Hardware My GB / GBA Flashcart Collection

[CorruptJon]

So I've been away for the Nintendo handheld scene for quite a while, as I was mostly into GBA flashcarts and early DS ones back in '06-'07. I recently made a return visit and I see everything has changed! GB and GBA carts are pretty impossible to find even on the internet, which makes me pretty proud to have a few of these bad boys in my possesion.

Spoiler

Pictured: GB Micro, GB Pocket (modded with internal backlight!), EFA Linker 512Mbit, X-rom 512Mbit, F2A 256Mbit, Original Supercard SD, & a few DS flashcarts.

What hard to find items today are you glad you held onto?

 

[Todderbert]

So I've been away for the Nintendo handheld scene for quite a while, as I was mostly into GBA flashcarts and early DS ones back in '06-'07. I recently made a return visit and I see everything has changed! GB and GBA carts are pretty impossible to find even on the internet, which makes me pretty proud to have a few of these bad boys in my possesion.

Spoiler

Pictured: GB Micro, GB Pocket (modded with internal backlight!), EFA Linker 512Mbit, X-rom 512Mbit, F2A 256Mbit, Original Supercard SD, & a few DS flashcarts.

What hard to find items today are you glad you held onto?

Check out this thread, http://gbatemp.net/topic/315692-adding-to-my-gba-flash-collection/ , we love this stuff!
My collection of GBA carts:

 

[mthrnite]

Impressive collections! ^

Still use this, and my EZFA in my old gear, and my G6 Lite in my slightly less old gear.

 

[alphamule]

Heh, did you have issues with the RTC on any of those old GBA carts? Let's just say that I'm now looking into some 3.3V, 0.2 to 1 Farad capacitors and a small solar cell or current-limited diode to keep them charged with.

 

[CorruptJon]

So I've been away for the Nintendo handheld scene for quite a while, as I was mostly into GBA flashcarts and early DS ones back in '06-'07. I recently made a return visit and I see everything has changed! GB and GBA carts are pretty impossible to find even on the internet, which makes me pretty proud to have a few of these bad boys in my possesion.

Spoiler

Pictured: GB Micro, GB Pocket (modded with internal backlight!), EFA Linker 512Mbit, X-rom 512Mbit, F2A 256Mbit, Original Supercard SD, & a few DS flashcarts.

What hard to find items today are you glad you held onto?

Check out this thread, http://gbatemp.net/t...ash-collection/ , we love this stuff!
My collection of GBA carts:

Is that the original M3? I remember those having pretty much the best compatibility along with RTC. I kind of regret opting for the Supercard SD instead now! haha.

Impressive collections! ^

Still use this, and my EZFA in my old gear, and my G6 Lite in my slightly less old gear.

Very nice! I would kill for any GB flashcart or even a GB bridge to use with my F2A.

Heh, did you have issues with the RTC on any of those old GBA carts? Let's just say that I'm now looking into some 3.3V, 0.2 to 1 Farad capacitors and a small solar cell or current-limited diode to keep them charged with.

Amazingly the X-rom battery has held up quite well! I did purchase it used though so I'm not sure if its previous owner ever changed the battery.

 

[elgarta]

Dang. I wish I got into the Flash cart scene sooner. I had the opportunity to pick up a Supercard SD once but turned it down and went for the EZ4 instead. The technology that the older carts use to actually work is amazing to me. Things I didn't think were possible until recently .

I've got the EZ4, GB-Micro, one of the pokemon edition GB-Colours and my girlfriend has one of the original GBs in very good condition. I also have a lousy Atari Lynx, but that thing sucks and isn't GB related lol

 

[DanTheManMS]

Heh, did you have issues with the RTC on any of those old GBA carts? Let's just say that I'm now looking into some 3.3V, 0.2 to 1 Farad capacitors and a small solar cell or current-limited diode to keep them charged with.

Actually yes, the battery on my Flash2Advance Ultra cartridge just recently died so it can no longer keep time correctly. Planning to replace that soon.

Check out this thread, http://gbatemp.net/t...ash-collection/ , we love this stuff!

We DO love this type of thing! Thank you so much for sharing CorruptJon. I haven't seen an MML or a slot-1 G6 device in a long long time. Even longer for the F2A cartridge.

