EZ-Flash IV review now Online!

[Ace Gunman]

nice.... now what's really interesting is when ye get the micro sd version of ez4... EZ4 lite that is

If EZFlash does release that microSD "Lite" cart, M3 and SC are gonna answer right back with their own microSD versions. Theyre not gonna do anything unless EZflash moves first, cuz the M3miniSD and SCminiSD are selling like hotcakes. But when EZ officially announces that "Lite" model, M3 and SC will turn the lights back on in the R&D department and the consumer wins again. YAY!

I look forward to M3's next product, it's no doubt going to be a Lite cart. Although, couldn't it still use MiniSD media? It wouldn't be that much smaller than the real GBA carts. I really hope it doesn't use MicroSD, that format is still so fresh. Do they even have 1GB for Micro yet?

 

[meangreenie]

Actually 256mb GBA roms do already work on the EZ4. Did the reviewer even try it ? It works the same way as the EZ3 .. loads into the 256mb flash ram.

And when you turn the gba/ds back off and back on, the 256m rom is listed in the root directory of the file manager below the "EZ-Disk" folder; You can then load it without the initial processing or loading because it is stored into memory.


edit.. thought I should mention it works in GBA mode and not in DS mode.

 

[Bitbyte]

nice.... now what's really interesting is when ye get the micro sd version of ez4... EZ4 lite that is

If EZFlash does release that microSD "Lite" cart, M3 and SC are gonna answer right back with their own microSD versions. Theyre not gonna do anything unless EZflash moves first, cuz the M3miniSD and SCminiSD are selling like hotcakes. But when EZ officially announces that "Lite" model, M3 and SC will turn the lights back on in the R&D department and the consumer wins again. YAY!

I look forward to M3's next product, it's no doubt going to be a Lite cart. Although, couldn't it still use MiniSD media? It wouldn't be that much smaller than the real GBA carts. I really hope it doesn't use MicroSD, that format is still so fresh. Do they even have 1GB for Micro yet?

Yeah, they do. Look for Transflash, that's what MicroSD is also called.

 

[Ace Gunman]

Yeah, they do. Look for Transflash, that's what MicroSD is also called.

Off-topic, what kind of read/write speeds does MicroSD media have? Surely it can't be fast enough to play certain games at full speed.

 

[Bitbyte]

Up to 12MB/s 80x.

 

[anonyplayer]

GREAT review, I ordered mine yesterday!

 

[Elrinth]

Yeah, they do. Look for Transflash, that's what MicroSD is also called.


Off-topic, what kind of read/write speeds does MicroSD media have? Surely it can't be fast enough to play certain games at full speed.

In the end I'm only interested in EZ products.. Since I know my EZ2 has never failed me

I might take a look at m3 or g6 if I got one free... but since that won't happen, viva la ez

 

[Bitbyte]

Same here, EZ-Flash products were, at least to me, the best flash carts for GBA. I'm waiting for an EZ-4 Lite myself.. By the time it'll be out, a lot of probs will probably be fixed.

 

[meangreenie]

Mods .. can the review be altered/ammended ?

256Mb GBA roms do work, but only in GBA mode, it uses the same system as the EZ3.

Lack of instructions probably made the reviewer miss it.

 

[Ace Gunman]

Same here, EZ-Flash products were, at least to me, the best flash carts for GBA. I'm waiting for an EZ-4 Lite myself.. By the time it'll be out, a lot of probs will probably be fixed.

What was, will not forever be. Sometimes a better thing comes along. EZ-Flash products may have been the best to begin with, but they're getting a run for their money these days. The thing that impresses me most about m3 is how quickly they respond with new firmware upgrades. "New SUper Mario Bros doesn't work? PATCHED!".

 

[meangreenie]

What was, will not forever be. Sometimes a better thing comes along. EZ-Flash products may have been the best to begin with, but they're getting a run for their money these days. The thing that impresses me most about m3 is how quickly they respond with new firmware upgrades. "New SUper Mario Bros doesn't work? PATCHED!".

I agree, the crux of the matter with EZ is wether their coding team can match their M3 and Supercard counterparts in patching DS games. This should come apparent in the next 1-2 months.

 

[Bitbyte]

Same here, EZ-Flash products were, at least to me, the best flash carts for GBA. I'm waiting for an EZ-4 Lite myself.. By the time it'll be out, a lot of probs will probably be fixed.


What was, will not forever be. Sometimes a better thing comes along. EZ-Flash products may have been the best to begin with, but they're getting a run for their money these days. The thing that impresses me most about m3 is how quickly they respond with new firmware upgrades. "New SUper Mario Bros doesn't work? PATCHED!".

I know, but I just know that they're capable of delivering

 

[gbtemp111]

"Other than those points, GBA compatibility is excellent. I tested games of all sizes (apart from 256 Mbit obviously) and all save types, and all ran perfectly and saved fine. This is definitely a major advantage over other products, which have slowdowns, bugs and incompatibility issues with a lot of GBA games."

that's not the case with the new m3 adapter y'know. no slowdowns for me.

 

[Costello]

That's right, but some games do not work at all

just an example that comes to mind (annoying):
Lord of the rings The Two towers, an excellent action/rpg from EA.

I loved this game, too bad I can't play it anymore on my M3.

