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Flash Equipment > "EFA-Linker 256M Flash Set" Some questions.

#88711 - misterDtD - Wed Jun 21, 2006 6:14 am

I have a few questions about the "EFA-Linker 256M Flash Set"

I found it the other day at kick trading, and kick trading had the best price, but I want to know a few things about it before I buy.

1. Basicly, is it good?
This is really the most important, I don't want to get somthing that doesn't work very good, ect.

2. Does it support SRAM?
I am new to GBA dev, but I think SRAM is important for some games, so I guess I should have it.

3. 256M (I'm asumeing the M means Megabits) means the same as 32 Megabytes right? Also, what size do you recomend?
I don't think I'll need alot of space (when I want to add a game I'll just take one off, if I need room)

4. From what I know, it works on DS, GB Micro and GBASP, right?

~DtD
Note, I'm not new to Game Development all together, just console and hand held development. (EG. GBA, PSP, GameCube, PS2)

#88871 - velusip - Wed Jun 21, 2006 11:31 pm

Hey there. I just replied to someone about the EFA cards: http://forum.gbadev.org/viewtopic.php?t=9921

And to answer your questions:
1. Yes! Very.
2. Yes! Among all other save memory types, clock, and has fast NOR mem.
3. Yes, it's Megabits. Since 256Mib is the largest block a GBA can address I recommend that one. Flashcarts that have more than 256Mib use a bank switching technique to access the rest. (Unrelated mention, I don't think any games for the GBA are larger than 256MiB. If there are, they are few.) I bought a 512Mib when they came out, but it was pointless and I sort of regretted wasting the extra money on it.
4. It works on every GBA revision and DS revision.

(I feel like a salesperson here... but I'm really quite happy with mine so I do recommend it.)

#88883 - misterDtD - Thu Jun 22, 2006 1:02 am

Thanks, I guess I'll be buying one tonight :D

#3 Why did they even bother making it then, I was about to but a bigger one, glad you told me that =D

I din't end up buying, kick trading is having tech difficulties with Pay Pal, so they are only doing COD, which is Canada only :(.

Ordered last night :D
Can't wait fot it to come.

~DtD

Last edited by misterDtD on Mon Jul 03, 2006 7:25 am; edited 1 time in total

#90393 - dantheman - Fri Jun 30, 2006 2:39 am

Carts come in sizes larger than 256 megabits because people like having more space for their stuff. With larger carts, you can have more programs on there at once, which means less reflashing. However, you stated that you'll simply take some things off to add the new ones, so it doesn't make that big of a difference.

The only times I really use the full amount of space on my 1 gigabit cart is when I'm adding movies to it. Those take up a lot of space for relatively short video segments. Otherwise, my cart is generally about half full, mostly with music using Tepples's GBA GSM player and the occasional game or two.

#91980 - misterDtD - Mon Jul 10, 2006 11:09 pm

Yay! I got my EFA today and I'm testing it out with the 2004Mbit compotition games, bullet GBA, and Mindstorms GBA.

Seems to be working perfectly :D

~DtD
EDIT: (Dec 10, 2006)
Thankyou for your help, I have been extremly happy with my EFA, I'd recomend it to anyone.
BTW. Kicktrading doesn't sell EFA's anymore =(