Can someone recommend a GBA flash card?

[c0ldb33r]

I'd like to get a GBA flash card for my GB Micro.

I'd prefer if it could run emulators (Goomba and NES)

I did a search on the forum and can only find older threads with links that are broken :(

It has to be easy to use - I had one of these years ago and could never get the flasher software to do a damn thing.

edit: I'd like it to be the same size and shape as a regular GBA cart if possible

[davidbrit2]

The M3 Perfect has very good compatibility, though I could never get saving to work properly in F-Zero Climax. It uses a mini SD card or a CF card (there are two different versions).

[c0ldb33r]

The M3 Perfect has very good compatibility, though I could never get saving to work properly in F-Zero Climax. It uses a mini SD card or a CF card (there are two different versions).
Is there a battery to worry about? I saw a comment on youtube that if you want an M3 Perfect, you'll have to worry about replacing the battery.

Since it uses a flash card - what would it use the battery for?

[davidbrit2]

Is there a battery to worry about? I saw a comment on youtube that if you want an M3 Perfect, you'll have to worry about replacing the battery.

Since it uses a flash card - what would it use the battery for?

There is, but I've had mine for a few years, and no problems so far. It has backup SRAM that holds save data, which (by default) will be written back to the SD card after rebooting the M3. Not sure if it has any purpose beyond that.

[c0ldb33r]

Sounds great unfortunately I've looked over the regular places and can't find an M3 anywhere.

I'll have to check for an ez flash IV. If anyone has either to sell let me know :)

[Greg2600]

The Perfect is the ideal card, but it's out of print for years and not easy to find. EZ Flash IV is still cheap, works good. Emulators run great, but they are a pain, because you have to "append" the game roms into a single file.

[kedawa]

I was never able to find a proper SD flash cart, so I've been using a bunch of cheap 128Mbit carts. I think they're FireLinker brand or something like that.
Anyway, they work well enough with PocketNES and most GBA games, but they each only hold 1-4 GBA games.
The worst thing about them is that I have to use a GBA SP and an old PC with a parallel port in order to reflash.

[nickerous]

I've had the EZ-IV for a while and it has done an excellent job. I had another EZ before the IV, but that one stopped saving and would erase save files after I turned the system off. Also had the Movie player with the NES emulation. I'd say the IV is the best. Works great in the Micro as well.

[NE146]

Hopefully I'm wrong but I think you're a number of years too late to find a GBA flashcart available online very easily. Just saying.

Let us know if you find one though.. if there's someone/someplace still selling them that'd be good info. :)

[Greg2600]

http://realhotstuff.com/ezflash-size-p-294.html

This is where I bought mine.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

NDSCardSale has EZ Flash IV Mini for $25.56 with free shipping.

I think that's a good card, it runs everything I've ever thrown at it with no slow-down. I had a couple of GBA flash cards that would chug with a game like Mario Kart.

NDSCardSale is DealExtreme's side-site and I order from them regularly.

Never any problems.

http://www.ndscardsalevip.com/product/ez-flash-iv-mini-ez-cart-slot-2-sd-multimedia-flash-cart-for-gba-sp-ndsmini-sd-card--card-reader-not-included-22019

[c0ldb33r]

NDSCardSale has EZ Flash IV Mini for $25.56 with free shipping.
Thanks guys for the input. I tried NDSCardsale for the free shipping.

When I input my payment info I got some weird run time error. Tried it again and got the same issue.

I'm not really sure what to do about that.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Thanks guys for the input. I tried NDSCardsale for the free shipping.

When I input my payment info I got some weird run time error. Tried it again and got the same issue.

I'm not really sure what to do about that.

HUH. Odd.

Try contacting their customer service ...

http://www.ndscardsalevip.com/contact-us

[NE146]

Wow that's great.. these newfangled ones take SD cards and all. I may have to pick up one of those. My old GBA flashcart is such a dinosaur, I doubt I even have the software to use them anymore. And it's always good to have one handy.

[BlastProcessing402]

NDSCardSale has EZ Flash IV Mini for $25.56 with free shipping.

I think that's a good card, it runs everything I've ever thrown at it with no slow-down. I had a couple of GBA flash cards that would chug with a game like Mario Kart.

NDSCardSale is DealExtreme's side-site and I order from them regularly.

Never any problems.

http://www.ndscardsalevip.com/product/ez-flash-iv-mini-ez-cart-slot-2-sd-multimedia-flash-cart-for-gba-sp-ndsmini-sd-card--card-reader-not-included-22019


If they run it anything like main DealExtreme, good luck with that. I've had claim to have stuff in stock then you order it and suddenly, after finalizing my order, they're waiting on stock on my order page, yet somehow it's still listed on the site as on stock. After a month of that crap I told them to give me my money back and vowed never to deal with their extreme incompetence again if I could help it. Wasn't even something they should've had trouble keeping in stock, just a fairly common cable.

Before that I did buy a flash card from them, and again, despite claiming they had it "in stock" they didn't ship it for like 3 weeks. They may have good prices, but it's not worth the hassle of their unprofessionalism.


