EZ-Flash 3 Review

This is the yall.net review of EZ-Flash 3 flash cartridge.The EZ-Flash 3 started off rough and frayed at the edges when it came to software support, many games did not work and the interface was unnecessarily complicated with a high learning curve.

However it must be noted that many flashcarts start off the same way. With the release of EZ-Flash Manager 2.0 (the software used by the EZ-Flash 3) and subsequent versions, the compatibility issues were resolved and the interface cleaned up. Simply put the EZ-Flash 3 boasts the biggest range of features in any gba flashcart to date and the software updates really pull these features together into a nice package. As seen in the photos the EZ-Flash 3 arrives in a wooden box similar to the EZFA and inside you receive the cartridge, the EZ-Writer, and a USB connection cable.

Features:

• 1gbit in size
• An extra 256mbit of space separate from the 1gbit
• Rom compression (this is the only cartridge on the market to include this feature)
• Supports all known save types
• Real-Time Clock
• Powerstar design (uses considerably less battery power than other flashcarts)
• Instant Save Feature (make a save state at any point in a game)
• Cheat Function
• Ability to randomly delete roms 

The Cartridge:

If someone had one of these cartridges in their gba or ds it would definitely stand out as the cartridge is see-through orange in colour. It has a very stylish appearance as you can see in the photographs and I have no problems with the cart’s cosmetic design, it fits snugly in any gba/sp/ds.
The EZ-Flash 3 cart is the most accomplished of the current gba flashcarts in terms of available features. First let me explain an important part of how the EZ-Flash 3 cart works in regard to rom compression:

Understanding the EZ-Flash 3 Cartridge – There are a few different sections to the EZ-Flash 3 cartridge that need to be understood:
1. The 1gbit NAND Flash -This section (128 Mega Bytes) of the cartridge is only for storage, no roms actually run from this part but instead they are stored on this section. 8MB of this space is kept in reserve for saves and what not. The 1gbit section is also known as the EZ-Disk. It operates like a hard drive basically, allowing you to put on or remove files as you will.
2. 128mbit PSRAM –This is a hidden part of the cartridge where roms are decompressed to when selected. This is separate from the 1gbit of space. For a 128mbit rom it takes about 5-30 seconds to load the rom. It takes less time for smaller roms. Due to this section only being 128mbit in size no game over 128mbit in size will run, however this is where the section below proves useful.
3. 256mbit Flash – An extra 256mbit of space on the cartridge that you may put any roms you wish on (rom compression is not available for this section; however it does not take time to load the rom). Think of this space as an extra EZ-Flash 2 cartridge conveniently placed inside of the EZ-Flash 3. This space was included so that you could run roms that are 256mbit in size on the cartridge, however it’s not limited to just a 256mbit rom, you may put a range of smaller roms on this section as well.
4. 32mbit Flashrom - This space is used purely for the boot loader so that it does not take up space on the 1gbit section.

The rom compression feature allows you to squeeze as many gba roms into the EZ-Flash 3 cartridge as possible. If 1gbit of space was not enough, you can compress roms to get even more out of the available space. How much space will it actually save me you ask? Well here are some examples:

Test rom 1
Original size: 16.3 Mbytes (128mbit)
Size when compressed on cart: 9.4 Mbytes

Test rom 2
Original size: 16.7 Mbytes (128mbit)
Size when compressed on cart: 5.4 Mbytes

Test rom 3
Original size: 8.1 Mbytes (64mbit)
Size when compressed on cart: 6.4 Mbytes

Test Rom 4
Original size: 8.1 Mbytes (64mbit)
Size when compressed on cart: 5.1 Mbytes

As you can see the results show significant reduction in size. Nearly every file can be compressed considerably. I’ve had 21 gba games fit on the EZ-Flash 3 cart at one stage and many of which were 128mbit sized games. The rom compression is simply an amazing feature with only one drawback, the fact that it requires several seconds to decompress the rom before it runs. However I’ve found this amount of time (4-30 seconds) really doesn’t seem to matter when playing roms for everyday use. I’m not going to ask for that 15 seconds of my life back, it’s perfectly bearable
The ‘Powerstar’ design of the cart means that the cartridge will use less power than most other flash carts. For example the EZFA will last about 6 hours on a full GBA SP battery charge; however the EZ-Flash 3 will last close to 10 hours as any other original gba cartridge would.

The EZ-Flash 3 supports all known saver types and games that utilize a Real-Time Clock. No save patching is needed for games, other than games that are currently incompatible with the EZ-Flash 3 (usually only one or two obscure games, every other game works fine). Every game I’ve tried with version 2.0 of the EZ-Manager software has worked so no worries about not getting any of your favourite games to work. The cartridge also supports an instant save feature allowing you to save your games at any point with the key combination of L+R+Select+B and loading the save is done by L+R+Select+A.

The Software:

The official flashing software used by the EZ-Flash 3 is called EZ-Manager. When the cart first came out the software was cluttered, unnecessarily complicated and had more bugs than a cockroach farm. Sure some if it worked alright, but it was just too much of a frustration to use. This may have been the case when the EZ-Flash 3 first came out but I can thankfully say this is not the case now. With the release of EZ-Manager 2.0 the program got a major facelift. With this shiny new simple to use look the EZ-Flash 3 propelled itself forward. Games worked better than ever, the loader was updated and a new feature was added to the EZ-Flash 3. With the 2.0 release the Instant Save feature was added, promised to us by the EZ-Flash 3 crew and delivered to us. These sorts of features have to do with the software of the cart (eg: updateable loader file) so new features like Instant Save are able to be added to the cartridge’s impressive list of features as time goes on. One such new feature is that you can now play multiple 256mbit sized roms on the EZ-Flash 3 cart. With this feature you can place 256mbit sized roms on the 1gbit section and when you go to play them they copy over to the 256mbit section of the EZ-Flash. This will take roughly 4-8 minutes as it is just like flashing the 256mbit section. The rom will remain on the 256mbit section for easy assessability until you select a different 256mbit rom on the 1gbit section.
When using the EZ-Manager to get a rom on to the cart you first select which section of the cart you would like to put the rom onto (256mbit or 1gbit) then simply drag and drop, it couldn’t be easier. When you drop it onto the 1gbit section you have a number of options in front of you As seen in the image below the options available for most roms (I say most roms because some roms do not support soft reset and/or instant save) are: Compression, Soft Reset, Instant Save, the ability to fiddle with the saver options and cheat support. One thing to note is that if a rom supports either soft reset or instant save (most do) you can only select one, either you can enable soft reset (Start+Select+A+B combination to reset the rom) or enable Instant Save. They can not both be enabled.
The EZ-Manager still has a few little bugs but no show stoppers. I’ve found that occasionally after using the EZ-Manager I will find an artefact listed among the roms. However this usually goes away if I take out the cart and insert it again. It is also possible for the progress bar showing how much of the rom has been written to become ‘stuck’. Fortunately this does not happen often and overall I am pleased with the constant advancements of the software even if there are still one or two little bugs.

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