Hardware Looking for a slot-2 GBA flashcart for my DSL

[supersaiyajin900]

I dont have any experience with GBA flashcarts since i started playing handhelds with the DS. but i want to play some of the classics on the GBA, and its uncomfortable playing on emulators. whats generally agreed to be the best one for a good price (pretty much the acekard2i of GBA), and will things like mother 3 w/ english patch work on it?

 

[Oveneise]

The EZ Flash 3-in-1 (Lite sized). I myself have a DS phat with a EZ Flash IV, but my brother has a DSL and uses his 3-in-1 all the time. Works like a charm. The only thing is you would need to store your roms on your slot-1 microSD, since the 3-in-1 doesn't have any microsd slot. Otherwise its a great cart. It also works as a rumble pack, and RAM expansion with the official Opera browser. He paid around $25 for it.

EDIT: Afaik, Mother 3 does work. I beat the game on my EZ4, and my brother was just playing it a few hours ago. Saving and everything works fine. You'll need to write it to the NOR flash though, since the game is 32mb.

 

[supersaiyajin900]

The EZ Flash 3-in-1 (Lite sized). I myself have a DS phat with a EZ Flash IV, but my brother has a DSL and uses his 3-in-1 all the time. Works like a charm. The only thing is you would need to store your roms on your slot-1 microSD, since the 3-in-1 doesn't have any microsd slot. Otherwise its a great cart. It also works as a rumble pack, and RAM expansion with the official Opera browser. He paid around $25 for it.

EDIT: Afaik, Mother 3 does work. I beat the game on my EZ4, and my brother was just playing it a few hours ago. Saving and everything works fine. You'll need to write it to the NOR flash though, since the game is 32mb.

whats the difference between 3-in-1 and IV? and i remember i saw a flashcart that you could plug in a USB slot a few months ago, how good are those?

 

[m3rox]

The BEST one is the M3 Perfect MiniSD. But you'd be hard-pressed to find one.

 

[Oveneise]

The EZ Flash IV phat version has a miniSD slot to store the roms. The EZ Flash IV lite version has a microSD slot to store the roms. However, The EZ Flash 3-in-1 doesn't have a slot for storing roms, so .gba files need to be stored on your slot-1's MicroSD card. Then using Rudolph's GBA Exploader app, you would write the .gba file to your slot-2 cart.

A major difference between the IV and 3-in-1, is that the IV does not have a rumble capability, and I have yet to stumble apon a way to get the Opera browser to work with my EZ4 fat.

For slot 2 carts that have direct usb hookup, I'd imagine you'd take your GBA rom and use a certain application to write it to your slot 2 cart. I'm sorry, but I don't know about game compatibility with these sorts of carts, but my brother has yet to come across a game incompatible with his 3-in-1.

I should note that the EZ Flash team DID make a lite sized EZ Flash IV, but it has since stopped production, and I haven't found one for sale anywhere...

 

[supersaiyajin900]

so i checked out 3in1, and apparently its a extension of ez flash 5, which is a slot-1 flashcart. since i have a r4, is this going to cause conflicts?

 

[Oveneise]

Nope, just use Rudolph's slot-1 application, GBA Exploader, to write roms to your 3-in-1. My brother has an R4 as well and everything works fine.

 

[KidIce]

whats the difference between 3-in-1 and IV? and i remember i saw a flashcart that you could plug in a USB slot a few months ago, how good are those?

A 3-in-1 is a slot 2 flash cartridge designed to be used in conjunction w/ a slot 1 cart. It requires a slot 1 cart to put games on it. It has enough RAM in it to run most GBA games (128Mb and smaller). There are a handful of GBA games that are 256Mb, the 3-in-1 has 256Mb of NOR flash that these games need to be written to to run. The NOR can also accept the 128Mb and lower games to eliminate the need to write to PSRAM every time you power cycle and games written to NOR can be played stand alone like a retail cart. The 3-in-1 also has a rumble pack, and the PSRAM can be used for Opera and some homebrew that supports it.

An EZ4 is a stand alone flash cart. It has PSRAM and NOR just like the 3-in-1 but lacks rumble. Instead it carries an SD slot (miniSD or microSD depending on the model) and its own menu and loader and thus why it can be used as a stand alone cart. It was designed and released back in the early DS flash cart days when your only option was to use a PassMe like device or FlashMe and a flash cart in slot 2.

Both carts lack a real time clock (for Pokemon). Both carts can run just about any GBA game, save a small few. They also lack any of the extended features some of the late GBA carts had like real time save.

The only carts I've seen left at retailers that still use a linker of any sort have typically gotten very poor reviews w/ complaints of things like lag, poor interfaces and software reminiscent of the early days of GBA flash carts were buying a flash cart sort of made you a beta tester for the companies making them at the time. I personally have never used one of the linker style carts still left for sale, so can only offer advice based on the reviews of others...

I have a couple linker style carts and they're great, but you will not find them for sale anywhere.

Edit:
EZ4 Lite Deluxe
Some linker style carts

I have not used either shop and can't vouch for them in anyway beyond that shop.01media seemingly is usually well regarded on this forum.

 

[Searinox]

I know it's a bit obviously stupid, but I'd like to provide the warning just in case...

You NEED a slot-1 flashcart to use the EZflash 3in1. Just a warning. If you do not have one then the EZflash is pretty much useless. Just in case you weren't planning to buy a slot-1 or don't have one. Better safe than sorry.

 

[supersaiyajin900]

can any of these run GB/GBC stuff?

 

[Wiip™]

You can use the Lameboy emulator for those.

 

[Deleted member 473940]

You can use the Lameboy emulator for those.

Lameboy fails me with most games that I want to play..

but yes, using lameboy to play GB/GBC stuff is an option.

 

[supersaiyajin900]

alright, so the thing finally arrived, but for some reason, i cant save when im playing mother 3. im using gba exploader, and when i save ingame and turn it off, when i restart it the save is gone. i dont want to go through the long as hell intro over again, so does anyone know how to fix this?