Hacking I NEED A GBA FLASH CART!

[FAST6191]

also, someone said here that the SD card affects the speed of the gameplay

What someone said there was wrong then -- by the time the GBA sees it then it will have been loaded into the RAM (which the supercard team made a seriously questionable choice in the selection of). The only time media really makes a difference is writing the saves back (though that is often limited by the slowness of the GBA) and in that most GBA flash cards do not get along well with the 64 meg things they used to like sticking in mobile phones.

DS games on the other hand is a whole different ball game.

 

[Shadow#1]

proof of slowdowns with gba games on Supercard vs. EZ Flash IV

 

[Ehab]

is there a certain list of games that the Supercard can't run (slow down)?
I'm thinking it depends on the size of the ROM. Is that true?

 

[how_do_i_do_that]

It slows down on gradius and that rom is only 4MB. It is the speed of the data that needs to be read from the rom that causes the slowdown.

Games that don't need that type of data rate are games like turn based, low sprite count games, etc.

 

[chadderbox77]

The slow down on a supercard isn't that bad, and you can find them rather cheap on ebay. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-SuperC...g_Replacement_Parts_Tools&hash=item3a83772577

 

[innercy]

It slows down on gradius and that rom is only 4MB. It is the speed of the data that needs to be read from the rom that causes the slowdown.

Games that don't need that type of data rate are games like turn based, low sprite count games, etc.

u are wrong. advance war is a turm based game without any extreme movement, hence the slowdown still exist.

 

[how_do_i_do_that]

advance war isn't a low sprite count game. Any more reason you didn't read that part?


As you can already see, the supercard didn't run fast enough for most games out of the essentials list.
The clones were good enough to copy the supercard in every way, including the same speed of the SDRAM it runs at, making them have basically the same issues if you even get the bin file to work on it.

 

[Ehab]

The slow down on a supercard isn't that bad, and you can find them rather cheap on ebay. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-SuperC...g_Replacement_Parts_Tools&hash=item3a83772577

how bad is it exactly? dajavax said that mario kart is slow but I assume it's because of the special chip that cartridge has (according to what how_do_i_do_that said, more or less). also the video shows contra and street fighter slowdowns, but it also works very well on other games according to other videos. I am really wanting to get it thanks to all of it's emulation capabilities out of the box
oh! and do you think the slowdowns could be fixed with a firmware update? I mean, they could re code the way data is being transferred and all that...

 

[how_do_i_do_that]

How bad it is depends on how much you can tolerate it. Other than that, getting one is totally up to you since your the one putting out money for something.

 

[FAST6191]

how bad is it exactly? dajavax said that mario kart is slow but I assume it's because of the special chip that cartridge has (according to what how_do_i_do_that said, more or less). also the video shows contra and street fighter slowdowns, but it also works very well on other games according to other videos. I am really wanting to get it thanks to all of it's emulation capabilities out of the box
oh! and do you think the slowdowns could be fixed with a firmware update? I mean, they could re code the way data is being transferred and all that...

There are no GBA games with special chips beyond those things which have RTC, tilt sensors, solar sensors and the like, most of which are easily patched around to take input from whatever, certainly nothing like the NES mappers or SNES special chips stuff.
Patched out with updates... it is the hardware that is at fault/the weak component of the equation and for what it is worth they kind of already are patched in a lot of cases to get that 70-80% compatibility (go find the changelogs and see the GBA fixes). However trying to speedpatch (as in to avoid race conditions rather than turbo button) a GBA game is a fairly hard hack -- you have figure out what is causing the crashes/lag, find the code responsible for that, code around that, code around issues probably arising from coding around that and then you might just get a game that still lags rather than crashes. When quite literally every emulator and card that is not a supercard, supercard clone or rebadged/repurposed GBC cart does not have this issue/runs at full speed as they were designed properly the incentive to do this is not there.

 

[Ehab]

but I can't find any "not supercard, supercard clone"! if there isn't any other cart that could be bought beside this one, please tell me :c

 

[innercy]

but I can't find any "not supercard, supercard clone"! if there isn't any other cart that could be bought beside this one, please tell me :c

try an alternative such as ezflash 3 in 1, dstwo gba emulator, other handheld emulator i.e. k101 or gemei, or even using psp. else, u need to search around for other flash kart like ezflash iv, m3, elink, neo, etc. i know it hard to find but i'm sure u can find it somewhere.

 

[Toasty]

For the 3 in 1 you need
The 3 in 1.
A DS slot flash card with DLDI (basically all of them).
A DS or DS lite (the 3ds and DSi do not have a GBA slot) to manage it.
That is all- wood and AKAIO are loaders for various flash carts and GBA exploader is a program for those without a cart that supports it or that want such a program.

