Incoming wall of text For my questions, skip to the end of post:
Intro:
I thought about reviving an older topic, but I thought this deserved fresh attention.
I'm no stranger to flash carts at this point. I broke cut my teeth on the EZ-flash IV (which is pretty awesome for GBA games), messed around with some DS carts, and had some fun with the simple, but enjoyable GBA movie players.
So before anyone says "Just use those", that's completely besides the point.
I just like seeing how much potential a device can have and re-purposing older handhelds that have been tossed by the wayside.
Most recently, I've been trying the Super Card (mini)SD (transparent purple card). It's still available and very affordable. As such, I think it's worthy of the attention of anyone with an GBA(SP) lying around.
Now, I know it's known to have slowdown issues with some GBA games, which is fine, if that's just how it is. But I've yet to come across a consistent and comprehensive compatibility list. I've even run into several forums where people claim to have games running at full speed (more or less) that most say otherwise.
A lot of how fast you can get a GBA game going has to do with what settings you have or leave out when converting the rom. Real-time-save and In-Game-Reset, I can live without, where necessary. But then I see other things you can do to speed up/fix, like a prefetch patch:
http://forum.supercard.sc/forum.php?mod ... 1#pid26966
and whatever this post is suggesting:
http://www.scdev.org/forum/index.php/topic,7770.0.html
I posted a solution near the end of this thread: http://scdev.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t= ... c&start=15
Using the method I describe will make FF4/5 run as fast as is possible on a supercard.
The link is inaccessible to me
Right now, I am just experimenting to see how Final Fantasy VI plays (slow battles).
However, I wonder what other games I should bother trying; I'm not sure I'm up for copying 3 or 4 of every game that has slowdown just to see if eliminating certain options will make a difference.
What I've learned about the Supercard so far:
-The Included emulators (while convenient) are lacking (slowdown in several games), compile your own with the latest versions
-GBA Games that have slowdown seem random to me
-Game saves must be stored in the same folder as the game
-Game Saves must be manually updated
-will only work with a 2GB or less minSD or microSD w/adapter. I tried a 1.8GB partition (Fat16 format) with no luck getting it to recognize the card.
-very few people agree on what games are playable at acceptable speeds (for example, I found Metal Slug Advance fine while another small list reported heavy slowdown)
Questions:
1. any info on this link?:
http://scdev.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t= ... c&start=15
from the post mentioned?:
http://www.scdev.org/forum/index.php/topic,7770.0.html
2. Are there any comprehensive compatibility lists? (Including whether turning off Real-Time-Save and/or Reset helps any)
3. Who else here has a Super Card Mini SD? (feel free to share your musings)
4. Am I missing something crucial about this cart (other than a lot of people say it sucks for GBA roms)?
--EDIT--
Just found this:
http://web.archive.org/web/200904090757 ... ASlowdowns
Which explains a lot that I heard mentioned on forums like fastrestart and why roms run slower (slow SDRAM)
Still need to try fastrestart on FF6 ti see if it makes a difference...