Hacking New Theme for EZ-Flash Omega!

[angrysanta]

@Sterophonick hi bro can we have multiboot for gbc game pls

 

[Androxilogin]

I see we were blessed with a source update.

 

[Sterophonick]

Base kernel update v3.45:
- Update to kernel 1.09, FW 9

DE kernel update v1.01:
- Update to kernel 1.03, FW 4
- Shoutouts to RibShark for assistance with pointing out an issue that turned out to be a hardware revision, EZ-Flash swapped out the NOR.

Original NOR: Spansion 71GL064A088FW08
New NOR: Spansion S71PL064JA0BAW0B
These are noted in the comments of Ezcard_OP.c as GL064 and PL064 respectively.

REMINDER: THE DE VARIANT WILL TELL YOU TO USE THE OFFICIAL KERNEL TO UPDATE FIRMWARE

 

[Sterophonick]

Quick hotfix for Light theme on DE. Nothing special.

 

[Dragon_Types]

Great work!

 

[nemwolf]

Looks great, I will give it a try later on today.

 

[Lijer]

Dear sterophonick..
First of all.. thank you for all your work on the cfw for ez flash .. and that you keep em updated.. much appreciated..

But i have one question though.. i am currently on simple version 3.44 .. if i want to update to 3.45, do i need to start with a blank sd card, and start from scratch (makin the folders and copying the files) or is it sufficient to only copy the new kernel bin file and go straight to the boot, press R and update my card?

 

[Sterophonick]

Dear sterophonick..
First of all.. thank you for all your work on the cfw for ez flash .. and that you keep em updated.. much appreciated..

But i have one question though.. i am currently on simple version 3.44 .. if i want to update to 3.45, do i need to start with a blank sd card, and start from scratch (makin the folders and copying the files) or is it sufficient to only copy the new kernel bin file and go straight to the boot, press R and update my card?

You can just copy the new .bin and update. Remaking your entire SD card is by no means necessary.

 

[Lijer]

Just updated it.. works like a charm.. thanks

 

[Mite000]

I had a couple of questions regarding the save backup. I just noticed that it was also taking backups of regular gameboy games as well, which just helped me losing a Donkey Kong Land save, so thanks for that! What I wanted to ask was in Goomba, and with GBA games as well, when is it that you're supposed to wait 5 seconds before shutting down? I've always been a bit confused by this.

With Goomba, I press L&R to bring up the menu and maybe do a save state. I'm pretty sure I then have to wait 5 seconds before leaving the goomba menu, but do I also have to wait 5 seconds at the EZ Flash menu before shutting off the GBA? For GBA games, do I need to wait 5 seconds after an in game save, in the save state menu, or in the ez flash menu?

Also, I know there are 5 backups per game being saved at a time and it seems like the newest backup would be number 0 based on the timestamp of when it was created, is that right? If so, when a 6th backup would happen, does it push everything down a number and delete the previous number 5?

 

[Mite000]

Sorry, I accidently double posted here lol

 

[Sterophonick]

I had a couple of questions regarding the save backup. I just noticed that it was also taking backups of regular gameboy games as well, which just helped me losing a Donkey Kong Land save, so thanks for that! What I wanted to ask was in Goomba, and with GBA games as well, when is it that you're supposed to wait 5 seconds before shutting down? I've always been a bit confused by this.

With Goomba, I press L&R to bring up the menu and maybe do a save state. I'm pretty sure I then have to wait 5 seconds before leaving the goomba menu, but do I also have to wait 5 seconds at the EZ Flash menu before shutting off the GBA? For GBA games, do I need to wait 5 seconds after an in game save, in the save state menu, or in the ez flash menu?

Also, I know there are 5 backups per game being saved at a time and it seems like the newest backup would be number 0 based on the timestamp of when it was created, is that right? If so, when a 6th backup would happen, does it push everything down a number and delete the previous number 5?

1. It is recommended to wait 3-5 seconds if you are on the standard cartridge.

2. Yes, it will push every other save down.

 

[Mite000]

1. It is recommended to wait 3-5 seconds if you are on the standard cartridge.

2. Yes, it will push every other save down.

Thanks for the quick reply! Yes, I should have mentioned that I am on the standard EZ Flash Omega, not the definitive.

I've been playing around with Goomba, trying to force corruptions to see when it would happen lol, and it seems like almost 100% of the time it'll corrupt if you exit out of the L&R Goomba menu too fast. But once you've waited there for a few seconds you can shut off the system and you're good, you dont have to bother with leaving to the EZ Flash menu.

I've been trying to do the same thing with GBA games, both with a clean boot normal save and with the save state screen, and I haven't been able to make the save corrupt yet after several attempts. Are the GBA saves just generally more stable?

 

[EvilJagaGenius]

I've been messing around with the HVCA emulator (1.40) to emulate the Famicom Disk System, since I read somewhere it has Pogoshell support. You have to download and build it yourself with a disksys.rom, but then I put the generated file in the PLUG folder as fds.bin. It boots games fine for me, but it doesn't exit properly. When you build it, it offers four options for different flash cartridges (I presume).

