Hacking Hey... will the EZ-Flash Junior work with Analogue Pocket?!?! :D

[Bonny]

Topic.

What are you guys thinking: Will the Ez Flash junior will be compatible with this funny pice of hardware:

https://gbatemp.net/threads/analogue-pocket-pre-orders-open-next-month.570737/

Sure, for the most of us this hardware is not really an option (price: 199 $), but it can play classic, color and GBA carts. And so i was asking myself if it would work with EZ Junior

 

[Localhorst86]

Topic.

What are you guys thinking: Will the Ez Flash junior will be compatible with this funny pice of hardware:

https://gbatemp.net/threads/analogue-pocket-pre-orders-open-next-month.570737/

Sure, for the most of us this hardware is not really an option (price: 199 $), but it can play classic, color and GBA carts. And so i was asking myself if it would work with EZ Junior

that's pretty much impossible to say. That solely depends on how accurately they reproduced the console in the FPGA. Since it isn't official hardware one shouldn't expect to be compatible with flashcards not designed for it (that includes the Everdrive GB and BennVenns El Cheapo SD).
It does have an SD slot, though. So maybe we will see a "jailbreak" in the future, just like there is for the SuperNT basically making a flashcard redundant for the device.

 

[Bonny]

It does have an SD slot, though. So maybe we will see a "jailbreak" in the future, just like there is for the SuperNT basically making a flashcard redundant for the device.

Ah... it has an SD clot? I overlooked that. For what purpose... i wonder...

 

[Localhorst86]

Ah... it has an SD clot? I overlooked that. For what purpose... i wonder...

GB Studio is a quick and easy to use drag and drop retro game creator for your favorite handheld video game system. It allows you to generate proprietary .pocket files with GB Studio and run them off your SD card.

 

[Bonny]

Thanks...

 

[hippy dave]

It should do, assuming the voltages etc are all within the cartridge's tolerances. I think I saw for the Omega that it originally didn't work on one real GBA model, but was fixed with a firmware update, so that's a possibility, but the odds are it will just work from the get go.

And yeah the official Pocket firmware won't run "roms" from SD card, but Analogue's systems after release all get an "unofficial" firmware from one of the devs, that will do so.

 

[cearp]

(most?) flashcarts work with analogue's devices (sd2snes etc, for super nt) so I don't think there will be anything to worry about.
and yep just like hippydave said, the other analogue devices have been 'jailbroken'/hacked and support rom loading, I'm certain that will be the case here.
I'm definitely going to be buying one, I just hope I will be able to check out fast enough since I think they will go quickly.

 

[hippy dave]

(most?) flashcarts work with analogue's devices (sd2snes etc, for super nt) so I don't think there will be anything to worry about.
and yep just like hippydave said, the other analogue devices have been 'jailbroken'/hacked and support rom loading, I'm certain that will be the case here.
I'm definitely going to be buying one, I just hope I will be able to check out fast enough since I think they will go quickly.

IDK if you've bought their kit before, or read about it, but the pre-orders aren't going to be all that's ever available, right? Like maybe supply will dry up for a bit but then there'll be more available to buy normally?

 

[FAST6191]

The general issue with third party clone consoles we typically see is that they are basically a ROM and save dumper coupled with an emulator.
For most consoles using official games this is fine. For flash carts though then they typically work by loading a loader, speaking some nice custom stuff to the flash cart to get it to present other data, selecting the ROM they want and effectively reconfiguring their internals to present themselves as the ROM (maybe with a few extras for cheats and what have you, which possibly includes the option to still talk custom to the flash cart in some cases) before doing some form of reset to launch the game.
This type of flash cart behaviour works fine on original hardware that is speaking to the cart itself as it would normally but if all the clone device does is dump the thing you are then going to get a dump of the firmware which may or may not get too much further than that. Some of the truly simplistic flash carts for a given system (usually the first made, things made to use other slots -- see the 3 in 1 on the GBA, things made by cannibalising an original cart, things made with a hardware switch to cycle round ROMs being presented and maybe some basic approaches that can be twisted to appear simple like the NOR based GBA era flash carts for the GBA) can be tricked to appear as this though, albeit usually only one ROM at a time with all the effort required to change it to make a new one or even more effort to try to combine ROMs.

If this device is an FPGA simulation speaking as it would to an original console all with the same protocol, timings and whatever then things look far brighter. Most issues then will be if the simulation has some kind of whitelist/known carts list that it tries to do things with (far easier to allow cheats if you read a serial or something first and load a patch at a known location), any voltage or current draw issues (flash carts are occasionally noted as being somewhat thirsty) or plain old bugs that might stop the fun.

