EZ Flash V Review

Introduction & Packaging

The EZ Flash V is made by one of the leading manufacturers of GBA cards and promises to be one of the best slot 1 solutions available. The EZ Flash V comes packaged in a relatively good quality cardboard box with a picture of the EZ Flash V itself on the front along with a microSD logo, a small Nintendo DS logo telling you that it is compatible with it and of course the main EZ Flash V logo. Flipping the box over gives you a few details on what the EZ Flash V is going to be doing for you and a link to the main website. Here's what we should be expecting from this device according to the box:

• Unified slot-1 solution
• DS homebrew support
• MicroSD support
• PDA-style interface
• Video/MP3 playback

These are the features listed on the back of the box. More specific features include:

• EZ-V can be used as a passme for slot-2 cards.

• Drag & drop clean ROM support

• Optional hybrid ROM patching (you have the option to trim and patch ROMs that may not be compatible with drag & drop).

• Moonshell developed loader (skinnable similar to Moonshell).

Well that all sounds easy enough. Lets take a look inside the box.

Hardware

 On first appearance the card seems to be a perfect replica of the official DS card albeit with a microSD slot of course. On closer inspection you can notice that the front of the card is moulded differently than that of an official card due to the contents that are packed inside. The plastic is good quality with no sign of any creaking or any concerns of breaking anything. The microSD slot however is a little on the tight side. Pushing the card in is not a problem but getting out again can sometimes be a pain. The slot could easily be in the top of the card allowing access without removing the DS card and still you would not need to worry about the microSD card falling out. Of course some may prefer the slot being in the side of the card and I can assure you, due to the perfect sizing of the case, you won't worry about pulling it in and out alot.

 Sliding the card into the DS is no problem and it clicks into place perfectly and is removed just as easily and cleanly. Of course it fits in the Slot 1 just like any other official card.

There's not much more to say about the hardware itself. The card is of a remarkable quality and can't be faulted, In the pictures above you can clearly see this.

Box Contents

• 1x EZ-V

That’s right. All you get is the EZ-V card. No micro SD card reader or carrying case, not even a CD with software is included. This certainly pales in comparison to the R4 or M3 packed in goodies.

The EZ-V card looks quite lonely there all by itself. A mini CD with a manual and the latest loader and shell could’ve easily been packed in to help people get started with their card. It’s sad to see that this wasn’t included as it can hurt first impressions and ease of use.

Card Design

The card is exactly the same size as an original DS card. It’s remarkable that flashcard makers have managed to cram everything into such a small case.

Software

Without further ado I wanted to move on to the software side of things so first things first I check out the homepage for more information. I finally come up with the following links to everything I need to get setup:

Latest EZ5 Software Download
EZV Quick Start Guide

Now there was quite alot here to download so I'll describe better here what I downloaded and what each file is going to be doing:

• Hybrid Tool V1
  This is an optional tool that is used for trimming roms increasing the compatibility of the card.
• Shell (Vista Skin)
  This is the main shell folder. You cannot use your EZ5 without it.
• Save List
  This is the save configuration file. You need to update this for increased compatbility with commercial roms
• Loader V1.31
  This is an updated loader for the EZ5. It's optional as there is one built in as default but it is always best to upgrade for better comptability again with commercial roms.

Next I want to install all these files. I start by formatting my microSD card to FAT32 then extract the shell folder to the root of my microSD card. I then updated the save list in the shell folder with the latest version. Next I want to update the loader so I put the update file on the root of my microSD and boot into update mode (see wiki guide and pictures above). The update process takes a few seconds to run and before long im back in the menu.

No problems there. What I will say at this point though is that this process was a little long winded for new comers though the guide provided on the wiki is very good and anyone should be able to follow it with ease. It would have been nice to take the card out of the box and be ready to go but you can't fault it more than that.

The Hybrid Tool is for patching and trimming roms for better compatbility and for fitting more roms on your microSD card. I'll tell you more about this later.

