Pocket Heaven

Handheld Discussion :: RE: I love my Nomad!

Dwedit — Sat, 19 May 2012 03:31:11 GMT

Author: Dwedit
Posted: Sat May 19, 2012 3:31 am (GMT 0)

I have one, haven't used it in forever. I was always tethered to an AC outlet with that thing. It was fun though, until I later got the Game Boy Color.
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Handheld Discussion :: I love my Nomad!

Naniyue — Sat, 19 May 2012 00:17:51 GMT

Author: Naniyue
Subject: I love my Nomad!
Posted: Sat May 19, 2012 12:17 am (GMT 0)

Does anyone else here (still) own a Sega Nomad? I played around with mine a bit tonight, and it's still quite fun to use. I'd honestly consider carrying it with me again once I've purchased a netbook, as my current laptop takes up too much space in my bag.

Handheld Discussion :: RE: UU DS GBA Mini Reviews # 2-15

Naniyue — Tue, 15 May 2012 01:58:31 GMT

Author: Naniyue
Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 1:58 am (GMT 0)

#15 Game Center CX 2 (DS)

While I had a neo-nostalgic blast with Retro Game Challenge, this sequel improves on the original in every, EVERY way! There are many more games across a variety of systems, including alternate versions of those from the first game, and even the transition from 8-bit to 16-bit is handled as if it were really from times past. The game is in Japanese only, though, so you may need a walkthrough, or wait for a translation.

Note: If you get tired of Arino's commentary as you play, you can shut if off in the options.

Sample videos:

Muteki ken Kung Fu - Versus Mode
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_dXWL90xFw

Demon Returns
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbrTcLMZ8mY

Triotos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HMEuE-5oc4

Super Demon Returns
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbLdPOrPsY4

PocketNES :: RE: PocketNES Rom Splitter & SRAM Manager?

locolol — Mon, 14 May 2012 12:34:53 GMT

Author: locolol
Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 12:34 pm (GMT 0)

Hey hooddy! thank you so much Just two days ago i found Hoe's PocketNES Rom Builder/Splitter and decided to upload it on mediafire ,hope it helps you & the others who were searching for it too ,it's a great tool

Link: http://www.mediafire.com/?zas62xn3y9ek3h9

Handheld Discussion :: RE: UU DS GBA Mini Reviews # 2-15

Naniyue — Sun, 13 May 2012 02:54:00 GMT

Author: Naniyue
Posted: Sun May 13, 2012 2:54 am (GMT 0)

#14 GORF (GBA)

An excellent homebrew conversion of the classic arcade game, complete with a challenge mode to unlock additional art.

PocketNES :: RE: PocketNES Rom Splitter & SRAM Manager?

hooddy — Fri, 11 May 2012 18:21:41 GMT

Author: hooddy
Posted: Fri May 11, 2012 6:21 pm (GMT 0)

You can grab PocketNES SRAM from web.archive
http://web.archive.org/web/20030423220749/http://hoe.pocketheaven.com/sram/PocketNES_SRAM_Manager.zip
Unfortunately PocketNES Splitter isn't present in web.archive so I dunno where also it can be.

Handheld Discussion :: RE: UU DS GBA Mini Reviews # 2-15

Naniyue — Fri, 11 May 2012 02:34:48 GMT

Author: Naniyue
Posted: Fri May 11, 2012 2:34 am (GMT 0)

Getting cards has been easy for me, but then I use a DS lite, so I don't need any firmware or hardware updates whenever there's one for the Dsi/XL or 3DS. It would be nice to have the larger screens, though.

There are various places on the net to get cards at a good price. In-country places tend to charge more money than foreign ones, but delivery is faster and vice versa.

BTW, the GBA SP, frontlit version, makes a great e-reader with GBA bookreader.

Handheld Discussion :: RE: UU DS GBA Mini Reviews # 2-15

Jedi QuestMaster — Thu, 10 May 2012 04:24:26 GMT

Author: Jedi QuestMaster
Posted: Thu May 10, 2012 4:24 am (GMT 0)

I need a DSi to play Shantae 2.

I'll keep my SP for GBA & EZ Flash IV.

My real concern is where the situation is with DS flashcarts right now.

Are they getting cheaper/more expensive?
Availability?