1: FA/F2A(256). When you try to exit with this one, it takes you back to HVCA's options screen with all the menu options missing.
2: EZ1, XG1. Trying to exit from here boots the first game in NOR.
3: EZFA. Same as #1.
4: Ignore. Boots back to the GBA's bootup screen, but the Nintendo logo is garbled and it doesn't finish booting.

Any ideas on how to get this exiting to the menu properly, if it's even possible? I think HVCA is closed source, so I'm not sure.

 

[Sterophonick]

I've been messing around with the HVCA emulator (1.40) to emulate the Famicom Disk System, since I read somewhere it has Pogoshell support. You have to download and build it yourself with a disksys.rom, but then I put the generated file in the PLUG folder as fds.bin. It boots games fine for me, but it doesn't exit properly. When you build it, it offers four options for different flash cartridges (I presume).

1: FA/F2A(256). When you try to exit with this one, it takes you back to HVCA's options screen with all the menu options missing.
2: EZ1, XG1. Trying to exit from here boots the first game in NOR.
3: EZFA. Same as #1.
4: Ignore. Boots back to the GBA's bootup screen, but the Nintendo logo is garbled and it doesn't finish booting.

Any ideas on how to get this exiting to the menu properly, if it's even possible? I think HVCA is closed source, so I'm not sure.

Assembly hacking. That's how I got it working on the extra emulator plugins such as SMSAdvance or MSXAdvance

 

[dadjumper]

Thanks very much for the DE update, my DE just came in today and I'm stoked.

Is there any chance of a version that reverses the default goomba border settings? I prefer the default (borders always on when available) and being able to choose would be neat.

Thanks for your hard work!!

 

[Sterophonick]

Thanks very much for the DE update, my DE just came in today and I'm stoked.

Is there any chance of a version that reverses the default goomba border settings? I prefer the default (borders always on when available) and being able to choose would be neat.

Thanks for your hard work!!

Wait a minute, could've sworn that Goomba settings were saved in the DE version...

I'll look into it.

 

[dadjumper]

Thanks very much! To clarify, goomba is defaulting to "Prefer GBC over GB", so to get borders I have to change it to "Prefer GBC over SGB" and then restart goomba for the border to show. This is reset when I go back to the ezflash menu.

Also, I've been having a problem with occasional freezes, but it's hard to say if this is an issue with Simple, the DE kernel, or my hardware? Multiple games have locked up and required a restart. I've tried reflashing the official FW and then Simple again, but that didn't change anything. I've also tried clean booting games as well as flashing them to the NOR, both of which seem to help, but as far as I can tell it doesn't completely solve the issue.

 

[Sterophonick]

Thanks very much! To clarify, goomba is defaulting to "Prefer GBC over GB", so to get borders I have to change it to "Prefer GBC over SGB" and then restart goomba for the border to show. This is reset when I go back to the ezflash menu.

Also, I've been having a problem with occasional freezes, but it's hard to say if this is an issue with Simple, the DE kernel, or my hardware? Multiple games have locked up and required a restart. I've tried reflashing the official FW and then Simple again, but that didn't change anything. I've also tried clean booting games as well as flashing them to the NOR, both of which seem to help, but as far as I can tell it doesn't completely solve the issue.

I've heard this issue a lot and I haven't changed anything that would cause freezing issues such as this. I believe it's something up with your cartridge.

 

[createthiswaste]

Hello all!

I have been working on a new theme for the EZ-Flash Omega, and I call it Simple.

It is a nice rounded theme with both light and dark options, and allows for way more functionality on your Game Boy Advance!

Its features are:

PogoShell plugin support
A handful of plugins are included which means you can launch way more emulators and file types such as text documents, images, and music.

Save backup feature
When enabled, this will make up to five backups of the save file belonging to the ROM/file you are opening.

Better English translation
Just better in general

Cleaner sans-serif font

An option to hard reset the console when booting a GBA game without holding L.
I implemented this because I know some people like me like having the BIOS intro screen.

In short, it doesn't just look pretty, it gives your cartridge way more functionality as well!

Hope everyone likes it!

Latest version: v3.45
Latest version (DE): v1.01

Credits:
Kuwanger (PogoShell modifications)
Sasq (Creating PogoShell and a few plugins)
Veikkos (Save backup code and Goomba Color mods)
CoolHJ (Improving Chinese translation)
Moonlight (Various PogoShell plugins)
RibShark (Technical Assistance)

Greetz:
DarkFader
Let's Emu!
Krom
Simon Band

DEFINITIVE EDITION USERS:
DOWNLOAD SimpleDE.zip FOR YOUR CARTRIDGE.
OTHERWISE DOWNLOAD Simple.zip!
ALSO YOU MUST USE THE OFFICIAL KERNEL TO UPDATE THE FIRMWARE; THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO THE BASE OMEGA

READ THE INCLUDED TEXT DOCUMENT BEFORE ASKING QUESTIONS!

Screenshots:
View attachment 208785 View attachment 208786 View attachment 208787 View attachment 208788 View attachment 208789 View attachment 208790


Source: https://github.com/Sterophonick/SimpleLight
Source (Definitive Edition): https://github.com/Sterophonick/omega-de-kernel
Manual: https://sterophonick.github.io/omegamanual.html

When I try to update the kernel with either the light or dark theme it shows this, what am I doing wrong?