EZ-Flash USA Forum

Been looking for hours on end and the only thing I could find for the EZ flash iv was the normal gba cart. I'm planning on only using it for GBA games, so I was gonna get a DS lite and I wanted to find something that was a little more slim and not as bulky. I already have a DSTWO, but it sucks for GBA emulation so I only use it for DS games, which it does do rather well so far.

Anyway, what I'm trying to ask is if anyone knows where they still sell the EZFlash IV Lite or Lite Deluxe (if people are even selling them anymore). I did find there was the EZ Flash 3in1 that came in the slimmer Lite cart, but I've heard it doesn't allow more than one GBA game at a time and for some reason not as good as the IV (If I'm wrong, please feel free to correct me).

If I'm unable to find the Lite versions, I still do have a working Gameboy Advance SP. So, would it be better if I got the normal IV version for the SP and just used that as my GBA player? Or, are there differences between the normal IV and the Lite deluxe versions that would make the Lite version better than the normal IV GBA cart? Please let me know.

Thanks everyone.

We did find a place with a cheap supply (about the price of a pizza) of lite deluxes about 4 months ago (maybe a bit more) which was neoconsolas but they seem to have gone under or something (their site has not been working since around the new year which is typically bad sign). Should they resurface get in there quick (I got two as did most of the IRC channel and feel I probably should have got more).

http://shop.01media.com/info.asp?ProductID=33290 still has some but exchange rates are not in your favour right now (although switching to outside EU prices is not that bad) although a part of that is it being in Europe (they have already paid shipping from China to their warehouse and you get to pay for that as well).

I have not seen a Hong Kong shop stock them for some time now and I advise against going inside China unless you know what goes.
realhotstuff might list the specs of a deluxe in their EZ4 listing but it is standard and I have not seen a lite deluxe for years in any NA shop.

normal IV and the Lite deluxe
I will do the usual 4 different models routine as it is probably better in the long run.
GBA games require fast memory (far faster than NAND memory as seen in just about every memory card going) which the EZ4s have onboard. There are two types here- 1 is RAM/PSRAM and 1 is NOR.
PSRAM is like normal ram in that it writes fast and loses the data when you lose power (save data is held elsewhere by a battery)
NOR is slow to write and has some quirks but you write it once and it stays there until you delete it allowing you to boot quickly in the future. The main quirk is for NOR is you write files a,b,c and d to delete b you will also be losing c and d to do it (it is called first in last out aka FILO).
These sections come in varying sizes and the EZ4 can load up this memory from a memory card unlike the 3 in 1 which needs a DS slot cart to do it (although you can store everything on the DS slot cart microSD so you can have multiple games going at once).

No EZ4 (or any other GBA cart in a real manner) supports SDHC so if it is 4 gigs or over consider it SDHC. 2 gigs does serious damage to the GBA library though.

Original- The only one to use miniSD and the only one to be the same size as a GBA cart. You do want a proper miniSD rather than an adapter if you get one of these. 256Mbit of NOR and 128Mbit of PSRAM here.

Next comes the lite series, the lite deluxe and lite compact (do not get it) should be just about 1:1 to the DS lite dust cover. The EZ4 lite is around the same size as a DS lite GBA slot give or take a millimetre or two. However all will work in anything with a GBA slot should you mod the case (I have been using various EZ4 lite and EZ4 lite deluxes in GBAs and original DS slots for years now).

Lite- Uses microSD. 256Mbit of NOR and 128Mbit of PSRAM
Lite compact- avoid. They were made to allow people with existing GBA equipment an in for DS code running at the cost of serious reduced GBA abilities (64Mbit/8Mbyte and smaller I believe).
Lite deluxe- king of the EZ4s really. Uses microSD and has 384Mbit of NOR and 256MBit of PSRAM.

Largest dumped GBA rom is 256MBit aka 32 megabytes with those only accounting for a handful although as one might expect this does include some of the best of the GBA (mother 3, Yggdra Union - We'll Never Fight Alone, Kingdom Hearts - Chain of Memories and Riveria being the main four people care about. Wander on over to http://www.advanscene.com/ and play with their advanced search (it should be fairly self explanatory) to get a list (do note fire emblem sacred stones US version has English and is 128Mbit). I should also note a few rom hacks also make use of the extra space (mainly some of the fire emblem translations to non English languages).

I think that about covers it.

Hey thanks for all the useful information Fast. Although, I guess that brings me back to the question of what I should look for. Should I still try to find the Deluxe or should I settle on just getting either the original IV or the V in the Lite version? (seeing that the IV lites and the deluxes don't seem to be comming back anytime soon)

Although I am a great fan of the lite deluxe and I doubt you will be displeased with the purchase you can still play all the same games on the EZ4 original quite happily and with a 3 in 1 if you plan it out a bit/do not mind waiting a couple of minutes to swap out games. Actually running GBA games was perfected years before the EZ4 with only the occasional new save type (usually worked around in less than a day), games with custom hardware (that usually have patches) and even rarer anti piracy (classic nes/famicom mini for which you have the superior alternative of emulation and dragon ball Z titles which should have some patches out there somewhere) causing trouble.

You will find no argument from me should you say the GBA has some top notch games but in light of the DS and everything since I equally could not blame you for not having it go for your game playing needs by itself and as such having a fully fledged GBA cart could be considered overkill.