EZ-Flash IV GBA version

[HappehLemons]

Anyone have one of these? Could someone do a quick test for me and tell me if they fit into a normal GBA cart? I wanted to swap it with an import gba game :)

[maxlords]

Well.....you'd have to do some Dremel cutting I think....otherwise the memory card would stick out a little. Other than that, should be about the same size....

[HappehLemons]

What do you mean "memory card"? I've been getting this response on a few sites and I've been looking for an explanation. The EZ Flash 1-3 doesn't use an SD based memory card.. The game is written to the EZ by the DS.

[MachineGex]

I bought an EZ-Flash 2 without knowing what it does. How do you download games to it?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/52282791@N03/5413816354/

[maxlords]

What do you mean "memory card"? I've been getting this response on a few sites and I've been looking for an explanation. The EZ Flash 1-3 doesn't use an SD based memory card.. The game is written to the EZ by the DS.

Ahhhh.....but the EZ Flash IV DOES use a mini-SD card ;) There's a big distinction between the 1-3 (which fits flush into the DS Lite Slot 2) and the EZ Flash IV which is the same size and shape as a GBA cart already.

[HappehLemons]

I bought an EZ-Flash 2 without knowing what it does. How do you download games to it?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/52282791@N03/5413816354/
You need a slot-1 cart that can run homebrew, you run the homebrew form the flashcart and it writes a game (whatever one you have on the cart along with the homebrew) onto the EZ Flash


Ahhhh.....but the EZ Flash IV DOES use a mini-SD card ;) There's a big distinction between the 1-3 (which fits flush into the DS Lite Slot 2) and the EZ Flash IV which is the same size and shape as a GBA cart already.

Whoops, I meant the 1-3! here's a picture. http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/5668/ezexpgba.jpg

I've been told that this DOESN'T fit inside a normal GBA sized cart and I have no idea why. It looks exactly the same.

[Greg2600]

Happy, that's not an EZ Flash V (http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=42399). The V was designed solely for the Nintendo DS and was the form factor of the DS carts. Like a square. The last one they did for the GBA size was the IV, which is what I have. What you have is the 3 in 1 expansion (http://www.prlog.org/10145378-ez-flash-3-in-1-expansion-pack-rumble-gba-size-black.html)for the DS. At least the early form of it, they've since made it smaller. That will not work on the GBA.

This (http://realhotstuff.com/ezflash-size-p-294.html) is where I bought my EZ IV, it's still there and $35 (real hot stuff). The pain with it is getting the mini-sd in and out. Loading GBA roms is easy, just google for some FAQ's. There are also emulators for every classic system; however, the drawback is that you have to use an exe to basically compile all the roms you want of the old stuff into a single file. But it works.

There was a better GBA Flash cart, forget the name, but it went out of print.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Happy, that's not an EZ Flash V (http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=42399). The V was designed solely for the Nintendo DS and was the form factor of the DS carts. Like a square. The last one they did for the GBA size was the IV, which is what I have. What you have is the 3 in 1 expansion (http://www.prlog.org/10145378-ez-flash-3-in-1-expansion-pack-rumble-gba-size-black.html)for the DS. At least the early form of it, they've since made it smaller. That will not work on the GBA.

This (http://realhotstuff.com/ezflash-size-p-294.html) is where I bought my EZ IV, it's still there and $35 (real hot stuff). The pain with it is getting the mini-sd in and out. Loading GBA roms is easy, just google for some FAQ's. There are also emulators for every classic system; however, the drawback is that you have to use an exe to basically compile all the roms you want of the old stuff into a single file. But it works.

There was a better GBA Flash cart, forget the name, but it went out of print.

I have an EZ Flash IV, good stuff. For a GBA sized cart, I recommend it.

Most importantly it has enough ram to handle games that use a lot of memory, mode 7 type scaling, etc. with no slow-down.

That's the biggest problem I found with the GBA flash carts, to reduce cost most of the manufacturers at the time would use substandard levels/types of of on-board ram. They work fine for the less memory intensive games, but drop something like Mario Kart on there and you'll find that the software just chugs.

NDSCardsale.com (DealExtreme's sister site, reliable also faster shipping than DX) also has them.

