Hacking What is the ABSOLUTE *BEST* GBA backup cart?

[ron555]

With all of the wonderful Slot-1 solutions coming out, I'm looking for the BEST slot-2 GBA solution available for the Nintendo DS Lite right now.

I thought about the EZ4 Lite Deluxe (TF Adapter, MicroSD), but is this really the best solution out there?

I use to have a G6 lite (same as M3?) and the GBA support for some of the best games (Metroid, etc.) sucked bad. I would get screen corruption, crashes, etc. That's not what I consider "99-100% GBA compatibility" as people claimed for the G6 lite. I suppose that rules out M3, as it's the same system right?


Any ideas?

 

[T-hug]

The m3 was great at running GBA, even metroid. Most problems came when transferring the roms to the card using the m3 software, if you just copy paste them, the majority of the roms that suddenly had problems, didn't.
For a cheap solution its got to be sc or m3 imo.
GBA only carts are also worth looking into, F2A and X-ROM were quite good.

 

[adgloride]

The supercard isn't the best for playing GBA roms, but its great from playing DS roms and considering being able to play GBA roms as a bonus. Some GBA roms still have slowdowns or don't work on the supercard. Instead of fixing this it looks like the supercard team have given up on 100% GBA rom compatability (Judging by the rumble ranges not being able to do GBA)

For playing GBA games I would say an M3 or G6 (even though you don't want to know about them). The only other option would be to go with a GBA only flash cart. You'll have to make sure you can write to the flash cart as some come with a linker cable that will only work on the GBA or GBA SP.

 

[Smuff]

Can confirm EZ4Lite has superb (dare i say, "the best" ?) GBA compatability, coming, as it does,from a long heritage of very successful EZFlash GBA carts.

And regarding a "cheap solution", how cheap do you want to go ? An EZ4Lite Deluxe costs absolute peanuts - it was the reason I chose the original EZ4Lite over and M3/G6 in the first place, and I recently bought a deluxe for half the price I paid 4 months ago for an original design one!

There is a certain degree of "snobbery" over the flashcart scene, with EZ4 being seen as the poor relation - Except by those that have actually tried one. Beware the "SC/M3/G6 FTW" type posts, and do a little more research on your own and reach a decision you can be happy you made yourself, rather than were led to.

 

[Monkey01]

Can confirm EZ4Lite has superb (dare i say, "the best" ?) GBA compatability, coming, as it does,from a long heritage of very successful EZFlash GBA carts.

Yeah, EZ4 is said to have the best GBA compatibility (only no clock for pokémon).

But I've recently read the G6 Lite Second Opinion review and whereas they said in the first review "I tested 16 GBA games at complete random and used default settings in the G6 Manager (Real Time Save, no compression) and my results were certainly not very comforting.", in the second review they say: "Thankfully they have improved the software with version 4.0 onwards, ‘Enable Real Time’ is no longer a default option (Real Time is the ‘save anywhere’ function better known as ‘savestates’). In my last review the Real Time save patch was responsible for lowering game compatibility dramatically"...
So it might just be the patcher causing the problems too...

 

[ron555]

It's just as I suspected. Thanks guys.

R4 + EZ Lite Deluxe IV is the best solution as of yet.
I just wish the EZ Lite Deluxe IV didn't stick out ;(

 

[yee]

Get the EZ4Lite Deluxe.

Perfect GBA speeds, outstanding menus and skins for both DS/GBA loaders, built-in NOR flash (allows GBA games to be burnt into the flash memory like the older GBA flash carts) and as for the DS side of things, it's pretty excellent as well.

 

[Athlon-pv]

EZ-3 rom compression

 

[Opium]

The EZ-Flash 3 without question. See my review of it here on GBAtemp.

 

[Dirtie]

EFA-Linker (the first one)

 

[Monkey01]

Hmyeah, EZ3 and EFA seem to be pretty good from the old GBA-only cartridges, but as he already worries about the 2mm EZ4 sticks out of the lite:

I just wish the EZ Lite Deluxe IV didn't stick out ;(

I don't think he's really looking for a GBA sized cartridge.

 

[Opium]

@ron555, the best 'GBA' carts are surprisingly GBA sized. I guess the EZIV would be the best choice, but as you said it does stick out just a little. Nothing too drastic though.

 

[outphase]

G6 and M3 are made by the same people, but they do not run off of the same system/firmware etc. Between the two I preferred the M3 for GBA.

Also, I'd be very disappointed if someone attempts to shill for the SuperCard here.

 

[DjoeN]

Supercard really suxs at GBA

I still preffer, and use, my old FA Pro 256M Linker (Vilsoly) and my F2A 512 Ultra on my DS/DS-Lite/GBA Micro/GBA-SP
I still have a FA 128 (Vilsoly) i randomly use (on GBA-SP)

I have a M3 Lite / G6 Lite and Supercard Lite, i never use those to play GBA (more of a habbit to use the real gba only cards

)

 

[HugeCock]

I have
EZFA, EFA, EFA 2, EZ-Flash II, EZ-Flash III, G6, M3, Supercard, some neo garbage, a eWin, and some others I don't use anymore....best for GBA for me is the EZ-Flash II....I like the software and the fact that games boot instantly....I have had bad luck with both my EZ-Flash III's though so I never picked up the EZ-Flash IV...second in my favorite GBA cart line up is the Ewin just cause the quality of the case and that is has EZ-Flash II functionality with pogoshell support which allows me to remove games out of order. (I know EZ-Flash III allows this....but I don't like the kit...sorry)....so my vote goes to EZ-Flash II...then again it sticks out...so lately I have been using my G6 lite which I must say they have really improved the software over the past year. Gonna try using my M3 lite to play GBA games in a little bit when I get my M3 Simple