Once you have the files and have set them up you’re ready to start playing games. Drag and drop your DS ROMs onto your Micro SD card into any folder you want. There is no converting necessary (unless you want to use the Hybrid Tool), the loader will be able to see the file and run it.

IMPORTANT: If you experience white screens when launching a ROM you may have to configure your Micro SD speed setting. This can be done by holding in L & R while in the loader. The speeds go from 1 – 12 (1 being the fastest speed). If you’re having troubles booting a game try raising the number. Or alternatively if you’re experiencing slowdowns in game try lowering the number (which’ll make the Micro SD run faster).

The option for Chinese or English language can also be selected from the Settings menu.

Menu

The menu is replica of moonshell. If you have used moonshell before then you will be perfectly at home here. You can play your .mp3 files and .dpg video files from the main menu and can continue browsing while the mp3 is playing viewing .jpg files as you go. Moonshell is about as good as it comes so the EZ Team made a good move when they chose this. Of course the menu is just as skinnable as moonshell and uses the similar skins easily availabe on the net. There is a fundamental difference between this menu and moonshell though and that is that you can launch your commercial games from it. When you highlight the roms you see the icon for the game on the bottom screen and when you next load the EZ5 the previous game save data is written to the microSD card but i will discuss saves more later.

 When you press start you are greeted with the help menu which displays the various key presses to utilise the menu. Pressing L and R brings up the settings for the language and the microSD speed which can be altered to further increase game compatibility. The best settings to use as said on the wiki are:

    * PNY safety=4, fastest=3
    * Kingmax safety=8, fastest=6
    * Sandisk safety=12, fastest=10
    * Kingston safety=7 fastest=5

I left mine on auto for the tests and would only change this if I experience problems with running roms which is what I will go onto next. There is also one other option which is used when loading roms. You can change this by holding L and pressing X or Y to further improve game compatibility by forcing the size of the save. I needed to do this for one game which I explain below.

Game Compatibility & Hybrid Patcher

First up i thought I would try the EZ Flash V out with clean roms to see how it performs with the drag and drop functionality. Here are my results without patching anything:

BUGGY OR PROBLEMS
Animal Crossing Wild World USA (Slightly Slow, not really a problem)
Castlevania: Dawn Of Sorrow EUR (Intro Movie lags, otherwise perfect)
Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam (Played fine speed wise but few graphical glitches during game that I didn't experience on SuperCard Lite but that had slowdown)

 PLAYED FINE
42 All-Time Classics EUR
Castlevania: Portait of Ruin
Final Fantasy III USA
Harvest Moon DS USA
Hiite Utaeu DS Guitar M-06 JPN
Kirby Squek Squad USA
LEGO Star Wars II - The Original Trilogy USA
Mario Hoops 3-on-3 USA
Mario Kart DS USA
Mario Vs Donkey Kong 2 March of the Minis USA
Micro Machines V4 EUR (Had to force save size to 64kb with L+X/Y for saving)
New Super Mario Bros USA
Nintendo DS Browser: Patched for Supercard as RAM (Had to force save size to 2MB Flash with L+X/Y for saving)
Rafa Nadal Tennis EUR (Had to force save size to 4kb with L+X/Y for saving)
Starfox Command USA
Super Monkey Ball - Touch & Roll EUR
Ultimate Spider-Man USA
Yoshi's Island DS USA

After the highly impressive performance of the card leaving me with nothing not working using clean roms. I thought it was about time I tried out the hybrid patcher to see if this would fix the few minor issues that were there.

First up I installed the hybrid software, easy enough. The actual software is simple and easy to use with a nice GUI which has a selection of 2 skins (pictured above). It is a fairly simple process of selecting your send path, choosing whether you want to trim and/or use the compatbility patch, finding your rom and let the patcher fdo the rest for you.

