Hacking Flashcarting For A Total Noob (Like me :()

Jack Von Koopa

Member
OP
Newcomer
Joined
Jun 30, 2010
Messages
7
Trophies
0
XP
34
Country
Hey everyone, I signed up here today
smile.gif


Basically, I have a Game Boy Advance SP, and a few games for it, including Super Mario World, Super Mario Brothers 3 and GTA Advance. I've been restricted in buying more games by having to spend money on more important things, but I'd love to have a bigger library of games to play.

So I read about this whole flashcart thing, and as my dad uses something similar to play games on his DS, I was pretty happy when I found out about it. I've done some research and it seems pretty complicated to me, especially the flashcarts themselves and which ones best and does what. I've also heard some terminology that I dont understand, like for example, what are homebrew games?

I'm sorry to be a complete noob, but I'd really appreciate it if someone could walk me through it? Assuming I dont know anything
smile.gif
Because I dont :| All I want to be able to do is have a decent amount of games on the cart, it'd also be pretty cool if they could play GBC games as well
smile.gif
What do you guys think?
 

The Real Jdbye

*is birb*
Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2010
Messages
23,182
Trophies
4
Location
Space
XP
13,693
Country
Norway
Homebrew is unofficial apps and games made by users of GBAtemp and other sites.
The best flashcart is the CycloDS, but the best value for money is the Acekard 2.1. You'd probably want to go for the Acekard 2.1 (buy it from ShopTemp), but remember to install AKAIO on it (you can find it on filetrip.net, it's an unofficial firmware). AKAIO vastly improved upon the original firmware.
 

The Pi

Lurker
Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2010
Messages
1,637
Trophies
1
Location
Scotland
XP
399
Country
First welcome!!!

Homebrew games and apps are made unofficially and can only be run through a flashcard

For gba flashcards the only decent one available now is the EZ-Flash IV here is a review link

feel free to ask anything else
 

Blaze163

The White Phoenix's purifying flame.
Member
Joined
Nov 19, 2008
Messages
3,932
Trophies
1
Age
36
Location
Coventry, UK
XP
2,250
Country
The GBA flash cart scene is pretty dead from what I gather, most people have DS and flash card combos nowadays. If you do pick up a DS of some description, look in to the SuperCard DS Two, which can play GBA games without the need for an expansion card as well as pretty much any DS game, GBC game, Mega Drive game, etc. I have a Cyclo DS Evolution at the moment which is pretty sweet, I highly recommend that if you don't mind needing the expansion card to play GBA games (makes no odds to me, I have a GBA emulator on my new PSP).

BTW, welcome to the 'temp. Hope you enjoy your time here.

Also, since you've recently signed up, expect a post from Haflore regarding the rules. It shows up everywhere. With that in mind, InB4Haflore
tongue.gif
 

Jack Von Koopa

Member
OP
Newcomer
Joined
Jun 30, 2010
Messages
7
Trophies
0
XP
34
Country
After looking around and taking on board what these nice people have told me, I'm planning on buying the same
smile.gif
I'm pretty sure it's the same anyway, it's from a UK site, but it looks the same:

EZ-Flash IV

I think I understand it now, correct me if I'm wrong
smile.gif


I buy this EZ-Flash IV, and a micro SD card. I connect the micro SD card into my computer and download roms onto it, and then put it into the EZ-Flash IV, and run it on my SP?
 

Xarsah16

GBATemp's Official Village Dingus/Idiot
Member
Joined
Oct 6, 2007
Messages
722
Trophies
0
Age
33
Location
Hyrule
XP
450
Country
You've actually got an important detail wrong :/ Sorry.

You're going to need a MINI SD card NOT a Micro. They are two different kinds. The card you pick CANNOT be an SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity). It has to be 2GB or less.

This is your official firmware off the official ezflash.cn website.
http://ezflash.sosuke.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=16569

That should help
smile.gif
 

Cuelhu

GBATemp's Pepelatz Driver
Member
Joined
May 19, 2010
Messages
550
Trophies
1
Age
34
Location
Fantasy Land
XP
334
Country
Brazil
Looks like the Price Angels' one is a SD type, but I can't tell it apart.. The offer name's confusing me, and there's the SD on the description. They should have named it with something a little bit less misleading.. But it's $5 cheaper than 0shippinzone's (which is actually a miniSD type) so you'll have to decide. Hope you're lucky.

But I think there is not a SD model Ez-flash IV.. You can use a microSD with an adapter, though.
 

kuwanger

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jul 26, 2006
Messages
1,510
Trophies
0
XP
1,783
Country
United States
Yep, both 0shippingzone and PriceAngel have wrong information on their product page. As Cuelhu notes, there's no SD version of the EZ-Flash IV (there are MiniSD and MicroSD versions, but all the MicroSD versions are designed for Slot-2 in an NDS-Lite (ie, they're too small to fit in a GBA; confusingly enough, the EZ-Flash IV Deluxe is actually the best EZ-Flash version of GBA play, but seeing as it's designed for the NDS-Lite it's not really useful for us GBA owners). As for 0shippingzone, it lists the EZ-Flash IV Deluxe's specs. The normal EZ-Flash IV, which is what is pictured, doesn't have as impressive specs.

If you really want more information about the EZ-Flash IV, you can read the (Unofficial) EZ-Flash IV Tutorial and the (Unofficial) EZ-Flash IV FAQ. The only major problems with them is they do get a few facts wrong (some of the naming limitations are gone; but you're stilled limited to naming games to 49 characters or less if you want games to save properly) and there's a significant focus and assumption that you're using the EZ-Flash IV for the NDS (so, you'll want to ignore all the talk about Moonshell, EZ-Pass, and other NDS stuff). You can also visit the (Official?) EZ-Flash forum for more information.

Maybe some day I might actually get around to fixing the EZ-Flash IV wiki pages and fleshing them out more for the many GBA-related uses and the various caveats that are known.
 

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
    K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2: Sorry for accidentally bending over