Hacking EZFLASH Jr? New GB/GBC flash cart.

[izder456]

I was browsing EZFLASH's website and I saw a new product called EZFLASH Jr.
Link: http://www.ezflash.cn/product/ez-flash-junior/
It doesn't appear to be on sale right now.

Anyone know what this is?

I'm interested

 

[FAST6191]

Edit. Ended up making a portal post which covers a bit more than is here if some technical talk is desired.
https://gbatemp.net/threads/ezflash...gameboy-color-feature-rich-flash-cart.554120/
Pretty much sounds like a ROM running focus GB/GBC flash cart and is set to be cheap and out within the next few weeks.

---
Not heard of it before. I imagine we will see something before long.

Anyway looking at the specs it is EZFlash's take on a GB/GBC flash cart and there is a page on their news section with it as well
http://www.ezflash.cn/ez-flash-junior-announced/

EZ-FLASH Junior announced

We are proud to announce the release of EZ-FLASH Junior(EZ-FLASH Jr. for short).

The EZ-FLASH Junior is a highly cost-effective GB / GBC flash card. It has features such as instant-load, real-time clock, upgradeable kernel and firmware, displaying Chinese file name and directory, but the price is much cheaper than your imagination.

It will be available before Christmas this year.

I will be interested to see what goes here. While certain branded carts did exist during the GB/GBC era it was the GBA era before notable groups/teams got together to make carts and that is when we first saw EZFlash.

 

[izder456]

I will be interested to see what goes here. While certain branded carts did exist during the GB/GBC era it was the GBA era before notable groups/teams got together to make carts and that is when we first saw EZFlash.

I'm low key kinna hyped too bc the EZFLASH team always made decent if not, amazing flashing products.

The EZFLASH omega is what I have. The gb/c emulation is a bit lackluster for the games I play. Most games are okay tho.

It would be nice to have native support of gb/c games on my modded gba's 8bit backward compatibility hardware without the use of emulation.

 

[Alexander1970]

Thank you for this News.

I think many Users waited for a cheaper Solution than the Everdrive.

 

[Plstic]

exciting stuff especially if it has rtc.

 

[Sakitoshi]

finally an alternative to the overpriced everdrive gb.
I'm still holding my gb smardcard 64m because the alternatives are just too expensive. the convenience of sd cards doesn't justify the price when the one I already have works just fine. that may change if the ez-flash jr. has a nice price.

 

[PZT]

Very important to know this and the Everdrive are not the only GB flashcart solutions.
Bennvenn's ElCheapoSD is already very capable in its v2.2 revision and has a v3 revision upcoming in the future that will support RTC, as well as savestates without needing a physical button on the cartridge
https://medium.com/@gozdnijezek/flash-cards-for-game-boy-color-e73619d2196e
The one that says unknown looks like an Everdrive has equivalent functionality to the X3 but can't get firmware updates, same with the Jack DIY IIRC

 

[codezer0]

As long as the price is right... Yes, the GB Everdrive is basically flawless for anything you'd want to do on the GB/C, but $120 for a cart alone is just too much, especially when even the EZ4 that I've had all these years only cost me $40 back then.

 

[andyhappypants]

Sounds like it could be good! Have been thinking about picking up a few flash carts for my old Nintendo systems, the minis are all and good but you can’t beat the real hardware.

 

[ParzivalWolfram]

Oh wow, something I might actually be able to afford! AND it'll run quite a few games!

can't wait to stuff this into my DMG and be disappointed that something on it doesn't work (i found it half-buried on the side of a highway, and i'll finally have something to put in it maybe)

 

[Kwyjor]

Bennvenn's ElCheapoSD is already very capable in its v2.2 revision and has a v3 revision upcoming in the future that will support RTC, as well as savestates without needing a physical button on the cartridge

My thoughts exactly. If it's not competitive with the ElCheapo, there doesn't seem to be much point.

 

[raxadian]

The only reason to use it would be to trade Pokemon so either the kart or the rom would need a way to fake Pokemon Gold, Silver and Crystal clock. That or you just end using the cheat to change the time.

All my Gameboy Color Pokemon games lost the save data because the battery is dead - -

Then Again there is also those Gameboy Color games that used stuff like a gyroscope and so wouldn't work well.

 

[FateForWindows]

Either way this appears to be a ROM running focused cart which is previously only something the Everdrive family really have any claim to,

ElCheapo: Am I a joke to you?

 

[Sakitoshi]

ElCheapo: Am I a joke to you?

it kind of is a (sad) joke, since few people knows about it. even I forgot (though, last time I checked it was still at version 1.6).

