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GB/GBC/GBA Collecting Thread

Mega

Banned
The Turbo Everdrive had some problems and KrikZZ had to release a new v2.4 but he offered free replacements to all customers with older versions (regardless if you had problems with the old one or not). But anyway, I generally agree that Everdrives are the way to go.

I don't have any experience with the EZ Flash IV but I do have an EZ Flash V for the DS. It functions together with a DS flash cart and works pretty well, patches roms on the fly... but the GBA Everdrive will be standalone and clearly better, more intuitive, etc.
 
So im seeing GBA backlights on eBay that are listed as,

E Highlight Backlit Lcd Screen, D Highlight Backlit Lcd Screen, C Highlight Backlit Lcd Screen

whats do these letters mean??

i have no idea, but I'd guess alphabetical indication of condition, where A is perfect and E is shite.
**
Could also just be the seller is selling multiple individual listings for some reason and finds it easier to label them like that, to identify them.
 
Yes, but not by that much. What happens is that the LED shows there's low battery, but in actuality there's hours left of usage, and sometimes it even goes from red to green.

Thanks for this. Rich!'s comments notwithstanding, this doesn't sound too bad, since battery life was my main concern (I really, really like my devices to last as long as they possibly can).

That said, I'm hoping I'll be able to use the old-style GBA flash cart I ordered off of ic2005. I'm kind of doubtful it will actually show up just because their website seemed REALLY sketchy (and I got the sense it hadn't been updated in the past five years), but, well, we'll see what happens.
 

Grief.exe

Member
Holy fucking shit

https://m.facebook.com/groups/5815094406?view=permalink&id=10154165696584407

From the guy behind lsdj. SP screens adapters to use them on a DMG. DMG RGB video out chips.

Whaaaaaaaaat

Edit: to elaborate:

THIS is what you can do with the dmgs with busted screens and shells selling for pennies on eBay!

You could even build a game boy console for cheap and call it like, the super game boy! Which is actually, jokes aside, a really awesome idea.

Adding an external controller to the DMG is easy enough already. Build a 3D printed shell (cart slot on top, NES pad port at front, AC power and VGA/RGB at the back) and you've got a sweet custom console.

I'll definitely give it a go.

Would you mind posting some screenshots?
 

prateeko

Member
I
Also, out of curiosity, for the new AGB-101s that are made by take the screen from an AGA-101, has anyone compared them and the performance of their LCDs to the standalone LCDs that are no longer available? There was some consideration that the standalone ones might have been spares, third party, or ones that didn't make QC, right?

Anyone?
 

Peagles

Member
They were new old stock, identical screens to the ones being salvaged from backlit GBA SPs. There's no way they were third party because no one made/makes a screen in the unique pixel dimensions of the GBA.

The only reason I have to believe otherwise is that I had to order different ribbon cables depending on whether I was using a new screen or one pulled from a 101, but I have no idea what the difference was in this case.
 

prateeko

Member
The only reason I have to believe otherwise is that I had to order different ribbon cables depending on whether I was using a new screen or one pulled from a 101, but I have no idea what the difference was in this case.

See the thing is Nintendo has often used more than one manufacturer for their screens (may be cheaper and prevent against loss of supply if something happens at one factory) so I could see them being OEM but still different.

All I know is the screen looks different in my AGB-101 than my AGS101 and I'm not sure if that's the mod or if the screens are truly different in some other way (I especially notice scan lines on the AGB-101 that are more prominent when the system itself is moving and I've already fiddled with the pentameter)

That's why I was curious if anyone has an older AGB-101 to compare to one that was recently made and definitely has a retail AGS-101 screen in it
 

Rich!

Member
See the thing is Nintendo has often used more than one manufacturer for their screens (may be cheaper and prevent against loss of supply if something happens at one factory) so I could see them being OEM but still different.