 

[DanTheManMS]

Dang. I wish I got into the Flash cart scene sooner. I had the opportunity to pick up a Supercard SD once but turned it down and went for the EZ4 instead. The technology that the older carts use to actually work is amazing to me. Things I didn't think were possible until recently .

While the technology behind it is indeed rather interesting (the Supercard started out as a CD interface college project) you made the right choice with the EZ4 instead. Slot-2 Supercards have RAM that is just slightly too slow, and there's not much you can do about it. See http://www.pocketheaven.com/ph/wiki/index.php?title=SupercardGBASlowdowns for a better explanation about this.

 

[Deleted-236924]

The EZ-Flash IV is good enough for me, TBH.
The only problem is that my miniSD is dead.

 

[alphamule]

Is there some program that checks for the presence of a RTC and allows to manually change the hour/date/year?

Also, in comparison, a Gameboy Flash cart is damned easy to make. You just use an existing MBC3 cart and do some sensitive soldering is all. The soldering is the only hard part. Otherwise it's essentially just a common $5 commercial cart and slightly more-than-that (NOR) Flash ROM chip. In theory it can be replaced with RAM but that's not as trivial. The Flash ROM has almost the exact same pinouts as the original Mask ROM while SRAM has very different pinouts. You'd also need a battery or way to bootstrap your loader, so it's not worth it to go with SRAM. The major advantage of quick turn-around times or editing a cart in place, are eliminated by simply downloading a copy of BGB. Heck, a lot of the 'accurate' emulators have source code so you can make a version that writes modifications back to the ROM image. Again, not worth it since hex editors are kind of common and ones with assemblers only slightly less so. It would be nice to have a 'monitor ROM' switch, though! (Yes, I understand that I'm essentially describing a GBC's 3.1 Gameshark which incidentally, is also theoretically possible to use for writing to the SRAM)

 

[DanTheManMS]

Is there some program that checks for the presence of a RTC and allows to manually change the hour/date/year?

Only for the Pokemon games I believe, using manually-created hacks. Thought if you're simply asking about the RTC included on several oldschool GBA carts, I've got a few files on my hard drive here that will let you view and chance the date and time, heh. Mostly only valid for the F2A and X-rom series though.

 

[alphamule]

Wait... shouldn't they have the same interface (hardware+register set+location in memory) in order to work with all RTC-enabled games? Is there some check that it's actually the same-branded Flash cart and not an original Pokemon/Boktai game or 3rd-party Flash cart? I guess the cables might be different though. Otherwise, we could probably use any cart with RTC with those tools.

 

[Todderbert]

Heh, did you have issues with the RTC on any of those old GBA carts? Let's just say that I'm now looking into some 3.3V, 0.2 to 1 Farad capacitors and a small solar cell or current-limited diode to keep them charged with.

If I leave the carts in a GBA SP they do not loose a charge. My original EZFA from 2003 has been keeping time perfectly since that day. Also on the EZFA you can change the date and time from the bootloader screen on the game boy.

 

[Hanafuda]

Dang. I wish I got into the Flash cart scene sooner. I had the opportunity to pick up a Supercard SD once but turned it down and went for the EZ4 instead. The technology that the older carts use to actually work is amazing to me. Things I didn't think were possible until recently .

I've got the EZ4, GB-Micro, one of the pokemon edition GB-Colours and my girlfriend has one of the original GBs in very good condition. I also have a lousy Atari Lynx, but that thing sucks and isn't GB related lol

DanTheManMS already told ya, but you're not missing anything. The Supercard SD was kind of a drag. My fav of the GBA carts is/was the EFA Linker ... my 256mbit still works like a charm and I put it to use just about everyday.

mthrnite, I skipped school in 1981 too, to play Galaga at a pizza place called Luweegee's (yes, they really spelled it that way) ... could never beat the high score some guy named Doug Welch had put up (we all knew him .. he was the guy who graduated a few years ago but couldn't let go, like Matt Maconaughey in Dazed and Confused). But, we knew the guy who worked behind the counter so we'd drink a few pitchers of beer, then go back to school drunk for band.

 

[DigitalDeviant]

small part of my collection...