Any good gba flash carts out there?

[Blackjack]

Can anyone recommend a good (easy to use) gba flash cart?

[user42]

I have one of these

http://www.jandaman.com/games.mvc?p=gbaezf..._code=GBADEVKIT

Not the "easiest to use" flash card I've owned (took an email to jandaman to figure out what I was doing wrong) but it works great.

[Zonie]

I have one of these

http://www.jandaman.com/games.mvc?p=gbaezf..._code=GBADEVKIT

Not the "easiest to use" flash card I've owned (took an email to jandaman to figure out what I was doing wrong) but it works great.

I have a Q-boy. I got it in Taiwan. Have not seen them here. Works well, but the internet site for games is blocked from the U.S.

[aikainnet]

I reviewed the G6 Flash Cart a while back and copied / pasted it here. It originally had pictures and videos, but the site has long since had those removed. Anyways, here is my review.

 

 

I am pleased to review the G6 flash kit today that offers the ability to play NDS roms on your DS. Boasting the ability to play pure roms and load them in 2 seconds as well as promises to play GBA, NES / SNES / GB / GC / S-MS, “Crystal Engine” embedded movie playing technology, and music support such as MP3 and WMA. So how well does the G6 stand up to it's claims? Let's find out!

 

 

The Kit

 

When you open your kit you will find one mini cd with software and instructions, your new flash cart (size varying), a U-Disk Burner and G6’s version of the passme called the passkey.

 

Here are the three main hardware pieces.

 

Acting as a generic jump drive the U-Disc burner is plug and play and has no need for drivers on Windows Millennium and higher systems. The burner also offers a bright blue status light to tell you when the device is being written to so you can make sure the device is safe to remove from your PC.

 

The flash cart is nice and sturdy and made with plastic that feels similar to the original carts. A small screw holds it together for those who are brave enough to want to take it apart and a unique button which I will explain its purpose for later.

 

Finally we come to the Passkey which is the most important part in this set up! The device is incredibly small and compact and I was able to safely keep the DS and passkey connected in my pocket with out having to worry about anything breaking. Here you can see the difference between G6’s version of the passme and their competitors:

 

The device has an on and off switch so if you want to play a original game you can just turn off the passkey and not worry about constantly removing the device from your system. And also the passkey is not proprietary so it will work with your other collection of flash carts. The software and interface of course won't work on other carts but the passkey itself will operate just like any other passme out there. I’d have to say this is the best feature of the kit as this makes G6’s the most portable solution out there.

 

Installation

 

First thing your going to want to do when you get your kit is connect the flash cart to the U-Disc as shown.

 

Then connect the U-Disc to your PC as shown.

 

At this point Windows will auto detect the device and install the proper drivers and tell you your hardware is ready to use. Prior to the 1.3 firmware update installing roms was as easy as drag and drop but now using the G6 Utility Manager is HIGHLY recommended. So now we boot up the application and we will be asked which drive the U-Disc is

 

After selected the appropriate drive the software boots up giving you the ability to copy roms over.

 

You have the standard options here such as write, read and delete. But the main reason to use the software is the software creates the save management files and auto patches the roms for you. If you just drag and drop the roms you won’t be able to save, or at least I couldn’t figure out how so the menu system really is the best solution. Copying over roms is pretty quick.

 

64Mb Pure NDS rom takes 13 seconds to copy over

128Mb Pure NDS rom takes 24 seconds to copy over

256Mb Pure NDS rom takes 44 seconds to copy over

512Mb Pure NDS rom takes 1 minute and 26 seconds to copy over

 

There are no options on the NDS side making it real easy to just click the file you want it and it auto patches the rom so that is will save to the GBA and enables the ability to boot any NDS rom within 2 seconds. There is also a read button on the NDS side indicating that they are planning on supporting a way to back up your own NDS cartridges. On the GBA tab you have a few more options like RTSaver support, applying IPS patches and compressing your roms to make more space for more data. For those who don’t know RTS Support will allow you at any point while playing a GBA game to hit L+R+A+B to bring up a menu that will allow you to save your game at any point, reset the game or even go back to the main menu and select a different game. The GBA copying over times are as follows.

 

64Mb Gba rom takes 17 seconds to copy over with the RTSaver patch

128Mb Gba rom takes 29 seconds to copy over with the RTSaver patch

256Mb Gba rom takes 50 seconds to copy over with the RTSaver patch

 

Sorry to crush your dreams but the advertisement on playing those GBC and SNES roms on a fully optimized DS emulator aren’t coming true. What the software actually does is patch your roms automatically with the latest free emulator, pocketnes, gooba, ect so you can play these files on your handheld. Any compatibility issues those emulators have of course will transfer over into the G6’s patcher.

