GBA Flash Carts|UPDATE|extra possibilities of a flash card!? [Archive]

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Sebastian

11-26-2005, 11:37 PM

I was thinking about buying a Micro and a Flash Cart to go along with it... to make my gaming uber portable when i need it to be - no extra carts to carry around. Just a GBM and plenty of games already inside :)

This is also the first flash cart i will be getting - so i'm not sure if it is even a good idea at all.

How do they work? are the games working just the same using the flash cart? are there any problems?

What I need is a flash cart that:
1. Works perfectly with GBA roms
2. Does not stick out of the Gameboy (like some do)
3. Would be nice if it played NES games :)

I was thinking about getting one of those... are those good chocies?

EFA-Linker II (1G) Flash Set

EFA-Linker 512M Flash Set

Lone_Monster

11-27-2005, 02:02 AM

I have an EFA-Linker 256M and it's awesome. It's the only one I have, and I haven't checked out the EFA-Linker II, but I'd imagine it's better. The EFA-Linker, from what I heard, it is compatible with almost all GBA games. Also, you are able to put NES games on it as well. The EFA-Linker also is just as big as a GBA cart, maybe a little smaller? When I put it in my DS, it seems like you can move it around a little.

I was a little skeptical at first about getting a flashcart, but it's a great device and in the long run, can save you a lot of money. It's also very easy, atleast for the EFA-Linker, to write games to the EFA-Linker. You just download the game, open the program, plug your EFA-Linker into your computer with a USB cord, pick the game, and write. And you're done.

From what I've experienced, all game play is the same as playing the game from the actual cart. Also, I have run into no problems, although I'm sure there are some with some games.

Overall, the EFA-Linker is a great device and well worth the purchase.

Hope this helps.

RCM

11-27-2005, 07:10 PM

http://gameboy-advance.net/flash_card/ez-flash-2-powerstar.htm

I have the 1Gb version of the EZ Flash II. Highly recommended. I've been able to fit up to 20 ROMs onto the cart at once.

Don't get lazy and stop buying games though. Support your developers!

toddst

11-27-2005, 08:10 PM

There are other kinds besides flash carts that are cheaper. Some use SD or CF cards for memory. I don't know much about this, but check out the maxconsole forums.

zektor

11-27-2005, 09:00 PM

There are other kinds besides flash carts that are cheaper. Some use SD or CF cards for memory. I don't know much about this, but check out the maxconsole forums.

I own the Supercard SD. Actually, I own three of them. That is how much I love this unit. Sure, it sticks out about 1/8 of a inch, and is not 100% compatible with every GBA rom...but don't let that turn you away.

Fact of the matter is that it is compatible with almost every rom (I rarely run across one that does not work...but it does happen) and I should add that it works very nicely for the NDS as well. It's only $60, and you can stick a 2GB SD card in this sucker for some MAJOR space.

What most people do not realize is that the 1gb flash carts out there are in Gigabits, NOT Gigabytes. So, it is smaller than you think. I personally think the idea of a cart that takes removable media is one of the best ideas conceived.

Jandaman sells them, and I highly recommend him. I ordered all of my Supercards from him, as well as other import goodies over the years:

www.jandaman.com

Tell him zektor sent you! :)

EDIT: I forgot to add about your NES rom question. One of the best parts about the supercard is that it actually has emulators built right in! Just copy a nes or gameboy rom to the sd card, pop it in, and you are ready to roll! I love it.

Sebastian

11-27-2005, 09:49 PM

Leo_A

11-27-2005, 10:14 PM

How do these handle games that you can save your progress in?

