Hacking Which Options for GBA-only?

[bluesceada]

So far this seems all quite bad to overview... so maybe we can make a short list here, about which options you have for real gba cartridges (which also work in a normal gba):

I just know the ELINK, the EFA and Super Card.

I already ordered the Elink, so at the moment I'm set, but I might buy another one in some time...

Then I've heard about EZ4 etc. but I think that is just for the Nintendo DS, or how is that?
Is there any of those (said to be better than others) ezflash cards for just the GBA? For not too much money... (maybe from DX ?)

I just don't get which are GBA ... and which are GBA-games but just on NDS ?

Thanks in advance for making some things clearer!

 

[innercy]

So far this seems all quite bad to overview... so maybe we can make a short list here, about which options you have for real gba cartridges (which also work in a normal gba):

I just know the ELINK, the EFA and Super Card.

I already ordered the Elink, so at the moment I'm set, but I might buy another one in some time...

Then I've heard about EZ4 etc. but I think that is just for the Nintendo DS, or how is that?
Is there any of those (said to be better than others) ezflash cards for just the GBA? For not too much money... (maybe from DX ?)

I just don't get which are GBA ... and which are GBA-games but just on NDS ?

Thanks in advance for making some things clearer!

ez4 can work for both nds n gba... great kart i must say... ez3 is for gba only...

QUOTEI just don't get which are GBA ... and which are GBA-games but just on NDS

huh?... i don't understand

 

[santorix10]

I have an EZ-Flash IV, and despite a few quirks, it's one of the best flashcards I've had the privilege to own. It's not perfect, but it'll definitely get the job done. I also owned an M3 Perfect SD which was pretty good, but the menu was slow (Even after setting the font size to really small, which helped a little.) and the SRAM (Save memory) literally died. And the M3 carts are about $70. If you're serious about playing GBA games, don't get a SuperCard. It has quite a few incompatibilities, and it slows down a lot. Good luck.

 

[NeSchn]

I have an Elink for my GBA-Slot of my NDS. It works on the GBA and the NDS.

 

[juggernaut911]

G6 = god's flashcart

 

[Jdbye]

I'm thinking of getting an EZ4 myself, even though I already have a ExtremeFlashAdvance II. G6 is too easy to corrupt >_>

They have the EZ4 on DealExtreme, both the lite (DSL only) and normal (NDS/GBA) ones.
The lite one uses microSDs, and the normal one uses miniSDs.

From the research I have done, the EZ4 seems to be the best. It doesn't have 32MB of ram, only 16MB (in case you want to run programs that make use of slot-2 RAM), but that's still enough.

 

[bluesceada]

Thanks so far!

What are the advantages of a EZ 4 compared to a Elink? It also doesn't have the RTC ...
Anyways I've already ordered the elink, so I will see it's flaws soon...

Do all of these flashcards support reading the savedata of the games from the pc (and backupping them there)

And will saving work for all games on the card simultaneously, and not just one game at the same time?

... and

... will then (if it won't work at the same time) at least work for 2 games simultaneously (depending on what they normally do), one which saves to battery backed sram, and one which saves to flash?

 

[santorix10]

Thanks so far!

What are the advantages of a EZ 4 compared to a Elink? It also doesn't have the RTC ...
Anyways I've already ordered the elink, so I will see it's flaws soon...

The EZ4 uses SD cards (but not SDHC) to store games and save data, so you can have up to 2GB of games on there. The Elink uses built in, non-expandable, NOR memory. To find it's size, divide the number by 8. For instance, a 512mbit card is actually 64MB.

Do all of these flashcards support reading the savedata of the games from the pc (and backupping them there)

I don't know about the NOR built in memory cards, but all of the SD card style ones do.

QUOTE(bluesceada @ Mar 18 2008, 12:02 PM)

And will saving work for all games on the card simultaneously, and not just one game at the same time?

... and

... will then (if it won't work at the same time) at least work for 2 games simultaneously (depending on what they normally do), one which saves to battery backed sram, and one which saves to flash?

Well, the carts with SD cards will load a save file when you play a game, and then write it back to the SD card when you're done so it'll be safe. So, you can save with as many games as will fit onto the SD card. For the non-expandable ones, it just saves directly to the save memory, which will hold the save data for all of your games.

 

[bluesceada]

Oh that's nice to write back to flashcard, but is there a (longer) delay then, when saving?

So I've heard the "Supercard" which is the cheapiest variant for SD cards isn't good, because of speed issues. So is it a cardreader issue of the Supercard, or is it just because those people use too slow SD cards?

 

[santorix10]

Any SD based GBA cartridge that can play ROMs uses internal RAM to store the game on, because SD cards are too slow. So this is what is going on:

You start a game -> the ROM is loaded into RAM -> the save data is loaded onto different RAM

then when you're done, you either reset back to the menu (the buttons to do this vary between cards) or power the system off, and back on again this happens:

the save data in RAM is written back to the SD card

So, in-game saving speed is not affected.

 

[bluesceada]

Any SD based GBA cartridge that can play ROMs uses internal RAM to store the game on, because SD cards are too slow. So this is what is going on:

You start a game -> the ROM is loaded into RAM -> the save data is loaded onto different RAM

then when you're done, you either reset back to the menu (the buttons to do this vary between cards) or power the system off, and back on again this happens:

the save data in RAM is written back to the SD card

So, in-game saving speed is not affected.

So the save would just vanish from the RAM if you just turn the GBA off after saving? Then probably saving just works if you drop back to menu? Or how is that problem solved?

// edit:

Ah ok think understand what you mean better now:

You save, turn off, the game vanishes from RAM, the save is stored on SRAM which is backed by a battery inside the cartridge?
Then some value is set, so the cartridge "knows" which game's save is currently on the SRAM, and saves it back as soon as the menu is opened the next time?

 

[DanTheManMS]

It depends on the product. For instance, the slot-2 Supercards are NOT battery backed (except the miniSD version) so if you turn off the GBA, within a few seconds the save is gone. To keep the save, you have to press a button combo to write the updated SRAM to a *.sav file on the card.

Combine gbpic's explanation of how GBA games are run with the info from http://wiki.pocketheaven.com/SupercardGBASlowdowns to find out why Supercards are bad for GBA gaming.

I'm not entirely sure how the slot-2 M3 or EZ-Flash products save, unfortunately.

 

[bluesceada]

Hm, okay, so probably the EZ IV is most recommended and good for the price on DX? What about RTC's, there seem to be not that much cards having it?

The ELINK came yesterday and I'm not really that excited about it .... sending the savegames to it doesnt work for all games, and you cant just delete any game you want, just the last one you put on it. (Ok that's not that bad, but the savegame thing is!)

So I'll probably buy another/better one.