Hacking GBA SP Flashcart

[Dirtie]

You're all forgetting the EFA-Linker (not II) and XROM

The two best carts of the GBA era.
EZF3 has some minor compatibility problems with a very small amount of games - it's not "perfect" (no cart really is).

 

[Veho]

You're all forgetting the EFA-Linker (not II) and XROM

The two best carts of the GBA era.

Too bad they can't be found anywhere any more

 

[Harsky]

Even if the EZF4 is a little pricy, I'm still hoping to get one in the future to finish playing some unfinised GBA games. But all I see are versions for the DS Lite only. Is there such a case where it can fit into an ordinary GBA?

Edit. HURRR I AM AN IDIOT. I just checked the reviews and realised there is the ordinalt EZF4 but that requires a mini SD and I have micro SDs in the house. Surely there must be a GBA cartr sized case replacement for the EZ4 Lite?

 

[Veho]

I just checked the reviews and realised there is the ordinalt EZF4 but that requires a mini SD and I have micro SDs in the house. Surely there must be a GBA cartr sized case replacement for the EZ4 Lite?

Nope, they assume you'll get the original EZF4 if you want the big casing.
And you can turn your microSD into a miniSD with the micro to mini adapter:


Cheaper than getting a whole new card.

 

[Harsky]

WHOOP. WHOOP. Now the big question is where can I find a store that ships the EZF4 to the UK.

Edit #2:

Saw this:

http://shop.01media.com/info.asp?ProductID=16598

Reeeeeal tempted... but the the fact that it only supports roms of up to 256Mb is worrying. How many games are there where it's 512Mb? Now I can finally get rid of my M3 and my F2A Ultra.

 

[Veho]

You can get them cheap at Bamboogaming. £15, plus £5 shipping.

The largest GBA game is 256Mb (megabit), 99% of the games are 128Mb or less.

EDIT: Wait, why would you want to get rid of the M3?

 

[Harsky]

You can get them cheap at Bamboogaming. £15, plus £5 shipping.

The largest GBA game is 256Mb (megabit), 99% of the games are 128Mb or less.

EDIT: Wait, why would you want to get rid of the M3?

It's the old M3 CF. Yes it's a device that's served me well but I hate how it sticks out real badly.

 

[Veho]

It's the old M3 CF. Yes it's a device that's served me well but I hate how it sticks out real badly.

So you're getting rid of it? Can I have it?

 

[jalaneme]

actually you flame in alot of threads about ez flash lol, from my opinoion anyway, and the ez flash is a great gba flash cart, granted iv compact and deluxe have problems, but the the other 2 ez flash iv's work great lol yes there are 4 different brands of ez flash iv, and the G6 is very expensive although it works great, so if you are strapped for cash there are tons of gba cartidges that work really great.



i don't flame, i just like to get my opinion across, but there is some people out there that disagree with that and they they start mumbling complete nonsense flapping their mouth about how they know this and that and they think everyone should listen to there outdated information without doing research themselves. e.t.c it's just not on when the end user is asking a question and they get the completely wrong info buying something they won't be happy with. well out of all of the many brands of gba flash carts out there i will be choosing a G6 lite flash cart, no questions asked as it's the only decent flash cart that appeals to what i want in a slot 2 flash cart, not what you want, i stand by my word about EZ flash, this review shows all the faults with the EZ flash III

and it seems that little progress has been made with the recent EZ flash carts. EZ flash 4 has no real time clock, again, you may not give a poop about this function but i surely do i don't want to be wasting my time patching this and that, i just want the feature to be there and that's it, and according to the review posted on the gba temp forums, the review was talking mainly about the DS side of the EZ flash 4, and little about the GBA side of it, in this situation a person who's only interest is to play gba games this info is totally un useful, and they would have to purchase the flash cart to really see what the card offers, and then be disappointed because they don't get what they want, instead they are bombarded with DS features on the flash cart that they will never use, and yet you still praise this flash card? it doesn't make sense, to a small amount of people who wish to still play gba games, the amount of flash cards out there is not really enough and very scarce and on top of that they can be pricey so you really have to choose what flash cart you buy in the end & then you are telling people to buy a mini SD on top of the expensive slot 2? madness, in built memory all the way!

it's the same thing with the psp a over bloated device that full of so many features i will rarely ever use, do you see many people rushing out to buy one instantly? no! the DS lite is head of the handheld market because it's cheap, it gets right to the point and does one thing the user wants, just to play games if you want the other features so badly you can buy it at a extra cost, leaving the people who don't want these features happy they doesn't have to spend a arm & a leg to get what they want.

the EZ-Flash 4 has no real time clock, the G6 lite has it, you have to buy a mini SD separately which will cost you more money on top of buying the flash cart itself
Yes, a miniSD card will cost you some extra money. But you can get the EZF4 with a 512 MB miniSD card for $55, while a G6 with 512MB costs $85. As for the Real Time Clock, only Pokemon use it. And if playing Pokemon without having to patch them twice during the gameplay is so important, you can buy every Pokemon GBA game that actually uses RTC for that price difference.

