Yeah I'm starting to lean toward the EZ-V, I do plan to play alot of GBA games as I never bought a GBA so missed out on some of the classics.

Argh damnit I want MicroSD support for EZ-V!!

 

Oh excellent, so its basically like a retail rumble pack now? Awesome!

About the one GBA game at-a-time thing, I read the post but I'm still a little confused. Could you explain that for me? Thanks

 

Thanks for the info Destructobot, its looking more and more like the EZ-V is the best solution.

 

The EZ-Flash 3-in-1 has 32 megs of NOR and 16 megs of PSRAM. There are no games that it cannot play because of their size, but a very small percentage of the games are too big to be run from PSRAM.

If that seems like a big deal, keep in mind that every GBA game you play on the M3 has to be loaded into RAM first, and that takes a while. Probably about 20-30 seconds every time you start a 32 meg game. It takes a couple of minutes to flash a 32 meg game to NOR on the 3-in-1, but after that it starts up instantly every time. Meanwhile, you can play other smaller games from PSRAM without having to re-flash the NOR.

I'm not saying you shouldn't get a slot 2 M3. Each cart is versatile in ways that the other is not, so get whichever one suits your needs and your wallet.

And yeah, I think rumble on the DS is pretty pointless. I don't care about the web browser either, I just got a 3-in-1 for GBA support.

 

It is the M3 professional line that does not have RAM and I imagine most people are going to favour licks RAM Unlocking API in the future ( http://forum.gbadev.org/viewtopic.php?t=13023 for the technically inclined)

Regarding "nonDLDI homebrew" there two options given are not universal, prior to DLDI there was GBA_NDS FAT and libfat as well as numerous derivations/mods, carts own libraries.........., not all of these apps have got DLDI builds or even have the sources available for it.
This means there is stuff out there that will not work on the EZ4 and 3 in 1, quite in fact you may even have to go back as far as supercard CF and GBAMP. Not much of great worth remains from back then but be aware.
Of course the stuff based on GBA file systems or similar will work.

GBA/NDS Linkage is available on the EZ4 but you will have to run the game from it and use onboard linking before swapping the save back or you could just play the game on it.

Oh and about the browser and the EZ4, I stand by my assertion that homebrew will eventually surpass it by a long way (many aspects already have) but have a read: http://ezflash.sosuke.com/viewtopic.php?t=5139

 

Of course it does. It has to to support GBA roms

Edit: Yes, you can also use it for the browser (thanks to Triforce) and in homebrew (though it isn't supported much atm).

 

I perhaps should not have been so cryptic, that link is a patch (and an app) so the EZ4 can be used the browser ram much like the m3 and SC patches released by triforce and the new G6 one that appeared, it was only released in the last 24 hours though so it has not spread that far.

The RAM API, very quickly libraries are computer programming tools designed to delegate meanial tasks (like maths, drawing a box onscreen....) or stuff that requires in depth knowledge (i.e. unlocking ram for specific carts and dealing with all the associated BS: something the average dev would not want to do), an API is just a slight tweak on it (directx is a set of APIs for dealing with graphics cards and the like).
It does however have no bearing on the rom hack required to get the browser required to work with the ram.

As for the uptake of the API, I will let the first reply do the talking

 

So, is/will the ram on an M3 Lite Perfect be usable for homebrew?