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Hardware > What's best to purchase?

#4171 - DiscoStew - Sat Mar 22, 2003 12:05 am

I've been thinking of getting a flash card and linker so that I can try some demos I'll be in process of doing, but I'm not sure which to buy.

There seems to be many different types out there. I'm looking at getting a 256Mb flash card. Which type should I get? At GameGizmo, they've got (at the time of this message) the FlashAdvance Pro 256Mb and Linker, but the Success Company site at http://www.success-hk.com has a 256Mb Flash Card, Linker, and GB-Bridge, all together at a lower price. I would rather go for the more for less deal, but problems usually arise in such a case. The only thing I see different is the Flash card. I don't know which to buy of these (or any other type of card and linker), but what I do know is that I want something that works as it should, with no patches required and no problems, yet running at the speed like Nintendo's own cards (if possible). Can someone help me out here? thx
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DS - It's all about DiscoStew

#5531 - Stonewall - Wed Apr 30, 2003 10:19 pm

I too seem to be at a lose as for which to buy. There is so much info out ther ebut it is all way to confusing. Just what is the difference between ez flash and xg flash for example? I also seems like game gizmo up and disapeared which doesn't make me feel all that secure about spending hard earned $$$. Also what is this whole bridge for the f2a cards? I noticed on the xg's you can play gb/gbc games but for the f2a I need a bulky adapter? I would love to be able to play nes/gb/gbc/gba all on the same cart but I am unsure if the xg really does as it sais, does anyone have one that has tried? Also the fact that all the websites for these companies seem to be pointing to one site now is very very strange http://www.gameboy-advance.net/ .
Any light that can be shed on this subject would be great. Also if people have either of these units I would love to hear your opinion on them.

#5532 - niltsair - Wed Apr 30, 2003 10:26 pm

As to where to buy, looks in the 'Retailer section'

#5537 - torne - Wed Apr 30, 2003 11:19 pm

I'm not gonna cover everything, just a few points.

The advertising for the XG-Flash is misleading; it can't play GB/GBC games (though you can do it with a GB-Bridge if you have the right software.. it doesn't come with the cart and is nontrivial to do, though). The XG and EZ are exactly the same; the XG is basically a clone of the EZ, even the software. I have an XG, though, and it works fine for me; the only issue is that the XG/EZ use a different save type system that doesn't work with a few games (like pokemon and FFTA) but those have apparently been fixed in the latest EZ software (which you can use with the XG as they are *that* similar) - I've not tried it yet but will soon.

The original Visoly flash carts are hard to get hold of as Visoly have vanished; the F2A works for most people but there are problems reported with it and the GBA SP, also LittleWriter (the best writing software) doesn't work with F2A USB.

The best choice, then, in my opinion is either:
* Whichever out of the XG and EZ is cheaper at the time
* An F2A, since it seems to work for other people just fine

I have an XG 256m as I said, it works with everything I've tried except pokemon and that should be fixed now, and I've had no issues with it. The software that comes with it is rubbish but LittleWriter has full support.

Torne