Hacking Is there any interest in at Flashcart with RTC

infinest

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Hello there!
I've known this forum for some time now and actually followed a few threads on here from time to time.
Anyways lately i've gotten in touch with a guy who's making some awesome stuff for GB/GBC/GBA because i was interested in one of his other products.
Anyways he also makes these. It's a basic flash cart much like the older GB/GBC flashcarts. Because i've been in search of a GBA flashcart that actually supports RTC ( M3 is pretty much impossible to find nowadays)
i went ahead and asked him if he could develop with RTC. The answer was this:
Code:
If there was enough interest I could develop a GBA with RTC, however it seems they are not sought after.

He suggested i'd ask around for people interested in it and since i don't really know a better place i thought i'd just ask here if there was even a slight interest in this.

Thanks for reading this and have a nice day!
 
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migles

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hes flashcarts seem cool but not praticall with we already got available..

i'd love to have a flashcart with RTC..

but IIRC i remember seen some other flashcarts with RTC but it needed a paralel port and a writer or something... if i find i will show them here..

currently i see no reason to buy this dudes flashcarts..but i understand he can't lower the price because not being mass produced at china factory..
the flashcart is 15 dollars which is somwhat a cool price but still a bit high for what it is, its not even a 32MB card... and what is the type of memory, NOR ?
and in order to use it you need the linker, which is very pricey... 25 dollars

the linker and the card cost more than a EZ IV, which is a praticall card to use nowadays..
a card that can old lots of games in a micro\mini sd card (with 32MB of NOR) vs a card that in order to change the game you need to conect it to a computer and write..

BUT if he can make the writer cheaper and make the card with RTC at same price, i can see he selling more...

i dont even know if we can use third party\other writers, or even a DS homebrew for write the games.. or how much time it takes to write a game..
 

FAST6191

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Interesting. I had no idea such flash carts were available (the closest equivalent in fire cards are becoming harder and harder to source), I shall have to note it for when people want such things for homebrew runs in the future.

Myself on RTC. Not really as the patches get it pretty much all the way there on the handful of games that use it and I don't care for pokemon. The battery drain that comes with such things (SRAM hold data current is not a lot at all on modern SRAM, RTC counters are a different matter entirely).

Pokemon really is about the only game that drives the interest in it. Pokemon fans are some of the whiniest of any groups we commonly see in flash cart/emulation forums (if you were indifferent to pokemon before it will change if you mod/support forums like this), however they by and large are also inclined to open up the wallet.
If your associate does decide to go down that path then I advise making it idiot proof and flawless right away, you will get the benefit of the doubt and if it is the only option then people will take it but if it is flawless out of the box then so much the better.

If I were to design a flash cart tomorrow (thankfully the EZ4 came back so was spared the fun of that project) I would probably spec it and leave it off the final version. I would sooner implement it than probably even rumble, and definitely before solar sensors and possibly even tilt sensors.
 

Jayro

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I want a "perfect" GBA cart, something like the new black EZ-FLASH IV, with microSD and RTC. There are plenty of games that require it. And if they would add solar and tilt sensors too, I could deal with the extra protrusion of a larger GBA cart. (a 64MB NOR would be an absolute dream, but I won't hold my breath.)
 
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FAST6191

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For me a perfect GBA cart would have to emulate saves rather than patch (be it in software or at run time in hardware) and at least be able to fake being the sole contents of a cart for the purposes of DS GBA slot reads and gamecube link cable reads. Looking at the link it would appear to be a variation (albeit looks like a bit more ground up than schematics tweak) of the other homebrew GBA flash carts ( http://reinerziegler.de/GBA/gba.htm#homebrew flash cart ) rather than the reprogrammable affair that you would probably want to be able to pull all that off. Most of those are more for minor side affairs (any flash cart vendors reading -- probably better to get a fast menu, cheats and I guess people do like soft reset), save perhaps if you could avoid the need for a SRAM battery by emulating the protocol and converting it to something non volatile.

"plenty of games [using RTC]"

There is what pokemon ruby, sapphire and emerald, and all the region dupes.

