Hacking I'm hoping I'll have better luck here...

[NecroCombine666]

Than most other forums I've tried. I got a temp ban on gamefaqs and every where else no one has any idea what I'm talking about.

Can someone point me in the right direction of where I can find info on Gameboy Advance SP Flash Carts. I'm trying to get one as big as possible, maybe with an easy to use cheat device and it needs to be reliable. Money doesn't matter as I think it'll be worth it. These aren't some type of scam are they?

Whats a site that actually sells them?

 

[Danny600kill]

Well let me just say welcome to Gbatemp and you will find everything hacking related here. back to you're question.

The Recommended sites on the home page have GBA Flashcarts, just have a search. If you can't find them then Deal extreme also has them but they will take their time to ship it to you.

Have fun

Here's an example
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1021

or this
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.25752

or even these
http://www.kickgaming.com/ezflash-3in1-exp...lack-p-191.html
http://realhotstuff.com/expansion-pack-size-p-212.html

I recommend the last one

 

[NecroCombine666]

Ah a welcome instead of a scolding. Thats a nice change of pace. Thanks alot. If I end up having any other questions I'll post them here.

...I think I'm gunna like this place.

 

[EyeZ]

...I think I'm gunna like this place.

Oh you will

 

[Danny600kill]

Just incase you didn't read my edit I would recommend This it may be a bit more than the rest but it is better quality and very well known

 

[NecroCombine666]

So I can get roms easy but what I'm wondering about is are the flash carts for the advance worth it?

Who here has used them and what problems if any have you had?

I just really want to know as much as possible about them from people who have used them before I make an investment.

I can get one of these, a cable and load roms and translations onto them and go where ever and play them?

Some have gamesharks?

I'm just in the dark about alot of it.

Especially about which one I should buy there seems to be so many different ones now that I've found where to get them.

Anyone want to help me pick one?

I want a massive one.


---I looked into the EZ Flash Expansion and bookmarked it now I just have a few questions.

1. How many games will this hold roughly?
2. Would it come with software and a cable?
3. whats NOR flash memory, PSRAM, SRAM, NS Browser, and SDK?
-----

Yeah thats how ''in the dark'' I am about this. but I neeeeeed one. lol

 

[NecroCombine666]

btw im using a blue gameboy advance sp at the moment ags-001

 

[Danny600kill]

So I can get roms easy but what I'm wondering about is are the flash carts for the advance worth it?

Who here has used them and what problems if any have you had?

I just really want to know as much as possible about them from people who have used them before I make an investment.

I can get one of these, a cable and load roms and translations onto them and go where ever and play them?

Some have gamesharks?

I'm just in the dark about alot of it.

Especially about which one I should buy there seems to be so many different ones now that I've found where to get them.

Anyone want to help me pick one?

I want a massive one.


---I looked into the EZ Flash Expansion and bookmarked it now I just have a few questions.

1. How many games will this hold roughly?
2. Would it come with software and a cable?
3. whats NOR flash memory, PSRAM, SRAM, NS Browser, and SDK?
-----

Yeah thats how ''in the dark'' I am about this. but I neeeeeed one. lol

I'm sorry to say im not familiar with them all i know is Ez Flash is one of the best and most reliable out there and if you are into playing GBA games then they are worth it, i might be wrong though you would have to ask someone more experienced in the Gba area

 

[NecroCombine666]

Any takers?

 

[Danny600kill]

Ok im going to read up about the ez flash now, i will try to get back to you later, if not then tomorrow

 

[NecroCombine666]

Thanks alot. Your awesome.

 

[megawalk]

if you mentioned the EZFlash 3in1. it's internal battery has to be replaced every 3 or 5 months....depends on your activity on it.
there is a guide about it somewhere around the forums.
if i remember well it is a sticky. if i don't well sorry i just can't find it then.

 

[Danny600kill]

Ive been reading up again and this http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1021

looks your safest bet. It has a SD so that you can put your games onto the Sd ( Upto 2gb ) its Supercard so a trusted brand and it has many great reviews saying its easy to use and works great.

The EZ Flash looks like its only for the DS/ DSlite as a slot 2 ( Not entirely sure on that ) so i would just leave that until you can get more info.

It does say that they are out of stock but if you email them you could ask when they will have some in.

Im sorry I can't be much help it's just I dont use a Gba Flashcart but I am interested in purchasing one so all this reading up im doing is useful to me aswell

Again I will try to find out as much as I can but i can't promise you anything

EDIT : PLEASE READ THIS
http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=27308

This is the review to the card I mentioned ( Supercard SD ) Read through it carefully it tells you everything you need to know about it.I'm off to sleep. If you need any more help just post on this thread and I will read it tomorrow. I hope you have a great time at Gbatemp and I hoped I helped you with you're question. Sorry I couldn't answer everything you asked but hopefully the thread I linked to and a bit of forum searching will answer the rest

Good night

 

[Lanulus]

First off, let me tell you not to buy the EZ-Flash 3 in 1 for use in a GBA SP. It's meant for use with the DS and DS Lite and you wont have a way to load roms onto it without one.

So I can get roms easy but what I'm wondering about is are the flash carts for the advance worth it?

Who here has used them and what problems if any have you had?

I just really want to know as much as possible about them from people who have used them before I make an investment.
As far as GBA flashcarts go, the only one I've owned is an EZ-Flash IV. You keep your ROMs on a mini-SD card, so you can keep a ridiculous amount of games on it. I had no issues with it except for the lack of an RTC. There aren't many Gameboy Advance games that use the realtime clock, but the most notable ones are Pokemon R/S/E. If you want play these you'll have to patch them, but the clock still wont be running in real time. If an RTC is that important to you, then you can get an EZ-Flash III, but it has a few drawbacks such as price, availability, and less space for ROMs.

