Hardware M3 perfect gba cart

[jaxmazon]

Hi everyone I have been looking for a gba flash cart that runs all games perfectly and has a bulit in RTC and I have heard that the M3 perfect gba cart is the best but im not sure what the cart looks like? and if it is the best gba flash cart to have?

Overall I want to play games the homebrew pokemon games that use RTC so I can play on actual gba hardware
and to use features like linking gba to gamecube. or would it be easier to get a ezflash 4 cart?

any help would be awesome

 

[Deleted-236924]

EZ-Flash IV wouldn't be able to use GBA-GCN linking for Pokémon games, if that's what you wanted to know.

 

[Jaylen]

if you can find an m3 perfect card, you'd probably be able to find God too. they are pretty rare nowadays.

 

[Recorderdude]

I have an M3 perfect SD

it was my first flashcart. I got it for $150 with a phat DS when my mom was "scammed" into thinking every game on it listed was a real card. Any fool could send a six-buck R4 or something like that, but this idiot gave me a (now) worth $90 flashcard! Came with a real mario 64 DS too.

so lemme give you the facts.

It runs all GBA games perfectly, but you have to press START (load) to load them, NOT A (fast load, never worked for me). Also, you need to use PC software to patch each game for the card. It's called M3 game manager.

You have a lot of options for it, too. You can save state and load state with it, and it's firmware includes built-in emulators, so you can just load retro ROMs on your card by opening them like any other file (NES, SMS, GG, GB, GBC, and PCE IIRC) like you would a normal game and it opens it up in an emulator.

It has extra RAM for DS-mode also, so it can run stuff like quake 2 DS and run neo-DS faster.

To use it in DS mode, you need to run flashme (with a passme or another card, I think) and you have to patch all games just like the GBA ones.

It's really quite a nice card

I don't use mine super-often (also have DSTWO), and I'll probably use it even less when I get a PSP, but I'm still keeping it for now

For even more info on the perfect, check http://m3wiki.com/index.php/M3

 

[gtmtnbiker]

It runs all GBA games perfectly, but you have to press START (load) to load them, NOT A (fast load, never worked for me). Also, you need to use PC software to patch each game for the card. It's called M3 game manager.

I have two carts and yes, they're great. I always press A to start them and never had any issues. I'm using a GBA SP with the cart. Does the problem only happen with an NDS?

 

[Recorderdude]

It runs all GBA games perfectly, but you have to press START (load) to load them, NOT A (fast load, never worked for me). Also, you need to use PC software to patch each game for the card. It's called M3 game manager.

I have two carts and yes, they're great. I always press A to start them and never had any issues. I'm using a GBA SP with the cart. Does the problem only happen with an NDS?

No, I've used it in my GBA original as well and it does the same thing. Perhaps you have later iterations of the m3 perfect, like the M3 perfect lite, perhaps? Mine is M3 perfect SD/MicroSD fat (sticks out of the DS almost as much as a game boy/color cartridge would.

I think A (quickload) only works with

 

[yifan_lu]

Oh wow, they're worth more money now? Anyone know where I can sell my M3 Perfect CF? I know eBay doesn't allow selling flashcarts last time I checked.

 

[Recorderdude]

Oh wow, they're worth more money now? Anyone know where I can sell my M3 Perfect CF? I know eBay doesn't allow selling flashcarts last time I checked.

Waaay more. The stores that actually had them in stock two years ago sold them for $90 THEN...who knows how much they fetch nowadays.

I got mine from Ebay, but I just got lucky.

Some people here on the temp look for these often. Schlupi just claimed some, but I think those were perfect lites, which are worth FAR less since they don't have extra RAM like perfect SD and CF fat do. Stick around here and reach 100 quality posts in the forum and you can sell it in temp's buy/sell/trade area.

 

[yifan_lu]

Oh wow, they're worth more money now? Anyone know where I can sell my M3 Perfect CF? I know eBay doesn't allow selling flashcarts last time I checked.

Waaay more. The stores that actually had them in stock two years ago sold them for $90 THEN...who knows how much they fetch nowadays.

I got mine from Ebay, but I just got lucky.

Some people here on the temp look for these often. Schlupi just claimed some, but I think those were perfect lites, which are worth FAR less since they don't have extra RAM like perfect SD and CF fat do. Stick around here and reach 100 quality posts in the forum and you can sell it in temp's buy/sell/trade area.

Thanks for the info!

 

[m3rox]

And to think I sold one for a lot less...

