Hacking Just upgraded the firmware on my EZ Flash IV to 2.05, now I have save issues with Ninja Cop.

[RamrodHare]

First off, I was a member here years ago, but I've been away from the site for a LONG time. If I remember correctly, the last time I was on here was back when my EZ3 was almost new! After it died I bought an EZIV. I hadn't been keeping up with the EZ Flash IV firmware updates at all. I think I was still using 1.78 (?). Anyway, I found out about the updated firmware and did some research before I finally made the jump tonight. I'm using Localhorst86's EZ FLAT IV 2.05 skin. The older saves I have, seem to still work, but I loaded Ninja Cop (Ninja Five-0) and played through a few stages, then quit, using the quit mission option from the pause menu. The game had showed two save points prior to my quitting, plus it showed the save screen again when I quit. I turned off my Gameboy Micro and then turned it back on and it showed the save operation window, then I loaded the game again, but it didn't load the save file. It happened pretty quick, but I think it actually made a new save file instead of loading the one I just made. I played a stage, quit again and it did the same thing. I browsed through the saver folder and there's a save file there, but it's just not working. I know Ninja Five-0 has been a pain in the past, but since this firmware is new, I couldn't find any helpful info about this save issue. Is this an issue with the new firmware or is it something I'm doing wrong?

I also want to mention that I'm probably going to have a ton of questions in the next few days as I get used to this new firmware, so please excuse me if I get annoying. Thanks.

 

[RamrodHare]

Ok, I got it working. I don't know what the issue was, but I deleted the save file and the patch file and played it again. The save worked after that.

 

[Localhorst86]

That's a known issue, I think it happened somewhere around 2.02 or 2.03 where the ezflash team has apparently changed *something* with the patch files that affects savegames. As far as I know, you actually only needed to delete the patch file/folder.

What's confusing me is that you said you jumped from 1.78 straight to 2.05 and had these issues - but patching was first introduced with 2.00

 

[RamrodHare]

That's a known issue, I think it happened somewhere around 2.02 or 2.03 where the ezflash team has apparently changed *something* with the patch files that affects savegames. As far as I know, you actually only needed to delete the patch file/folder.

What's confusing me is that you said you jumped from 1.78 straight to 2.05 and had these issues - but patching was first introduced with 2.00

I'll try to clarify. Since Ninja Five-0 (Ninja Cop) wasn't working with 1.78, I didn't have an old save file for it. I Added the clean rom after I updated to 2.05, so when I started the game, it created a patch file in the patch folder. The new save file it created, wasn't working, so I used my computer to delete the Ninja Five-0 patch file and save file and then started the game again and it saved properly. So the update from 1.78 to 2.05 really had nothing to do with the issue, I just mentioned it so everyone would understand how long I had been out of the loop on the new firmware updates.

I do have a few new questions now. Is there a current list of games that still require patching on the PC before they are playable on the EZ4? I know that the two Boktai games need patches, right?
Are there other games that I'll need to patch before putting them on my EZ Flash?

 

[Localhorst86]

I do have a few new questions now. Is there a current list of games that still require patching on the PC before they are playable on the EZ4? I know that the two Boktai games need patches, right?
Are there other games that I'll need to patch before putting them on my EZ Flash?

Patches are really only needed for games that have additional hardware. From the top of my head I know the following:

Boktai, Boktai 2 - The cartridges have solar sensors built in. There are patches available to control the sun levels with button combinations.
Wario Ware Twisted, Yoshi Topsy Turvy/Universal gravitation - The cartridges have gyro sensors built in to control the gameplay. There are patches available that allow controlling with the buttons in order to play them

While the games mentioned above still technically run without patches, the patches are needed in order to allow proper gameplay.

Pokemon Ruby/Saphire/Emerald - These games have RTC built in to keep the real time. The games play perfectly fine minus the timed events (growing berries etc.) - it doesn't make the games unplayable. There are, afaik, some patches available to manually set the time whenever you want to but I do not know how this affects the growth of berries for example.

 

[steelseth]

Holding L and pressing A usually boots any game that has problem for me.

 

[Localhorst86]

Holding L and pressing A usually boots any game that has problem for me.

Or you could enable the auto reset feature that was introduced in 2.01 (iirc) with the config file. This will make "L+A" the default behaviour.