Hacking So, after all this time, is an EZ Flash Omega worth it?

[NANASHI89]

Getting mixed reviews. Is the EZ Flash Omega worth every red cent?

 

[Xathya]

yes!! can play: original babcup of roms very fsat!! also has build quality of great, and cheap that overdrive.

greats.

 

[vree]

It seems the latest patch has fixed crashing issues and the not saving on an AGS101.

What still hasn't been fixed is the Internal clock running behind after a while. Even on a non modified console.

So yeah if you need RTC you have to check if you mind it running behind over time.

 

[FAST6191]

Other than the power consumption (which has since been made acceptable) I found it to be one of the best GBA carts I have ever used from day 1 ( https://gbatemp.net/threads/ezflash-omega-gba-flash-cart-in-house-at-gbatemp.500357/ ). A few others encountered edge cases I was not able to find (no 101 here, I also did not think to test the NOR on an original GBA which was a slip on my part) but even they seem to be sorted or readily fixable.

 

[Localhorst86]

I also did not think to test the NOR on an original GBA which was a slip on my part

To be fair, the EZ-Flash team mentioned this issue from the start on their release notes. No need for you to test it when the manufacturer is already aware and open on the issue.

And while the issue has since been addressed (i.e. it works on an original GBA now), NOR is a feature I have not used on the Omega at all since the fast PSRAM can even hold the 256Mbit games. For me - and presumably most other people - the NOR feature is no longer has any advantage over PSRAM and it wouldn't surprise me if a lot of people wont ever use it on the Omega at all. From what I can read into older discussions, the EZ-Flash Team only included the feature in the first because the PSRAM chip comes bundled with the NOR part and EZ-Flash probably decided it would not be a big effort to also enable that.

 

[Cuikis]

It seems the latest patch has fixed crashing issues and the not saving on an AGS101.

What still hasn't been fixed is the Internal clock running behind after a while. Even on a non modified console.

So yeah if you need RTC you have to check if you mind it running behind over time.

What is exactly this problem? Also, I have a doubt about the way the RTC works: it takes account of the time I set in settings? I mean, as far as I know, pokemon games start with the clock in 2002 1st January; if I set the clock today, that means the clock in-game updates till today, or simulates in some way the berry-glitch when faces the disambiguation between dates and times?

 

[FAST6191]

Clocks in computers work by pulsing a crystal with electricity (it is why you need the battery in there in this case; you need to keep it going when the GBA is shut off). Said crystal will in turn pulse at an accurate and predictable rate. Set a chip next to this to count the pulses coming out and you can make yourself a clock.
Get your flash cart to speak to said clock chip and it will know the time.

If the pulses get interrupted in some way said clock will go out of step with the time of the world. Apparently the screen modded devices interfere with this signal and cause this issue. Some seem to also have it with stock devices.

Pokemon in this case will likely not care as all it will see is someone that wiped their save file. The problems tend to come in pokemon not being programmed to handle changes in real time clock values and it being back in time from when it thinks it is. Anything then dependent upon time passing will not know what to do and you get glitches and crashes and what have you.
If the clock in your Omega runs behind then it will run behind, no great trouble for gameplay. Unless you used the save with a more accurate clock (say pulling the save and using it in an emulator) that is.

 

[Kazy]

The only trouble I have is that my clock runs about 5 minutes slow after a couple of weeks. Not hard to fix it.

 

[vree]

The only trouble I have is that my clock runs about 5 minutes slow after a couple of weeks. Not hard to fix it.

Yeah but does that also correct the clock ingame?

 

[NANASHI89]

Has the Pal Park issue been fixed? Can you transfer Pokemon from GBA ROMS on the Omega to Pokemon DS ROMs on a R4?

 

[diversionmary]

I went back to using my ez flash 4. I lost too many hours to freezing and save corruption. It’s only frozen twice since new mem card and downgrading firmware, but every moment I play I’m worried about it freezing. In addition to that the Omega races through battery. I’ll give the Omega another shot once the firmware matures.

 

[EZ-Flash2]

Has the Pal Park issue been fixed? Can you transfer Pokemon from GBA ROMS on the Omega to Pokemon DS ROMs on a R4?

NO， there is no DS Migration function on OMEGA.

 

[Drumaster]

Definitely a worth buying product. Added to a reliable and fast microSD, you will load games and write saves on the card in no time.
Compatibility is 100% on my side (tested something like 40 games), real-time patching is ultra fast too.

My clock time is running behind too as soon as I run any game, but that's certainly because I turned off the RTC to save power in the settings I guess, don't know in fact but don't care, I have my watch to know what time it is anyway.

As for the Everdrive X5, I have not tested it yet and it's certainly a very good product but the extra cash (100€ for X5 and only 40€ for Omega) and size is a no-buy for me as I have a Game Boy Micro.

 

[Drumaster]

After a few weeks of use, I have to say that I've started experiencing some freezes since a few days. It first started with one freeze, then a few ones the day after then a lot in the same day. It's the kind of freezes that may be due to poor contact between the Omega cart and GBA console and it produces very weird and unpleasant distorted sounds. When you remove the cartridge during a game session, it produces the same symptom.
Of course I tried other microSD cards freshly formatted (one in FAT32/32K and the other in Ext/128K) and the same.

I sent it back to the eBay seller.

Maybe I could have tried to open it and see if I could bend the microSD pins so that it would be always touching the microSD card but I prefered to sent it back.

Not sure if I'm gonna take a new one as I guess the same thing will occur again and anyway, I so love the original cartridges, and the battery life is twice better than with the Omega.

EDIT: As it's very hard to find some games at a descent price and that are not fake (most of the games on eBay are fake) and because I want to play some homebrew, I ordered a new one. I hope I won't have any issue with it.