$24

http://www.ndscardsale.com/product/EZ-Flash-IV-Mini-EZ-Cart-Slot-2-SD-Multimedia-Flash-Cart-for-GBA-SP-NDS

[nickerous]

I use my IV daily in my GB Micro. Works like a cham. And to get around removing the mini sd everytime, I use a mini sd adapter with a micro sd card. Don't have to remove the adapter, just the micro sd card.

[HappehLemons]

Alright everyone, cool information but are you reading my OP? All I want to know is if they fit inside another DS shell and if not why and what needs to be shaved down..

[Greg2600]

Why wouldn't it fit in a DS? It's made for the DS. You should be able to unscrew it and see how big the board is inside, but I doubt it will fit in a DS game case. Otherwise they would have used a DS shell.

[kedawa]

Holy shit. This thread must have some sort of reading comprehension suppression field.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Alright everyone, cool information but are you reading my OP? All I want to know is if they fit inside another DS shell and if not why and what needs to be shaved down..

Did you read your original post?

You want to fit it in a GBA shell, not a DS shell.

GBA cartridge shell =/= DS cartridge shell.

As far as your question is concerned, I don't see why it wouldn't fit, you'll probably just need to do a bit of surgery to the internals of the GBA shell, the center screw post will probably need to go and some other means of getting the board to stay put would be needed, also you'll lose the ability to swap out the mini SD card.

[maxlords]

Alright everyone, cool information but are you reading my OP? All I want to know is if they fit inside another DS shell and if not why and what needs to be shaved down..

I think that you're confused?

1. They won't fit in a DS game cart shell no matter what of course...but I don't think that's what you're saying.

2. They'll fit into a DS Lite Slot 2, but will stick out...and the board is too big to cut down.

3. The board inside SHOULD fit into another GBA cart (which is what you originally asked) but you will have to do some dremel cutting on the side to accomodate for the memory card slot on the right side of the EZ Flash IV GBA cart as the memory card sticks out beyond the edge of the cart's PCB and if you didn't cut a slot, you'd not be able to install a card in it...making it useless. I did answer that in my first response...

If you buy one you'll see...there's a cart slot on the right side of the cartridge case that fits a mini-SD card. You'll have to cut a slot of the same size into your replacement GBA cart. I'm not sure if the internal structure is the same as a regular GBA cart either...so you might have to do some tweaking there...which begs the question....why bother?

[HappehLemons]

Did you read your original post?

You want to fit it in a GBA shell, not a DS shell.

GBA cartridge shell =/= DS cartridge shell.

As far as your question is concerned, I don't see why it wouldn't fit, you'll probably just need to do a bit of surgery to the internals of the GBA shell, the center screw post will probably need to go and some other means of getting the board to stay put would be needed, also you'll lose the ability to swap out the mini SD card.

I don't remember asking to put a DS game in a GBA shell? I'm looking to put the 1-3 inside a GBA shell which is a slot-2 device. But it looks like I missed your first post, I think you got what I was looking for.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Okay, lol.

In my OP I said i was looking for a EZ Flash IV GBA and by that I meant the EZ Flash IV 1-3 that is the GBA sized cart. In my next post I specified that I meant the 1-3, and I included a picture of what I was actually taking about. Everyone seems to think I'm talking about the EZ Flash IV But what I'm actually talking about is the EZ Flash IV 1-3

Right. And you showed a picture of the fat version.

I don't have any 1st hand experience with shell swapping, but again, I'd expect the necessity for modifications to the inside of the GBA shell.

[HappehLemons]

Woah, sorry everyone. I was very confused with the EZ Flash V 3in1 and the EZ Flash IV and apparently I was seeing things as well (I could of swore I saw an EZ Flash IV 1-3). Looking back everyone knew what I had mixed up except me, I had no idea I was so ignorant.. I'm really sorry!

I thought that the EZ Flash V 3in1 was for GBA because it was shapped like a GBA game, but it doesn't.

Now that I'm done being stupid (hopefully) What I'm understanding is that the EZ Flash IV does fit inside a normal GBA Cart with a little cutting because of the SD cart that sticks out, so what exactly do you cut off safely to get it to fit? Also, if you only have one rom on the SD cart will it directly boot to the game, this is very important to me.

Thanks for sticking with me.

[c0ldb33r]

This thread's gotten me thinking.

I've had one of these for awhile now. I have no idea how to use it. I recall having some software at one point but it never worked.

