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View Full Version : Gba Flash Kit, Which one to buy?

ronetone
05-21-2005, 05:45 AM
well i currently own a gameboy advance sp, hopefully will upgrade to a nintendo ds or gameboy micro when released and want to get one of those flash kit. i don't know which ones are good and where is a reliable place to order one. any suggestions? :confused:
soccerboi
05-21-2005, 03:02 PM
I would definitly get an X-Rom. A 512 Megabit (64 Megabytes) one is around $85.

At easybuy2000.com, they have the X-rom 512 Mb for $84. I would buy it from there.

http://easybuy2000.com/store/nintendo%20accessories/index.html
brakken
05-21-2005, 03:31 PM
Well unless you only want 512 gigabits buy the XROM....

If you want 1 gigabyte buy the Super Card and a 1 gigabyte flash card :)

I personally rather have 250 GBA roms, 1113 NES roms, 50 MP3's and 200 ebooks on 1 cart (Super Card) then being limited to around 6 games (XROM, F2A, etc) ....

No brainer if you ask me ...
booshaka
05-22-2005, 04:29 AM
I was thinking about upgrading my 512 Mb xrom. Where can I find this "super card"? I tried to google it and got nothing or maybe I didnt know what I was looking for....

And if I did buy this flash card would I be able to use my USB cable from my old x-rom card? and little writer to flash it?

PS - Your GC guide kicks ass... one of the best tuturials I've read! Much props! My 1st shot at moding my GC was a success unlink my 1st xbox :( but POT is for hippys! J/K
darkliquid
05-22-2005, 05:22 AM
Supercard is at http://www.supercard.cn/eng/index.htm and I agree with brakken, so much space for so little money. Downside is that you need to patch every rom, but that allows saving at any given time with a button combination (handy for if your train arrived but your not at your savepoint yet). It also has a media player which allows music and movies (but you first need to convert them to gba format) and ebooks (.txt file gameguides for if your stuck in a game on the road :P)
Supercard rules, downside is that it probably wont support DS games, so if youre gonna update your GBA to DS and really care about DS roms you should get an XG card.
brakken
05-22-2005, 08:02 AM
The patching is 'auto-matic' when you write to the cart using the Windows based software. I own one so I should know :)
brakken
05-22-2005, 08:03 AM
About the DS games DarkVader (or whatever his name is, the guy who made the passme) is working on Super Card support for the PassMe itself so I wouldn't worry about not being able to use it to boot NDS games :)

I don't see the point in paying 100's of dollars for that NeoCrap and all you can do is store a couple games on it ....
darkliquid
05-22-2005, 09:03 AM
Originally posted by brakken
About the DS games DarkVader (or whatever his name is, the guy who made the passme) is working on Super Card support for the PassMe itself so I wouldn't worry about not being able to use it to boot NDS games :)

Holy crap thats nice

About the automatic patching, what program do you use then to transfer games on the CF card? Not windows explorer?
whackawookie
05-22-2005, 10:13 AM
i bought myself a xg2turbo card, i didnt only get it because its the neoflash cart, but also because its got the personal flasher, not the gba connection. i wont suggest this card yet, its a great card but i havent had time to test all the features of it yet. but for the record, all the gba games have worked fine thus far.
brakken
05-22-2005, 11:24 AM
Originally posted by darkliquid
Holy crap thats nice

About the automatic patching, what program do you use then to transfer games on the CF card? Not windows explorer?

The flashing software will automattically patch the GBA roms and your media files (DIVX, AVI, MPEG, etc) into the proper format to run on the Super Card and also will copy them on it for you. Of course you can still access your flash media like a normal mounted drive and copy other files to it like your MP3, NES, GB, etc files that the Super Card will also play.

Again I find no reason to spend $150+ for 1 gigabit when you can spend $120 for 1 gigabyte with 8x the space!

I should mention it does have a problem with 'save ram', but due to it's 'real time save' feature I barely notice the problem. What I mean is that if you save your game normally sometimes it gets curroupted, but if you do a 'real time save' (which saves the game wherever you may be) it has never gotten curroupted on me. I rather save at any time anyway then be limited to using 'save points'.

Personally I own both a Super Card (1 gigabyte flashcard) and a F2A Advance (1 gigabit flashcard) and I really never use the F2A unless I'm using the hardware PassMe and like I menionted above soon you wont be limited to using 'normal' flashcarts with the various 'passme' solutions.