So does it increase the compatbility for the problematic games, lets hope so... let the test commence :

PATCHER CRASHED
Although there are no results here, I did try to patch a few games which were not working while the save folder was corrupt (See save games below). Some games did cause the patcher to crash one of which being Harvest Moon DS

PATCHED BUT DOES NOT FIX
Animal Crossing Wild World USA (Does not load patched)
Nintendo DS Browser: Patched for Supercard as RAM (Still had to force save size to 2MB Flash with L+X/Y for saving)
Rafa Nadal Tennis EUR (Still had to force save size to 4kb with L+X/Y for saving)
Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam (Does not load patched worked before)

PATCHED AND FIXED
Castlevania: Dawn Of Sorrow EUR (Intro Movie does not lag at all, perfect!)
Micro Machines V4 EUR (Now saves correctly with no need to force save size)

So after all the tests I'm left with nothing which doesn't work even the DS Browser works and that's not supposed to be officially supported anyway I just tried to run it for fun 

Overall I'm very impressed with the EZ Flash performance so far and the patcher helps to improve some small issues that were not necessary to fix whilst it does break some others.

Save games

The save games are easy enough. they are all stored the the save folder in .sav format. and are stored when you next load the EZ5 after playing a game. Something that we all like to do is use our save files from our old flash cards (those of us that are lucky enough to have one already) so I tested some of my SuperCard Lite saves on the EZ5 and the ones I tried worked flawlessly except one. Here's a list of what I tried if you are interested:

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (Worked)
Mario Hoops 3-on-3 (Worked)
Mario Kart DS USA (Worked)
New Super Mario Bros (Did not work)

One thing I must note before I continue is that I did experience corruption in the save folder on occasions while testing the roms. Whilst my saves were still there also were a few corrupt files with sizes of over 2GB (on a 1Gb microSD!?) but a quick format sorted this out. I put this down to me adding and removing so many roms at a time and my microSD card not liking it too much but it must be noted.

Battery Life Results:

Test condition:

• Fully charged European Black Nintendo DS Lite
• EZ-V, Sandisk Ultra II 1GB formatted with FAT32.
• New Super Mario Bros. Running Main Menu and movie looping continuously
• Screens at max. brightness (level 4)
• Sound at 100%

Results:

Homebrew Compatibility

The box boasts DS Homebrew support which is true in the fact that already the FAT lib is available already at the downloads link I posted at the top of this review. I wanted to try out some old favourites on the EZ Flash though and see how it stands up to what is out there already.

For homebrew that requires FAT access it will not work unless the homebrew you’re trying to run has DLDI support and you patch it with the EZ-V DLDI file. DLDI is a brilliant project by chishm where instead of homebrew having built in FAT support for only certain flashcards you instead patch the homebrew to work on your cart specifically. The EZ-V already has a DLDI patch with Read and Write functionality (thanks to cory1492) so the hard part is out of the way. Now all that is needed is for homebrew games and apps to update their projects with DLDI support.

I’ve tried out DSOrganize 2.4b and it works perfectly when you apply the DLDI patch.

The EZTeam have also released the EZ-V source code and FATlib code so it looks like they really want to embrace the homebrew community which is good to see.

3-in-1 Expansion Pack

The 3-in-1 Expansion Pack is included in the EZ-Flash V Bundle Pack for a little extra than just the EZ-V itself, but I’m happy to say that it’s worth the money. The expansion pack brings GBA, RAM and Rumble functionality to the EZ-V which ultimately makes the EZ-V one of the most feature rich slot-1 cards on the market.

The Expansion Pack will only work with the EZ-V, so if you have a different slot-1 cart you won’t be too interested in it for the time being. That may change in the future however as the EZTeam have promised that the source files will be released so that homebrew developers can take advantage of it. The homebrew potential is certainly there with emulators like Picodrive utilizing the official RAM pack to speed up the emulation process.

The build quality is great, it feels very sturdy and the black brushed finish was a good choice. The cart is held together with a single screw on the back. It fits firmly in the GBA slot however it does seem to stick out ever so slightly, so slight it’s hardly worth mentioning. You’ll notice it if you brush your finger over it though.

Unfortunately you will need a DS Lite to take advantage of the Expansion Pack as it will only fit in the Lite sized GBA slot. It’s a little disappointing that there are no different shells, be they normal GBA sized or just different colours. Black looks okay in a white DS but it would look even better if it were white as well.

