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Announcements And Comments > ECube Flash cart

#24392 - dagamer34 - Mon Aug 02, 2004 11:18 pm

The ECube, the second generation flash from GBA-Toys, has been released today from out of nowhere.

Most notable about this new cart from GBA-Toys is the huge sizes of the cart. Available sizes are: 1G, 2G, 4G, and 8G.
Website: http://www.gba-toys.com/default.aspx?tabid=27

The actual post in the forums:
"Big volume product, with 1G, 2G, 4G, 8G products>>
Operates on a single USB to GBA link port cable, the most portable fashion device for your package, GBA and GBA SP compatible. >>

Realtime clock and calendar built-in, perfect for Pokemon and future RTC compatible games, and also ideal for third-party PDA-like applications. >>

Play small games no greater than 2M directly via cable, no cart needed, best solution for developers, FC emu games and ebook applications.

Hardware saver support, perfect support for all kinds of current and future saver types, and all games. >>

4-Key reboot to game loader in game; software reboot after burning finished, avoid to turn GBA off and on frequently.


In Game function support.
>>

ECube use the same cable as EZFA .The download cable is ready to go for future GBA-Internet interactive applications, more fun you can have with your ECube. >>

4-key reboot to current game will be supported>>

SMS function is embedded in the cart. Total saver size is only limited to the volume of cart. And game saver is backuped to Flash automatically. Users don?t need to worry about saver lost during battery power lose.>>

U-Disk Function, make your cart store normal files, worked as a U-Disk. With the future zip processing, it could be a big-volume U-Disk.>>

In ECube, games can be deleted randomly. Not like previous flash cart, you can delete games freely.>>

Logo image update is supported.>>"

Features webpage: http://bbs.gba-toys.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=5197

Website for pre-order: www.FlashGBA.com

It looks as if the cart will be using a standard RTC, which hopefully will let developers use it's features, compared to the unknown EZFA RTC. A 1Gb cart costs $237, so be prepared to "invest" in your kit.


I just thought I would let everyone know in case they are looking for a new flash cart. :)
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Little kids and Playstation 2's don't mix. :(

#24404 - DiscoStew - Tue Aug 03, 2004 2:50 am

8G? Probably means about 1GByte I think. Still, I really don't see anyone other than pirates and of the such to be interested in such a thing. My EZFA 256Mb is good enough for me.

I wonder if they are using an RTC that is just like the one used for games like Pokemon, and not like the EZFA, because I didn't like it when I couldn't test the RTC demo that was posted around on these forums.

dagamer34 wrote:
In ECube, games can be deleted randomly. Not like previous flash cart, you can delete games freely
Games get deleted at random?!?!?!? jk. I know what you mean. With such capacity, I'm glad they have that option for it, or that would take a very long time to burn over.

I wonder if with the DS coming out, could Nintendo implement some feature that can check the GBA slot to see if the cart is Nintendo's own official cart, or of the such so that cartridges like this wouldn't work? The GBA and SP have the same hardware, but since much of the hardware in the DS is different and even some GBA features are left out (like the GBA link port), would they do something to allow only official carts? Just a thought.
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#24407 - MumblyJoe - Tue Aug 03, 2004 4:21 am

Perhaps it may only be really useful for piracy, but for testing large applications like sound and video it could be just the thing.
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#24425 - dagamer34 - Tue Aug 03, 2004 4:39 pm

Well, possibly if you have a bunch of music you want to listen to or maybe a video, an 8G would be useful, but it will be quite expensive. I checked the pre-order site, and at the moment they only had 1G carts.

Still though, for $237, I might as well get a DS and a game. :)
_________________
Little kids and Playstation 2's don't mix. :(

#24465 - MumblyJoe - Wed Aug 04, 2004 5:21 am

US$237!!!

I didn't know that.... sorry about the profanity, but fuck that for a joke.
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www.hungrydeveloper.com
Version 2.0 now up - guaranteed at least 100% more pleasing!

#24487 - dagamer34 - Wed Aug 04, 2004 3:25 pm

MumblyJoe wrote:
US$237!!!

I didn't know that.... sorry about the profanity, but fuck that for a joke.


Actually most 1G carts cost that much. The F2AU 1G costs around that much too.
_________________
Little kids and Playstation 2's don't mix. :(

#25152 - FireOut - Tue Aug 17, 2004 1:34 pm

I really think anyone would only use a 8Gb cartridge for video or piracy. Video sounds quite cool, considering the good quality of Meteo-converted videos, but this cart should be so expensive I wouldn't consider buying it.

I like the EZFA for code testing, the only thing I'd like to see changed in it is the power consumption (I own an EFA too, and the battery lasts a lot longer whenever I use it).

DiscoStew wrote:
dagamer34 wrote:
In ECube, games can be deleted randomly. Not like previous flash cart, you can delete games freely
Games get deleted at random?!?!?!? jk.

That was copy/pasted from the EZFA site, so this new cart should be guaranteed to have some good engrish shipped with it :-)