EZ-FLASH Junior TestFlight

Incorrect. The device doesn't emulate the RTC properly. That's why I wrote an RTC test ROM. Running it on an original MBC3 RTC cart passes all tests. The EZ-Flash Jr. fails most of them.

 

That's not really true. Prism does work on original cartridges, so the problem seems to be with EZflash junior. There also is the RTC drift problem.

 

In particular, from the results of the test ROM, the EZ-Flash Jr's RTC implementation has issues when you write to it (i.e., when you change the RTC values). A vanilla Crystal game only does this every four months, but Prism does it every time you play it. That's why it doesn't work on the EZ-Flash Jr.

 

So then is it an RTC hardware problem, or is it fixable with software?

 

It's almost certainly fixable with a firmware update. (While firmware is basically software, it's very special and delicate; see: all the issues people have had here with firmware updates.)

 

I know firmware is what runs the hardware, but I was just curious if it was purly a firmware issue, or a hardware bug that would warrant a hardware revision. Good to know it isn't a hardware bug.

 

The RTC is just a simple chip that keeps track of time, they are pretty standard. I'm not an expert but it looks like an firmware issue or something that could be fixed with firmware. The EZflash junior also uses an FPGA so any change in hardware logic is possible without a hardware redesign.

 

That's assuming the FPGA bitstream can be flashed by the software. This would be dangerous and unrecoverable if it goes wrong since the FPGA handles the entire communication with the GB.

 

It can be. Firmware updates do contain FPGA code.

 

Then the RTC issues should be fixable except maybe the time running too fast. That's probably on the crystal having too high tolerances. Could be somewhat compensated in software though.

 

Perhaps EZ-FLASH Junior to be saved in games as well as Evedrive x7? At any time during the game.

 

The thing is that it is a software/firmware bug not that the clock isn't accurate. When a clock is inaccurate you could just adjust the clock to the correct date and time to fix the issue. This time drift is on top of the date and time itself.

 

Hey there,

First of all: Great work! I am so happy that I can play on my GBC again and have all games at hand at once.

I just recently bought the EZflash jr and I‘m using it with my CGB-001 with no CPU Suffix. FW4 didn‘t work for me (microSD intial error), but FW5RC works like a charm! Had to upgrade the FW using my super gameboy, but since then its working fine on my GBC.

Some issues I encountered:

- Warioland 3 crashes randomly (screen freezes or blackscreen)

- Can‘t get the save feature to work: I have auto save enabled and all the time i‘m leaving a game (either by resetting or off/on switch), the game seems to save fine. But as soon as I open the game again, it just starts at the beginning again. Am I doing something wrong? Is this a known issue?

 

Thank you, I‘ll try another rom and see if this is the case.

regarding #2:
No that‘s not the case, the saver folder is there and the saves are being created. It just seems they are ignored when I launch the game. Perhaps its also my mistake - do I have to do anything else except launching the game when I want to load a saved state?

 

Alright, yes I see now - I misunderstood that feature, thank you for clearing that up.

 

Is work still being done on FW5?

 

They have to figure out how to keep the firmware stable whilst introducing the new RTC handling changes required for accuracy, and we've definitely seen how finnicky a small update can make the whole thing behave.
There's also a chance of bricking using the test flight firmwares (and even the non-final RC version) with people only able to recover the brick with programmers and soldering experience, so it's best to stay on the previous stable release just to be safe.

EZ Flash don't have a history of letting customers down, usually the opposite! EZFlash commented a few pages back saying they were still working on it though, so a simpler "yes" was probably enough, but I figured it's nice to explain a little bit.


TL;DR
Yes