Game boy everdrive questions?

[Video]

I'd like to get one of these, but would like to know things about them first.

 

One, can the agb version play dmg or color games? I know gba is bc, but does this device support old games? Would it be better to get a gbc specific version?

 

Two, what is the difference in the versions? I figure x(higher number) is newer. Is there any advantage to getting an older one, better compatibility or whatever.

 

Three, can this talk to physical carts? I mean if I get a rom, can this gamelink for some multilayered goodness?

 

Does this save games to an internal battery, or to sd cards? Just curious if it can use my save data or if it uses its own.

 

Thanks for any info.

[phoenixdownita]

The Everdrive GBA x5 only plays gb/gbc via emulation which works but it is not perfect (and also SMS, GG). If you want perfect back compat with gb/gbc you need the ED GB (x3/x5/x7).

Wrt to the 3 new EDGB the x3 is the most basic version, no save states, no ingame menu, don't turn off but press reset if you want to save the game, the x5 has in game menu, the x7 has RTC, savestate. Both x5/x7 don't need to press reset to save, they do it automatically.

The older EDGB works just fine but uses flash instead of RAM so it is slower, and no RTC, no savestates.

 

Never tried to link but there's no reason it would not work. Don't know what a "multilayered goodness" is.

Nothing save to a battery but the x5/x7 do have a battery to retain the RAM state and then upon game change they flush to SD, the x3 flushes to SD when you reset (hump on back hides the reset button). I don't think you can use your data but maybe there are converters.

 

Finally you can use krikzz forums -> http://krikzz.com/forum/

Some of the ED serie is now available via amazon in the US: https://amazon.com/shops/krikzz

[Tanooki]

One, can the agb version play dmg or color games? I know gba is bc, but does this device support old games? Would it be better to get a gbc specific version?

No it can not, not natively at least. You'll need to put the goomba color emulator on there which then will allow GB, GBC hybrid, and GBC games to run. Same can be said for PC Engine with ISO CD support, NES, MasterSystem+GG, and other fun things.

 

Two, what is the difference in the versions? I figure x(higher number) is newer. Is there any advantage to getting an older one, better compatibility or whatever.

The X3 is fairly stripped. The X5 is basically the classic version. The X7 adds a RTC and battery to drive it for the Pokemon games and a few other minor things that likely won't matter unless you're a developer.

 

Three, can this talk to physical carts? I mean if I get a rom, can this gamelink for some multilayered goodness?

Yes, a real game isn't going to know you're running a fake. If you're emulating Pokemon FireRed, and you link with a real LeafGreen game, it'll be happy and clueless.

Does this save games to an internal battery, or to sd cards? Just curious if it can use my save data or if it uses its own.

No, it doesn't need a battery, older style kits though did need a battery to have a chip retain the save.

 

 

Finally you can use krikzz forums -> http://krikzz.com/forum/

Some of the ED serie is now available via amazon in the US: https://amazon.com/shops/krikzz

 

Whoa...dude actually started using amazon. I'll have to see if they ever add the PCE version. I'd get the GBA but the Omega works as nice if not better for far less.

Edited June 9, 2018 by Tanooki

[Video]

Cool thanks guys.

 

As for "multilayered goodness", that's just a monument to autocorrect. It was supposed to be multiplayered lol (think that's supposed to be hyphenated, but anyhow)

 

Yeah, I saw the gb everdrives on Amazon and thought about getting one, or two, since a dedicated gb cart sounds better than using a gba version for older games.

 

May see about some other systems as well, as I'm not as patient tracking auctions down as I used to be lol.

[CatPix]

For the GB Everdrive, they use a battery to back up the RAM chip that load the game. Basically, in order to have a closer "look'n'feel" for the GB (DMG or GBC) the game data is loaded on a RAM, that closely emulate the original ROM chips of a real cart, as opposed to the usual "let's feed the console the data it request" that can lead to incompatiblities if the game require to load multiple assets from different data zones.