Overall the Expansion Pack is brilliant product well worth the money and should make the EZ-V a sensible choice for all your NDS, GBA and homebrew uses.

Before you can use the Expansion Pack you must make sure you are using the latest loader and savelist (loader v1.36 and above).

GBA

When you’ve copied your GBA game over select it from the EZ-V loader and press R+Select. This will write the game to the 256mbit of space on the Expansion Pack. This will take a little while with a 128mbit game taking just shy of two minutes to erase previous data and copy over. This may seem like a long time but you have to remember that the Expansion Pack doesn’t use removable media, it uses NorFlash which simulates an original GBA cartridge. A battery is also included which means you won’t lose your saves. Due to the hardware there will not be any GBA game slow downs, they all run 1:1 except for the games requiring additional hardware like a tilt sensor.

You can start a GBA game by either hitting the ‘Start GBA game’ button on the DS firmware menu or by pressing R+A when selecting the game in the EZ-V menu. There is no EZ-V GBA loader menu meaning that you can only have one game on the cart at one time. It would be nice if in the future you were allowed to write multiple games to the 256mbit of space. But as it stands it's a simple and effective GBA solution for a slot-1 flash card. The EZTeam come highly recommended with all their GBA ventures and the Expansion Pack is no exception, GBA games run fine and are easy to write and use.

RAM

The most interesting thing about the RAM functionality is that the source will be available to allow homebrew developers to take advantage of it. The prospect of running emulators that take advantage of the RAM pack is a tantalising thought. Already Pictodrive (Megadrive emulator) takes advantage of the official RAM pack to speed up emulation. I can’t wait to see what the future brings.

Rumble

Rumble is loud, very loud. On full rumble the Expansion Pack is frighteningly loud and completely distracts from the gaming experience. This is in line with the official rumble pack. However you have the ability to select between three different strengths of rumble. Pressing R+L on the EZ-V loader will take you to the menu where you can select between low, medium or high. On low the rumble emits hardly any noise and still has a pleasant sensation when playing games like Elite Beat Agents. Games do not have to be patched for rumble support, that information is stored in the updated savelist file. Only official rumble supported games will use the Expansion Pack as it works just like the official pack.

 Additional Features

Folders on your Micro SD card can be hidden by right clicking them in Windows and checking the boxed marked ‘Hidden’. This will make sure they do not show up in the EZ-V menu. For example you could do this to the ‘shell’ and ‘save’ folders to make them not show up.

The option to change your language between Chinese and English is built into the loader which is great because it means that there is only one loader update rather than what some companies are doing by releasing a Chinese loader than an English loader later on.

A soft reset function was added in a later version of the loader. Soft reset allows you to press a button combination to reset back to the flash card's loader. It's a very handy feature but unfortunately ROMs need to be patched with the hybrid tool to allow soft reset to work, this is a shame as the R4 DS and M3 DS Simply can apply this feature to 'clean' ROMs.

Conclusion

The EZ-V performs well this early on in its life. I experienced very few bugs or glitches, but those I did experience I hope will disappear with future software updates. I’m happy to say that the EZTeam are supporting the EZ-V with a constant stream of updates as well as supporting homebrew prospects by releasing the source code and FATlib.

The card has a sturdy design and fits well into the DS but is let down by a few bad design choices. The lack of a spring loaded Micro SD slot and the chip bulging from beneath the label somewhat hampers enjoyment of the product. That said, the card will not fall apart as it is fixed together very tightly.

The loader has all the functionality of Moonshell which is a nice inclusion, but leaves more to be desired as the touchscreen goes virtually unused. The ability to skin the loader is great for those of you who want to personalize your flashcard.

Overall the EZ-V is a worthwhile purchase and should be considered. It offers features no other flashcard does like the Hybrid ROM system and Moonshell as the loader rather than a separately launched application. It shows great promise but is in need of more software updates to bring some aspects in line with other products on the market.

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