I was lucky to catch the boat with EZFIV.
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Handheld Support :: RE: Converting PC emulator saves to EZ Flash IV

camredfield — Thu, 10 May 2012 03:58:49 GMT

Author: camredfield
Posted: Thu May 10, 2012 3:58 am (GMT 0)

Also, as a supplement to the previous question, kind of off topic, is there a way to soft reset the EZ Flash IV using a game on the NOR memory. I'm just worried because I never had a problem with the battery dying on the EZ Flash IV, you could still just soft reset back to the menu and save. But, if the soft reset doesn't work on the NOR memory a game like, say, Mother 3, couldn't be saved after the battery dies. That kind of sucks, but I'm also a noob so maybe there's a possibility!

Handheld Support :: Converting PC emulator saves to EZ Flash IV

camredfield — Wed, 09 May 2012 05:34:54 GMT

Author: camredfield
Subject: Converting PC emulator saves to EZ Flash IV
Posted: Wed May 09, 2012 5:34 am (GMT 0)

Hey all, I've been attempting to put save (.sav) files from my emulator (I'm using VBA) to my EZ Flash IV. I'm first trying it with Pokemon games (Emerald in particular) and what I've read on the forum posts about the topic is that all you need to do is

1) Save regularly within the game on VBA / NO SAVESTATE (so just creating a sav. file)

2) go into the export option on VBA and select battery file which creates a .SAV file (capitalized for some reason?) which you can then drag and drop into the SAVER folder on your flashcard of choice.

People have said this works for them, but this doesn't seem to be working for me. Upon booting up in the cart it says the save has been corrupted. Normal saves on the cart work, though. Does anyone have any suggestions? Pokemon might not work, i'm thinking, because in order to get the pokemon games to save on the EZ Flash IV you have to make the file type an SRAM 128kb, rather than the default on the EZ Flash Client. Maybe the sav. from VBA isn't compatible in that way, or is a Flash file not SRAM? If so, how would I convert it so that the file itself is matching whatever file i'm using in my flashcart. (if this might work...)

I'd also like to know because I'm worried about that infamous "crash after elite four" error with Emerald roms (hopefully only on some roms) but if i could convert the sav. files back and forth between emulator and flashcart I could just play past only the Elite Four on VBA, put it back on the cart, and be fine ( this is probably the biggest reason I'm asking for help )

Thanks again, this site is crazy, stupid helpful!

Handheld Discussion :: RE: UU DS GBA Mini Reviews # 2-15

Naniyue — Wed, 09 May 2012 00:17:43 GMT

Author: Naniyue
Posted: Wed May 09, 2012 12:17 am (GMT 0)

They're getting cheaper now, thanks to the 3DS. I suggest getting a DS Lite or the original, so that you can play GBA games and still use your EZ flash IV.

Handheld Discussion :: RE: UU DS GBA Mini Reviews # 2-15

Jedi QuestMaster — Tue, 08 May 2012 06:31:49 GMT

Author: Jedi QuestMaster
Posted: Tue May 08, 2012 6:31 am (GMT 0)

I need to buy a DS.
_________________
And I'll leave it at that!

Handheld Discussion :: RE: UU DS GBA Mini Reviews # 2-15

Naniyue — Tue, 08 May 2012 01:32:38 GMT

Author: Naniyue
Posted: Tue May 08, 2012 1:32 am (GMT 0)

#13 Puzzle Kingdoms (DS)

Puzzle Kingdoms is a very solid puzzle tactical RPG. It's "match 3" mechanics are unique, the tactical aspects are very cool, and the character dialog is interesting, even slightly humorous. The difficulty is fair throughout, unlike Puzzle Quest. Unfortunately, the game suffers from low budget art and (lack of) animation, making it look like a bargain bin title.

Video of PC version (Couldn't readily find a DS one):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hdCcvSMEwQ&feature=related

Handheld Support :: RE: Can this F2A cartridge be salvaged?

dantheman — Mon, 07 May 2012 03:00:07 GMT

Author: dantheman
Posted: Mon May 07, 2012 3:00 am (GMT 0)

Oh wow, I was actually mistaken, the pattern does not in fact continue all the way through the filesize of the rom being flashed. Perhaps it is indeed only the first sector that's damaged. I will continue investigating this when I'm less tipsy tomorrow evening.