You can run the 3 in 1 on a GBA but as it needs a DS slot device to manage it you will find it somewhat annoying to use on a GBA so most just use them for the DS and say not to bother with the GBA. That said if you flash a single game to the 3 in 1 NOR section it will run that quite happily without intervention on the part of the DS slot device. With a DS/DS lite you could switch up as much as you like without hassle but if all you want is that single game then have at it.

If you have a DS slot device then the emulators for it are usually* superior to the GBA ones, though the GBA ones work well. The GBA emulation of the DStwo leaves a bit to be desired compared to the likes of a proper GBA flash cart but it can do serious damage to the GBA library and is not something I will pass up lightly. The GBA capabilities of the GBA slot supercards on the other hand I will happily pass up.

*if you just want games to run then sure and the increased resolution of the DS often benefits this (especially with the NES), sometimes the GBA ones have the edge in some extra functionality somewhere though.

I have a question: GBA link cable functionality is very important to me personally. I play RPGs that require multiplayer for good items, and I don't have any friends that play the stuff I do. I own 2 Gameboy SPs, DSL, and 3DS, and when it comes to GBA play I prefer the SP and my EZ Flash IV. I was thinking about purchasing a 1 in 3 just to have another option in case my EZFIV ever craps out on me, and I just read about being able to mod it to fit into a GBA. I have a DSL so it is no problem writing the games to the cart, but is link cable functionality available? This is a deal breaker for me, EZ Flash IV does GREAT with linking, wish I would have bought another. I own all the official cartridges I have on my EZ Flash IV, so I mainly use that to link up with my official cartridges and do multiplayer myself.

As for OP, please, get a PSP. I find DS flashcarts to be dodgy and potentially limiting on a 3DS (us Pokemon fans will have an update forced on us in October, perhaps losing flashcart functionality!) and I would never recommend buying a 3DS for DS flashcarts. If you want GBA emulation, PSP can do that and so much more. It truly is a better option as far as homebrew goes. I have a hacked PSP 2000 and a DSL, the PSP wins every time for emulation and homebrew other than DS games.

 

[FAST6191]

The 3 in 1 is basically an EZ4 without the NAND and should do fine, some of the more extensive patches seem to trouble it (indeed I have had a few people on the EZ4 with issues, largely solved/solvable http://ezflash.sosuke.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=17714 ) though most likely they will trouble everything. Stick with the nice first party cables and I will a tentative yes -- I can not recall any unsolved linking issues but it is not the most popular activity so I am not sure it has been extensively tested.

I should note some cheats and the likes of http://vbalink.wz.cz/ can do wonders here if all you want is bonus features. Sadly that does mean no GBA Turok co-op (though GBA emulation is not bad by virtue of the good aspect ratio and lack of touchsceen).

I will have to stick up for non emulator DS homebrew though.

There are GBA sized 3 in 1s out there, by most accounts they are rarer than the EZ4 though.

 

[Ehab]

try an alternative such as ezflash 3 in 1, dstwo gba emulator, other handheld emulator i.e. k101 or gemei, or even using psp. else, u need to search around for other flash kart like ezflash iv, m3, elink, neo, etc. i know it hard to find but i'm sure u can find it somewhere.

I got a k101 for my sister and I would love to get one except for the fact that it doesn't run actual GB/GBC cartridges (only emulate them). the gemei looks interesting, I will have a look at it c:. as for the flash carts, I looked virtually everywhere and I can't find any of them! I did, however, find the SuperCard SD (not MiniSD) and I was wondering if you or anyone else know about this model. Is it better than the MiniSD version? it's certainly pricier!

the reviews also say that it's good for the GBA
http://www.ps2cover.com/products/Supercard-SD.html#reviews

 

[how_do_i_do_that]

It uses the same SDRAM module, your going to have the same performance as the miniSD version.

It just looks bigger because of the way the SD card fits all the way inside the cart instead of sticking out the edge that would normally face you.

 

[Shadow#1]

I got a k101 for my sister and I would love to get one except for the fact that it doesn't run actual GB/GBC cartridges (only emulate them). the gemei looks interesting, I will have a look at it c:. as for the flash carts, I looked virtually everywhere and I can't find any of them! I did, however, find the SuperCard SD (not MiniSD) and I was wondering if you or anyone else know about this model. Is it better than the MiniSD version? it's certainly pricier!

the reviews also say that it's good for the GBA
http://www.ps2cover.com/products/Supercard-SD.html#reviews

its very bad for gba as it has been stated threw out this entire thread

 

[innercy]

^i came across compatibility list for supercard long time ago, try searching around. then u can decide whether it is sufficient for your need or not.

 

[Ehab]

I found this thread but I don't know if it's for the MiniSD version if it is, it seems to be running most of the games I want! but some people say that it doesn't run Pokemon games and others say it does. Which one should I trust?

 

[mlooty]

I think this is related to the supercard dstwo flashcart the NDS gba emulator that runs on it..