All I know is the screen looks different in my AGB-101 than my AGS101 and I'm not sure if that's the mod or if the screens are truly different in some other way (I especially notice scan lines on the AGB-101 that are more prominent when the system itself is moving and I've already fiddled with the pentameter)

That's why I was curious if anyone has an older AGB-101 to compare to one that was recently made and definitely has a retail AGS-101 screen in it

My backlit GBA with a legit 101 screen is no different to what my SP used to be, scanlines/response time included.
 

Peagles

Member
See the thing is Nintendo has often used more than one manufacturer for their screens (may be cheaper and prevent against loss of supply if something happens at one factory) so I could see them being OEM but still different.

All I know is the screen looks different in my AGB-101 than my AGS101 and I'm not sure if that's the mod or if the screens are truly different in some other way (I especially notice scan lines on the AGB-101 that are more prominent when the system itself is moving and I've already fiddled with the pentameter)

That's why I was curious if anyone has an older AGB-101 to compare to one that was recently made and definitely has a retail AGS-101 screen in it

I haven't seen any difference and I've got plenty of both.

Any scanlines I've seen can usually be calibrated away, but they are a bit inherent to the backlit screens since the refresh rate is lower than the frontlit variety.
 

Rich!

Member
Oh fuck.

I was playing my backlit GBA yesterday and this appeared midgame:

dsc_1430gdsng.jpg

Checked inside and the LCD is fine. Turns out the adapter is buggered...phew, but gahh. Wriggling it makes the line appear/image get more or less fucked up.

Easy fix, right?
 

Peagles

Member
Oh fuck.

I was playing my backlit GBA yesterday and this appeared midgame:



Checked inside and the LCD is fine. Turns out the adapter is buggered...phew, but gahh. Wriggling it makes the line appear/image get more or less fucked up.

Easy fix, right?

I'd try replacing the ribbon cable adapter yeh. They should still be cheap unlike the screens.
 
So I got a GBA cart of Minish Cap in the mail today, and after playing through the first dungeon on my GB Micro, I went into a shop and the screen went black and the speaker started making some glitchy noise. I couldn't do anything and had to restart.

I hadn't saved, so I switched to my SP and replayed the first dungeon, just saving more often, and it seems ok.

Do GBA carts get old and start crashing randomly or something?

Unfortunately the eBay seller doesn't offer returns, so hopefully it won't happen again.

I also have a copy of DKC2 that won't start up on any of my Gameboys.
 
So I got a GBA cart of Minish Cap in the mail today, and after playing through the first dungeon on my GB Micro, I went into a shop and the screen went black and the speaker started making some glitchy noise. I couldn't do anything and had to restart.

I hadn't saved, so I switched to my SP and replayed the first dungeon, just saving more often, and it seems ok.

Do GBA carts get old and start crashing randomly or something?

Unfortunately the eBay seller doesn't offer returns, so hopefully it won't happen again.

I also have a copy of DKC2 that won't start up on any of my Gameboys.
these things happen with any game. Bad connection or a bit of dirt on a contact or something.
 

avens

Neo Member
I'm sorry, but that paragraph you made about the Everdrive is ridiculous.

The ez flash IV is a cheap piece of crap that requires buggy external software to patch ROMs in order for them to actually work properly due to the lack of decent save emulation. I have owned four ez flash IVs over the years and literally every single one has had a fuse or other component fall off the board inside the cartridge. The firmware is a mess, and the cart has a habit of corrupting things for no discernable reason. The cart is also slow, relying on slow ass fram for game loading.

The only reason people like me put up with the ez flash IV is due to two reasons: it's cheap as fuck and it's depressingly the best we have right now.

The Everdrive GBA by contrast will support clean ROMs, no patching, no fuss. It will be built to a professional standard, produced to a similarly same standard and the firmware will be rock solid and kept up to date. ROMs have been shown to load instantly and if anything ever goes wrong, you have one to one support directly with Krikzz via email or on his forum who will fix or replace any units without hesitation.

