Hacking GBA Expansion PAK

[kikoexe]

im planning to buy the gba expansion pack for m3 real.. does it also work on other slot 1 carts like the acekard, cyclo ds and EDGE? thanks in advance..

also, what are its advantages compared to the ezflash 3in1? aside from being cheap of course..

 

[Destructobot]

im planning to buy the gba expansion pack for m3 real.. does it also work on other slot 1 carts like the acekard, cyclo ds and EDGE?
It does, but it won't have any of the special features it has when used with the M3 Real. No save states, no cheats, etc. You will have to use GBA ExpLoader to run GBA games on it, as only the Real has built in support.


QUOTE(kikoexe @ Jul 3 2008, 06:14 AM) also, what are its advantages compared to the ezflash 3in1? aside from being cheap of course..

When used with GBA ExpLoader, only that it can load 32MB games into RAM rather than needing to flash them to NOR. It also has twice as much RAM for homebrew, if that matters to you.

 

[kikoexe]

thanks for the fast response destructoboot.. i dont mind the homebrew capabilities for i will just use it solely for gba games.. i dont even mind sacrificing the save state and cheats function since i dont use them..

only that it can load 32MB games into RAM rather than needing to flash them to NOR

can you expound more on this? is this considered to be a disadvantage? sorry as i am not familiar with the term..

 

[Fat D]

it is faster, but needs to be redone after every reboot, and therefore the device cannot be used as a standalone game pak.
Also, the M3 Pack, unlike the EZ one, has a real-time clock.

 

[kikoexe]

you mean to say that i will have to go through the "patching" process over and over again even if i start up the same gba game? like the way we load the nds games? if that's the case then i dont see any problem with that..

how about the saves? does the loader produce the saves for each gba game? is the saving process like a normal gba cart? or is it like the supercard wherein you will have to perform a certain button combination to transfer the save to the sd card?

i really appreciate your help guys..

 

[thedicemaster]

with an m3real as slot-1: your save will be written to microSD when you turn your DS on again after playing a gba game.
with others: your save will be written to microSD the next time you launch GBA exploader

 

[Fat D]

the saves are loaded from the expansion pack to the slot-1 card at the next reboot of the loader for any of the three expansion packs. This way it will always be transferred before the next game has been loaded.
And yes, loading itself is similar to DS Roms, except for the fact that for most card/expansion combinations, you have to go through an additional step of starting a homebew loader.

 

[kikoexe]

thanks for the very informative response guys.. now im looking forward in receiving my gba expansion pak..

oh by the way, what homebrew loader works best with regard to compatibility and ease of use?

 

[Fat D]

GBA ExpLoader by Rudolph. The only disadvantage it has that it does not auto-patch games with 1Mbit saves (Pokémon and SMA4 are the only popular ones). You will need to run them through the M3 Game Manager with Hardware Support 1.

 

[thedicemaster]

GBA ExpLoader by Rudolph. The only disadvantage it has that it does not auto-patch games with 1Mbit saves (Pokémon and SMA4 are the only popular ones). You will need to run them through the M3 Game Manager with Hardware Support 1.

...
been using those games on my m3real for quite some time without patching, and playing through GBA exploader.

 

[Fat D]

This issue only happens with the M3 Expansion on ExpLoader, not with the 3in1 (or eWin for that matter) with ExpLoader on the M3 Real or any other card.

 

[kikoexe]

recently received my m3 gba expansion pak and its working great on my acekard 2..

can anyone point me to a tutorial on rudolph's gba_exploader? so that i would know each function/option.. thanks..

 

[Fat D]

the best thing you have is the readme and the on-screen instructions. Tutorials only help installing it and preparing the games - for the 3in1. and there are two undocumented buttons: Select - load game to 3in1 and soft-reset, Start: Soft-reset.