Hacking Supercard sd or mini sd for gba sp

[itayda]

Hi,

I am thinking of buying a supercard sd or mini sd for my gba sp.
(I'm not interested currently in the nds functionality, maybe later on, in the future)

I wanted to ask current supercard sd or mini sd users about their experience with gba sp games -
with the latest 1.84 firmware, are there still many slowdowns, how is the gba sp game compatability ?
(is there a compatability list such as with the various slot 1 nds cards?)

Also, I am interested in hearing what you think about which version is better (sd or mini sd).

Thanks

 

[sidneyyoung]

Don't buy Supercard for gba. they are great for DS games but have never improved from the poor GBA compatabilty side.

Get something like a Ez4 minisd for gba.

 

[itayda]

>>Get something like a Ez4 minisd for gba

I looked at this cart, it is much harder to find then the supercard and costs much more, I saw the
supercard for $25 and the ez4 for $80, is there something in between this price range that has
good gba sp game compatability

Thanks

 

[DespizingU]

I would get something like the EFA Linker or Elink(probably the better choice). Both are superior to the Supercard in GBA compatibility. And both are very cheap at DealXtreme(if you can wait a couple weeks for delivery).

The EZIV Minisd at Gamersection, is somewhere between $55-$60(I think), last time I checked. And if you were to get that, I would just spend a little more and get an M3 or G6 Lite. Which both blow away the EZIV in my opinion.

So probably for a cheap dedicated slot 2 cart, with RTS, the Elink will work just fine.

 

[itayda]

thank you for your offer,
the EFA-Linker or Elink on DX have 64MB ram so I can probably use 4 16MB games,but I know that
the transfer rate is very slow - how long it takes to transfer 64MB to the cards

Thank

 

[Rayder]

The best card that compares to (and beats) the Supercard slot2 series is the M3 Perfect cards.

The M3 has better GBA compatibility and MUCH less slowdown in GBA games.....otherwise, it's about the same as a Supercard slot2 with all the built-in emus.

Believe me, I know. I have a SCminiSD and wished I would have bought an M3 Perfect instead. Supercard slot2's basically SUCK for GBA games.

 

[DespizingU]

I haven't seen any slowdowns in the M3 Perfect I just purchased a couple weejs ago. I'm using a Japan made Kingston with it though. I thought only slot 2 Supercards gave slowdown in GBA games. That's why I never even bothered with them.

And itayda, I would take a look at the review for transfer rates. I think I remember reading them not being too bad.

 

[itayda]

hi and thanks for your suggestions, I just don't understand what you mean by "transfer rates" - the M3 uses an sd or
midi sd card, so the transfer rates to the card are the usb 2.0 transfer rate, do you mean transfer rates for the older
cards with the built in flash like the elink ?

Thanks

 

[DespizingU]

Yeah, transfer rates is how long the game to takes to transfer from pc to microsd. That's what you're asking about right?

I have the M3 Lite perfect(which I recommend, it comes with a GBA shell, so you can use it in the SP), which uses a microsd. But you have to run the GBA game through the M3 Game Manager. Doing that gives you the extra features like soft reset and real time save.

So eventhough you're not copying the game directly to the microsd(since you're running it through the M3 game manager, the game goes from the pc to the M3 game manager then onto the microsd), the transfer rates are still very quick.

The M3 game manager is one of the fastest patchers I've used. So don't worry, you won't be spending thirty seconds transfering one 32mb game.

 

[itayda]

actually I was referring to the transfer rates when using an older built in memory flash card like EZ 3, in newer cart
which use external memory, the rates are equal to usb 2.0, although you sometimes have to use some software and
not copy it directly, I understand this.

I looked at the M3 lite perfect, it looks good, I saw it has a gba case (do you need to open the case in which the
hardware is in and transfer it to a gba sized case ? can it break so0mething ?)

the only con here is the proce of the M3 lite perfect, I don't exactly understand what is the difference between it
and the M3 perfect SD (is the software/firmware the same, only one was made for the nds lite, and another for
regular nds or gba sp ?)

Thanks

 

[DespizingU]

Ah...gotcha. Well, I don't personally have any of the older carts yet. So I really can't tell the difference of transfer rates between an older cart and a newer one that uses external memory.

But...I do have a G6 Lite, which has built in memory. And I can tell you the M3 Lites transfer rates are faster than the G6 Lites. I'm not sure if it's because the M3 game manager is faster than the G6's(though the G6's transfer rates aren't horribly slow), or because the M3 uses external memory. But you can tell the difference. I don't have any speed tests for you though.

And yeah, the M3 Lite's hardware will probably show up in the white or black DS Lite shell. So you will have to manually transfer it to the GBA shell. But it's not difficult, and I don't really see how the hardware could break on transfer. All the hardware is, is one circuit board. So you don't have a bunch of pieces to mess with. There's one screw on the shells. You just take out that screw and pop the circuit board in.

Yeah, the M3 is more expensive than other slot 2 carts(like the Elink). I think mainly because it has real time clock. It's worth the money though, in my opinion. It's a great working cart, with great compatibility, and a good team supporting it. And the only difference between the M3 Lite and M3 Perfect SD, is just the memory I believe. One uses microsd and one uses regular sd. I've been told the firmwares on both are basically the same though.

If you don't feel like spending that much on a slot 2, I definitely think the Elink is a great buy. I've heard nothing but good things about its compatibility. And now it just got real time save, so its getting good support. I'll let you know how it is when mine arrives. There's a good review on it at DSDatabase that's worth checking out.