Jagasian

11-27-2005, 10:20 PM

well I think i'll go with the EFA or EZ as opposed to SD cart

i don't need a lot of games with me at once... and i really do want it to work perfectly, no problems, glitches, bugs, etc.

are the bugs on SD rare... or is it rather commons to see a glitch here and there - if that is the case i want to stay away from that - far away LOL

The bugs with the SD SuperCard are relatively common, though typically involve slowdowns, as games are hacked on the fly to add slow down instructions to allow the game to run on the SuperCard, but more rarely there are additional bugs. It also causes your GBA's battery to drain faster during play, as the card itself requires more power to run. Experiments show that battery life is roughly cut in half! This is a serious issue with regards to portability. It also has the size disadvantage, as it sticks out of the unit, which would really be annoying for a sleek and small GB micro. The SuperCard's main benefit is bulk storage. Personally, I prefer quality over quantity.

The EZ is fairly good with regards to compatibility, but it isn't as good as the EFA. I can strongly recommend the EFA as the most compatible flash card for the GBA. The only games that it is incompatible with are those that use a motion sensor inside the cart. The only GBA game that I know of that this applies to is Wario Ware Twisted. The EFA also has the best battery life and is the same size as a normal GBA cart. The EFA also has one of the best build qualities out of all GBA flash cards. Other cards vary wildly in the quality and durability with which they are made.

The EFA2 combines NOR and NAND flash memory to reach larger sizes more cheaply. The problem is that for a game to be played, it has to be copied from NAND to NOR memory, which causes a delay when a game is loaded. Furthermore, NAND flash is less power efficient than NOR flash. Hence, I would recommend either the 256Mb or 512Mb EFA-linker. If you live in North America, this site is a good place to order from:
http://www.kicktrading.ca/index.php?cPath=21

Also, if you want to read up more about different GBA flash card kits, check out this wiki:
http://wiki.pocketheaven.com/Category:GBA_Flash_Cards

My final recommendation is to not try to pack anything and everything on your flash card. It is far better to pick the best game for the GBA from each genre: RPG, fighter, strategy, racing, etc. This way you will always have a game that fits the mood you find yourself in, when you are stuck in a boring place. Oh and Wario Ware Inc is a great game to have on your flash card as it is quick to pick up for short gaming moments. Oh and also put PocketNES on your EFA-linker too:
http://www.pocketnes.org/

...again, select the best of the best NES games. Quality over quantity, and go for variety too. On my 256Mb EFA-linker, I have 5 GBA games. Of course it depends on the games, as each varies in size, but with the 512Mb EFA-linker, you should be able to fit 10 GBA games at a time, which should be plenty, if you go with my game selection recommendation.

poloplayr

11-28-2005, 06:31 AM

Bought my EZF Advance (256M) ages ago and it has worked FLAWLESSLY with everything ever since. Very very stable. Should be available in a bigger size now, so highly recommended!!!

googlefest1

11-28-2005, 09:18 AM

do you have to find ROMs to put on these devices or can you use them to dump the games you have to store on one of these devices ?

dcescott

11-28-2005, 10:08 AM

sickdrummer420

11-28-2005, 10:24 AM

i had a EZFA and it worked flawless. As i can remember, i never had one problem with it at all. Nice product for sure

Jagasian

11-28-2005, 02:28 PM

I checked out the htm page. Great product. I do have two questions. The screenshots look PC formatted, is the flash cart (or any flash carts) compatable to a Mac? Also what about the DS. Can you use it on that system as well? I'm sure you can but just asking.
As far as the first question, couldn't I make a folder and just drop a folder with my zipped rom files inside of it? The usb device usually shows on the desktop, just like an mp3 player, gamepad and so on right?

If you need a flash kit that works with any OS (with USB support), then get the EFA2. When you hook it up to your computer it looks like a USB flash drive. The EFA1, however, requires Windows. The EFA2 has the same, superior level of GBA game compatibility that the EFA1 has. No other flash cart has GBA game compatibility as good as the EFA series.