And about revisions, that's some bullshit. The only cart with enough revisions to make note of is the 64, and that is due to progress on researching tech that simply wasn't there before in revision 1 and 2. I had a v1 for ages and it was fantastic.

You pay a slightly higher price,but that is for quality. Not shit.

The Everdrive "just works". You put ROMs onto an SD, plug it in, done. Can you do that with an ez flash IV? Looool no

I have never encountered any issue with my EZ Flash IV (old edition). I did update the firmware though.

What I described is what has happened with almost every single of Krikzz's products, hence why I don't recommend buying his first versions.

1.- Anyone can check by himself that there's a plethora of versions, meaning the first attempt didn't cut it, here:
http://krikzz.com/store/
2.- And also can check the reason why he does that. Here's the ED GB v1 forum, his latest work and incidentally on related hardware. It shows his first versions tend to have a vast amount of issues, with the ED64 v1 being the sole exception of working well enough:
http://krikzz.com/forum/index.php?board=17.0

So, as I wrote, right now the only choice is to get the EZ Flash IV, that we know that works, today. Period. It also happens to be dirty cheap, which is always nice.

Alternatively, he could wait about half a year to get a ED GBA v1, which no one knows if it will be a good product or not. Going by what happened with the ED GB v1 and with other products of his, there's a high change it will be have tons of issues, it won't have better games support than other flashcarts despite that being the selling point of a product that costs three times as much (certainly we don't pay that much for his "professional" soldering that in actuality is quite lousy), and then it will be replaced after a year or two by a product that will actually work as the v1 was advertised.

To me the choice is quite obvious. The links are there, so it's not just my word against yours.
 

avens

Neo Member
BTW, I'm still searching for a GB gold camera (the Zelda Edition one). If anyone is willing to sell his then please send me a PM, or if anyone has any tips then please post them.

For example, this year I'll be in Japan (Tokyo-Osaka areas) for a bit over a month. If anyone knows of any (very nerdy) store or hardcore collector that might have one there, then I'd really appreciate it.
 
EDGB failing to work consistently on my Gameboy Pocket is pretty disappointing. I even ripped out the useless LED which helped it to stop bootlooping but I still can't get it to consistently flash anything... it seems to just be too much for the AAAs. At least if something is already flashed I can usually get it started.
 

Mega

Banned
I have never encountered any issue with my EZ Flash IV (old edition). I did update the firmware though.

What I described is what has happened with almost every single of Krikzz's products, hence why I don't recommend buying his first versions.

1.- Anyone can check by himself that there's a plethora of versions, meaning the first attempt didn't cut it, here:
http://krikzz.com/store/
2.- And also can check the reason why he does that. Here's the ED GB v1 forum, his latest work and incidentally on related hardware. It shows his first versions tend to have a vast amount of issues, with the ED64 v1 being the sole exception of working well enough:
http://krikzz.com/forum/index.php?board=17.0

So, as I wrote, right now the only choice is to get the EZ Flash IV, that we know that works, today. Period. It also happens to be dirty cheap, which is always nice.

Alternatively, he could wait about half a year to get a ED GBA v1, which no one knows if it will be a good product or not. Going by what happened with the ED GB v1 and with other products of his, there's a high change it will be have tons of issues, it won't have better games support than other flashcarts despite that being the selling point of a product that costs three times as much (certainly we don't pay that much for his "professional" soldering that in actuality is quite lousy), and then it will be replaced after a year or two by a product that will actually work as the v1 was advertised.

To me the choice is quite obvious. The links are there, so it's not just my word against yours.

Do you own any of the Everdrives or are you just looking at a forum with a concentration of troubleshooting threads and jumping to conclusions that the Everdrives are riddled with problems? You can do this for literally any product. Build quality-wise, Macbooks are the best laptops on the planet and you can jump on the tech support of an official forum and find enough complaints to convince a person they're somehow the worst things ever made. I have seven Everdrives, some for almost a year... zero problems. I'm hardly the only person who has not had to go on the forum and raise an issue. Given how slow and inactive the forums are, combined with the popularity of those flash carts, I'm going to safely assume most buyers are not having problems with theirs.

