Hacking EZ Flash 3 in 1 Question

[Boshinator]

I have a question about the EZ Flash 3 in 1

Does it keep game saves for all my games?

Or will I need to do anything special to every game, (That would get tedious)

I have an R4DS

EDIT: Should I use Rudolph's Tool or NDS Station?

 

[dodol]

auto for save files, you do need to patch certain games to make save works though.
both (Rudolph's Tool or NDS Station) work just fine, although I prefer Rudolph tool myself.

 

[Boshinator]

Is it just a small number of games that need to be patched?

Should I just SRAM patch all 40 of my GBA games anyway?

 

[Playset6199]

GBATA wont patch the rom if it doesn't need it.

 

[Boshinator]

Okay I patched all the ROMS I could.
Am I good to go NOR and PSRAM?

 

[Boshinator]

bump

 

[Scathraax]

Any ROM under 16mb can be run from PSRAM.
Anything over 16mb needs to be flashed to NOR.

 

[Boshinator]

Will that effect my saves?

What are the differences?

 

[leetdude_007]

If you need a overly wordy primer: http://wiki.gbatemp.net/index.php?title=3_..._for_EZ-Flash_V

enjoy?

The NOR mode save memory does not mess with PSRAM mode save memory. This is noticeable when you use Rudolph's tool. NDStation writes only to NOR. GBAldr only writes to NOR. I believe the official EZ-Flash V firmware only writes to NOR.

16MB PSRAM is officially used for memory expansion, but you can do a lot of things with it since EZ Team released the code necessary to access the hardware. Have fun, if you're that kind of person!

 

[Boshinator]

So I should have no troubles running and saving ~40 games?
Some in NOR and others in PSRAM?

Is it hard to make it work with SnemulDS (RAM PACK) and be used as a rumble pack or is all this done on it's own?

 

[myuusmeow]

SnemulDS detects it and everything by itself, you don't have to do anything.

To use Rumble Pak function, just open Rudolph's Tool and press R (Press L later on to get back to PSRAM/NOR modes) until you get to pick between Rumble Low, Rumble Medium, Rumble High, RAM Expansion. It will then soft-reset and then you just pick a rumble compatible game, such as Elite Beat Agents.

 

[Boshinator]

I play my legit games without the R4 so would I be able to use a legal game with the EZ Flash and have rumble?

 

[leetdude_007]

Will you be able to play original DS carts with 3 in 1 as a rumble pack? To the best of my knowledge, no. Also, you CANNOT use the 3 in 1 for rumble with GBA games.

But you can still play real backups of your games on the R4 and that will allow you to activate rumble via the Rudolph's tool. The 3 in 1 is versatile enough for you to avoid illegal ROM sites. You can actually dump your original cart's ROM and save using another tool made by rudolph, called NDS Backup Tool 3in1. http://www009.upp.so-net.ne.jp/rudolph/nds/NDS_Backup/
Furthermore, you can upload any saves BACK to the original cart.

Your best best for extracting a backup ROM out of your GBA games is GBAldr. I heard that you don't need a 3 in 1 to get the extraction working.

 

[Boshinator]

I mean can you use Rumble with legal DS games (and backups) without any patching or anything like that?

 

[leetdude_007]

the typical rule is that you'll need to "activate" the 3in1 somehow before the DS recognizes it. Give it a test and see if you can load something like a legitimate metroid pinball DS cart without patching and see if rumble works with 3in1. Most likely not.

The code provided by EZ team to allowed third-parties to do so. CycloDS has integrated the code into their firmware, R4 hasn't so far... so you need to load rudolph's tool to activate (when you do, it'll soft reset back to your games list in the R4). Of course, this does not mean that you're patching the nds files themselves. You have to read the EZ forums to see what's happening under the hood. I'm no expert

edit: I also forgot that there IS a patching tool that can detect the 3 in 1 rumble without using Rudolph's tool. That's another option. There's a link in the wiki. Open source is awesome!

I think I accidentally removed chuckstudio's tool from the wiki, but it's back up in the third-party software section.

 

[Boshinator]

the typical rule is that you'll need to "activate" the 3in1 somehow before the DS recognizes it. Give it a test and see if you can load something like a legitimate metroid pinball DS cart without patching and see if rumble works with 3in1. Most likely not.

The code provided by EZ team to allowed third-parties to do so. CycloDS has integrated the code into their firmware, R4 hasn't so far... so you need to load rudolph's tool to activate (when you do, it'll soft reset back to your games list in the R4). Of course, this does not mean that you're patching the nds files themselves. You have to read the EZ forums to see what's happening under the hood. I'm no expert

edit: I also forgot that there IS a patching tool that can detect the 3 in 1 rumble without using Rudolph's tool. That's another option. There's a link in the wiki. Open source is awesome!

I think I accidentally removed chuckstudio's tool from the wiki, but it's back up in the third-party software section.

If I have to patch each file individually I'd rather just use Rudolph.

 

[leetdude_007]

Yeah, I don't like to do that either.. too much work. Rudolph's tool feeds my laziness troll.

one thing I noticed. Rudolph's tool sorts your GBA files in the order you wrote them into the folder. One way to get them back to alphabetical order is to move the folder out of your memory card and copy it back in alphabetically. Usually that's automatically copied over alphabetically via windows. I guess it helps defrag your memory card anyway!

follow the initial setup directions and you should be fine... most of the time. In some rare cases, the game won't save. One example is the Zelda famicom GBA game (Japan). I think you need to get a specialized patch for those very rare occasions.

 

[Boshinator]

Sounds like the 3 in 1 was the best choice for GBA support.