 

[cearp]

IDK if you've bought their kit before, or read about it, but the pre-orders aren't going to be all that's ever available, right? Like maybe supply will dry up for a bit but then there'll be more available to buy normally?

oh yeah they will replenish stock, don't worry about that. (they never said it would be limited time)

 

[J-Machine]

all previous analogue systems could use flash carts. this should be no different. that said they tend to get jail broken as well

 

[lordelan]

And yeah the official Pocket firmware won't run "roms" from SD card, but Analogue's systems after release all get an "unofficial" firmware from one of the devs, that will do so.

If that will ever be the case, quote me!

 

[noj86]

I can confirm that the EZ-Flash Junior works on the Analogue Pocket but, there is a little caveat, I needed to update my flashcard to the current beta firmware & kernel (FW5+K1.05e). Under the stable FW4+K1.04e, I was getting a MicroSD initialization error.

As flagged multiple times in the EZ FLASH Testflight topic. The beta firmware isn't ideal for everyone yet and there is a risk of bricking your flashcard.

Also the Analogue Pocket will recognize the ez-flash jnr as a Game Boy Color cartridge, so if you want a retro look you'll have to play with the option and force the cartridge as a standard GB in the system menu.

 

[cearp]

I can confirm that the EZ-Flash Junior works on the Analogue Pocket

Cool! I told them to hold back my order and ship after the holidays, just in case they sent a little slow and it comes when I'm on vacation. Nice they gave the option for that.
Looking forward to it

Thoughts in general so far?

 

[PvD79]

It works according to multiple reviews....

 

[noj86]

Cool! I told them to hold back my order and ship after the holidays, just in case they sent a little slow and it comes when I'm on vacation. Nice they gave the option for that.
Looking forward to it

Thoughts in general so far?

The first impression are fantastic, the screen and audio are brilliant, I particularly like the option to switch the display to match the various look of the GB screens. (I used to own, the original, than the gb pocket and multiple gba/gba sp consoles)

It works according to multiple reviews....

Oh sorry, I probably missed those. I've seen many reports about the EZ-FLASH Omega and Omega DE but not about the Junior

 

[ninerpocket]

Got my Pocket today and booted up EZ Flash Omega which had firmware 7 and kernel 1.07. Worked like a charm. However, I upgraded from 7 to 9 and while the kernel was updated to 1.09 the firmware remained on 7. So now every time I boot up the flashcart it prompts me to update from 7 to 9. The weird thing is that when I run the flashcart on a GBA SP it shows FW9 and doesn't prompt for upgrade. It's a minor nuisance, but worth mentioning.

 

[EZ-Flash2]

Got my Pocket today and booted up EZ Flash Omega which had firmware 7 and kernel 1.07. Worked like a charm. However, I upgraded from 7 to 9 and while the kernel was updated to 1.09 the firmware remained on 7. So now every time I boot up the flashcart it prompts me to update from 7 to 9. The weird thing is that when I run the flashcart on a GBA SP it shows FW9 and doesn't prompt for upgrade. It's a minor nuisance, but worth mentioning.

Interesting and weird.

After our theoretical analysis, it should be that Analogue Pocket's logic timing is faster and reads the factory firmware.

There are two versions of firmware stored on EZ products, a factory firmware(older) and a working firmware(upgradable), the factory firmware is the failsafe in case of failure of the working firmware.

In-correct logic timing may trigger the factory firmware to be activated.

 

[PapiFed]

I get an "Micro SD initial error" with the Jr.

 

[ninerpocket]

Interesting and weird.

After our theoretical analysis, it should be that Analogue Pocket's logic timing is faster and reads the factory firmware.

There are two versions of firmware stored on EZ products, a factory firmware(older) and a working firmware(upgradable), the factory firmware is the failsafe in case of failure of the working firmware.

In-correct logic timing may trigger the factory firmware to be activated.

Thanks for looking into it. That sounds likely since I bought my Omega last year and I haven't updated the firmware until now. In other words, I believe firmware 7 is the factory firmware for my cart. Like I said, it's a minor inconvenience. Otherwise all GBA games I've tested play just fine.

I think you already know this but EZ Flash Jr doesn't work on the Pocket with the latest stable firmware (1.04e). I'm looking forward to getting that working!