Starmen.Net

When the patch is finally released, we’ll have a detailed page somewhere explaining what carts work and don’t work, which ones have problems, how to fix said problems, etc. But if you want to talk about that stuff in more detail before then, do it here. For the most part, I don’t mind if people talk about this stuff, just one thing:

It’s just like ROMs. You go find that stuff yourself. I’d rather not have more legal stuff for Nintendo to throw at me if they decide to do something. Plus I don’t like the idea of helping people profit through this project, unless it’s something really legit, like that Play-Asia sale. Anyway, have fun and all that.

Topic start… NOW!

(BTW if people have info on various carts me or another mod can compile it here, but probably not me since I’m busy. But if there’s a mod here with free time, that’d be very helpful…)

List of Suggested Carts / Cards Verified to Work

- EZ-Flash IV (MiniSD)

-Works with Mother3, including saving.
-Works with Mother3 menu patch, including saving.

Other useful-to-know features:

-It fits flush in a Gameboy Micro (GBM) / GBA SP / Nintendo DS (Original).
-It does not require a slot-1 or a DS to load games onto the flashcart.
-Has 256 MB of NOR flash memory (incidentally, this is the only way to load Mother3—temporary PSRAM write fails since Mother3 is too large. But since it is superior to play from NOR flash compared to PSRAM, it isn’t a disadvantage.)

There is a very very useful guide to get up-and-running with this cart on a merchant website.

EZ Flash 4 tutorial by kevinchai!

(see the rest of the thread for other people’s recommendations I guess)

Wikipedia says

Games are written to the cartridge with a device called "linker". Depending on the brand of flash cartridge, the linker either connects to the GBA's serial link port and writes to the cartridge through the GBA or connects to a mini-USB slot on the cartridge itself and writes directly to the flash cartridge. These linkers usually connect to a PC through a USB or parallel plug on the other end. Most linkers that connect to the GBA link slot are capable of copying ROM information from commercial Game Boy Advance software cartridges. Some more recent flash cartridges use digital media cards (SD,MMC,CF, etc.) in which files are placed via a Card Reader.

EZFlash sleep mode fix. Changes offset 188E from C0 to 40. Works with menu patch.

madlobster: Thanks, that fix works on my EZF4 and we'll include that in the translation somehow.

Dr. Meat: The only difference between the Lite and the Lite Deluxe is that the latter comes bundled with an EZPass slot-1 loader, allowing you to run NDS code.

Note that the NDS loader for the EZF4 is kinda bugged regarding GBA games, as it will only play them at half the framerate, making them seem choppy, so use the GBA loader whenever possible. Also note that the GBA loader takes way longer to write save files. What I do is I turn my DS on with the EZPass inserted so that it writes whatever save stuff it needs to, then I turn it off, take out the EZPass, and run the GBA loader.

Also, EZF4 guys, take advantage of the NOR memory. It is a GODSEND. For those who don't know, it lets you boot GBA games without the loading time, as opposed to loading it from the card which takes about 30 seconds to one minute. Incidentally, there's just enough space for MOTHER 1+2+3 in the EZF4 Lite's NOR memory.

Another cheap option is an EZFlash 3-in-1 expansion card which fits in DS Lites GBA slot. It is meant for people who have a slot-1 [NDS card slot] flash card already to play GBA games/use rumble in nintendo DS games/and expansion memory for some DS programs. It has 256Mbits of storage, just enough to fit mother 3 on. It is only about $20.

Yeah, I personally have the 3-in-1, and it's served me well so far. Above it was explained that GBA games are written to flash carts with linkers, and for the most part this is true, but for some, they can also be written to by running a homebrew flasher directly on the DS. The EZ-Flash V (Plus) has this functionality built in, but I don't really recommend the card; it works but there are better ones around. If you want to use a different SLOT-1 card with your 3-in-1, you need to Rudolph's GBAExpLoader (don't worry, it's in English), which can do writing to PSRAM (the game is gone once you turn off the DS) or NOR (game stays forever) and also does auto-patching of games which need it to save (Classic NES Series, Super Mario Advance series, many more ... Mother 3 doesn't need this, however). I have to go to work like right now, if I think of anything else I should have said, I'll edit it once I'm there.

EDIT: Like the EZ-Flash IV, the 3-in-1 needs a sleepfix. But as Jeffman has plans to include the sleepfix in the translation, that really shouldn't be a problem. I think that's everything.

I get a Datel games n music in the mail soon. Im gonna download the DLDIrc program soon along with a few emulators. Does anyone know how to get gba games to work? Also Links awaking DX| YAY

Just in case you need confirmation, I'll offer a further 100% conviction that you will not be playing Mother 3 on a Games 'n' Music. You so thoroughly will not be playing Mother 3 on a Games 'n' Music that it kind of makes me feel bad.

EDIT: But I am feeling helpful, so what the hell. Here's the reasons you're not playing Mother 3 on a Games 'n' Magic.

TYPE=1

To play Mother 3 on actual hardware, you need a SLOT-2 device, which either looks like a GBA cart or a DS Lite dust cover if that's your thing. Presumably, you'll want something cheap, which means onboard storage rather than external storage with SD cards, etc. GBA flash cards with onboard storage are way out of fashion, but the EZ-Flash 3-in-1 has onboard storage because of its nature as a kind of "helper" for DS flash cards, as opposed to being a standalone solution.