Handheld Support :: RE: Can this F2A cartridge be salvaged?

dantheman — Mon, 07 May 2012 01:45:07 GMT

Author: dantheman
Posted: Mon May 07, 2012 1:45 am (GMT 0)

Dwedit, the really interesting thing is that it does erase properly with the "erase" function in the flashing software, turning all bytes on the cart to FF (well, at least as far as I was willing to scroll down in the hex editor to check). After I do that, I get no Nintendo logo at all and the GBA behaves like nothing's plugged into it (as it should).

But when trying to flash the *.gba rom to it, every other 16 bit block turns into either 00 or 01 instead of what it's supposed to be, and that's when I get the garbled Nintendo logo on bootup. As far as I can tell, it does this pattern for the entire file length of the GBA rom that I tried to flash, and then the rest of the cart remains at FF until I hit the 64 Mbit mark (at which point the file obviously ends). Using "erase" at this point will return every byte to FF. My best guess is that if I tried to flash a 256 KB empty file to it, you'd see "00 00 FF FF 00 00 FF FF" in the end. I would have thought that "ERASE" would be the mere act of doing "WRITE FF FF FF FF (etc)" but the two functions must differ somehow internally -- I don't know enough about NOR flash in general to know how it operates on that low of a level.

So yeah, chances are every sector is flawed in this same manner (my flashing computer takes like ten minutes to boot up or I'd test it again right now) and yeah, it's probably irrecoverable. Just thought I'd ask, and thanks for the informative reply. I might actually try FAS1 just on the off-chance that it's the flashing software that's sending bad data, though I doubt it'll change anything.

Raffles thanks for the offer, but I'm good. Like I said, this was just a curiosity with a likely-broken cart that I got for free. Pogoshell works well enough on my F2A Ultra, and I'd likely never use it for any actual purpose. Most of the stuff I'd do with Pogoshell would involve the plugins, and for that I've got Kuwanger's plugin2gba already. In other words, it would probably collect more dust in my drawer than in yours, heh. But again I do thank you for the generous offer.

Handheld Support :: RE: Can this F2A cartridge be salvaged?

Raffles — Sun, 06 May 2012 16:12:24 GMT

Author: Raffles
Posted: Sun May 06, 2012 4:12 pm (GMT 0)

I've got one of these sat here doing nothing:

http://www.pocketheaven.com/ph/wiki/index.php?title=Flash_Advance_Xtreme

Any use to you?
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Handheld Support :: RE: Can this F2A cartridge be salvaged?

Dwedit — Sun, 06 May 2012 16:02:31 GMT

Author: Dwedit
Posted: Sun May 06, 2012 4:02 pm (GMT 0)

Looks like bits that aren't erasing from 00 to FF. I'd try doing an erase on all the sectors to see which sectors have successfully gone to FF.
Flashing a file consisting of all FF bytes would do an erase.

But if the first 256kb sector is bad, then that cartridge will never boot, since it will fail the Nintendo logo test. You could do a boot and swap, where you boot off something else (like a GBAMP or another flash cartridge), then swap to the F2A, and that would be very inconvenient.

You'd need a modified pogoshell with the origin address moved up 256kb.

If you see more bad 256kb sectors than the first one, then consider the whole cartridge worthless.

I don't even use a USB cable, since I have FAS1Flasher on the DS.
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Handheld Support :: Can this F2A cartridge be salvaged?

dantheman — Sun, 06 May 2012 08:33:00 GMT

Author: dantheman
Subject: Can this F2A cartridge be salvaged?
Posted: Sun May 06, 2012 8:33 am (GMT 0)

I just recently bought a F2A USB cable from another member of GBAtemp, not because my old cable was bad, but simply because you just can't find those cables online anymore. After installing the drivers and rebooting, it all worked fine.

He included a 64 Mbit Flash2Advance cartridge because he wasn't able to get it to work and had given up on it. I wanted to at least try to resurrect it, but I'm stuck right now. I can erase the cart easily enough via both the official software and FlashManager, but when I try to write something new to it, this is what I get:

http://i.imgur.com/Wl3YP.png

The left side is what it should appear like; the right is how it appears on the cart. I highlighted the one line to show how "GBA_Loader32" becomes "[][]A_[][]ad[][]32" Basically every other block of 16 bits isn't being written to correctly.

I guess I'm just asking if anyone else here has encountered this problem, and if they ever managed to coerce the NOR flash into working again. It's not a huge issue for me, as again the most important part of the purchase was the F2A USB cable that works as expected, but it would be nice if I could install Pogoshell on the cart it was designed for.