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I did not see that coming. I don't think the market for GB(C) flashcarts is very large these days (if it ever was), so you only see one man operations making them as they are pretty simple to make. But if this can compete with EverDrive at half the cost, much like the EZFlash Omega does for GBA, I'm all for it. And I have been toying with the idea of getting a GB(C) flashcart to try out LSDJ on my old GBC, if I can even find the damn thing. I'm sure I still have it because I saw it in a box at some point. Just not sure where. Maybe even getting a backlight modded DMG or two exclusively for LSDJ usage, but I can't really justify that if I don't even know if I'll use it more than once or twice. I just love the way LSDJ sounds in chiptunes and combining it with some other "instruments" and a mixer, the sky is the limit for what you can make.

finally an alternative to the overpriced everdrive gb.
I'm still holding my gb smardcard 64m because the alternatives are just too expensive. the convenience of sd cards doesn't justify the price when the one I already have works just fine. that may change if the ez-flash jr. has a nice price.

The El Cheapo SD isn't too expensive IIRC.
Edit: Looks like $50, or $40 if you preorder v2.2 which is shipping in January. v2.2 has the benefit of not requiring a battery for saving, but still lacks RTC as all of them do. Well worth it for the price though. Firmware updates supported and provided free of charge.
This post by BennVenn though suggests that he can do RTC quite easily (and cheaply) and would be up for it if there is demand: https://www.reddit.com/r/Gameboy/comments/4wtge3/everdrive_gb_vs_elcheapo/d6d2myv/
So show your interest I suppose.

 

[FAST6191]

I had not seen much of the el cheapo since its first release wherein it got lumped in with the likes of the drag and derp and homebrew stuff from the likes of https://web.archive.org/web/20170323035350/http://www.reinerziegler.de/readplus.htm -- technically capable of running a commercial ROM but in reality a homebrew cart mostly aimed at the LSDJ set* rather than anything like we are used to. If I can be said to have snubbed it I will note it where it needs to be noted, or more likely make sure any eventual review notes it.

*for those just getting into this GB/GBC flash cart lark then one of the major uses of GB/GBC carts for many years now has been the little sound DJ program https://www.littlesounddj.com/lsd/index.php . Said major uses https://littlesounddj.fandom.com/wiki/Little_Sound_Dj#The_Lime_Light

Anyway seems some images appeared on the product page, I grabbed two for here and also for the front page article. Not much to say really as the sticker and case block much about the PCB and we can't see any software in action but still something.

 

[PZT]

Fuck that cart design is so killer after seeing so many Game Boy flashcarts have a concave top instead of convex, concave being GB only basically and convex being the GBC form factor
Also excellent that it does not say "GAME" at the top
The ElCheapo is very good it has more functions than the lower-end Everdrives and soon more functions than the higher-end Everdrives
It's definitely not a cart just for the LSDJ set, at least not after releasing v2, maybe the very first version had limited functionality but everybody has to start somewhere
Bennvenn as a developer gives AAA top-class tech support and I'm sure his v3 ElCheapoSD will be even more competitive with the Everdrive and now the Jr with how the v3 will have RTC and savestates without needing an extra physical button attached to the cart
He wants people to buy his product and not the other guy's so I'm sure he'll make a compelling case for his work and up his competitiveness, really the main weakness of the ECSD is that it's not in stock most of the time otherwise it's the better option when compared against an Everdrive
He also makes like the single best GBC backlit screen

 

[Sakitoshi]

*ezflash jr. pics*

Well, we can at least see it uses a battery, which makes sence if is gonna have a rtc.

 

[FAST6191]

Poking around on baidu I found a bit more

https://tieba.baidu.com/p/6374167048
10 days ago at time of writing.
No info really (the title is something like stay tuned) but showcases a least a beta of the software. Menu is a bit basic as these things go but seems functional, and in shot is that 8 meg game that in English we probably know as Densha De Go! 2 or something similar (Romanisation is not an exact science).

I don't think anybody would fake this (the thread certainly does not seem to suspect it) and a person with the same username posted a bunch of stuff elsewhere for the Omega some time back so likely a good source.

Also further to the LSDJ stuff some people take this sound lark quite seriously, probably irrelevant here but for the sake of sharing cool links
http://www.herbertweixelbaum.com/comparison.htm
https://aquellex.ws/goodies/tutorial/game-boy-comparison/

 

[PZT]

It's really interesting how they say it'll be available "before Christmas" considering that's 11 days from now, guess we'll see soon