GBA flash carts?

PrinceOfBrainsPrinceOfBrains
in The Brewery
I've recently inherited my girlfriend's old silver GBA SP and, while soliciting suggestions from Twitter as to what games I should look for, I was reminded of the existence of GBA flash carts! I've found a few on Google but I wanted to get some legit opinions from everyone here, as I trust the NA community more than I'm going to trust other random strangers online. Anyone have any suggestions for a good one, as far as ease of use/compatibility is concerned? Do I need to provide more details about the specific model of SP I have, will that have anything to do with it?



Thanks for the help!

Comments

  • RongolianRongolian
    I got the EZ Flash IV from a member on here and can highly recommend it. It requires a mini-SD card which are kind of difficult to find (you don't want to use a micro-mini adapter because they occasionally have trouble with save files).



    I'd head over to gbatemp.net for the latest method of getting one, they have a good community of folks over there that keep up with flash carts for handhelds, just look under the GBA section.



    Good luck!
  • nusilvernusilver
    I also have the EZ Flash IV and, yeah, highly recommended, other than the save process, which can be confusing. I bought it for Mother 3 originally, but now I've got a Mother 3 repro and only use it occasionally to play games like Ninja Five-0, which I just can't justify purchasing at the current rate.



    And to answer your sub-question - it's "cart."
  • PrinceOfBrainsPrinceOfBrains
    Wait wait wait - there's Mother 3 REPROS? That may stop me from buying a flash cart (thanks!) in the first place!
  • TanookiTanooki
    Given what the bootleg mother 3 carts go for you're better off with the ezflash. You'll be looking if you're lucky a bare minimum of $50 for a mother 3 bootleg. For the same cost you can get the device that does it all. I had an ez-flash 4 too and I can't recommend it highly enough as it gets the job done. I just got rid of it because I never got anything done as I'd have more games than time or sense to stick to one.
  • PrinceOfBrainsPrinceOfBrains
    Starting to sound like EZ Flash 4 is the winner, here. Anyone in particular I should buy it from? And are there any hardware quirks I should know about? I'm using it on a front-lit silver SP, if that makes any difference. Thanks for the advice, everyone!
  • TanookiTanooki
    It's a GBA, it won't make a difference. I've used one on all models of the GBA from original to micro and it's great if a piraty flash cart is your thing. Most the time I used it to fire up roms for other systems I own to use those things portably like PocketNES and when I had the micro Goomba/Goomba color for GB/SGB/GBC.



    As far as where, no idea, last one I got came from here. gbatemp.net would be your best bet for a referral from an honest site.
  • standigzstandigz
    EZ flash iv only remembers one save at a time. It requires Mini SD Cards, not Micro SD cards, and they have to be regular one that are not over 2 GB. So SD, not SDHC or SDXC. Mini to Micro adapters have mixed success. I don't quite remember, but I think I had to use something called GBAtools to "fix" the roms before I could play them.



    It will work fine on a GBASP, but it only is good for GBA games, gameboy games have to be emulated, which isn't too bad, just don't expect perfect accuracy. It's actually kind of a bummer that it can't work as a GB flashcart as well because the hardware is like right there.



    Oh, and you should probably look into getting a new GBA SP battery, the charge capacity is probably crap by now. A headphone adapter is needed to enjoy stereo sound.
  • PrinceOfBrainsPrinceOfBrains
    A valid point; where's a good place to get batteries? And what did you have to do with GBAtools, did it only play certain ROM images or something?
  • TanookiTanooki
    I never did that standigz. I had the mini-micro adapter then the sd adapter so I could dump stuff to it or remove through the sd card slot on my laptop. I never once had a patch a game either. Also you can save more than one game because it will save the data to the SD card as well, but yes if you use the on board NOR rom then yeah you can just have one save.



    Almost all the GB/GBC games work just fine if you use Goomba as I used it so I could play it all on my gb micro.



    THe GBA SP battery is STILL sold by Nintendo at store.nintendo.com for like $15 and that was less than a week ago as I was trying to chase down an item they don't carry anymore.
  • dra600ndra600n

    Originally posted by: PrinceOfBrains



    Wait wait wait - there's Mother 3 REPROS? That may stop me from buying a flash cart (thanks!) in the first place!



    There will be a Mother 3 repro on brand new hardware that will be available shortly, if that helps at all.


  • standigzstandigz
    I don't remember exactly what I did, it's been a while since I first got it, and even longer since I last played it (I'm a lazy gamer...) Maybe GBAtools wasn't needed? I don't know, there aren't exactly any decent instructions for these things, just an engrish mess and really old dead forum posts. Anyway, on one of those dilapidated sites it was recommended to only use mini-sd cards. *shrug* I don't really know if it matters or not. I never really figured out saving. I only really used it to play through Mother 3, but because that one is too big, it has to save on NOR mode. I think, maybe it was the other mode. One of those, it's like the biggest GBA game so that was tricky.
  • GameMachineJamesGameMachineJames
    Okay...

    ...



    I am interest. Tell me more?



    Also, will the cart actually fit in a GBA or will it stick out like all the other GBA pirates?
  • TanookiTanooki
    The ezflash is the same size as a real GBA cart so it sits normally in it. That's why it uses those teeny versions of the SD card to keep everything in the standard sized shell.
  • plc268plc268

    Originally posted by: Tanooki



    Given what the bootleg mother 3 carts go for you're better off with the ezflash. You'll be looking if you're lucky a bare minimum of $50 for a mother 3 bootleg. For the same cost you can get the device that does it all. I had an ez-flash 4 too and I can't recommend it highly enough as it gets the job done. I just got rid of it because I never got anything done as I'd have more games than time or sense to stick to one.



    You can get a mother 3 repro on Aliexpress for $20 or less (cheaper if buying in quantity).


  • TanookiTanooki
    That sounds too sketchy to be true. The parts you have to buy in overseas new board material cost more than that, and ezflash carts aren't any cheaper.
  • plc268plc268
    Not really. These are the same sellers who put the GBA counterfeits on the market... and most of the games they're peddling are $5 or less in quantity.

  • PrinceOfBrainsPrinceOfBrains
    Are we talking about these? http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Game-card-Mother-3-USA-version-English-language-Free-Shipping/1782950983.html



    I dunno, this place looks a lot like Mini In The Box and I've ordered from them no problem. Anyone taken the plunge on these yet?
  • plc268plc268

    Originally posted by: PrinceOfBrains



    Are we talking about these? http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Ga...



    I dunno, this place looks a lot like Mini In The Box and I've ordered from them no problem. Anyone taken the plunge on these yet?





    There was a seller that translucent blue carts with Mother 3, and I know several people who ordered it and it worked fine. And as far as I can tell, they're identical to the copies pichichi was selling a while back for ~$50. The one you linked is probably the same.
  • PrinceOfBrainsPrinceOfBrains
    Hmm. If I feel brave/drunk enough over the weekend, I may take a chance and order one. The seller replied to my message and at least confirmed it'll play in American GBAs and uses the English language ROM, so I could file a Paypal claim if there's any problems.
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