Apparently there IS a decent GB/GBC flash cart out there

[Rickstilwell1]

I picked up one of these about a year ago, my luck with getting games to actually run properly is about 50/50 (about half either don't run or have really awful graphic glitches) and I can not get the proprietary program that comes with it to actually put a GBC ROM on the cart: there's allegedly a checkbox to turn color mode off or on, but it just doesn't show up. I think it's outside of the viewable area of the window but I can't scroll, so it's just forever hidden.

I don't know if mine is faulty or if that's just how the thing is designed, but buyer beware. This is probably an awesome solution for musicians but this isn't the GB/GBC flash cart we've been waiting for.

Oh and FYI it's 64M split into two 32M pages, so the largest game you can have on here is 32M. Don't know if anything is even that big, but something to consider.

I learned something that makes a big difference:

to get maximim performance and compatibility, only use one game on this flash cart at a time. Games that don't normally work when there are multiple games on the cart do work when you load just the one game. I proved this with the Game Boy Color version of Mr. Nutz. When you only have one game on the cart, instead of going to the game selection menu, it boots right up like a normal Game Boy / Color game and goes right to the game's title screen.

The other one advantage to only use this cartridge for one game at a time is that it enables borders and default colors for games that have Super Game Boy special compatibility. If you have to enter the game selection menu first, then it stays at the default SGB border and default color settings.

Also check your roms. Sometimes a rom is a bad dump even though it is labeled as a good one. Spider-Man/X-Men was not working, then I went to the emulation site I know and redownloaded the 7z for that game. I tried the rom from there and it actually worked opposed to the one I got from an older site.

I am glad I figured this out.

So to those interested in getting this, you should play games like this - don't jump from game to game. Pick one, put it on the cart and play it seriously until you beat it or have played it enough to want to play something different. This cart is not good for people with ADD.

Besides if you want to quit playing a game that has a save file, just use "read SRAM" to back it up. Then when you put that game back on later, find the file and use "Write SRAM" to put your save back on

PS: Oh another good idea is use page 1 for your main game you are working on, and use page 2 for all the quickies that don't use the battery. Then you still get the normal boot up for the good game and some multicart functionality on the other page.

[ccovell]

The other one advantage to only use this cartridge for one game at a time is that it enables borders and default colors for games that have Super Game Boy special compatibility. If you have to enter the game selection menu first, then it stays at the default SGB border and default color settings.

Actually, if you put in a SGB-compatible cartridge first, then when the SGB border has loaded, rip out the GB game, and shove in the flash cart, the SGB functionality should work with any SGB game on the flash cart.

[TheRedEye]

Hey! Good info, I'll have to dig this thing back up now! You've made my day, thanks Rickstilwell1. I assume that the affected games don't care what's on the other page, right? As long as the page they're on is otherwise empty?

[Ze_ro]

Obviously, they don't make computers with parallel ports anymore, so I might get this.

Well, you CAN still get computers with parallel ports... but instead of buying a new computer, you could just get something like this (or this if you don't have any PCI slots). There are also some USB solutions available... though most of those seem to be meant for printers, so I'd be a little skeptical about odd hardware working with them.

--Zero

[Rickstilwell1]

Hey! Good info, I'll have to dig this thing back up now! You've made my day, thanks Rickstilwell1. I assume that the affected games don't care what's on the other page, right? As long as the page they're on is otherwise empty?

That is correct. I even had problems with Kirby's Dream Land surprisingly when it was on a page with multiple games. I have page 1 set to the Game Boy Color game I'm working on and page 2 has 27 black & white Game Boy games on it.

[Callin]

Well, mine came in the mail today. Took about 8 minutes to burn a 32Mbit game, but loading the smallest possible game is almost instant. Got a save battery game on side 1, and one without on side 2. Both work great, so far.

The only issue was getting the driver to work. Since it's not signed by Microsoft, I had to use another program (linked from here) to override Microsoft's check and get it running.

EDIT: The cart has some minor lag issues. I only noticed it when traveling through castles and towns in Dragon Quest.