Boktai (I forget which entry) and region dupes.

Megaman Battle Network 4.5 (an as yet untranslated Japanese spinoff of the Battle Network series, though there are some ongoing projects if memory serves)

Possibly Polarium (not that anybody sensible should be playing the GBA version) and I am not sure about a Tony Hawk game (I recall setting a clock in one of them).

Maybe that personal organiser unlicensed thing.

Notable games, absolutely. Plenty... that is a harder sell. Dealing with the downsides of RTC (the whole need for power as far as the end user is concerned and some annoyances on the flash cart maker side of things) when patches exist that get most of the way there, a harder sell still.
 

infinest

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hes flashcarts seem cool but not praticall with we already got available..

i'd love to have a flashcart with RTC..

but IIRC i remember seen some other flashcarts with RTC but it needed a paralel port and a writer or something... if i find i will show them here..

currently i see no reason to buy this dudes flashcarts..but i understand he can't lower the price because not being mass produced at china factory..
the flashcart is 15 dollars which is somwhat a cool price but still a bit high for what it is, its not even a 32MB card... and what is the type of memory, NOR ?
and in order to use it you need the linker, which is very pricey... 25 dollars

the linker and the card cost more than a EZ IV, which is a praticall card to use nowadays..
a card that can old lots of games in a micro\mini sd card (with 32MB of NOR) vs a card that in order to change the game you need to conect it to a computer and write..

BUT if he can make the writer cheaper and make the card with RTC at same price, i can see he selling more...

i dont even know if we can use third party\other writers, or even a DS homebrew for write the games.. or how much time it takes to write a game..
The thing is you cannot find those carts available anymore nowadays. I've actually been in search for a god RTC supporting cart for ages now and couldn't find anything that is still up for purchase.
Of course it's in no way as good as the EZ-Flash IV and it's really only one person working on these. I guess to make it worth for the bigger audience he'd have to make it remotely as good as the EZ-Flash IV which probably wouldn't be worth his time
considering only one person would develop it.
 

migles

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The thing is you cannot find those carts available anymore nowadays. I've actually been in search for a god RTC supporting cart for ages now and couldn't find anything that is still up for purchase.
Of course it's in no way as good as the EZ-Flash IV and it's really only one person working on these. I guess to make it worth for the bigger audience he'd have to make it remotely as good as the EZ-Flash IV which probably wouldn't be worth his time
considering only one person would develop it.

thats why i mean, to increase interest he needs to put rtc.. otherwise at curent price, unless its for a flashcart collection or something like that, its not praticall to use...

i will try to search the cart i saw recently.. it was grey 256 mb with rtc..

nvm, i am dumb, the cart i saw was in fact a plastic case for the M3 perfect...
 

codezer0

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At this point for me, a perfect GBA cart would be one that doesn't require re-patching ROMs to make it work, and could support any in-built sleep modes for games that have them. It would also have to work with the Famicom Mini/Classic NES roms, which I understand are notoriously difficult to get running in the first place. But again, we are talking "perfect" here.

The EZ4 in many ways is close, especially with new firmware allowing it to support a generous amount of storage. But really, the biggest hang-up I have with my EZ4 begins and ends with that *expletive* EZ Client of theirs. That thing #Triggers my inner coder in ways that one wouldn't believe. For as good as it works when it does work, I can't get over how bad the EZ client is, and how frequently it's flagged as a virus on certain A/V programs at least on Windows.
 
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Adrian-E-C

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I recommend Revo 101. Though it is a complete GBA clone and not simply a flach cart it does have an RTC and does not require a battery or patching to save. This making it pretty perfect GBA multirom solution
 

Lemmy Koopa

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RTC flash carts have never been the best at keeping the clock and SRAM charged properly after a few years.

The RTC and SRAM combination makes a high drain rate and eventually the battery will be near dead all the time.

My M3 and EFA Linker that I had both have battery problems. The latter wouldn't even keep a save at all unless I kept it in a DS at all times. I guess the DS was charging it somehow while it was in the slot.
 

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