Hacking Gameboy Advance Micro - Flash Card

[Sakray]

Hello people of GBAtemp,

I got myself a GBA Micro the other day (For old times sake) and wanted to get a Flash Card for it to play well..GBA games afcourse but also NES games (And SNES if that is even possible on GBA?)

But since i'm quite a "newb" in all these Flash Cards i'm not sure which one to buy for my Micro to Play GBA/NES(snes?)

So hoping I could get some information here since this seemed a very good site with knowledgable people

Greetings,
Wesley

 

[snikerz]

Get an EZ-Flash IV, it's a great card. SNES emulation sucks, most GBA and NES games are perfectly playable.

 

[Sakray]

EZ-Flash 4 i'm gonna look into that one.

Is that the most reliable Flash Card to get for GBA? (It does work on Micro's right i'm not sure how much different it is from a normal GBA/SP)
And SNES games are a no-no then on the GBA?

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

First off, wrong section. This is for NDS flashcards, our GBA section is a little bit lower down on the page...I'll have this moved for you.

Secondly, there are a few flashcards for the GBA that would work. I have an EZ Flash IV and I've had no problems with it. The only problem is no Real Time Clock, but that's only used in a few games (like Pokemon).

As for NES emulators, you can find PocketNes on Filetrip.net in the GBA Homebrew section. However, the GBA was definitely not powerful enough for SNES emulation, Hell, the DS is barely powerful enough as it is...

 

[Sakray]

Sorry for posting in the wrong section didn't find the GBA flash card forum at first glance.

And another person rooting for the EZ Flash 4 seems like it's an good card and are things like save states supported on this card for gba AND nes or just only the official "in game" save way.

Sad to hear bout the SNES part but understanable yes hah..

 

[DanTheManMS]

Hey now, SNES emulation isn't THAT bad on the GBA. Between SNES Advance and Snezziboy, you can play many games in a playable form. Without sound, yes, and slower than 100% speed, but still playable. See my video (response) demo at



You will however need to find the latest speedhacks to make the games playable. For SNES Advance, they're on the PocketHeaven forums, and for Snezziboy, it's on the PocketHeaven wiki, though for the most part you can just use the SNES Advance patches except for games where that's known to break the games in which case you'll want to use the Snezziboy-specific ones.

EDIT: quick edit; if you're at all interested in how we speedhacked games back in the day, see this video (forewarning: GSM cell phone interference appears about halfway through and is obnoxious, so keep it on a low volume)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yws1r7N2HQ

 

[MadHouse38]

You could get Supercard mini SD too. Its very good,have some ups and downs,but you can go over it.

It has some slowdowns but onlz on few games,(i havent seen any so far)

Someone says its boring to save,no it is not. You just do combo buttons and it saves in like 10 seconds.


So my reccomenadion is SuperCard mini SD.

 

[Sakray]

Thanks Dan for the detailed post but that's on a PC emulator? Or is it the same as you would run on the EZ Flash 4?

And Psycho I'll look into the Supercard mini SD as well thanks for the suggestion

edit: I do read the supercard mini SD doesn't run all GBA games properly is that true? I want to play most of the platformers/RPGs and run decent amount of NES games which would be the best for me
EZ Flash 4 or the Supercard Mini SD

 

[MadHouse38]

Thanks Dan for the detailed post but that's on a PC emulator? Or is it the same as you would run on the EZ Flash 4?

And Psycho I'll look into the Supercard mini SD as well thanks for the suggestion

edit: I do read the supercard mini SD doesn't run all GBA games properly is that true? I want to play most of the platformers/RPGs and run decent amount of NES games which would be the best for me
EZ Flash 4 or the Supercard Mini SD

Well Ez Flash 4 is better but if you wanna save on money then you should get Supercard. It has some slowdowns but just on some games (mario advance,as i heard)
I got lots of games and never got any slowdown.

 

[DanTheManMS]

Thanks Dan for the detailed post but that's on a PC emulator? Or is it the same as you would run on the EZ Flash 4?