 

[meangreenie]

"Other than those points, GBA compatibility is excellent. I tested games of all sizes (apart from 256 Mbit obviously) and all save types, and all ran perfectly and saved fine. This is definitely a major advantage over other products, which have slowdowns, bugs and incompatibility issues with a lot of GBA games."

that's not the case with the new m3 adapter y'know. no slowdowns for me.

256 Mbit games run fine, but you need to be in proper GBA mode.


I can see it now , months from now people still will not belive 256Mbit games run on the EZ4. It's like when GTA SA came out on PS2, people were still insisting it was a DVD9 game for months afterwards, it almost drove me insane

 

[Ettan]

"Other than those points, GBA compatibility is excellent. I tested games of all sizes (apart from 256 Mbit obviously) and all save types, and all ran perfectly and saved fine. This is definitely a major advantage over other products, which have slowdowns, bugs and incompatibility issues with a lot of GBA games."

that's not the case with the new m3 adapter y'know. no slowdowns for me.



256 Mbit games run fine, but you need to be in proper GBA mode.


I can see it now , months from now people still will not belive 256Mbit games run on the EZ4. It's like when GTA SA came out on PS2, people were still insisting it was a DVD9 game for months afterwards, it almost drove me insane

Yup, I can also confirm that 256 mbit runs without problems, playing kingdom of hearts right now!

 

[Dirtie]

My mistake and apologies. I did in fact test a couple of 256Mbit roms, both ater loading gave me a white screen and nothing else whic seemed conclusive at the time - seems my mistake was in using the NDS loader rather than the GBA one, so I shall do some testing now, and hopefully amend my mistake.

You see, with the lack of proper documentation or a guide, these things can get easily overlooked, and while they have a great Wiki over at Sosuke's, it mentioned nothing about this - are customers expected to scour forums looking for these pieces of information?

Edit: Fixed, and changed the score to reflect the new information.

 

[Hanafuda]

You see, with the lack of proper documentation or a guide, these things can get easily overlooked, and while they have a great Wiki over at Sosuke's, it mentioned nothing about this - are customers expected to scour forums looking for these pieces of information?

until the last couple weeks, most of the regular members were already EZ3 veterans, so I think the 256mbit rom situation came second-nature to them.

BTW nice review overall. I can't help but feel its a bit premature in a way, but there was certainly an immediate demand for it on the site. The M3 wasn't capable of running clean roms when released IIRC, and there were several weeks of owners grumbling about when the so-called "perfect" update was going to come out. I think I remember there was an announcement and then a delay, too. Much gnashing of teeth went on oer that. And when the upgrade finally did hit, boom! M3 almost immediately had 99% compatibility and the crowd went wild. But there weren't so many DS games released at that point, so it was 99% of what - 100 releases or so? Now we're up to #440, and EZ4 has to jump into the deep end of the pool and start swimming hard. I think they've done great in three weeks' time, and the software you reviewed the product on is still being refined. In fact it was updated again today.

Another thing I appreciate is that even though they came late to the NDS game, the EZ4 is a "get it right the first time" kind of product (I hope it turns out that way, anyway)> Over the last year M3 has released what - 4, 5 different versions of the hardware? 5 months ago I almost convinced myself I could live with the M3/CF sticking out of my DS like that, but circumstances kept me from making the buy. I am so glad I waited.

I still don't know which one I'm gonna buy though.

 

[Dirtie]

You see, with the lack of proper documentation or a guide, these things can get easily overlooked, and while they have a great Wiki over at Sosuke's, it mentioned nothing about this - are customers expected to scour forums looking for these pieces of information?




until the last couple weeks, most of the regular members were already EZ3 veterans, so I think the 256mbit rom situation came second-nature to them.

BTW nice review overall. I can't help but feel its a bit premature in a way, but there was certainly an immediate demand for it on the site. The M3 wasn't capable of running clean roms when released IIRC, and there were several weeks of owners grumbling about when the so-called "perfect" update was going to come out. I think I remember there was an announcement and then a delay, too. Much gnashing of teeth went on oer that. And when the upgrade finally did hit, boom! M3 almost immediately had 99% compatibility and the crowd went wild. But there weren't so many DS games released at that point, so it was 99% of what - 100 releases or so? Now we're up to #440, and EZ4 has to jump into the deep end of the pool and start swimming hard. I think they've done great in three weeks' time, and the software you reviewed the product on is still being refined. In fact it was updated again today.

Another thing I appreciate is that even though they came late to the NDS game, the EZ4 is a "get it right the first time" kind of product (I hope it turns out that way, anyway)> Over the last year M3 has released what - 4, 5 different versions of the hardware? 5 months ago I almost convinced myself I could live with the M3/CF sticking out of my DS like that, but circumstances kept me from making the buy. I am so glad I waited.

I still don't know which one I'm gonna buy though.

I can see what you're getting at, but the point is I had to review the product as is, not what it will be in the future, and people were already crying out for a review so I don't know if a delay would have been the best thing to do.

 

[cory1492]

I can see what you're getting at, but the point is I had to review the product as is, not what it will be in the future, and people were already crying out for a review so I don't know if a delay would have been the best thing to do.

Fully agree with ya Dirtie, people want to know NOW should I get the M3 or EZ4 or SC or xxx... its a question reflected in all the forums. The review gives people something to chew on at a site where all of them can be compared by their reviews.

The Reel icon apparently corresponds to the NAND flash if you put a 256 GBA game into it, something in that icon should show up on the DS menu

edit:/ turns out it NOR not NAND