So unless I'm wrong, even the GB Everdrive versions featuring a battery doesn't rely on the battery to save, it's just to keep the "game RAM" active, and allow you to launch the game right on instead of having to wait for it to load.

I have an older version, and the saves are stored on the SD Card.

(this version, which I assume from the other pics is the X3 version now)

I tried with a friend to share data between Pokemon games, and it worked. Even more amazing that it was from the Everdrive GB, read from a GB Boy Colour, a Chinese GBC clone!!!

I also was able to run some graphic demos from the Everdrive, so it works fairly well.

If you get the X3, your Pokemon games timer won't run when the system is off, but the games run flawlessly otherwise.

[derFunkenstein]

Some of the ED serie is now available via amazon in the US: https://amazon.com/shops/krikzz

 

Whoa...dude actually started using amazon. I'll have to see if they ever add the PCE version. I'd get the GBA but the Omega works as nice if not better for far less.

 

That's big news. I had no idea. I've always bought from SAG in the past, but not having to pay shipping from Amazon would make it even cheaper for my next Everdrive purchase.

[Tanooki]

It's huge the prices are the same as on the krikzz.com storefront site except Amazon has them already so they ship the goods. You can get them within the same day if you're very early or a day after and at the price listed on his website is the same too. If you have Prime, it's just pay the tax, no shipping, no weeks long wait from Europe. All around win.

[phoenixdownita]

For the GB Everdrive, they use a battery to back up the RAM chip that load the game. Basically, in order to have a closer "look'n'feel" for the GB (DMG or GBC) the game data is loaded on a RAM, that closely emulate the original ROM chips of a real cart, as opposed to the usual "let's feed the console the data it request" that can lead to incompatiblities if the game require to load multiple assets from different data zones.

So unless I'm wrong, even the GB Everdrive versions featuring a battery doesn't rely on the battery to save, it's just to keep the "game RAM" active, and allow you to launch the game right on instead of having to wait for it to load.

 

You are wrong. The battery is there to preserve the SRAM where the save of the last game you loaded resides (if the game supports saving that is), only the save not the whole game.

On the EDGB X3 resetting to menu forces the game save data to be flushed to SD (the OS reload performs the flush, the button just forces the reset to menu), on the EDGB X5/X7 instead the battery keeps the save and once you power back on the OS will flush it to SD. The X3 has no battery so if you power it off you lose the save, the EDGB X5/X7 instead will retain it.

The RAM used to load the game is not backed by any battery, you yank the power the game's gone (older version used flash memory technologies so the game stays across power cycles). The option to play the last game reloads it if the Everdrive is RAM based.

The old EDGB (before the X3/X5/X7) was based on flash + SRAM for save and had a battery to preserve the save across power cycle, on this device the option to play the last game did not need any reload as the game was still in flash.

 

What's the "usual let's feed the console the data it request"?

All flash carts work the same way, the game is loaded in RAM and/or flash and the console is none the wiser (bar minor incompatibilities), nothing new on this front, there's no load on demand of the game data (before someone points this one out, MSU-1 support for SD2SNES is different as it tries to simulate a streaming device and reads directly from SD and it is a modern thing anyway to support "videos" and CD level streaming audio).

 

Flash based carts are slower to load the game because the speed at which a flash memory can be written is much lower than RAM ... period. This is also the reason why EDGB X3/X5/X7 are faster in loading the game compared to the old EDGB (I have both). EDGBA X5 was always RAM based so it's fast.

 

I think the only carts that krikzz still sells that are flash based are the now quite old EDGG and the SuperEDv2, everything else is RAM based but not all have a separate SRAM and or battery for the game save and as such not all would make a game save survive a power cycle and usually require some sort of softreset back to the OS menu to flush it to SD: examples are the EDGB X3, MegaED X3, ED64 v2/2.5.

 

NOTE: the battery is also needed for games that do require some sort of RTC support as you need to maintain a clock ticking even when the system is powered off, so flash cart with battery usually support well games with RTC but there are hacks for those games to work also in carts without RTC.