It would run the same as on real hardware.

The EZ-IV is better than the Supercard miniSD by far.

 

[AlanWeird]

I had an M3 perfect in mine, but ez-iv had issues with cheats, but ran perfectly for me,

The supercard was fine for most games, a bit slow on some (mario kart. but who cares?) but cheats worked flawlessly.

I'd say a supercard would be a good decision.

 

[Sakray]

Money is not a problem for me I just want the best even it's 200 dollars haha

Also i'm not a person to use cheats so that doesn't really matter for me either

What's most important to me that it plays all the good GBA games without problems and can emulate some good NES games

 

[MadHouse38]

Well Let me tell you what they say and what it is wiith supercard mini sd.
I got it few days ago,i putted micro sd to mini sd adapter and its working great!

Supercard mini sd has it own firmware,which they updated and lots of things are fixed.

When you want to save your gaming,you just do L+R+B+Select and you save it direct to your micro sd (ez save to his battery) which means you can backup your saves with supercard mini sd.

There are FEW games that has slowdowns but i have tried many and never had a slowdown.

Supercard Mini SD is great,before you add games you will need to patch them BUT you get patching software from their site AND it patch one game within 5 seconds.
ALSO you can add text for every game before patching so while you are playing that game,you just press L+R+Start+A and you can read that,it can be Faqs,cheats,some random text,..


My friend owns EZ Flash 4 and his opinion is that Supercard Mini SD is better.
I say get Supercard Mini SD.

 

[FAST6191]

I would say quite the opposite on the matter of supercards and and quite emphatically- even back when the only compelling reason to get a GBA slot supercard was for the slightly better DS compatibility than the EZ and m3/g6 gear of the time and indeed there is no real reason to get one today. If you found one on the street or had a mate that would let you have it for the price of a pizza consider it a bonus but I can not in good conscience suggest people get a GBA slot supercard of any form for running GBA games (indeed I might go so far as to say any GBA capability is a nice bonus and nothing more than that).

As for cheats http://gbatemp.net/topic/99334-gba-auto-trainer-makergbaatm/ and http://gba.dellicious.de/trainer.php?s=n&o=asc&d= if it really matters.

Re SNES +1 to DanTheManMS and you should also note many snes and other 16 bit classics got ported to the GBA.

Re save states- the EZ3 (which the EZ4 is heavily based upon) had them but they never made the jump to the EZ4 for whatever reason.

Anyhow have to run- short version the EZ4 is your only real option for a good GBA flash cart that you can realistically find today unless you can find someone selling some old GBA era stuff (I have seen a few people offer some old neoflash gear still and some people offering fire card stuff).

 

[Sakray]

Hmm oke I read from Psycho the EZ4 saves onto his battery but does that mean I "LOSE" my saves as soon as I turn the GBA off or remove the catridge from the handheld?

 

[Lube_Skyballer]

Hmm oke I read from Psycho the EZ4 saves onto his battery but does that mean I "LOSE" my saves as soon as I turn the GBA off or remove the catridge from the handheld?

A battery's purpose is to hold a charge to maintain the save even if the handheld is turned off or when the cartridge is removed.
A year ago I was also looking for flash card for my GBM. The EZ4 is clearly the best option. I have one myself and it does its job very well.
So pick one up, you won't regret it. You'll have to search a bit, but you'll find it somewhere eventually

 

[Sakray]

Hmm oke I read from Psycho the EZ4 saves onto his battery but does that mean I "LOSE" my saves as soon as I turn the GBA off or remove the catridge from the handheld?

A battery's purpose is to hold a charge to maintain the save even if the handheld is turned off or when the cartridge is removed.
A year ago I was also looking for flash card for my GBM. The EZ4 is clearly the best option. I have one myself and it does its job very well.
So pick one up, you won't regret it. You'll have to search a bit, but you'll find it somewhere eventually

That cleared some things up yes i'm going to order the EZ4 thanks for all the reactions it helped me alot making my decision.
Question thought regarding that NES emulator can you also save in there or not?