I hope this information helped you out and the best thing you can do is to 'get the information out' as the major Game Boy flashcart makers have done everything in their power to make the Super Card look bad only because it is 100 times better in features, storage space and price and they know it!
Z80
05-23-2005, 01:57 AM
Personally I would get a X-Rom (I did) and if you badly need more space, then buy the supercard and a huge CF memory card. Personally I'm fine with the X-Rom. Please note hte X-Rom isn't 512gigabits, as someone typoed that earlier. The X-Rom comes in 512 megabits/64 megabytes and supposively 1024megabits (aka 1 gigabit) / 128 megabytes.

If you could load the DS rom through the SuperCard so the RAM remains loaded with the game, and you could trigger a reset in the DS hardware, you might be able to work it with the PassMe.
gulliver
05-23-2005, 02:59 AM
I got my X-rom about a month ago and it's great. I strongly recommend it.
Jimbeam
05-24-2005, 03:55 AM
So soon the super card is going to support nds roms ? if so thats wicked..

this is a nice deal

http://www.hopebuy.com/%5C0001%5C0303%5C219214.htm

but they have been out of stock for some time. :(

also found a place to get passmes.

http://www.dspassme.com/oscommerce/catalog/index.php

still cheaper than a neo crap too :D
brakken
05-24-2005, 10:59 AM
Linker4u also sells the Super Card as does ChipDealer
gulliver
05-24-2005, 01:09 PM
Originally posted by Jimbeam
So soon the super card is going to support nds roms ? if so thats wicked..

this is a nice deal

http://www.hopebuy.com/%5C0001%5C0303%5C219214.htm

but they have been out of stock for some time. :(

also found a place to get passmes.

http://www.dspassme.com/oscommerce/catalog/index.php

still cheaper than a neo crap too :D

You've gotta remember though, just because they're trying to make it compatible with the passme doesn't mean that it will be. Just make sure you keep that in mind.

By the way, yeah, neo crap is just crap -- a huge ripoff plain and simple.
Z80
05-24-2005, 01:45 PM
Like I said, the SuperCard has its own program that loads the RAM with a ROM, and unless you can reset the entire DS somehow, without reseting the supercard you'll not get your game running. It seems to me like a problem they will likely not fix without making a new product.
brakken
05-24-2005, 02:06 PM
Originally posted by Z80
Like I said, the SuperCard has its own program that loads the RAM with a ROM, and unless you can reset the entire DS somehow, without reseting the supercard you'll not get your game running. It seems to me like a problem they will likely not fix without making a new product.

The problem will be fixed by making a new bootloader for the Super Card which will erase the old one as this is what that dark guy from GBADEV is working on.
Jimbeam
05-24-2005, 08:12 PM
Originally posted by brakken
The problem will be fixed by making a new bootloader for the Super Card which will erase the old one as this is what that dark guy from GBADEV is working on.

How do you know this Brak? got any links or info.

thanks
brakken
05-24-2005, 08:23 PM
No just talks with gba devs on irc
ronetone
05-24-2005, 09:54 PM
well i decided to go with the supercard having problem on deciding where to order from. found this site http://realhotstuff.com/index.php?osCsid=37aae589398dfad4b0afb3cec4264261 will order from them since they are listed as a dealer on the supercard site. i would order from chipdealer but i have heard too many people having problems with them.
Z80
05-25-2005, 12:35 AM
Brakken, do you know for a fact that the SuperCard is flash upgradable? I would be surprised if the SuperCard bios/stub/loader was not on a prom or maskrom.

Dark guy? Or DarkFader? If DarkFader said something about it, it would be credible.
Jimbeam
05-25-2005, 02:16 AM
Maybe Darkain ?
darkliquid
05-25-2005, 03:51 AM
Originally posted by Z80
Brakken, do you know for a fact that the SuperCard is flash upgradable?

Well I do, Ive updated the firmware after I bought it :D
brakken
05-25-2005, 06:26 AM
Yes you can upgrade the card, yes you can change it's bootloader, yes it was some famous gc dev's that stated it.