QUOTE(jalaneme @ Mar 15 2007, 07:33 PM)i would rather spend my cash on a flash cart that works properly with gba games and has extra features as a bonus instead of buying a flash cart that makes gba support second place and DS compatibility it's first priority.

True, true. But the EZF4 is a GBA card first, and DS second, and has 100% GBA compatibility, without lags or glitches or problems. That argument doesn't apply to it.

if you look around like i was doing late last night you can get at least 10% of that price if you just be patient and look hard enough, no wrong again, boktai the sun is in your hands also uses the real time clock, and the game relies very heavily on it (i should know i've completed it a fair amount of times) and yes i do have original pokemon gba carts, but that is not the point i am trying to make here, you see, buying a gba flash cart with the cheapest price first without looking at the features and what the card can do compatibility wise, you just think "oh i will just buy a sickly cheap flash cart and worry about the features later because i'm too cheap" and then when you come running on the forums posting topic about why this game won't load or why the cart corrupts your saves, we will see which is the more wise choice!

no, the EZ flash 4 relies heavily on the DS support, you can even read the review, all it talks about if the DS features and briefly about the gba support, nothing in detail at all, and i doubt the flash cart has 100% compatibility as it doesn't have any real time clock remember so you can knock all the pokemon games and boktai 1 & 2 of the compatibility list then.

you will get lags and glitches as it will depend of the speed of the mini SD, that's the positive thing about having in built memory is it's permanent and more than enough space, i don't see the logic cramming every rom ever made on there when i can only manage to play 1 or 2 at a time anyway so size does not matter, and the hardware based memory is much better than detachable memory, you don't have to worry about buying the best mini SD card as it's all built in there.

 

[FAST6191]

Nobody has yet said the g6 is a bad card (if it matters I actually suggested it in my inital reply) and quite frankly it is not a bad card, people are merely mentioning very viable alternatives that can do the deal just as good and be cheaper.

As people have said time and time again (in this thread and others) it is only select handful of games (maybe 5 titles not counting region dupes) that need patching (to ultimately be just as playable) but once for RTC, I agree patching may not be to everyones tastes but it does only take 15 seconds max to pull off. Personally the saved PCB space, battery life and cost is worth a few seconds of my time (nobody said "piracy" is easy).

You mention outdated information being thrown around yet you point to a review several years old (or one using software several years old, either way the point remains). If you allow an example perhaps adjusted to your point of view: OMG the G6 has a flaw with da battery that makez it drain the battery yo. Such as fault does not exist today so it is not mentioned.

As for "expensive" external memory might I suggest you do some research of your own (UK site so price is increased a bit of some of the European mainland/US/Asian sites but it serves the purpose):
http://www.mobymemory.com/1GB_2GB_mini_SD_..._MobyMemory.asp
Coincidently gameyeeeah lists the EZ4 at £20 or you could go with veho's site, add on £13 for a 2 gig miniSD and yeah.

"the review was talking mainly about the DS side of the EZ flash 4", given DS support was/is the primary concern of most poeple reading a review if anything it is a fault with GBAtemp's review. I doubt you will find many people capable of showing the GBA support of the EZ4 line (non compact edition) is bad. As for DS features I remember a time when the G6 was the de facto DS card (best rom support, nice features, loader...) but that barely warrants mention in this thread.

Points made I guess, I will return to doing some rom hacking.

Edit to your edit:
I have played both boktai and pokemon on my EZ4's, saved a loaded again.

Yes you can get away with a cheap miniSD in the EZ4 for as people already stated it copies to another memory section built into the cards, slowdowns exist on the supercard because it uses cheaper onboard memory other carts such as the EZ3,4,M3 and even G6 use decent memory to avoid this (with an increase in price to boot).

No doubt DS support is an important feature but the GBA is good too, 100% is not the case as I already mentioned the Classic NES/Famicom mini (everybody who knows uses HVCA or pocketnes builds anyhow). There also a very bad DBZ title or two that need IPS patching to run as well, other than that it is solid.