I'm not sure what you mean about his "lousy" soldering. I haven't opened up all my EDs with shells but I have seen the insides of three: GG with shell but needs to be opened to insert SD card, GB has a clear case, and Turbo ED is exposed... all three look highly professional with what appears to be machine soldering. The pics on the site support this:


KrikZZ releases multiple iterations but in most cases they're minor enhancements that don't speak to the past versions being "bad." In the major cases where a critical fix was needed, he allowed you to return your ED for in exchange for the new version... for free (Turbo Everdrive 2.2 and earlier ---> TED 2.3/2.4). That's excellent customer service... so what is the problem here?

Also worth noting that an abnormally high number of complaints on the forum are from people who are unknowingly using shoddy fakes and are trying to get support for problems that don't happen with the official Everdrives. There are a lot of convincing fake Everdrives in the wild. I bought an GB ED on ebay and basically asked the seller for clear hi-res pics of the front and back to make sure it was legit. Plenty of people don't know to do this, proceed to buy the fake stuff, start having issues very soon, then jump on the forums with complaints aimed at KrikZZ. We then have scenarios like this one where it's used as proof the Everdrives are somehow overpriced and not worth it.

I own an EZ Flash V and while I do like it, if the GBA Everdrive is anything like the other seven EDs I own, it'll be a better product. I'm one of those people that's fine with paying more for the best rather than less for almost but not quite as good.
 

Peagles

Member
I don't understand the lousy soldering comment, they're clearly not done by hand.

I like my EZIV but that Everdrive hate is just weird.
 
this thread is a wild ride.

the GB Everdrive has issues because the Gameboy is super low power, not because of the Everdrive itself. It'd take a small miracle to get it to do everything Krikzz designed without running in to hardware limitations.

juniors
 

prateeko

Member
Do you own any of the Everdrives or are you just looking at a forum with a concentration of troubleshooting threads and jumping to conclusions that the Everdrives are riddled with problems? You can do this for literally any product. Build quality-wise, Macbooks are the best laptops on the planet and you can jump on the tech support of an official forum and find enough complaints to convince a person they're somehow the worst things ever made. I have seven Everdrives, some for almost a year... zero problems. I'm hardly the only person who has not had to go on the forum and raise an issue. Given how slow and inactive the forums are, combined with the popularity of those flash carts, I'm going to safely assume most buyers are not having problems with theirs.

I'm not sure what you mean about his "lousy" soldering. I haven't opened up all my EDs with shells but I have seen the insides of three: GG with shell but needs to be opened to insert SD card, GB has a clear case, and Turbo ED is exposed... all three look highly professional with what appears to be machine soldering. The pics on the site support this:



KrikZZ releases multiple iterations but in most cases they're minor enhancements that don't speak to the past versions being "bad." In the major cases where a critical fix was needed, he allowed you to return your ED for in exchange for the new version... for free (Turbo Everdrive 2.2 and earlier ---> TED 2.3/2.4). That's excellent customer service... so what is the problem here?

Also worth noting that an abnormally high number of complaints on the forum are from people who are unknowingly using shoddy fakes and are trying to get support for problems that don't happen with the official Everdrives. There are a lot of convincing fake Everdrives in the wild. I bought an GB ED on ebay and basically asked the seller for clear hi-res pics of the front and back to make sure it was legit. Plenty of people don't know to do this, proceed to buy the fake stuff, start having issues very soon, then jump on the forums with complaints aimed at KrikZZ. We then have scenarios like this one where it's used as proof the Everdrives are somehow overpriced and not worth it.

I own an EZ Flash V and while I do like it, if the GBA Everdrive is anything like the other seven EDs I own, it'll be a better product. I'm one of those people that's fine with paying more for the best rather than less for almost but not quite as good.

Yeah, I was on the forum looking for EDGBA updates and someone who had trouble with their EDGB mailed it to him and it turned out to be a fake.