 

[Recorderdude]

OK, I found ONE store that still sells them. They go for 5 cents short of $100.

http://www.modchipstore.com/NDS-Nintendo-M...i-SD-16373.html

This is the M3 perfect MiniSD, My model. The CF probably goes for a lot more because it supports card sizes larger than 2 GB.

 

[hunter291]

DONT TRUST THAT SHOP! THEY SELL THE WRONG ONE (THE PRO VERSION). THE VERSION THEY SELL DOESNT PLAY GBA ROMS.

 

[Recorderdude]

DONT TRUST THAT SHOP! THEY SELL THE WRONG ONE (THE PRO VERSION). THE VERSION THEY SELL DOESNT PLAY GBA ROMS.

oh, you know this for sure? Well, hopefully I can find a good shop to base the card's value on. I thought modchip store was a fairly good one.

Pros are only worth $30, IIRC.

 

[hunter291]

yes I am very sure. Just check the internet. You'll find many people that "love" this store

Sorry for the Caps, just wanted to be sure that everyone reads this

 

[Recorderdude]

allrighty then.

like I said, these old carts could go for anything, it is kind of hard to find an average price

but the M3 CF is without a doubt worth more than the SD ones, that I know.

 

[yifan_lu]

OK, I found ONE store that still sells them. They go for 5 cents short of $100.

http://www.modchipstore.com/NDS-Nintendo-M...i-SD-16373.html

This is the M3 perfect MiniSD, My model. The CF probably goes for a lot more because it supports card sizes larger than 2 GB.

Wow, I thought it was expensive when I paid $50 used for it.

 

[Schlupi]

OK, I found ONE store that still sells them. They go for 5 cents short of $100.

http://www.modchipstore.com/NDS-Nintendo-M...i-SD-16373.html

This is the M3 perfect MiniSD, My model. The CF probably goes for a lot more because it supports card sizes larger than 2 GB.

Wow, I thought it was expensive when I paid $50 used for it.

OH... apparently they have not mailed out anything for years.

They used to be legit (got my M3 Simply form the 4 years ago) now they just left the site open, not mailing things out, but still taking people's money...

DO NOT buy from them!


This means there are officially no stores selling M3 perfects anymore.


EDITL Also, they ARE the ones that support larger GBA roms.

At least that's what the seller told me. I'll see when they arrive Saturday.

 

[Recorderdude]

EDIT: Also, they ARE the ones that support larger GBA roms.

At least that's what the seller told me. I'll see when they arrive Saturday.

They support everything up to 32 MB (32,768KB for packed homebrew/emulators IIRC) There is no commercial ROM over 32 MB, so the only things that can go over 32,768kb is overstuffed emulators like pocketnes and goomba/goomba color. They will still load, but the size will make it not load most of the packed ROMs. At least for my card, quick load is broken for large ROMs (A) but everything works if you normal load them with START.

Also, upon closer inspection, I actually Have a M3 Perfect SD, NOT an M3 perfect MiniSD (the card is fatter and the card slot isn't on the side of the card.) So maybe it's worth more and maybe its worth less. Until I can confirm it would be worth the hassle to sell it and send it out somewhere, it's stayin with me

 

[raulpica]

Hmm... I still have a M3 miniSD somewhere which didn't work well at the time. Maybe I should repair it

Too bad it blew my GBASP Brighter fuses when I put the cart in

Guess I need to get a cheapo GBA to do some tests

It's a real shame that they aren't produced anymore. They had excellent GBA compatibility, back in the day.

 

[Schlupi]

EDIT: Also, they ARE the ones that support larger GBA roms.

At least that's what the seller told me. I'll see when they arrive Saturday.

They support everything up to 32 MB (37,268KB to be exact) There is no commercial ROM over 32 MB, so the only things that can go over is overstuffed emulators like pocketnes and goomba/goomba color. They will still load, but the size will make it not load most of the packed ROMs. At least for my card, quick load is broken for large ROMs (A) but everything works if you normal load them with START.

Also, upon closer inspection, I actually Have a M3 Perfect SD, NOT an M3 perfect MiniSD (the card is fatter and the card slot isn't on the side of the card.) So maybe it's worth more and maybe its worth less. Until I can confirm it would be worth the hassle to sell it and send it out somewhere, it's stayin with me

Last time I checked, 32 MB was the BIGGEST a rom size could be without having issues loading. no commercial rom is bigger.

EDIT: OH wait that's exactly what you said.

And the Mini SD and SD versions have no software difference, just the memory card is different. I guess for convenience sake the SD is better, but the Mini SD one is more sleek.

I wish the M3 team didn't suck now. they used to make some great carts.