Any ideas on how to get it working?

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s182/c0ldb33r/th_photo-1.jpg (http://s152.photobucket.com/albums/s182/c0ldb33r/?action=view&current=photo-1.jpg)

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

This thread's gotten me thinking.

I've had one of these for awhile now. I have no idea how to use it. I recall having some software at one point but it never worked.

Any ideas on how to get it working?

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s182/c0ldb33r/th_photo-1.jpg (http://s152.photobucket.com/albums/s182/c0ldb33r/?action=view&current=photo-1.jpg)

I recall that most of the early generation GBA flash cartridges need Windows OS'es earlier than XP to be recognized.

[maxlords]

Woah, sorry everyone. I was very confused with the EZ Flash V 3in1 and the EZ Flash IV and apparently I was seeing things as well (I could of swore I saw an EZ Flash IV 1-3). Looking back everyone knew what I had mixed up except me, I had no idea I was so ignorant.. I'm really sorry!

I thought that the EZ Flash V 3in1 was for GBA because it was shapped like a GBA game, but it doesn't.

Now that I'm done being stupid (hopefully) What I'm understanding is that the EZ Flash IV does fit inside a normal GBA Cart with a little cutting because of the SD cart that sticks out, so what exactly do you cut off safely to get it to fit? Also, if you only have one rom on the SD cart will it directly boot to the game, this is very important to me.

Thanks for sticking with me.

Ok...gonna try to dive in....again. :P

Are you talking about THIS slot 2 cart for DS Lite?:

http://www.leetmod.com/images/products/ezflash_3in1_expansion_pack/ez3in1.jpg

Or this GBA flash card:

http://www.prlog.org/10145375-ez-flash-4-iv-mini-sd.jpg

As you can see, the EZ Flash IV in the 2nd picture has an inset slot on the side for a mini-SD card, and would require room for the miniSD card on a different cart if you wanted to take the circuit board out and put it in a different cart. It also does NOT boot directly to the game...ever. It boots to a bizarre Chinese and symbol laden main menu and you kind of have to figure out how to get it going from there...

I still don't understand why you'd WANT to do that though....the cart casing it comes in fits fine in any GBA....

If you're trying to get the one in the FIRST picture into a GBA....I have no idea. I don't even know if that one would work in a GBA....

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

I'm going to venture a guess that this is going towards some type of elaborate "prank" related to putting a rom hack with some kind of hilarious modifications into a genuine GBA cart.

How close am I?

[HappehLemons]

Ok...gonna try to dive in....again. :P

Are you talking about THIS slot 2 cart for DS Lite?:

http://www.leetmod.com/images/products/ezflash_3in1_expansion_pack/ez3in1.jpg

Or this GBA flash card:

http://www.prlog.org/10145375-ez-flash-4-iv-mini-sd.jpg

As you can see, the EZ Flash IV in the 2nd picture has an inset slot on the side for a mini-SD card, and would require room for the miniSD card on a different cart if you wanted to take the circuit board out and put it in a different cart. It also does NOT boot directly to the game...ever. It boots to a bizarre Chinese and symbol laden main menu and you kind of have to figure out how to get it going from there...

I still don't understand why you'd WANT to do that though....the cart casing it comes in fits fine in any GBA....

If you're trying to get the one in the FIRST picture into a GBA....I have no idea. I don't even know if that one would work in a GBA....

Yeh, I was talking about the 2nd one. So it doesn't boot right to the game? Do you (or anyone) know of one that does perhaps?


I'm going to venture a guess that this is going towards some type of elaborate "prank" related to putting a rom hack with some kind of hilarious modifications into a genuine GBA cart.

How close am I?

Look at the OP :p

But what I'm trying to do is make my own little homebaked translated Mother 3 cart. I've been talking to uncle tusk and trying to get a box design together that fits the unofficial handbooks as well, and picked up a Mother 3 cart so I can swap a flashcart with the translated rom onto it inside its body. I like my games complete :)

[MarioMania]

Do you need the Easyflash to play GBA Rom's on the DS??

I have a R4 & the 8 MB Expansion Pack for Slot 2..But it only works for the DS Browser..I wanted it work for GBA ROM's

[Jorpho]

I'm reasonably sure that if you were to take an EZFlash 3-in-1 and use a DS to load a GBA game into its NOR RAM, then it would boot straight into the GBA game if you used it in a GBA. I've never tried this personally, though.