 

Playing NDS Games

 

Once you have loaded on your roms your going to want to close out the application and remove the U-Disc. Insert the cart into the gba slot of your DS and insert the passkey with any NDS game as a loader into the NDS slot as shown.

 

I used the Metroid demo as my loader as well as the Mario 64 DS cart but you can use whatever you want as it will just load G6's interface but not hurt your save files on the original cart. Make sure the switch on the passkey is set to passkey and turn on your Nintendo DS. At this point you will see the warning logo but the passkey will automatically “touch” the screen for you eliminating that annoying step. At this point you will see this screen:

 

The left side is for playing commercial roms and the right side is for playing demos and homebrew. If you want to enter gba mode you just hit the start button. You can use the touch screen for making selections or just use the d-pad. Once you select the left folder you will see all your NDS games you flashed over in an 8.3 file structure. This most likely has to do with the fact that the flash cart operates in a fat16 format however G6 says they are working on a long file name support so only time will tell if this will actually happen. Now comes the fun part loading a game. When you load the game you will get 3 choices default, save.1, and save.2. The way the save system works is once you load a game it loads the save to the default location.

 

After you play your game you may want to backup your save file to the save.1 or save.2 loacation. To do so select the game your playing and press the select key to get this:

 

At this point you can save your game to either of the two save files thus allowing you to have 2 independent saves in case you have a friend, girlfriend or whatever! Once you select either of the files you will get a conformation that your back up was successful.

 

From now on when you load a save it will be copied to the default save file and at any time you can back up your save again by repeating the steps above. Save 1 and save 2 will never be overwritten unless you press select and choose to save over 1 of the files.

 

So how well does this device work? What are the real load times? Well with the new G6 Special Edition v1.3 software it really does take under 2 seconds to load any size rom. Meteos boots up instantly while Advance Wars Dual Strike takes up the full 2 seconds to boot. This is much, much quicker than the competitors out there who can take up to a full MINUTE to boot a game. The G6 team wanted to wait to release their v2.0 software that they promise us will support EVERY game but do to a sudden “scene” development they had to act quickly and gave us the v1.3 special edition that they said would work with most games and most games is correct! Here is the list that I came up with:

 

Works

Advance_Wars_Dual_Strike_USA_NDS-LUBE

Akumajou_Dracula_Aoitsuki_no_Juujika_JPN_NDS-WRG

Another_Code_Two_Memories_PROPER_EUR_NDS-TRM

Bomberman_PROPER_USA_NDS-LUBE

Devilish_JPN_NDS-WARIO

Egg_Monster_Heroes_JAP_NDS-BT

Electroplankton_JPN_NDS-TRM

Ganbare_Goemon_Toukai_Douchuu_JPN_NDS-TRM

GoldenEye_Rouge_Agent_USA_NDS-TRM

Jump_Super_Stars_JPN_NDS-TRM

Lunar_Genesis_JPN_NDS-TRM

Madden_2006_USA_NDS-LUBE

Meteos_USA_NDS-Lube

Mr_Driller_Drill_Spirits_USA_NDS-ETY

Need_For_Speed_Underground_2_USA_NDS-TRM

Nintendogs_Lab_and_Friends_USA_NDS-LUBE

Pac_n_Roll_JPN_NDS-WRG

Pac_Pix_USA_NDS-TRM

Polarium_USA_NDS-TRM

Rayman DS

Retro_Atari_Classics_EUR_NDS-WARIO

Ridge_Racer_DS_PROPER_USA_NDS-LUBE

Space_Invaders_Revolution_EUR_NDS-LUBE

Spiderman_2_USA_NDS-BT

Sprung_USA_NDS_REDUMP-GBXR

Star_Wars_Episode_III_USA_NDS-WRG

Survival_Kids_Lost_in_Blue_JPN_NDS-WRG

Tiger_Woods_PGA_Tour_PROPER_FIXED_REAL_USA_NDS-SpankME

WarioWare_Touched_PROPER_USA_NDS-TRM

World_Championship_Poker_Deluxe_Series_USA_NDS-Lube

Yoshi_Touch_And_Go_EUR_NDS-ETY

Yu_Gi_Oh_Nightmare_Troubadour_USA_NDS-LUBE

Yoshi_Touch_and_Go_USA_NDS-TRM

Zoo_Keeper_USA_NDS-GBXR

Super_Mario_64_DS_v1.1_PROPER_USA_NDS-TRM

Super_Mario_64_DS_PROPER_USA_NDS-TRM

Kirby_Canvas_Curse_USA_NDS-TRM

Splinter_Cell_Chaos_Theory_USA_NDS-TRM

SD_Gundam_G_Generation_DS_JPN_NDS-WRG

NanoStray_USA_NDS-LUBE

*List updated 12/21/05

 

Not working

None ALL GAMES WORK as of 12/21/2005!

