Hardware GBA Flash Cart

[Count Duckula]

Are they even bad with pokemon?

I'm not a fan of pokemon so cant say I tried it. I've still got the cart somewhere, if it would be helpful I could test a game or 2 vs the ez-flash iv (as I dont know how the pokemon games are meant to run )

I recall trying a couple of the mario games, mariokart, sonic, max payne, mario vs DK and probably a few others. Mario vs DK was pretty playable (although not perfect) but all the others were horrible.
Personally I'd say avoid unless you dont mind spending the money on something you very likely wont use. Now that the EZ-flash carts are hard to find it doesn't make it easy I know, but if you can hold out and keep looking for one I think you'll be happier in the end.

Really they are an option of last resort. Like FAST6191 said, even when the supercards were new they were really only good for playing DS ROMs when used with a passme (as that didnt require the cart to provide the data as fast/with as accurate timing).

 

[Darkipod]

Well, I supposedly have 3 EZF-IV's, and EZF-III 256m, and a Flash2Advance 256, and a EZFRealtime 256m, all being shipped to me. From the sellers i bought them from. I suppose I should have at least one card good enough to play pokemon roms and romhacks in all of that... I hope...

 

[Count Duckula]

Well, I supposedly have 3 EZF-IV's, and EZF-III 256m, and a Flash2Advance 256, and a EZFRealtime 256m, all being shipped to me. From the sellers i bought them from. I suppose I should have at least one card good enough to play pokemon roms and romhacks in all of that... I hope...

Hahaha, thats quite a haul

I used to have a Flash2Advance 512Mb, was a great cart. The NOR flash only carts like that generally have very good compatibility and speed. If you're running windows 7 or above you may need to use a VM to run the software to load games onto the cart though. The EZ-Flash IV will also run the games at full speed, make sure to RTC patch the roms before putting them on the cart.

 

[Darkipod]

Well I dunno what I'm gonna do with the F2A, because it uses parallel port to communicate with the card, and I don't have a computer with one, so it might be a bust buy.

 

[Ziggy Zigzagoon]

You can try the Revo K101, but its flashcard only works with the attached console.

 

[Count Duckula]

Well I dunno what I'm gonna do with the F2A, because it uses parallel port to communicate with the card, and I don't have a computer with one, so it might be a bust buy.

The later models used a USB cable that flashed the cart while still in a GBA, it connected to the link port on the GBA. Not sure if the older carts could use the newer carts flashing method, someone around here would likely know.

I still have the cable from my old cart, but postage from Australia would likely be more than its worth.

You can try the Revo K101, but its flashcard only works with the attached console.

http://gbatemp.net/threads/revo-k101-problems-with-loading-saved-games.338485/

Many are still having intermittent save issues with those, most who have one advise to avoid them unless its fixed.
Theres also other considerations like the screen not matching the GBA's resolution (requiring black borders or scaling).

 

[Darkipod]

The later models used a USB cable that flashed the cart while still in a GBA, it connected to the link port on the GBA. Not sure if the older carts could use the newer carts flashing method, someone around here would likely know.

I still have the cable from my old cart, but postage from Australia would likely be more than its worth.




http://gbatemp.net/threads/revo-k101-problems-with-loading-saved-games.338485/

Many are still having intermittent save issues with those, most who have one advise to avoid them unless its fixed.
Theres also other considerations like the screen not matching the GBA's resolution (requiring black borders or scaling).

I might be interested in that cable all the same.

 

[Count Duckula]

I might be interested in that cable all the same.

http://i.imgur.com/N7my3ak.jpg
That's the cable, I dont need it anymore but I'd say you'd be able to find one cheaper locally as Australia Post can be quite expensive: http://auspost.com.au/apps/international-parcel.html

 

[Darkipod]

Air mail is only like $14, I think I could live with that.

 

[DanTheManMS]

Yeah dude, I too don't know if the F2A USB cable works with the original F2A carts or only the Ultra series, but either way take the opportunity to snag that cable while you can, as they're really hard to find. Using Mootan's FlashManager program, you can use the cable to dump/restore save files [*] from official game carts, and dump the cart rom to your computer. Other programs let you send multiboot files (specially-made GBA games 256 KB or less in size) to the GBA's RAM and run them.

You can even use it to turn your GBA into a USB joypad!

I'd make an offer on it but I already have one spare and I don't want to hoard the remaining limited supply.

