EZ-Flash USA Forum

Hi, I just bought a EZ3 4Gb from Jandaman.com. It only seems to work with EZManager 2.21 and the OS Version 1.68 or 1.67. I'm only using it for GBA games on my GBA-SP. It currently has a Darth Vader skin, but I'd like to change it. I haven't been able to get any of the skins here to work without the EZ-File rom folder giving a File System error. I think the problem is that when I apply the new skin, the OS downgrades to a version before 1.67.

Can anyone give me some advice on changing the skin and keeping my current OS version?

Thank you.

1.67/1.68? 1.28 is the final version AFAIK. Grab the 1.28 RomBuildPro.rom and EZSkinner. Put the RomBuildPro.rom in the ez3gba directory then run the program, find the zip file (or extracted package) on your hard drive and click Skin EZ3 GBA. You may need some VB runtime files that can be easily found by googling their names.

Thanks for answering Cracker,

The 4Gb EZ3 seems to be an exception, because I tried what you're suggesting already. The only EZ Manager that works with it is the 2.21 version with a modified EZ4 OS (<- I'm guessing). It comes up as [ND]V1.680 on my gba screen. All the others would fail to format the NAND and the OS would give a file system error.

Anyway, I ended up using EZSkinner to make a new loader and Hex Edited the image files into the working Loader. It took a few tries, but I finally got it to work. At some point, I'm going to write a guide to what I did and upload it here and/or the Wiki. I also found a workaround to the messed up saves for games in the Flash area that I'll put in there too.

If anyone is interested, here's the modified EZManager with my Fallout Skin. I don't know if it will work on anything other than the 4Gb EZ3, though.



EZ-Manager 2.21 for EZ3 4Gb with Fallout Skin.

Just the skinned loader.

Flash RAM Saver Workaround

Interesting. I didn't know there was such a version. I must admit I haven't used my EZ3 in a very long time. Glad that you found a workaround and would love to see a guide added about it for the old school users.

@ Bionic Meat: Could you post a link to your loader_gba.bin? I happen to have a EZ3 4Gb, and I too have trouble skinning the thing... If you could send me the loader you created, I could make one myself by comparing the original darth vader skinned one with yours...

I tried to use the forum's file uploader. I guess it didn't work.

I've uploaded the files to my webspace now. Here are the links:

Fallout loader-GBA for EZ3 4Gb

Flash RAM Saver Workaround

I hope these are helpful to you. If you have any questions about them, feel free to ask.

Thanks! I've been successful in creating my own personal skin now! Though I don't understand how RomBuildPro builds the Loader, With a little help from WinHEX I was able to cut out the original skin and copy back in a new one. Strangely there doesn't appear to be a checksum or something... Even increasing or decreasing the filesize didn't matter... I'll look into the rombuildpro process when I have time, maybe I can figure out how things are compiled, and make an exclusive skinner for this EZ3

Edit:

I've been able to create a Windows XP Skin:



Download Here

Another Skin, by Yours Truly!

This one has 2 skinned loaders in it. One for the EZ3 4Gbit, and one for any other EZ3.

EZ3 "Easy" skin:


Download Here!

Comment:

I don't know how yet, but the font of the loader changed while I was skinning this! It looks kinda cool though... Also, This help file is actually USEFULL as in, button explanations, etc... Also did a lot of fixing the really sloppy english in the EZ3 4Gbit loader.

Greetzz

Very nice! I'm grabbing this now to check it out.

I Actually found out something that makes skinning the EZ3 4Gbit Loader a bit more simple:

Just make a skin, put the images in the .shell folder and let RomBuildPro do the work. Then, make a copy of the EZ3 4Gbit Loader, and place it on you desktop. I'll reffer to this file as "loader_gba.bin" so rename it to this if you want. Copy the loader created by rombuildpro to your desktop, but do NOT overwrite the other loader! rename it first to "newskin.bin".

Open loader_gba.bin with a Hex editor, my personal favourite is WinHEX.
Go to hex offset 40000, en delete everything from there.
The last adress should then be 3FFFF.
Save it and keep the file open.
Now, open newskin.bin
Go to hex offset 30000, and select everything until then end of the file.
Then, copy the selection, go to the still open Loader_GBA.bin, and paste it on the end (After Offset 3FFFF).
Save the file, and exit.
Go to your sysbin folder of EZ-Manager.
Rightclick on the loader_gba.bin.
Select Copy
Rightclick on an empty space in the folder.
Select Paste.
Now you should have a backup copy of the original loader, in case something went wrong, called "Copy of loader_gba.bin".

NEVER EVER DELETE THE ORIGINAL LOADER FILE!

Click here in case you did...

Put the updated Loader_GBA.bin from the desktop back into your sysbin folder.
Delete the file newskin.bin from the desktop
plug in your EZ3, and write the GBA Loader.

All done!

Good luck everyone!

Hex editing is fun but sometimes too much for casual users to handle.

Get this batch file and filecutter to do the job easily. Extract them both into the same directory and place the loader_gba.bin (ez4 hacked loader) + ez3loader_gba.bin (official ez3 loader with the skin you want) into the folder then run the batch file.

You're right, sorry about that... I sometimes overlook the fact that there are also users that don't know their way around the pc like we do... No offence, of course...

I'll see if I can make somekind of skinner with all the needed files embedded within (just one exe with a nice GUI) when I have some spare time on my hands. I got started on another job a week ago though, so it might take a while... I might even add the option to switch between making the loader compatible with the 4Gbit, or the other models...

If there's anyone who doesn't have the 4Gbit version, but uses the "[ND] v1.680" Loader, please let me know by replying here.

Thank you for your co-operation

I need to know if I want my project to be more compatible, or more easily used!

Hi arthurvandijk

As far as i known (from my local retailer) the 4GB EZ3 are the only ones with 1.680 loader.
This is because of some hardware modification of the last batch of EZ3s compared to older EZ3s.

Thank You, these are great! I've been looking for a way to fit more than one game into the quick-loading area (EZY Flash), and I was sick of the Darth Vader skin. The new one is great (I love the Fallout series) and seems less buggy.

ex3manager 2.21 crashes a lot though.

I'm trying some ROM hacks with it now, should be hours of fun!