Hacking EZ 3-in-1: please excuse a dumb question

[Searinox]

I noticed there's a GBA-sized version of the EZ 3 in 1 available. What exactly does it do inside a GBA? I'd assume it allows you to play ROMs on it and maybe even support an OS but if so, I haven't found ONE site to tell me how much internal memory the 3 in 1 has and I doubt it can be upgraded via microSD cause AFAI was able to see it doesn't have a slot for one...

 

[PBC]

Ez 3-1 is the combo rumble, brower ram and GBA game player. I dont think it is made for a GBA persay, perhaps what you are seeing is a DS Phat sized cart as opposed to the more popular DS lite sized. You have to understand that a slot 1 card (ds top slot) is required to transfer GBA roms onto the 3-1. You wouldnt be able to place a rom on the GBA portion using a GBA. For the record accourding to my searchs the 3-1 has 32mb of ram, mostly for GBA storage I thinks.

Ps. There is no expandable memory slot for the 3-1. Using a DS You must have the GBA games on your slot one card (like EZV) and then write them to the slot 2 (3-1). After you have transfered a GBA to the 3-1 it will remain there until you write over it. Soooo I think you could use the 3-1 for a GBA but only if you already have a DS and a slot 1 to transfer the games...
and if you have a DS...why would you want a gba? =P

There are better solutions for playing roms on a GBA...this is not a good one.

 

[Searinox]

http://www.gameyeeeah.com/r4-r4ds-ez-in-ex...lack-p-298.html I was referring to this. As you can see they have a GBA-sized version. 32MB? That's hardly space to store 2 or 3 ROMs... then again I only need it for the memory expansion. I want it GBA-sized because I also have a GBA. It may be low-end as a GBA cart but it'll be enough for me to trade Pokemon. That's why I want GBA-sized over NDS version.

 

[AndreXL]

AFAIK, 32MB is the max for a GBA game. The unloaded GBA ROMs are expected to be stored on a Slot 1 Card.

 

[Maikel Steneker]

For the record accourding to my searchs the 3-1 has 32mb of ram, mostly for GBA storage I thinks.

That's not true. It has 16 MB RAM and 32 MB NOR. RAM is temporary storage and NOR is permanent (though rewritable).

 

[Searinox]

AFAIK, 32MB is the max for a GBA game. The unloaded GBA ROMs are expected to be stored on a Slot 1 Card.

Okay now that's cleared things up for me. Thanks. I have one last question though. At $20 it's still very cheap. So I must ask, is the storage space of the EZ solid-state or is it just SRAM backed up by a battery? I know it has a battery inside but I don't know wether it uses it for real-time clock, saves, ROM image storage, or all 3 together.

 

[FAST6191]

There is a NOR memory bank totalling 256Mbit/32Mbyte. Once written it is there until you delete it.
There is a PSRAM bank at 128 Mbit/16 MByte, this is supported by the GBA/DS power supply and it is what is used by the tools most of the time for running games.
And there is a battery backed SRAM for saves (until they are transferred anyhow).

As for shops I have no idea but a bunch of the European shops got them soon after they were released.

 

[PBC]

Yeah, pretty sure I wasnt going to get the mem storage right. good thing the other people know what they are talking about.

 

[Rizsparky]

http://www.ezflash.cn/en/dealere.asp

theres some dealers websites there some of them sell gba sized carts.

 

[Eyedunno]

Maybe you ought to wait and see if anybody has tested one on a GBA first. I don't see how it would possibly work, personally, since you need a loader. The reason there's a GBA sized version is for the DS Phat.

32MB? That's hardly space to store 2 or 3 ROMs...

No, that's enough space for ONE rom. All loaders will only load one rom to the NOR.

Get an M3 Perfect Lite (which has a GBA-sized swap case) or an EZFlash IV Mini SD. Both of those also have memory.

 

[myuusmeow]

Well, you could use a DS+Slot-1 to flash a game to NOR than use it on a GBA. Pretty sure it'll work.

 

[Eyedunno]

Well, you could use a DS+Slot-1 to flash a game to NOR than use it on a GBA. Pretty sure it'll work.

I know you can flash a game with a DS, but does the game in NOR run automatically when the 3-in-1 is run from GBA mode? If not, it won't work.

I thought it needed a DS-based loader (run via Slot-1), even to run the game in NOR.

 

[TrolleyDave]

If you flash a game to NOR and then pull your Slot-1 card out the EZ 3-in-1 boots to whatever game was flashed to it so I'd assume it would work on the GBA the same.