Even with the rather pathetic Games 'n' Music, you can (most probably; I haven't tried it) load GBA games onto a 3-in-1 using Rudolph's GBAExpLoader (read my post above). You'll also be able to run any GBA homebrew which doesn't require access to a filesystem (which isn't too bad, most of it doesn't), and will overall probably get more use out of it than the GNM itself.

Cheap as it is, you'll still be paying for at least one and possibly two features you'll never use, because (it is a little known fact) the 3-in-1 actually serves three purposes. It's a Rumble Pak for DS games, an Expansion Pak for the Opera Browser (which you can use for some DS homebrew, like the SNES emulator, SNEmulDS), and a GBA flash cart. As I said in my previous post, you can write your GBA ROM to the PSRAM of the 3-in-1 (which is meant for the Expansion Pak), which will allow you to write the game much faster, but which you'd have to do every time you wanted to play, or you can write to NOR, which takes longer, but only needs to be done once (unless you want to change games, of course), after which the cart will function as a genuine GBA cart.

This ended up longer and more complicated than I had hoped. If there's anything you didn't understand or want summarised, let me know and I'll give it a shot.

Ecoolarg wrote on Fri, 13 June 2008 14:54

i have some questions ¿can convert a gba file in a ds file? i have a no complete ver. of ttds and i cant put any gba game, can some person gime a convertor? ¿exist a convertor? ¿mato,if anyone convert the game to ds file, you gonna put it in the download seccion in the proyect page?

No, you cannot convert a GBA file to a DS file. They are completely different formats, and run on different hardware (the DS runs GBA games because it has GBA hardware chips inside, too).

robmortar wrote on Fri, 13 June 2008 20:51

pfft i'm gonna play it on my PSP

i'll most likely end up playing it through my wii on a homebrew emulator

it will be fun to see if any weird glitches pop up that way

Tuppyluver1 wrote on Fri, 13 June 2008 01:59

Is it weird that I will be playing M3 on an M3? :p

I just want to confirm whether or not M3 will run on the M3 Lite?

I've had the JP version with the menu patch running for all of 20 seconds, just long enough to do the naming screen and then quit (I want to wait for the full English patch before I play through it). I'm guessing this means things should (presumably) go smoothly when the full patch comes out yes?

Thanks.

To play it on the PSP, you need to modify your PSP, find a GBA emulator, find a GBA BIOS, find the rom, patch it, and then you can play.

It will be playable from your PC though, so I wouldn't bother with that.

oh ok thanks, it just sounds like they will never release the ROM, only a file that is only playable on a portable device, good to hear i can save up my money

Where does that info come from?

M3's can play both, because they use both slots.

I've seen videos of it working, all you need is the one that comes with a GBA Expansion.

I have the G6Flash 3rd Lite, and so far no problems have been popping up with Mother 3, with or without the menu patch.

Hey, guys I'm thinking of getting a M3 Real and I want to make sure that I can play all three Mother games on it (so anyone with a M3 Real or knowing about one please help) I already know that I can play Mother 3 on it because I'm getting the gba expansion pack and I know that it has a built in NES emulator so I can check EB0 off the list but I'm not sure if it has a SNES emulator to play EarthBound (which I really want on my DS so please can someone answer that) and also I want to make sure that I only need whats included in the expansion pack and microSD card, so thanks guys :lol:

No, I ment built into the M3 Real cart just like the NES emulator.

I have an R4 flash card, which is slot-1 only and can't play GBA ROMs. However, I also have a SuperCard SD from quite a while ago, before you could get slot-1 flash cards, and I'm assuming I can use that to play Mother 3. But I never actually figured out how GBA ROMs work on the thing, so I'm not entirely sure if there's anything I need to do for it to work. Can anyone tell me if I'll have any problems, or need to take any particular steps to get it to work?

Elliotw2 wrote on Sun, 15 June 2008 10:27

Yes there is a SNES emulator for the DS, but I think you need a Ram cart to use it right.

The second part of this is untrue. SNEmulDS works with or without extra RAM in SLOT-2, the extra RAM is used for paging (splitting large ROMs into chunks which can be loaded into the DS's memory). Paging still works without external RAM, but uses smaller chunks, so the pages have to be switched out more often, which might result in lag in some games.

Wait, the M3 has a built in NES emulator with support for a SNES emulator AND GBA compatibility?

I am so getting now.

Hey guys, I'm having a bit of a problem with playing Mother 3 with the use of an R4 and an EZFlash 3-in-1. Every time I try to load Mother 3, I keep on getting the message "Selected file too big. Can't load a file above 16MB in PSRAM". Anyone know if there is a way to fix this?

Pandalux: Not if you only have the slot-1 part. A slot-2 device is REQUIRED to play GBA games. If you're getting the EZFV, I would highly recommend getting the 3-in-1 expansion as well (they work together) that lets you play GBA games with it.

charademaru: Are you loading it from the R4 screen or the 3-in-1 screen? Or perhaps you're loading it into NOR memory: press A to load the game instead of Start, if that's what you're doing.