Literally everyone in this thread who has an ED GB loves it. It is heads and shoulders above and beyond the EZ Flash IV if you compare them in ease of use, build quality, and functionality. I am not sure what happened with that one user to sour them so much on the ED GB. I've only owned the EDGB (none of the other units on the market) so I can't speak to them...
 
I really like my EDGB (doesn't hurt that it's the only game in town as far as good GB flashcarts go) but yeah the GBP issue is a bummer and more importantly the lack of RTC bothers me. If the GBA one has RTC I could see an updated EDGBv2 going out that has it as well which really would bug me.

Not to mention uh using B for confirm and A to go back until that update a few months back was just looney.
 

Mega

Banned
Agreed. I haven't had a problem with the GB Everdrive on two backlit/biverted DMGs, two AGS-101-modded GBAs, GBC, frontlit GBC, Super Gameboy and GB Player.

The only problem system has been a modded GBP and it's because of the batteries. I tested four batteries: Duracell, Duracell Procell, generic store brand, smaller brand). It won't turn on with the Procell or the generic batteries. It bootloops with the smaller brand batteries.

The Everdrive/GBP combo basically only works with Duracells and just barely gets through the menu... it dims like it's about to shut off or bootloop, but runs fine once you start a game. I think like sheepy I may have only tested with a game that was already flashed to the memory and it may not make it through an actual write sequence. Will have to check that later...

By the way, the backlight/bivert mod strains the GBP even with regular games. A couple of the battery brands above would not boot up a real Super Mario Land 2 cart. It's a fussy little handheld when pushed to do things it wasn't meant for.
 

Rich!

Member
The issues the Everdrive has on the pocket is unavoidable.

I took my backlit GBP to work today. Forgot batteries. Bought some alkalines from the shop. Guess how long they lasted? Half a fucking hour. And that's playing an actual Link's Awakening cart. Of course, the console lasts for hours with my rechargeables.

The fact that the Everdrive even boots on a backlit gbp is a miracle. And when the console is connected to a power source,it functions flawlessly.
 

Rich!

Member
i have a bootleg EDGB and it's still the best flashcart I own.

I had a bootleg one from eBay and it was without a doubt the shittiest thing I have ever owned. Constant crashes, glitched menu, SD corruption. Piece of cunting shit.

Managed to force a return/refund thank God and bought a legit one from retrotowers.
 
I had a bootleg one from eBay and it was without a doubt the shittiest thing I have ever owned. Constant crashes, glitched menu, SD corruption. Piece of cunting shit.

Managed to force a return/refund thank God and bought a legit one from retrotowers.

the one I have is -- as best I can tell -- exactly the same as the everdrive. Same components, same motherboard, same everything. Works exactly the same, apart from one difference, as apparently the most recent firmware (v3) bricks it.
 

Rich!

Member
Nah, there are clear differences with the fakes. The components aren't the same - it is a very accurate forgery. But there are differences. Look at the IC on the bottom left. The board also has different traces and text. Also, the real cart has a red LED. Fake has green.

Real:

jjpldtfisof.jpg


Fake:

imkk7np4svc.jpg
 
Nah, there are clear differences with the fakes. The components aren't the same - it is a very accurate forgery. But there are differences. Look at the IC on the bottom left. The board also has different traces and text. Also, the real cart has a red LED. Fake has green.

Real:

http://abload.de/img/jjpldtfisof.jpg [ /img]

Fake:

[img]http://abload.de/img/imkk7np4svc.jpg [ /img][/QUOTE]
Yeah, suppose you're right. However mine has not crashed or exhibited any of the problems you mentioned. Guess you got a shit dice roll.
 

Peagles

Member
Yeah, suppose you're right. However mine has not crashed or exhibited any of the problems you mentioned. Guess you got a shit dice roll.

