Hacking ewin expansion pack

[PizzaPasta]

You misunderstand. The 128K is only the amount of SRAM memory (which holds the save data). 128K is perfectly fine for save files for GBA. The 256K version does allow the SRAM to be used to hold information about which game the save file goes to in addition to the save data itself, but it's not necessary to have 256K since the game information can also be saved to a file on the slot1 microSD card. So in reality, having only 128K of SRAM doesn't affect its performance at all.

Both versions of the eWin 2in1 have twice as much fast volatile memory (in addition to the aforementioned SRAM) compared to the EZ 3in1. That means that you can load large GBA games into the fast volatile memory on the eWin whereas the EZ 3in1 must use the slow NOR memory for large GBA games. It also means that the eWin has twice the memory available for the Opera browser and homebrew to use.

-Bri

No, I completely understand. It's not the GBA capability that I dislike, in that aspect it works fine. It just really sucks as an expansion pak in general. SNEmulDS does not recognize the pak unless I load it as the Opera expansion pak in either GBA Exploader or the standard eWin GBA loader. Which means that it's emulating the Opera Expansion Pak which is smaller than the 128k that is actually available. Play Super Metroid with the 128KB EEP and you'll notice that it isn't doing a god damned thing. It sucks for homebrew too (DSLinux, Quake 1, HVCA).

Also, NDS Backup Tool 3in1 is just too damn awesome to pass up on. I'm so over trying to figure out SAVsend with my thumb up my ass.

Like I said, I can't wait to get my 3 in 1.

 

[Destructobot]

SNEmulDS does not recognize the pak unless I load it as the Opera expansion pak in either GBA Exploader or the standard eWin GBA loader. Which means that it's emulating the Opera Expansion Pak which is smaller than the 128k that is actually available.

No, the opera RAM cart has 8MB (8192KB) of RAM, and no SRAM. I'd think that even in RAM expansion mode, any of the GBA expansion carts would have 16MB available (AFAIK more wouldn't be possible due to the GBA bus's memory addressing limitations). The EEP has 32MB of RAM regardless of which version it is.

The lack of more SRAM doesn't really make any difference. The only thing the extra SRAM in the 256KB EEP is used for is storing the information about which game the save in SRAM goes with; this info is just stored in a file instead of SRAM on the 128KB carts. The only thing the extra SRAM in the 3-in-1 is used for is storing saves for two games at once (for NOR mode and PSRAM mode); the EEP doesn't have any NOR flash memory, so it doesn't need to store two saves.

 

[PizzaPasta]

You're probably right but I still want to compare it to the 3 in 1 when I get it.

 

[powertex]

When I got one from psxboy a few months ago, it was $12 + $2 shipping = $14. They have $2 shipping on everything (see the big sign on the homepage that says "Worldwide airmail shipping only $2").

But $18 isn't bad considering that psxboy.com is out of stock.

I don't think they make the 256K anymore, but really it's not a big deal (I was just curious which one you'd get) because both work just fine (the lack of memory doesn't affect anything -- it just saves the info to the microSD card instead).

What cart do you have that loads GBA so slowly? Are you using GBA ExpLoader?

One other question, did you get a black shell for your eWin or was it another color? Black ones are hard to find, and I have a Crimson/black NDS so my white eWin 2in1 looks pretty bad!

-Bri

i got a white one. dumb ass me forgot to read when buying which color was being listed. i also have a black ds. oh well. as for the loading speed, i switched to gba exploader and it is fine now. but i am still wondering how some people are able to load gba games through ds real.

 

[Destructobot]

It may be that only the original version with 256KB of SRAM works with the M3 Real's built in GBA support. It's also possible that the M3 team has added some detection code to prevent other expansion packs from working so that you have to buy theirs.