Talk:EZFlash V 3-in-1

From CycloDS

@infornographer

re: 3-in-1 and GBA pages

I understand the motivation in removing duplicate content, however my last change was to reinsert a GBA section in the 3-in-1 page, but if you had stopped to actually read it you would have seen I only put a link to the GBA Exploader section back in, but in the correct place rather than just appending it to the introduction like you did.

Regardless, the Exploader software (and this guide) relates directly to the 3-in1 hardware configuration so I have now reinserted it in to the guide. A seperate page is superfluous. If the software is made to work with other devices, a tailored guide would need to be written and a seperate page added for the device in question. The GBA Roms section should only hold generic information regarding GBA Rom support with a link to the 3-in-1 page. It needs a little work on alternate slot 2 devices, but meantime I have edited it so that it only links the 3-in-1 information; rather than duplicating it.

The Exploader stub can now be deleted.

GBA_Loader article should contain all of the specific functions. This article should be about EZFlashV V 3-in-1. Having a collection of GBA_Loader instructions here will make it more difficult, because those same instructions likely work on other slot 2 cards. It doesn't make sense. --Infornographer 00:30, 16 May 2008 (UTC)

@Midna25

With the exclusion of the rumble support amendment, your actions were simply to remove useful instructions that took time to compile. Less is not always more.

If you want to flesh out the firmware support instructions I could understand it, but basically you removed the Exploader info with no good reason. Not everyone thinks the firmware support is 100% at this time; and even if you do there is no need to delete instructions for a viable alternate.

Your other deletions were even less understandable.

@whoever you are. (from Midna) Lets see, what did I delete? Oh yeah, I deleted the stuff that the CycloDS can now do natively from the menu. While YOU may not feel the GBA support is good enough, TEAM CYCLOPS and many, many others do. With all the stuff you have now added on, you make look like exploader is required to use almost all features pertaining to the EZ Flash 3-in-1. I understand that some people will still want to use exploader for the paranoid reasons you have posted here, so I will not remove it, but really, you accusations have no basis and what you did was for the most part pointless (the adding on of the exploader stuff).

@Both of you (Being Midna and Gaol)

Let's stop bickering about the issue, please. While the support is greatly improved - and it has been - some people might still feel "safer" using Exploader to run their GBA games. That is fine. Many will probably prefer to use it through the Cyclo method. That is fine too.

Nobody is going to "win" this argument, and it's utterly silly to try to act like either method is better than the other. Yes, the Cyclo method should be considered the "ideal" one, which is why I rewrote the section a bit to accommodate it better, but there might be some people who can't - or won't - use that, would prefer to use Exploader, and that is their prerogative. It's not like Team Cyclops is going to stop working on the hardware just because someone points to some homebrew software, on an unofficial wiki, that does things similar to something they're programming into their own firmware, guys. At the same time, that doesn't give someone the right to try to edit the wiki to put a spin on their view of the issue - it has to show both sides of the coin. Some people do still think that it's not "good enough", and until all of or the majority of games have been tested, play, and save 100% fine, then there will always be some people who use Exploader, for that simple reason. Even if it DOES become 100%, there will no doubt be some people who still prefer to use it, purely as a matter of taste, paranoia, or for some exotic feature it does that the firmware CycloDS loader doesn't.

Can we stop bickering now, please, and non-subjectively present both choices? --Dark Pulse 17:37, 27 November 2008 (UTC)

@DarkPulse

The rewrite is excellent, I agree with you that both options should be presented. It was the wholesale removal of the Exploader info that had my toys out the pram, not what had been added about the FW. I am going to make one alteration, simply to remind folks using the firmware that Team Cyclops does not support booting Nor saved roms from the DS start menu - while Exploader does. Indeed, this is the main cause of corrupt saves. Apolgies to Midna25 for being so tetchy, just got angry at the large deletion of useful info.

@Gaol

What do you mean by that last bit about it not being officially supported, exactly? It loaded off fine from the Cyclo menu (and instantly, as you pointed out) and I also did the test of pulling out the Cyclo to see if it booted directly - which it did.

I'm not saying it's bad necessarily, I'm just not exactly sure what you mean by that. --Dark Pulse 23:13, 27 November 2008 (UTC)

@Dark Pulse

There was a thread, either on the Cyclo forums or GBA temp where people were complaining about the save not being updated properly if they had ran the game from NOR mode using the DS start menu. It's something to do with how the save works on the official firmware.. they said they had no plans to support booting outside the menu. Seem to remember a user had done extensive testing of how the save system works.. this isn't the exact thread but it has the same sentiments:

http://www.teamcyclops.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9998&highlight=gba+support+save+nor

@Gaol

Ah, I see now. Since it emulates the cart, the SAV is stored to the SRAM, but since the Cyclo didn't boot it, it has no way to know that there's a file in the SRAM to back up.

This is, however, very easily remedied by booting the game from the Cyclo menu, and then it will simply copy it over the next time. The SAV isn't "broken" so much as "inaccessible." --Dark Pulse 02:12, 28 November 2008 (UTC)

EDIT: On second test, yeah... it seems not to fully work. Booting it from the menu had worked, and the old SRAM .SAV had worked there, but upon rebooting to the Cyclo, it spit out "FATAL ERROR: Invalid Region!" and didn't work. Oh well... That caveat is definitely warranted, then. --Dark Pulse 03:21, 28 November 2008 (UTC)

EDIT 2: Also worth noting is that it has a particular habit of resetting many CycloDS settings to defaults, so if your saves "vanish" but still show up on your MicroSD, this is why. Simply resetting the settings how you had them set up should fix this problem. --Dark Pulse 03:43, 28 November 2008 (UTC)

Yeah its the main reason I keep using Exploader - I like the manual control over NOR save back ups. Exploader also allows multiple savs.