Hacking Prepping a legacy GBA flash cartridge for AKRPG and AK2

[ROM Troll]

I have EFAs, EZ-Flash III, and a G6 Lite.

For NDS backup use
If I want to use them similar to SD card storage, can I just format them FAT16 and copy the Acekard firmware(depending on which Acekard it will be used with) on them?

For GBA backup use
Do I just return them to their default setup as per their manufacturers instructions or is there a way to set them up for GBA backups per Acekard instructions?

For Acekard duel mode
Is there a way to set them up to run with both the AKRPG and the AK2? Last night, I tried launching backups from a SD card prepped for AK2 on the AKRPG and could not.

Thanks!

 

[Sweater Fish Del]

As far as I know you don't need to do anything special to them at all. You be able to *DO* anythying special with them just because also have an Acekard in slot-1, either. They'll still function just the same as ever, but you won't need a nopass card in order to boot them into NDS mode and if you boot them into GBA mode from the Acekard, you can a custom border around the GBA screen using the DS's extra screen space.

The only slot-2 cards that have special support through the Acekard are eWin Expansion Pack and EZ-Flash 3-in-1 (also the EZ-Flash IV maybe).

The AKBBS firmware for the RPG also supports writing GBA ROMs to a Flash Advance cart directly from slot-1 rather than having to use the GBA link port.

In the future, I'd like to see a custom firmware for the RPG that allows you to browse and launch ROMs (preferably GBA as well as DS) from a slot-2 flash cart just like you do from the RPG's own NAND or microSD. I don't think that would require any special formatting of the slot-2 cart, either, though. But it would probably only be possible with a later slot-2 that has DLDI support.


...word is bondage...

 

[ROM Troll]

Nice response Sweater. I just tinkered with my EZ-Flash III and discovered it would be difficult to get it to work with an Acekard in the "manner both you and I envision." On a PC the EZ-Flash III cannot be accessed without the EZ Manager software and everything done to the cartridge is done through the software. I tried adding the AKMENU4.nds file to both the FAST and EZ-Disk(FAT 16) sections and no luck. Nothing happened with the FAST and the EZ-Disk which is the closest thing in the EZ-Flash III to a hard drive responded with the pop-up dialog message, "Cannot Add Nds Homebrew".

On the other hand, my G6 Lite and EFAs should fair better. Both are capable of being recognized as a hard drive without proprietary software(other than their USB drivers) and should behave like a SD card when prepping. There's even a low-level format utility that works with the G6 Lite that may work with the EFA if needed.

AKBBS is probably taking advantage of the EFAs ability to be used as a U-disk so other U-disk capable cartridges may work as well.