I have a R4 & the 8 MB Expansion Pack for Slot 2..But it only works for the DS Browser..I wanted it work for GBA ROM'sDude, if you bought a RAM expansion, then that is indeed good for pretty much nothing else but the DS Browser. It has absolutely nothing to do with GBA ROMs.


Most importantly it has enough ram to handle games that use a lot of memory, mode 7 type scaling, etc. with no slow-down.

That's the biggest problem I found with the GBA flash carts, to reduce cost most of the manufacturers at the time would use substandard levels/types of of on-board ram. They work fine for the less memory intensive games, but drop something like Mario Kart on there and you'll find that the software just chugs.I do believe you are gravely mistaken. I can believe some flash carts might use substandard RAM that might be unusually slow, but "not enough RAM" doesn't make any kind of sense.


It boots to a bizarre Chinese and symbol laden main menu and you kind of have to figure out how to get it going from there...It could be clearer, I'll agree, but "bizarre Chinese and symbol laden" hardly seems quite right.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

I do believe you are gravely mistaken. I can believe some flash carts might use substandard RAM that might be unusually slow, but "not enough RAM" doesn't make any kind of sense.

Okay. Substandard it is then.

Whatever the proper explanation is for what would cause a GBA flash cart to not be able to run a game at full speed - that's what a ton of the early flash carts had going on.

Though, the way I described it seems to make sense to me, even if I'm totally wrong - were there no variations of expanded RAM in later GBA games that early flash carts might not have had available rendering the games impossible to run on those carts?

I mean, here's some stats on the EZ Flash IV that seem to make note of different types of on-board RAM and compare a lot of have and have nots on other versions of the EZ Flash series ... if you could break it down in laymans terms I'd love to hear it.

Basic hardware layout for the EZ4 range:

Loader space (4Mbytes)

NOR section: 256Mbit in size (384Mbit on EZ4 Deluxe, not present on the compact): used mainly for GBA roms bigger than 16mbytes/128mbits on the EZ4 and EZ4 lite or for roms you want loaded quickly. Recently the GBAlink feature (where DS roms read data off of a GBA cart and if it is the correct cart features are unlocked) was added to the EZ4 range, the NOR memory is used to contain the required ROM image.

PSRAM bank: used for GBA games 16mbytes or smaller on the EZ4 and EZ4lite, not present on the compact version and 32 megabytes in size on the deluxe (meaning GBA roms or homebrew can be bigger befor having to be loaded on the NOR (GBA roms have a maximimum size of 32Megabytes). Can also be used as extra ram for homebrew or a loading point for DS homebrew.

Mini/micro SD slot, where your data is stored and in the case of DS games is executed from.

8Mbit SRAM (used for storing save games until next boot (whereupon they are written to the memory card) and for passme2 support)

[Jorpho]

I mean, here's some stats on the EZ Flash IV that seem to make note of different types of on-board RAM and compare a lot of have and have nots on other versions of the EZ Flash series ... if you could break it down in laymans terms I'd love to hear it.

Basic hardware layout for the EZ4 range:

Loader space (4Mbytes)

NOR section: 256Mbit in size (384Mbit on EZ4 Deluxe, not present on the compact): used mainly for GBA roms bigger than 16mbytes/128mbits on the EZ4 and EZ4 lite or for roms you want loaded quickly. Recently the GBAlink feature (where DS roms read data off of a GBA cart and if it is the correct cart features are unlocked) was added to the EZ4 range, the NOR memory is used to contain the required ROM image.

PSRAM bank: used for GBA games 16mbytes or smaller on the EZ4 and EZ4lite, not present on the compact version and 32 megabytes in size on the deluxe (meaning GBA roms or homebrew can be bigger befor having to be loaded on the NOR (GBA roms have a maximimum size of 32Megabytes). Can also be used as extra ram for homebrew or a loading point for DS homebrew.

Mini/micro SD slot, where your data is stored and in the case of DS games is executed from.