Who knows, but I wont be buying an overpriced solution anytime soon that doesn't backup and/or save correctly.
Z80
05-26-2005, 12:14 AM
I agree brakken. It's too early to blow much money on anything. I bought the X-Rom with DS in mind as a possibility, but with the real focus on the actual GBA use. Worked out well for me.
gulliver
05-26-2005, 04:48 AM
Originally posted by Z80
I agree brakken. It's too early to blow much money on anything. I bought the X-Rom with DS in mind as a possibility, but with the real focus on the actual GBA use. Worked out well for me.

Same here. I bought it for the possibility, but I mainly bought it to play GBA games and emus.
booshaka
06-04-2005, 01:33 PM
I have a X-Rom 512 Mb but I went ahead and bought a Super Card w/a 1GIG CF. There’s just no comparison between the 2. I have 65 GBA games, 650 NES roms, and 130 SMS roms all on the Super Card. Can't even come close to that w/the X-Rom or any other flash cards......
brakken
06-05-2005, 01:04 AM
Yes the SuperCard is really the best solution for the price, features and the storage space.

Look for a new SuperCard soon named 'SuperCard v2' which features Secure Digital (SD) Media support, a smaller form size, more features and more compatbility!
Mastershredder
06-08-2005, 11:07 AM
Damn.. wish i heard about this supercard before telling my friend to buy an Easy Flash 2 card. Oh well.. maybe i'll have to pick one up soon and test it considering i have a bunch of 256 and 512MB cards lying around.
Mastershredder
06-09-2005, 02:04 PM
Hmm.. I placed an order for a supercard, but now i'm having second thoughts and might cancel the order. I've been reading a couple supercard forums and there's lots of problems with games not working and slowdown problems etc.. Ever have any of these problems Brakken?
darkliquid
06-09-2005, 03:29 PM
Only game that didnt work for me was Kill.Switch... and one other didnt save.
And yes, the metroid games have slowdown (and a couple of others) but I played trough half of the game, then I read about slowdowns and it was then I realized it was the supercard causing it. So its not that big of a deal to me, I figured must be cause I play GBA on DS or something. So its there, but its not very common, and when it does slowdown the game is still very much playable. Compare it to streaming games with PSO + BBA over to a gamecube. The game stutters a little but you can still beat and play it. Only with the supercard, its only 2 to 5% of the game that slows down.
Anyway, don't let those things keep you from buying it. Chances are youll never even find a game that doesnt work/save and the slowdown is unpleasant, but not a big deal.
brakken
06-09-2005, 06:30 PM
Normal saving support where you access a save menu is flaky to say the least, but if you just use the real time save feature instead you'll never lose a save and personally I rather save on the go instead of having to find a save point as most of the time I have to shut off the game ASAP.

On the slowdown issue I haven't experienced this myself and have played Metroid all the way through on both the NDS and VBA.

You'll see a lot of rumors about this card most likely supplied by competitors to undermine the pure brilliance of the product.
booshaka
06-09-2005, 09:24 PM
The only game that I've had problems w/slowdowns was Mario Kart. It was pretty much unplayable. But I've tried out like 50 of my GBA games including Metroid Zero Mission, and they all worked fine.

I've had no luck w/save points in the game itself. You have to use the in game save feature.

How does the normal save to SC work (left + right trigger and select and B)? Once I do this, do I launch from the saver menu?

thx
cory149
06-09-2005, 09:42 PM
Brakken, have you heard any eta on the SD version of the SC? I have plenty of SD memory around, what with the gamecube stuff and all, would be nice to have a flashcart for the DS that would use some of it...
ronetone
06-20-2005, 04:06 PM
the sd version of smartcard is available now
cory149
06-21-2005, 07:09 AM
Nice,
http://www.supercard.cn/eng/
http://www.hopebuy.com/0001/0303/219202.htm
so far I dont see any Canadian sellers with it...
SephirothTNH
06-27-2005, 05:38 PM
I got my supercard sd version in the mail today. I had to shave off a little bit on one side to get it to fit. For some reason I cant go to the supercard site to download the software does anyone know of a mirror site or something. Neither Firefox or IE will go to the site.
cory149
06-28-2005, 11:24 AM
kicktrading.ca has a mirror of the softs, just go to the product page for the SC and scroll down to the download link at the bottom (if this link doesnt work that is)

Kick trading download page (http://www.kicktrading.ca/downloads.php?osCsid=5925c1282e2f63b48a602ed73ea65 ae0)

also of note, I should be getting mine this week from them - a Canadian seller :)

KickTrading.ca (http://www.kicktrading.ca)