 

[Veho]

no, the EZ flash 4 relies heavily on the DS support, you can even read the review, all it talks about if the DS features and briefly about the gba support, nothing in detail at all, and i doubt the flash cart has 100% compatibility as it doesn't have any real time clock remember so you can knock all the pokemon games and boktai 1 & 2 of the compatibility list then.Yes, I've read the review, and just because the review is badly written doesn't mean the card is bad. It has excellent GBA compatibility. As for Pokemon and Boktai, those are the only games that require RTC. So there's 2 GBA Pokemon games, and 2 Boktai games, against 1500 unique GBA titles. That's 99.73333% compatibility. And Boktai isn't supported by any flashcard, G6 included, because it requires a light detector, and no flashcard has one.


QUOTE(jalaneme @ Mar 16 2007, 01:48 PM)you will get lags and glitches as it will depend of the speed of the mini SD,

...and the hardware based memory is much better than detachable memory, you don't have to worry about buying the best mini SD card as it's all built in there.

The GBA flashcards load the entire game into their built-in RAM. The speed of the memory card has no effect on the game speed. And you don't have to buy the best memory card, you can use any card that works. The game is loaded into RAM, and runs from RAM.

The memory card affecting game speed is true for DS games, because they run directly from the memory card, but not for GBA games

Wrong argument.

 

[jalaneme]

no, the EZ flash 4 relies heavily on the DS support, you can even read the review, all it talks about if the DS features and briefly about the gba support, nothing in detail at all, and i doubt the flash cart has 100% compatibility as it doesn't have any real time clock remember so you can knock all the pokemon games and boktai 1 & 2 of the compatibility list then.

Yes, I've read the review, and just because the review is badly written doesn't mean the card is bad. It has excellent GBA compatibility. As for Pokemon and Boktai, those are the only games that require RTC. So there's 2 GBA Pokemon games, and 2 Boktai games, against 1500 unique GBA titles. That's 99.73333% compatibility. And Boktai isn't supported by any flashcard, G6 included, because it requires a light detector, and no flashcard has one.

there is a patch available that allows you to patch the rom so you have constant sunlight. and actually there are 5 pokemon games for the gba, and it does matter for real time clock as i said before boktai relies heavily on it, especially when you go to that wood part and certain paths are available only in daylight, if you go there at night the path will be closed and you are unable to progress now tell me again that real time clock doesn't matter?

 

[Harsky]

So in summary:

If I'm looking for a cheap flashcart for the exclusive use of GBA roms, the EZF4 is recommended?

 

[jalaneme]

So in summary:

If I'm looking for a cheap flashcart for the exclusive use of GBA roms, the EZF4 is recommended?

yes, if you don't mind having no real time clock then it's a ok flash cart.

 

[Veho]

there is a patch available that allows you to patch the rom so you have constant sunlight. and actually there are 5 pokemon games for the gba, and it does matter for real time clock as i said before boktai relies heavily on it, especially when you go to that wood part and certain paths are available only in daylight, if you go there at night the path will be closed and you are unable to progress now tell me again that real time clock doesn't matter?

Yes, there are 5 Pokemon games, but how many of them actually use RTC? And regarding Boktai, there's a patch for it too.

If you really really really have to play Boktai in real time, then it won't be a problem to pay $30 extra to play it that way. But you'd be surprised at how many people will never ever play it, and don't need RTC at all, and don't want to pay that much extra for a function they will never use.

 

[jalaneme]

And regarding Boktai, there's a patch for it too.

QUOTE(jalaneme @ Mar 16 2007, 12:51 PM)there is a patch available that allows you to patch the rom so you have constant sunlight.

there is seriously some echo in here...

 

[Veho]

there is seriously some echo in here...

I was referring to the time patch, to adjust the game time to access the time-specific events (night-only or dark-only). Not the sunlight patch.

 

[Harsky]

So in summary:

If I'm looking for a cheap flashcart for the exclusive use of GBA roms, the EZF4 is recommended?


yes, if you don't mind having real time clock then it's a ok flash cart.

That's cool. Now to order.

 

[Dirtie]

Concerning my review of the EZF4:
Just remember it was written when the EZ4 was supposed to be the "next big DS cart". It was manufactured for the purpose of running DS games, GBA stuff comes secondary (even if it proves to be that cart's strongest point). I did note that GBA support is pretty much perfect apart from the lack of RTC support - what more is there to say really?

 

[archagon]

Why not wait for the 3-in-1 pack to get DLDI support?