I'd like to get a GBA flash card for my GB Micro.
...
It has to be easy to use - I had one of these years ago and could never get the flasher software to do a damn thing.

Could've been your PC. On my GBA flash card, it worked fine on my 10 year old desktop but wouldn't work on a laptop I was using at the time which was less than a year old (this was about 3-4 years ago). Keep that in mind, it's possible a new card might not work any better than your old one, so either buy from a place with a good return policy or be ready to eat the cost.

[jperryss]

Could've been your PC. On my GBA flash card, it worked fine on my 10 year old desktop but wouldn't work on a laptop I was using at the time which was less than a year old (this was about 3-4 years ago). Keep that in mind, it's possible a new card might not work any better than your old one, so either buy from a place with a good return policy or be ready to eat the cost.

Or it could've been one of those craptastic printer-port flashers that would work only if the planets aligned just right.

http://gbatemp.net/pix/198409/FAturbo.JPG

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

If they run it anything like main DealExtreme, good luck with that. I've had claim to have stuff in stock then you order it and suddenly, after finalizing my order, they're waiting on stock on my order page, yet somehow it's still listed on the site as on stock. After a month of that crap I told them to give me my money back and vowed never to deal with their extreme incompetence again if I could help it. Wasn't even something they should've had trouble keeping in stock, just a fairly common cable. Before that I did buy a flash card from them, and again, despite claiming they had it "in stock" they didn't ship it for like 3 weeks. They may have good prices, but it's not worth the hassle of their unprofessionalism.

I hear ya, I've had some bad experiences with DX over the years similar to what you've described (stock issues, items not shipping or never coming back in stock) but now that I have a better understanding of how they work (they're really a middle-man for stock shipped to their warehouses directly from the manufacturer of the items they sell, and they DO use a lot of "estimated" stock/shipping data) I'm not that hard on them. I practically order some random thing from them on a weekly basis, and overall I've had good experiences with only a few nightmare orders that never got shipped and I had to get a refund.

I've never experienced them being totally unresponsive, and in the case of the NDSCardSaleVip side-site I've never had anything not ship from that. If the site itself is crashing on checkout, I'd just hit up the on-site live customer service chat during their business hours.

YMMV overall, but there aren't many sites that have as many items as they do with free shipping.

[c0ldb33r]

Thanks for the recommendations guys - I really wanted the DX affiliated site to work, but I've tried a few times with no success. There was no response to my customer service inquiries either :(

Can someone recommend a site like the DX one, with free or cheap shipping? The problem with USA based sites is that they cost a TON to ship to Canada.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Thanks for the recommendations guys - I really wanted the DX affiliated site to work, but I've tried a few times with no success. There was no response to my customer service inquiries either :(

Can someone recommend a site like the DX one, with free or cheap shipping? The problem with USA based sites is that they cost a TON to ship to Canada.

That sucks. I wish I could test their checkout system without actually buying something.

I'll be sure to report back on this when I do need something.

*EDIT* okay, I tried purchasing a $3 Famicom cart and got the crazy site run time error.

So, if this is a bug on their site that is preventing anybody from buying anything, I would assume that they'll figure that out and fix it in time.

[c0ldb33r]

So, if this is a bug on their site that is preventing anybody from buying anything, I would assume that they'll figure that out and fix it in time.
That's what I'm hoping - I just tried it again and got the run-time error. I'll just try it a few more times this month and if it doesn't work just look at ebay or somewhere else.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

That's what I'm hoping - I just tried it again and got the run-time error. I'll just try it a few more times this month and if it doesn't work just look at ebay or somewhere else.

Yeah. I've been trying a couple of times a week with a Famicom cartridge. Looks like the site is DOA for the time being.

They probably got slammed with the same action that Deal Extreme did when they were selling too many Flash Carts.

I've seen the EZ Flash elsewhere on the web, that may be your best bet if you need it now.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

I've owned the M3 Perfect SD for several years now, and I think its hands down the best flashcart to get.

Full video review:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4a49-7OHtE

Good luck trying to find one.

[c0ldb33r]

I've owned the M3 Perfect SD for several years now, and I think its hands down the best flashcart to get.

Full video review:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4a49-7OHtE

Good luck trying to find one.
Yeah I saw reviews of the m3 - I'd love to get one, but gave up on finding it, unless you want to sell yours :D

[thegamezmaster]

After reading everything, from a user point of view, what's the best and cheapest one to get and where to get from? One that inlcudes everything with it to use out of the box and runs alot of different emulators Thanks.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

There is no such thing. You need to install firmware on all of them. Also cheap does not equate to best. Quite the opposite. Outside of GameBoy/GameBoy Color and Master System, the GBA doesn't really have the power to run emulators for anything else. You don't buy a flash cart to emulate other consoles than GB.

[Leo_A]

GBA has good NES emulation. Some commercial GBA releases have even relied on homebrew open source NES emulators like PocketNes.

Never heard of it emulating the Master System. But if it does that well, I assume it also can do a decent job with the Game Gear and perhaps some other consoles like the Colecovision.