 

So as you can see there is quite a big working list there, all that have gba save support as well as the ability to load the game in seconds. Of course an alternative to using the G6 manager is to load other groups releases such as Golden Sun Teams or patch the pure rom yourself using various new self patching tools . However compare these videos and you can see the drastic difference in boot up times:

 

So as you can see the G6’s software is much quicker to boot from. Just in case there is a compatibility issue there is this button

 

Which will allow to attempt to boot unbootable roms by holding down the button, turning off the DS, with the button still pressed turn the unit back on quickly and once you’re past the warning screen let go and the game may boot. This method successfully booted some GST roms and may be useful down the road with other roms that may give the user problems loading.

 

Playing GBA Games

 

If you want to play GBA games you can do so by turning the passkey off and selecting "start gba game" like normal within the DS menu or with the passkey still on just hit the start button at the man menu of the G6 NDS interface. Within the G6 GBA interface you have plenty of options such as PDA, Media Player, Games, and My Card. You use the d-pad to move the arrow around and make your selections, this part is pretty simple. When you load your game you have 3 save files to chose from meaning that you can have 3 different people play the same game and each person will have their own save file! Compression allows you to compress your games for more space but also creates longer loading times. A 256Mb uncompressed game took 50 seconds to load while a compressed 256Mb file took over 2 minutes to boot! Here are some videos of me loading GBA games with and without compression:

 

Loading Uncompressed Rom

Loading Compressed Rom

 

Now here there are plenty of problems, 1st off there is no “real” save support so any game that has memory detection will need to be patched such as Super Mario Advance 4. Of course patching is easy and the G6 U-Disc Manager will even do it for you but in the modern GBA cart world, proper saving should be a standard. I know having the latest card and waiting on a programmer to come out with a patch so you can play the latest gba game sucks. The lack of proper save files will also hinder you if you want to take your save file and bring it into VBA as the save files are incompatible. The next problem I encountered was that when I’d write on any of the 3 save files on one game it would wipe out my others so as of right now you really only get one save file PER GAME until they fix this. One of the more important problems was that I’d randomly get CRC errors when booting my cart, a simple reboot would fix this but it’s still an issue which brings me to my next problem, stability. Twice during my thorough testing my cart stopped reading gba games after a certain point. A simple format would fix this but just another software issue to be fixed. As far as compatibility goes, here is what I tested:

 

Working

River City Ransom EX With RTsaver

Gradius Galaxies With RTsaver

Advance Wars 2 With RTsaver

Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo With RTsaver

Urbz - Sims in the City With RTsaver

Super Mario Advance 1 With RTsaver

Super Mario Advance 2 With RTsaver

Super Mario Advance 3 With RTsaver

Super Monkey Ball JR WITHOUT RTsaver

Rampage - Puzzle Attack With RTsaver

Riviera The Promised Land With RTsaver

Final Fantasy - Dawn of Souls With RTsaver

CT Special Forces With RTsaver

CT Special Forces 2 With RTsaver

Mario VS Donkey Kong With RTsaver

Sigma Star Saga With RTsaver

Micro Machines With RTsaver

Bubble Bobble - Old And New With RTsaver

Namco Museum 50th Anniversary With RTsaver

Metal Slug Advanced

Megaman Zero 3

Metroid - Zero Mission

Sonic 3 works without patch (did not try with)

LoZ – Minish Cap works without patch (did not try with)

 

Not Working

Pokemon – Emerald Pure WITH OR WITHOUT RTsaver patch

Pokemon - Sapphire Version Pure WITH OR WITHOUT RTsaver patch

Boktai 2 Pure WITH OR WITHOUT RTsaver patch

Any game that does eeprom checks

Super Monkey Ball JR WITH RTsaver patch

Racing Gears Advance WITH RTsaver patch

 

I normally do not prefer the RTsaver patch however if you do not select it then EVERY time you load the game it will ask you if you want to apply it. Pretty annoying and no way to turn it off so I am about forced to patch my games. Another small quirk is that I wish companies would stop putting logo screens on their carts I mean I know who supplied the cart I don’t need a reminder on every reboot. To me this is just one extra button push to get me to my games. Honestly I think G6 should put out a “lite” loader on the gba side so those who just want to game can get to their games that much quicker.