I can't comment on DS games, as I don't have a DS and don't plan on getting one anytime soon. It isn't portable enough for me. Anyway, you can use almost any GBA flash card with a DS, to play GBA games, but only some cards work with DS games. All such cards need additional hardware that plugs into the DS at the same time as the GBA flash card. The few other things to watch out for if you only have a DS and want a flash card for GBA games on the DS. Some cards require a GBA or GBASP to write games to the card. Also, some cards aren't the correct size to fit in the DS correctly, though they do fit in the GBA and GBASP correctly. The EFA series has none of these problems.

zektor

11-28-2005, 06:40 PM

I have owned quite a few cards in my time. I had a few Visoly cards, an EZFA, an X-Rom, and some others I am sure I am forgetting. My biggest qualm with them all was that they did not hold alot in most cases (even 1gbit can fill up rather quickly) and they were sllloooowwww to transfer games to.

The Supercard SD is lightening quick with game transfers (you are using a card reader for this...you will need one) and it works great. Yes, you do use the Supercard software to convert (or hack) the rom before it is sent to the card, but this chore is no different than sending roms to a flash cart through their software.

I really don't know what all the talk about bugs is about. I am guessing that the people that have this problem are not using clean romsets. I would guess if you used tons of intro'ed, trained, hacked up roms that the Supercard software could bug up the game. Use clean nointro sets and then make a judgement call on this. I have tested well over 100 roms so far, and the only glitch I have found is that Phantasy Star Collection does not boot properly. Ever other rom worked flawlessly. No slowdown or bugs, and for the games that save...well that worked perfectly too.

As for power consumption, perhaps this may be correct...but I have played on the card for a few days (sometimes a few hours a night) and I have not had to recharge yet. I suppose if you are going to take your GBA into the wilderness for a few days with no access to a charge, then the Supercard SD is not for you.

All in all, probably the best card I have owned out of the bunch. The speed and ease of game transfer, the emulators built right in, DS support, never having to worry that the flash memory is going to die (just pop a new SD in), and constant firmware and software updates from the makers all add up to a great thing...for $60. No flash card can beat that...sorry.

Jagasian

11-28-2005, 08:21 PM

I really don't know what all the talk about bugs is about. I am guessing that the people that have this problem are not using clean romsets. I would guess if you used tons of intro'ed, trained, hacked up roms that the Supercard software could bug up the game. Use clean nointro sets and then make a judgement call on this. I have tested well over 100 roms so far, and the only glitch I have found is that Phantasy Star Collection does not boot properly. Ever other rom worked flawlessly. No slowdown or bugs, and for the games that save...well that worked perfectly too.

As for power consumption, perhaps this may be correct...but I have played on the card for a few days (sometimes a few hours a night) and I have not had to recharge yet. I suppose if you are going to take your GBA into the wilderness for a few days with no access to a charge, then the Supercard SD is not for you.

All in all, probably the best card I have owned out of the bunch. The speed and ease of game transfer, the emulators built right in, DS support, never having to worry that the flash memory is going to die (just pop a new SD in), and constant firmware and software updates from the makers all add up to a great thing...for $60. No flash card can beat that...sorry.

It is a documented fact that the SuperCard is the least compatible GBA flash card. This site's forum lists compatibility issues, and at least 113 games have compatibility problems. Compare this to the EFA's one game that has a compatibility problem. Note that they are a SuperCard fan site, so they are hardly biased against the SuperCard:
http://www.scdev.org/

Here is a review of the SuperCard that lists games and there specific compatibility issues:
http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=25598

Furthermore, testing shows that the SuperCard reduces battery life by roughly 50%. If you run your GBASP with the light on, this means that you will get 5 hours of battery life as opposed to 10 hours. Since the GB micro has an even smaller battery, expect even less than 5 hours of battery life.

There is also the problem with the non-standard physical size of the SuperCard. This is even more annoying for GB micro users, where size really does matter.

Honestly, how often do you have to transfer games to your flash card? Even on a 256Mb card, if you pick your games wisely and write 4 games to the card, then how long does it take you to finish playing each of the 4 games from beginning to end? I'd say at the fastest it takes 2 days to complete each game, so that means you have to transfer a new set of games to your flash card once a week. So transfer speeds can hardly be that annoying, and at that rate of writing to the flash, your flash memory will go bad in 2000 years. Since humans don't live more than 120 years at the most, that means no human will ever have their flash card's flash memory go bad.

