Hacking EZ-Flash IV: Patches Don't Work?

[Rokku]

I just got my EZ-Flash IV (MicroSD version) and loaded it up with a bunch of games, but I noticed that sometimes my IPS patches are just completely ignored? For example, I put a Fire Red v1.0 ROM patched with Throwback (http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/1981/) on the SD card but when I load the game up it's just vanilla Fire Red with no changes, as if I didn't patch it at all. I've noticed a few trainers that don't show up either, and I can't use GBAATM because all the download links for it are bad. What can I do? Why does the EZ-Flash ignore my patches?

 

[FAST6191]

IPS patches are not handled by any EZ4 loader, or indeed possibly any of the GBA flash carts (not sure about the everdrive offhand). You will need to manually patch it. I like GBATA from http://www.no-intro.org/tools.htm to do it.

You can rename the patched game to something else (make sure to also do the save if it has one already).

Unless you meant you done that. In that case the EZ4 has no capacity to restore a patched game. Outside of a few very specific things you will not encounter that anywhere (some rare hardware devices aimed at specific games might unlock an emulated version and not dump the base ROM, and self correcting code is a thing in various fields but certainly not for a $40 flash cart running on a GBA). To that end operator error -- either you clicked on the wrong game on your EZ4 or you copied the wrong version to it (some patchers will make another file, some will alter the base file, some will give you the option). It could also be that your patcher failed and did not say as such -- IPS is not a universally agreed upon standard and so many patchers will fail with certain other patches. GBATA is good though and will work where others might have failed, at least until you encounter some of the weird offshoots/forks of the format but they tend not to exist for the GBA.

GBAATM downloads just fine from https://filetrip.net/gba-downloads/tools-utilities/download-gbaatm-1-9-9-7-0-0-1-f33297.html for me, and was linked in the main thread for it around here.

 

[Rokku]

I did use GBATA instead of my usual LunarIPS entirely because it was recommended in the Noob Guide to EZ4 thread. That GBAATM link made Chrome freak out a lot but at least I have it now, I can use that on games that don't have trainers I suppose, or games where the trainers aren't working.

I did determine that the Pokemon issue was an issue of conflicting patches, so that's fixed at least. Used just the Throwback patch (and not the other patches I had) and it works now.

On an unrelated note, I've heard something about being able to play GB/GBC games on the EZ4 using a software called Goomba Color but does that actually work?

 

[FAST6191]

Yeah goomba (and then the fork in goomba color which dropped a few features and gained GBC support) are the main GB/GBC emulators which allow people to play such games on a GBA. There are a whole bunch of emulators for the 8 bit and older systems available for the GBA which do very well for themselves. 16 bit wise unless it is on the PCE see if a port (there were many) will do.

 

[Rokku]

Cool, will be fun to play hacked GB/C Pokemon games and NES games that weren't released as part of the Classic NES series like Startropics.

 

[Rokku]

Oh dear, something must have gone wrong. I turned the EZ4 back on after loading up all these games and it crashes and the whole screen goes black, like if I had formatted the microSD card wrong.

EDIT: I guess I used GBAATM wrong because removing all the games I patched with GBAATM made the EZ4 work correctly again. I'm not sure how I could have patched them wrong though...

Also the GBC game I brought in via Goomba Color has a lot of graphical glitches...

 

[Rokku]

I used the program EZGBA to patch my games and now the EZ4 works again with my GBAATM-patched games installed, but some games have insane amounts of slowdown and others just crash after the trainer screen...what did I do wrong?

 

[Rokku]

I've been having a lot of problems with Mega Man Battle Network 2 patched with GBAATM...not only do I get serious slowdown, it keeps deleting my saved file! Restart the game and my save is just gone with no explanation.

Battle Network 5 Team Protoman also has a problem where I just can't save at all if I have all the codes enabled, which is incredibly frustrating.

 

[FAST6191]

Can you try another microSD? The only slowdown that should be present is any that was in the original game or anything you deliberately patched in.

After that I have to wonder if you have a dud cart.

 

[Rokku]

Battle Network 2 is the only one with slowdown so it must be how I patched that game, but I have no idea how to patch it correctly to fix the slowdown.