8Mbit SRAM (used for storing save games until next boot (whereupon they are written to the memory card) and for passme2 support)

It's pretty much like it says. Before it can be used, a GBA ROM on an SD card has to be loaded into either NOR RAM or PS RAM. Loading a game into PS RAM is very quick, but the PS RAM loses all stored data when the GBA is turned off. Loading a game into NOR RAM can literally take several minutes, but stays loaded in NOR RAM when the GBA is switched off. Some GBA ROMs (including Mother 3) are too large to be loaded into the limited about of PS RAM and have to be loaded into NOR RAM.

I'm not sure if either the NOR RAM or PS RAM in the EZFlash IV can be accessed more quickly, but I think if there's any kind of difference that it is so small as to not be worth noting. As I said, if early flash carts had slowdown problem, it was probably due to the quality of the RAM rather than it being NOR RAM or PS RAM.

The "Loader space (4Mbytes)" is simply the relatively tiny amount of space taken up by the loader program, which you use to select a GBA ROM on the SD card and load it into RAM.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

It's pretty much like it says. Before it can be used, a GBA ROM on an SD card has to be loaded into either NOR RAM or PS RAM. Loading a game into PS RAM is very quick, but the PS RAM loses all stored data when the GBA is turned off. Loading a game into NOR RAM can literally take several minutes, but stays loaded in NOR RAM when the GBA is switched off. Some GBA ROMs (including Mother 3) are too large to be loaded into the limited about of PS RAM and have to be loaded into NOR RAM.

I'm not sure if either the NOR RAM or PS RAM in the EZFlash IV can be accessed more quickly, but I think if there's any kind of difference that it is so small as to not be worth noting. As I said, if early flash carts had slowdown problem, it was probably due to the quality of the RAM rather than it being NOR RAM or PS RAM.

The "Loader space (4Mbytes)" is simply the relatively tiny amount of space taken up by the loader program, which you use to select a GBA ROM on the SD card and load it into RAM.

Gotcha.

So the instances of chugging software is just based on the substandard hardware used in the flash carts, not available memory?

[Jorpho]

So the instances of chugging software is just based on the substandard hardware used in the flash carts, not available memory?To be honest, I had not heard of problems with chugging software on the GBA until I saw this thread. (There was a problem with software running slowly on DS flashcarts for a while - namely, apparently there was a bad batch of Taiwanese Kingston SD cards - but those operate very differently from GBA flashcarts.)

But I can't see how available RAM would be a problem. Either a ROM can be loaded entirely into a the RAM on a flashcart, or it can't. Even if there was a cartridge that had extra system-accessible RAM, the program on that cartridge would probably crash spectacularly on a flash cart lacking that RAM instead of slowing down.

In fact, I've never really heard of cartridges for any system containing extra RAM, aside from the DS browser expansion. The blurb about how the PS RAM "can also be used as extra ram for homebrew" suggests that it might have specialized applications.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

To be honest, I had not heard of problems with chugging software on the GBA until I saw this thread. (There was a problem with software running slowly on DS flashcarts for a while - namely, apparently there was a bad batch of Taiwanese Kingston SD cards - but those operate very differently from GBA flashcarts.)

Whether or not you were aware of it, make no mistake, older, cheaper GBA flash carts do not run graphically intensive/complex games at full speed.

The EZ Flash IV card is one of the only ones I've owned that will run practically every game at full speed.

[Greg2600]

I still have no clue what this thread is about.

[Tanooki]

Dude stop spamming that all over. Is that your shop? Be honest. If it is or not that price is too much for that thing. You can buy one off people now and again on NintendoAge for a good little bit less.

[DeputyMoniker]

Dude stop spamming that all over. Is that your shop? Be honest. If it is or not that price is too much for that thing. You can buy one off people now and again on NintendoAge for a good little bit less.

I take it you've been searching the forum for "EZ Flash IV"
This is a 3 year old thread. lol.

[Leo_A]

I believe that the offending spam was deleted which is why it appears as if he bumped a long dead thread.

[DeputyMoniker]

I believe that the offending spam was deleted which is why it appears as if he bumped a long dead thread.

Ah. Okay. My bad.

[Tanooki]

Some spamming slime with an ecrater (if not there, like it) shop spammed the board a dozen times in various threads trying to get suckers to buy an ezflash iv without even the courtesy of a memory card with it for $75. It just so happens I popped off on this thread since it was years old because it was a dick move. He got banned and his posts erased for it by I think papastu.