Finally, exactly how many different games can you play at the same time? At any given time, I am currently playing through no more than 7 different games. So a 512Mb flash card should meet that need. During any given day, honestly, how many of the 2GB of games on your SuperCard do you play?

Sebastian

11-28-2005, 08:36 PM

the EFA 512Mb sounds better and better with every post i read :)

Sebastian

11-28-2005, 11:23 PM

thanks for the useful links as well

more questions:

I found a cool little program that will allow me to read e-books and other texts from my micro... now i know - some of you might be going " x_x x_x x_x " right now... but hear me out - there are many times when i wish i had a book to read for 15 minutes but didn't... and now i will

I was also wondering, sincereading a book was possible - would it be possible to have some small pictures on the flash card? you know... family, significant other, pets - just sorta like wallet pictures - bur inside your GBM :) - is that possible?

zektor

11-30-2005, 12:06 AM

First off, the review link you posted is for the Compact Flash version of the card, NOT the SD card version...so I would say that is kind of unfair.

I personally DO put quite a few games on the card, and am constantly re-writing things due to the fact that I am constantly testing emulators, homebrew applications, and the like. As for the games, in most cases I am not putting games that I have to go through and complete, but games that I can blast through and play any time (ie: classic games, shooters..so on) and I do like a variety of more than 4 titles at a time :)

I guess to each their own, but it really is unfair to completely diss the SC SD just because you like (or own) another card. Reviews are reviews, but I am someone that owns quite a few of these devices (flash and card adapter) and I can say the SC SD is excellent...and especially for the price. Ok, out of 2230 (to date) roms released, 113 don't work correctly? Hmm, not bad really if that is the true number. I don't know however, since I have had next to no problems (the one Phantasy Star issue I mentioned earlier) and I am not a SC SD promoter or anything. I am just merely stating that it is pretty darn good...and if you end up never trying it so be it.

Either way, whatever you get will get you where you want to be. It's pretty nifty really. I have enjoyed devices like these on the Genesis, SNES, and N64 as well. And even tho it comes across to have a specific illegal purpose, I find that the free and legal homebrew scene is the creme of the crop.

Jagasian

11-30-2005, 03:04 PM

First off, the review link you posted is for the Compact Flash version of the card, NOT the SD card version...so I would say that is kind of unfair.

...

I guess to each their own, but it really is unfair to completely diss the SC SD just because you like (or own) another card. Reviews are reviews, but I am someone that owns quite a few of these devices (flash and card adapter) and I can say the SC SD is excellent...and especially for the price. Ok, out of 2230 (to date) roms released, 113 don't work correctly? Hmm, not bad really if that is the true number. I don't know however, since I have had next to no problems (the one Phantasy Star issue I mentioned earlier) and I am not a SC SD promoter or anything. I am just merely stating that it is pretty darn good...and if you end up never trying it so be it.

I was just stating facts. The CF and SD versions of the SuperCard both have the same compatibility problems. Also, the original poster wanted something that works perfectly with GBA ROMs, and hence 1 incompatible game (EFA series) versus over 113 games with compatibility problems (SuperCard series) is a significant difference.

It should also be pointed out that the M3 flash card, which uses compact flash cards for storage, is superior to the SuperCard with regards to compatibility and additional features. So if you want inexpensive bulk storage, at the cost of increased physical size, and decreased battery life, the M3 series is a better bet.

Sebastian

11-30-2005, 04:34 PM

Julio III

11-30-2005, 06:34 PM

Ok I haven't read this but i use the GBA Movie Player 2.
It takes Compact Flash cards and has a built in video and audio and text readers. It also runs GBA software fine (i've only tried PocketNes, Goomba and a calculator). However it is limited to that it can only run roms for those emus which are smaller than 256KB however you can download a pocketnes which gets around this. I think there is now a version3 of this device which comes in two versions, a compact flash and a SD card versions. The new version is designed around the DS and so can run in the full DS screen and run DS software (from my point of view this means it can do mp3s without me having to convert to that .gbs format my device likes) although it will need a *me to run in DS mode. Actually I think the old movie player can run DS software if you have a *me. Maybe I should try this sometime. I can provide links if anyone wants more info

Jagasian

11-30-2005, 08:03 PM

...
ok guys what about those things?

