROM in games, that will tell you the broad type, the numbers following it will tell you the subtype, this latter part is why earlier versions of VBA may have seen you have to set a save size for pokemon and some other games. If you want to go further then save patching is usually then a couple of small sections that vary in location but not content with the sub type.), however "simple" is more for your several gigahertz PC with hundreds of megs of free memory, not your 16.78MHz ARM7 with 288 kilobytes of the stuff. There are no tricks that I (or. more importantly, flash cart makers) ever found to give this save type up simply either. The main options, assuming the very simple save patch on the PC is not what you are going for, are a database of every game (quite possible), waiting 30 seconds when you first launch a new game to scan and find out (I believe AKAIO had this option in its 3 in 1 support) or leaving it to the end user (various DS flash carts, most notably the original EZ5 models did this when it emulated save types in hardware*), or some combo of the lot.

*the R4 saw updates every other day and was considered easier, hence support for this feature being dropped in later EZ5 kernels. Mind you new games kept working on "savelist" kernels for years after that where others needed patches, the line of thought eventually returned in later DS carts in various fashions when DS anti piracy got serious.

All that said emulating the save types/save protocol in hardware more accurately represents modern thinking in electronics design, in the early 2000s (which is what most flash cart designs ultimately come from) it would have been too hard or too expensive. If I were to design a GBA flash cart* the only thing that would see me still use save patches and SRAM saves are that existing designs use it, it has basically no downsides as far as most of the market is concerned (it works, it is reliable, the saves still work with editors/emulators/original carts and it takes no more skill to apply than pressing a "patch this game" button) and existing designs for GBA flash carts already use this model.

*something I seriously considered during the EZ4 shortage last year, hence knowing all these oddities and other stuff which I have been cluttering up this topic with.

 

[Adrian-E-C]

To emulate a save you have to know what the save is. This is as "simple" as doing a text search of the game (seriously, do a search for SRAM, FLASH, EEPROM in games, that will tell you the broad type, the numbers following it will tell you the subtype, this latter part is why earlier versions of VBA may have seen you have to set a save size for pokemon and some other games. If you want to go further then save patching is usually then a couple of small sections that vary in location but not content with the sub type.), however "simple" is more for your several gigahertz PC with hundreds of megs of free memory, not your 16.78MHz ARM7 with 288 kilobytes of the stuff. There are no tricks that I (or. more importantly, flash cart makers) ever found to give this save type up simply either. The main options, assuming the very simple save patch on the PC is not what you are going for, are a database of every game (quite possible), waiting 30 seconds when you first launch a new game to scan and find out (I believe AKAIO had this option in its 3 in 1 support) or leaving it to the end user (various DS flash carts, most notably the original EZ5 models did this when it emulated save types in hardware*), or some combo of the lot.

*the R4 saw updates every other day and was considered easier, hence support for this feature being dropped in later EZ5 kernels. Mind you new games kept working on "savelist" kernels for years after that where others needed patches, the line of thought eventually returned in later DS carts in various fashions when DS anti piracy got serious.

All that said emulating the save types/save protocol in hardware more accurately represents modern thinking in electronics design, in the early 2000s (which is what most flash cart designs ultimately come from) it would have been too hard or too expensive. If I were to design a GBA flash cart* the only thing that would see me still use save patches and SRAM saves are that existing designs use it, it has basically no downsides as far as most of the market is concerned (it works, it is reliable, the saves still work with editors/emulators/original carts and it takes no more skill to apply than pressing a "patch this game" button) and existing designs for GBA flash carts already use this model.

*something I seriously considered during the EZ4 shortage last year, hence knowing all these oddities and other stuff which I have been cluttering up this topic with.

Thanks bro
You are both awesome and informative!

Can't wait to see what features this cart is going to have

 

[WiiUBricker]

This is probably going to be better than any other GBA flash cart, so lets see what he's bringing to the table.

 

[160R]

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...

I was just asking because if cost is excessive I really doubt a GBA Everdrive will ever be done if there is other products that do the job well at half price like EZ4...

 

[skaman]

If Krikzz adds in the RTC, then I'm buying one of these carts even though I had a bunch of older flash carts.

 

[Adrian-E-C]

I was just asking because if cost is excessive I really doubt a GBA Everdrive will ever be done if there is other products that do the job well at half price like EZ4...

I would say that it really depends on what the card can do. If it is drag and drop, with no need for battery saves, and an RTC ( and no mini SD like the regular EZ flashIV) then it would have quite a few features that make it more appealing than other cards you could buy.

 

[Plstic]

I would say that it really depends on what the card can do. If it is drag and drop, with no need for battery saves, and an RTC ( and no mini SD like the regular EZ flashIV) then it would have quite a few features that make it more appealing than other cards you could buy.

Plus the ezflash IV will run dry soon, I doubt they will make it forever.