There are other cards for the GBA, but in my opinion those two are the best. Give a look over past GBAtemp reviews to get an idea of what else is out there.

I can get one of these, a cable and load roms and translations onto them and go where ever and play them?
That's about the jist of it.

Some have gamesharks?
I know that you can use cheats with the EZ-Flash IV and most other flashcards.

QUOTE---I looked into the EZ Flash Expansion and bookmarked it now I just have a few questions.

Don't get the EZ-Flash 3 in 1 unless you plan on using it with a DS. While using it with a DS you store games on a slot-1 card and then load them onto the 3 in 1. I'll answer the rest of your questions about it for education's sake.

QUOTE

1. How many games will this hold roughly?

2. Would it come with software and a cable?

3. whats NOR flash memory, PSRAM, SRAM, NS Browser, and SDK?

1. One at a time off of your slot-1 card (a slot-1 card is a DS flashcard). Your limit of games is based on the amount of space on your slot-1 card.

2. Usually people use homebrew to load GBA games onto it. A popular choice is GBA ExpLoader.

3. This one actually applies to the EZ-Flash IV, III, and other GBA carts.

NOR, PSRAM, and SRAM are types of memory on flashcarts (there is also another type in the EZ-Flash III -- NAND). NOR memory is quick to read from, but slow to write to. You'll write games to NOR individually if you so choose to when you go to load them. Games can also be loaded into PSRAM which is fast to write to, but slower than NOR to read from. It's a quick way to load roms, but some games that work in NOR wont work in PSRAM. SRAM is battery backed memory where saves are stored. NAND is the memory where you actually store ROMs on older flashcarts. You write games onto it with a linker. The EZ-Flash IV stores games on a mini-SD card instead of NAND memory.

The NDS browser is a web browser that you can run on the DS.

An SDK (software development kit) is used to write homebrew.

 

[NecroCombine666]

thanks alot now i just got to find one of these which seems like it'll be the hardest part

Hows the SuperCard SD?

It's either that or the EZ-Flash IV for me.

I'm thinking the EZ Flash. I've found one so far but it was like 40 bucks

 

[KidIce]

Just an expansion of Lanulus post really plus my opinion...

If you can find one I'd grab an EZ3, probably one of the best GBA carts ever sold. Real time saves, cheats, there isn't a game I know of that doesn't work on it, etc.

EZ4 is a good alternative and will likely be easier to obtain. It's essentially the same card except the NAND storage has been replaced by the SD slot. It lacks the real time save and as mentioned a RTC. It was mostly geared at DS users back when Slot-1 flash carts didn't exist, but it's still a fine GBA cart. Make sure the EZ4 you get (should you get one) is the GBA sized "MiniSD" model as the MicroSD model comes in a case the size of a DS dust cap and won't work in your GBA w/o shoehorning it's guts into a modified GBA cart. Real Hot Stuff claims to still have these.

Super Card aren't bad carts, but IIRC you have to quick power cycle your GBA and then manually save your games on GBA. Also I there were issues w/ slow down on them, and since I sold mine soon after I got an EZ4, I don't know if they were ever fixed. Someone feel free to correct me. Other then that I believe it's feature set is similar to the EZ3's.

Your other questions...
1. My 1 gigabit (128 MB) EZ3 has ~20 games on it currently. GBA games are a maximum of 32 MB's (barring GBA video, but those aren't games) but most weigh in at 8 or 16 w/o trimming.

2. All the carts that need them will come w/ the linker and/or cables they need. Carts that use SD's for storage don't require any cables but you will need an SD reader/writer and those will not be provided.

3. NOR is fast to read, but slow to write storage space. An EZ3 or EZ4 has 32 MB's and 48 MB's of this respectively built into it on top of the NAND storage the EZ3 is rated at (ie my "1 Gb" EZ3 has 128 MB's of NAND and 32 MB's of NOR) or the memory in an EZ4's SD slot. NAND is fairly quick to write and cheap, but is slow to read from. NAND and NOR retain their contents w/o power. The EZ3's NAND and the EZ4's SD's storage are unsuitable for running GBA games from as the reads are too slow from these types of memory. Both carts contain 16 MB's of PSRAM, which games stored on the SD or in NAND are copied to before execution. PSRAM looses it's contents w/o power, so the games must be copied to PSRAM every time you power down your GBA. Games burnt to the NOR portion can be executed directly from that space w/o the need to copy them to PSRAM. Games greater then 16 MB's (there's maybe a dozen or so of these in the entire GBA library) must be burned to NOR as there isn't enough PSRAM to copy them to for execution.

I disagree w/ Lanulus about the PSRAM. PSRAM is plenty fast enough for any game I've ever had on my carts. The only games that MUST be burned to NOR to work are the ones over 16 MB's... It's a size issue not speed.

Reports of the EZFlash carts needing battery replacements in as little as 3 months are grossly exaggerated in my experience. My EZ2 is at least 8 years old and it's original battery still works fine. My EZ3 is probably closer to 6 and it's battery is fine. My EZ4 and EZ 3-in-1 are launch models and their batteries are fine.

Edit - RUM + p0sting on forums = bad speling, grHammer, sintax, etc. :-)

 

[NecroCombine666]

bump

 

[NecroCombine666]

Welp it has arrived. Now just figuring out how to work it. It only came with the cartridge but hopefully I can use my MP3 player as kind of an SD viewer

 

[NecroCombine666]

wow this is reeeeeallly confusing. Anyone know of a place I can go that has the step by step process laid out for me?

 

[NecroCombine666]

So I really can't figure this thing out. First my MP3 player/4 Gig card kept freezing on the my computer screen but I managed to get on this comp and put the EZ Flash Up bin on it and now whenever I turn on my gameboy I just get an all black screen