[*] EEPROM save files need special handling before going from a real cartridge to VBA or vice-versa. SRAM saves and FLASH saves should be fine. Pokemon games are always really difficult to work with so I'd be extra cautious about overwriting that save file.

 

[how_do_i_do_that]

The F2A usb cable does work with the Ultra series.

 

[DanTheManMS]

The F2A usb cable does work with the Ultra series.

The question is if it works with the older, non-Ultra series that originally used a parallel port linker.

EDIT: Looking at http://wiki.pocketheaven.com/index.php?title=Flash2Advance I think it would work. I'm gonna check the unofficial support site to see if I can get another answer - http://members.home.nl/penpvdbs/frames.htm

EDIT 2: Worst case, you may be able to use FlashManager to flash the old F2A cart, regardless of which cable you're using. You'd be much more limited as to what you could send over, but it might work.

You could also use FAS1 to flash the cart using a Nintendo DS or DS Lite and a slot-1 card to run FAS1 in the first place.

 

[how_do_i_do_that]

The ultra used a modified manger that didn't support the parallel port linker.

 

[Darkipod]

We are not talking about the ultra at all. Lord have mercy.

 

[DanTheManMS]

Indeed. In any case I just remembered that with the original F2A you actually really do want to use Pogoshell to handle everything, specifically Kuwanger's extensively modified version at Kuwanger.net. Since that compiles everything into a single *.gba file and matching *.sav file, it doesn't matter if your worst-case option is using FlashManager to handle it, since FlashManager can handle that simple of a task at the very least.

I used Pogoshell a bit in the past on my F2A Ultra (though not too much, as that limited me to 1/4 of the cart's capacity), so if you have any questions about how to use it, I should be able to remember enough to help.

 

[DanTheManMS]

Replying here since Youtube comments don't allow external links. The software to turn the GBA into a USB joypad is at http://www.reinerziegler.de/GBA/gba.htm

Click on the link for a home-made USB programmer, and find the link near the bottom of that section to find http://www.teamknox.com/ula/ula.html which has the actual download at http://www.teamknox.com/ula/ULA_GP_V2_20030601.zip . You must have the official F2A cable drivers already installed (PowerWriter must be able to link with the GBA even if it can't do anything with the F2A cart) and you need to rename "gba_boot_f2a_lmt.bix" to "gba_boot.bix" (replacing the original gba_boot.bix file) for it to work properly.

 

[Darkipod]

Replying here since Youtube comments don't allow external links. The software to turn the GBA into a USB joypad is at http://www.reinerziegler.de/GBA/gba.htm

Click on the link for a home-made USB programmer, and find the link near the bottom of that section to find http://www.teamknox.com/ula/ula.html which has the actual download at http://www.teamknox.com/ula/ULA_GP_V2_20030601.zip . You must have the official F2A cable drivers already installed (PowerWriter must be able to link with the GBA even if it can't do anything with the F2A cart) and you need to rename "gba_boot_f2a_lmt.bix" to "gba_boot.bix" (replacing the original gba_boot.bix file) for it to work properly.

Wow awesome, I didnt know you actually made the youtube video, thx, do the drivers work on win7?

 

[DanTheManMS]

I made that video on Windows XP. I have never attempted installing the drivers on Win7, but I believe you'll need a virtual machine to do it.

 

[Darkipod]

Aw, thats gonna be a bit lame, Maybe ill see if I can get some CS Kids to rewrite the drivers at my Uni.

 

[enarky]

The question is if it works with the older, non-Ultra series that originally used a parallel port linker.

EDIT: Looking at http://wiki.pocketheaven.com/index.php?title=Flash2Advance I think it would work. I'm gonna check the unofficial support site to see if I can get another answer - http://members.home.nl/penpvdbs/frames.htm

EDIT 2: Worst case, you may be able to use FlashManager to flash the old F2A cart, regardless of which cable you're using. You'd be much more limited as to what you could send over, but it might work.

You could also use FAS1 to flash the cart using a Nintendo DS or DS Lite and a slot-1 card to run FAS1 in the first place.

I am using an original 256 MBit F2A cartridge with a F2A USB cable without huge problems (so far I couldn't find out how to not flash that ugly Multiboot menu and use Pogoshell instead, but it flashes and reads okay). Just got it a couple of weeks ago from someone in the trading forums here. Before that I used it with the ancient stand alone parallel port Flash Advance Linker, that should tell you how old my cartridge is.

AKAIO works quite nice for flashing, too, btw.