 

I know for a lot of people these features do not matter but I thought the Mp3 support in the GBAMicro would be kind of cool. Unfortunately the true Mp3 support is included in a patched version of moonshell which only runs on the DS. Looks like I am still jogging with my Mp3 player equipped Oakleys. When you run the DVD converter it says it’s in beta and that’s why I have no video for you as it’s really choppy right now. Then we have the G6 Music converter which is pretty much a joke in my opinion. They need to optimize this software to utilize the DS’s audio power or maybe just need to update the software but right now it’s extremely bad. Prepare your ears as I have a sample!

 

Moonshell Software (*updated 11/07/05)

G6 released the patched version of moonshell which is very easy to use. All you need to do is transfer the one file into your media folder along with all your MP3s. No conversions, no compression, just simply drag, drop, and play your MP3s. It only works on your DS but the audio quality is very good.

(Video sample coming soon)

 

Well finally we have the movie converter which shockingly does animation well! Only thing is it needs a sound update as the quality of sound totally kills me from wanting to use this. I have prepared a few clips!

 

Final Fantasy Video Sample

Simpsons Video Sample

Fight Club Video Sample

 

As you can see the actual movie clip looks like shit but I have to say that the animation samples don’t look to bad! It defiantly shows promise. The software gives me .exe errors at the end of each encoding job and that needs to be fixed.

 

*Update (got this email shortly after writing the review)

QUOTE

Hi WeaponX,

About the DVD converter problem :

Some people convert DVD movies, but crashes at the end. Also some movies come out GREEN .

The reason is :

DVD converter needs a GBAMedia.ini file for initialization parameter.

Those users who had installed and used the converter software, and they just use DVD converter software ,which finds GBAMedia.ini file and download it to initialization parameter for updating.

But new users don’t run standard converter software or guide converter software but run DVD converter software after they installed our converter software. DVD converter software can not find GBAMedia.ini file set up by standard converter software or guide software , so most of initialization parameters are wrong and makes PC crash.

Solution:

Those users had installed converter software download DVDadd.exe file, and run this file for installing GBAMedia.ini into system. Users will have no such problem ,which DVD converter software will run bad or make PC crash .

Please add GBAMedia.ini into installing package, and copy GBAMedia.ini file into Windows directory when installing the file, （The windows directory (usually C:\windows or C:\winnt). Then , DVD converter software can not make mistake after users install DVDadd.exe file.

 

I still however can't convert my own movies and continue to get errors however there are sites that have real movies to download so somehow someone is getting the converter to work

 

NDS Conclusion

Taking the original passme on the road was always a concern for me as it surly does not fit in the pocket well but the G6 solved that problem as the DS still stands as a portable with the passkey inserted in the unit. Honestly with the on and off switch included on the device I may never take it out! If your looking for a way to play the latest Nintendo DS games on your actual unit I would HIGHLY recommend this cart as it delivers what it promises. With 99.9% of all games working and the extreme quickness of the load times I really can’t see why anyone would not buy this cart if they are in the market for a new full kit solution. My only beef is the 8.3 characters and if that’s the worst thing this cart has going for it you know it must be good.

NDS SCORE = 4.8/5 (Score updated 11/07/05)

 

GBA Conclusion

Without real memory saves, the buggy software, the annoying software, long booting times, and even the few incompatible games this would not be my first pick in choosing a GBA flash cart. I’d much more have preferred losing the PDA like interface and gone with something more traditional and offered proper saver support. Of course the 2Gb space is nice and I was able to fit 27 roms varying in size on my cart at the same time. While there was no eeprom save detection the unit was able to save games that other carts required patches like Legend Of Zelda – The Minish Cap.

GBA Score = 3/5

 

Media Playing Conclusion

Right now playing media on the G6 seems like something I would never do but in the event that they fix the audio (on the movie compression) I might pop on some Lilo and Stitch episodes for my kids or even toss some Simpson episodes on there just for the hell of it. I have yet to get the patch for converting videos so for me watching movies is not worth it however with the patched copy of moonshell I can definatly see owners using the G6 as MP3 solution as the audio sounds GREAT!

Media Playing Score = 3/5 (Score updated 11/07/05)

 

I hope you enjoyed this review and it helped you with your purchase. I know when I am about to make a $125-$200 dollar purchase (depending on the size of the cart) I want as much information as possible prior to pulling out my credit card.

[Blackjack]

Cool, thanks for all the good info.