As long as a GBA card supports Pogoshell, then it can do all of that. The EFA series supports Pogoshell, as do many other cards. Basically Pogoshell is a GBA ROM that turns your GBA into a PDA. Everybody made a big fuss about how the PSP can run emulators and other homebrew software, but the GBA has been doing that for years now. It is even possible to run certain DOS games on the GBA:
http://www.bripro.com/gbagi/index.php

Check out all of these great public domain ROMs for the GBA. (http://pdroms.de/typ.php?system=Gameboy+Advance&PHPSESSID=2ef11972062e51810b64a700ceb2473a) Games, applications, and more!

Sebastian

12-01-2005, 01:47 AM

Icarus Moonsight

12-01-2005, 02:18 AM

I'm n00b as far as flash linkers are concerned, however I was wondering. Can the rom images (GB/C-GBA-NES) be stored in a compressed format like ZIP or RAR? Would help out to pack more in...

Sebastian

12-01-2005, 02:39 AM

I'm n00b as far as flash linkers are concerned, however I was wondering. Can the rom images (GB/C-GBA-NES) be stored in a compressed format like ZIP or RAR? Would help out to pack more in...

i have no idea about that

but I was just reading how this cool program - pogoshell (among many other things) compresses all the save files giving your Flash Cart way more save SRAM space to use

works like this
1. compresses all save files
2. uncompresses saves for a given game when game is opened
3. compresses saves when game is close
4. Sweet!

I guess sky is the limit with those things

arrrggghhh

12-06-2005, 10:08 PM

EDIT: I forgot to add about your NES rom question. One of the best parts about the supercard is that it actually has emulators built right in! Just copy a nes or gameboy rom to the sd card, pop it in, and you are ready to roll! I love it.

I just picked up a super card and am having a problem. When I plug it in with or without roms on it, my GBA and DS don't recognize anything in the slot. Is something wrong with mine?

calthaer

03-04-2006, 11:38 PM

Here's my question: how well does the flash card linker (the little box you plug it into to load stuff from the PC) do in terms of backing up and restoring save-games from legitimate cartridges?

Bratwurst

03-05-2006, 01:16 AM

Well, I have one of those old timey Bung 64-meg kits and the linker dumps and reflashes official cart gamesaves just fine.

I ran into a snag trying to get a read of my save off of a Megaman and Bass cart but the software probably needed to be updated and I never bothered. Different format than usual? Dunno. 95% of my other games I tried work just fine.

In short, a more recent flash linker set is bound to possess more compatibility.

eggwolio

03-05-2006, 01:30 AM

I've been considering a flash-card myself, because I have several GB and GBC games that I'd love to revisit on the micro's sharper screen. I've heard that some flashcards have issues with GBC roms. Is this the case?

eggwolio

03-08-2006, 01:41 PM

anyone?

Blackjax

03-08-2006, 03:00 PM

Yeah, they don't work at all on a standard GBA Flash Cart at all. Since the GBA starts a flash cart up in GBA mode and not classic mode, you can't directly run GBC games.

I know there was something called the GB Bridge that let you do it, but I have no experience with it whatsoever, so I can't say any more than that it exists.

Oh, and to the person that mentioned ebooks on a GBA, I do it all the time! I thought it would be a joke with the small screen size, but it works out really well - especially when you're outside at night. Try this one: http://www.bookreader.co.uk

Poofta!

03-08-2006, 05:41 PM

i own one of the first good flash cards: FLASH LINKER PRO or some such nonesence. its no longer for sale cause newer versions with better features came out. but mine works great and i love it. some games have save problems but patches are abundant. so far ive ran into 2 games that didnt work: Spy Hunter and Dark Alliance.