I had some fake ones for SNES and MD and got rid of them pretty quick. They worked okay but were clones of older revisions I think, and of course no support whereas Krikzz will fix anything for anyone anytime. They certainly weren't as reliable as my real ones. I also wanted to support the person who actually did the hard work too.
 
I had some fake ones for SNES and MD and got rid of them pretty quick. They worked okay but were clones of older revisions I think, and of course no support whereas Krikzz will fix anything for anyone anytime. They certainly weren't as reliable as my real ones. I also wanted to support the person who actually did the hard work too.

Yeah, if I had the money I'd definitely buy legit. But I'm a poor student, so I don't have much leeway. If I want to get these things, I've gotta find the cheapest way to get it done or I'll end up in over my head.
 

prateeko

Member
Yeah, if I had the money I'd definitely buy legit. But I'm a poor student, so I don't have much leeway. If I want to get these things, I've gotta find the cheapest way to get it done or I'll end up in over my head.
Honestly you can buy the real thing. You may have to save up for a month longer but if the international price is similar to the US ($88 here) then I can't imagine how much you'd save over the fakes. People always make a big deal on large purchases but don't realize how cutting a few dollars here or there could quickly get them to where they need to go.


I don't know your circumstances but in the case of Krikzz he's a dude making quality products. He's more like you (little guy) than the giant factory where the counterfeits come from.
 
Isn't it a little meta that people are bootlegging flashcarts??
Why bother engineering your own bootlegging device when you can pretty easily clone a PCB (if you know what your doing its surprisingly easy), source the same components, and build your own at half the price in China?
 

Peagles

Member
Yeah, if I had the money I'd definitely buy legit. But I'm a poor student, so I don't have much leeway. If I want to get these things, I've gotta find the cheapest way to get it done or I'll end up in over my head.

Poor student here too. The price difference wasn't enough to go with the fakes. I just waited and saved a little longer. Good investment in the long run too if anything ever happens to them, Krikzz got ya back.
 
Honestly you can buy the real thing. You may have to save up for a month longer but if the international price is similar to the US ($88 here) then I can't imagine how much you'd save over the fakes. People always make a big deal on large purchases but don't realize how cutting a few dollars here or there could quickly get them to where they need to go.


I don't know your circumstances but in the case of Krikzz he's a dude making quality products. He's more like you (little guy) than the giant factory where the counterfeits come from.

Poor student here too. The price difference wasn't enough to go with the fakes. I just waited and saved a little longer. Good investment in the long run too if anything ever happens to them, Krikzz got ya back.
I'm with you on supporting Krikzz, I really am. But the simple fact of it is I'd rather not have an everdrive, then pay more than the ~45$ my knock-off cost me. If I decide I'd like one later on, I'll definitely buy. But as it stands I only ever use mine for various little tests, rather than actual playtime. It's a toy more than an investment.
 

Rich!

Member
Poor student here too. The price difference wasn't enough to go with the fakes. I just waited and saved a little longer. Good investment in the long run too if anything ever happens to them, Krikzz got ya back.

yeah

the clone was £50 on ebay from france. cost me time and effort trying to get a return sorted as the seller did not respond and also refused signature of the item when it was sent back to them (dodgy fuck!). Took me enough time to get a refund out of them via the ebay resolution centre that I was genuinely shocked when I suddenly got a refund notification about three weeks later.

by contrast, I ordered a legit cart from retrotowers.co.uk for £64.99. It turned up the next day and I've had absolutely no issues. £15 extra for the benefit of not being fucked around (and for having a legitimate cart) isn't exactly much, and something next time I won't hesitate to just pay up front in the first place.

edit: oh, here's a video I took of the clone "working" that I used in order to get a refund from ebay:

https://youtu.be/H2Zr7wcWclI

and looking at the krikzz forums (and elsewhere), this isn't a rare case. So unless you want my experience - don't buy a clone.
 
My GB Micro froze twice more yesterday while I was away from my house, but I got past the point it was freezing and still managed to get in a good play session. I felt very lucky.
 
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