GBA Movie Player v2.0
Eric
I've been web and deja searching, unsuccessfully, to try to find an answer
regarding the "GBA Movie Player v2.0". I'm refering to the third party
player that uses CF memory, not the Nintendo hardware that uses memory
sticks nor the recently announced "Media Player" that is soon to be released
for the DS.
My question is:
Does the emulator on this device support NES roms? Every description that
I've come across regarding this device says that it plays Famicom roms, but
doesn't mention NES. I know that the Famicom was the NES in Japan and that
it's cartridges were 60-pin versus the NES's 72-pin, but I'm not clear if
the two are compatible software-wise.
Mainly just looking for a way to emulate NES on GBA/DS and thought this
"Movie Player" may be one option as I have quite a few spare CF cards laying
around. I've also done quite a bit of reading on GBA flash carts (reviews,
compatibility with DS, etc) and have decided the one that would most fit my
desires would be the "EZFlash II 128Mbit Powerstar". 128Mbit (16 Mbytes)
would be more than enough room for all I want to do (NES emulation). The
"disadvantage" of this cart using a USB read/writer (instead of going
through GBA link port) also seems to be an "advantage" for anyone wanting to
use it primarily with a DS -- as you won't have to dig out a GBA everytime
you want to flash it...
Ejiisan
I had some troubles getting my collection of NES ROMS to work
correctly, but then I realized most of my files were corrupted or
"overdumped". I confess, I don't know diddly about how ROMS are stored
and what "overdumped" means. All I know is that my old collection of
NES ROMs worked on the Macintosh-based emulators I have been using, but
didn't work with PocketNES (the GBA NES emulator that the Move Player
uses). My solution was to find another source of ROMS and try those.
So far, full success! The ROMS have to be under 200k, so bigger games
are off-limits.
The Movie Player also supports reading of TXT files (a feature that's
almost more appealing than the FC emulator, for me) and viewing of BMP
images. As the name implies, it can play video files too... but I'm
having trouble converting the videos I have to the GB format. I'm
trying to convert all of the "Star Wars - Clone Wars" cartoons to GB
format... but keep losing the sound on low-compression.
drax
Unfortunately I'm no help to your problem. I was wondering what a CF card
is and how it differs from a flash cart?
drax
Ejiisan
Player is a Kingston Technology 128 MB Compact Flash Digital Memory
Card.
Eric
"Ejiisan" <o...@yahoo.com> wrote
Hi,
Thanks for the reply! Thats precisely the type of information I was trying
to google or deja out. I'm not familiar with what "overdumping" is either.
Shoot, the 200k limit is quite a drag though. (Just looked at my the NES
roms I'm mainly wanting to play on the DS and about 1/3 are greater than
200k.) I think, for this reason, I'm going to go with a flash cart. The
"EZ-Flash II 128Mbit Powerstar devkit" looks appealing, as its only $65 for
both the cart and linker. (You can jump up to 256Mbit for $30 more.) From
what I have read, this devkit has excellent PC software, along with a nice
GUI bootloader on the cart itself. It is also, supposibly, 60 percent more
efficient with battery power than the other carts. I've also read that
"Pogoshell" works fine with it. I've been customizing and playing around
with "Pogoshell" (using VirtualBoyAdvance) for the last couple days.
"Pogoshell" also can display text files (E-books), .bmp's, and integrates a
NES emulator. Got a tweaked and customized build put together that I'll be
looking forward to flashing. :^)
The "Movie Player" still looks pretty cool for media files though. I may
also get one of them as well. Got a 512 Mbyte CF card in a digital camera
that gets very little use. I'd just assume use it for media with the
GBA/DS...
Thanks again for the information!
-Eric
Eric
that uses CF memory. (I.e., you insert a CF card into the "flash cartridge"
and it performs as such.) Even if someone figured out how to do it, I
imagine writes would be rather slow -- but with CF memory prices still in
freefall, imagine how much flash space you could have inexpensively. I'd
love to use my 512 Mbyte CF card as a 512 Mbyte (4096 Mbits!) flash cart.
Only wanting to do NES emulation, but with that much space I'd definetly rip
all my GBA games from their carts and store it on one single cart -- with
still plently of room left for emulation and media!
Doug Fitzpatrick
> Yes, it supports NES ROMS. I just received my Movie Player yesterday!
Can you recommend a reliable place to purchase this item?
TIA
--
Regards,
Doug
**** remove leading g for email replies. ****
Ejiisan
anticipated. I've bought two sets of items from Lik-Sang and they've
performed flawlessly and quickly. So far, I recommend them.
A link to their site:
http://www.lik-sang.com
drax
"Ejiisan" <o...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1104270820....@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> I believe CF = "Compact Flash". The card I'm using for my GBA Movie
> Player is a Kingston Technology 128 MB Compact Flash Digital Memory
> Card.
>
Thanks for the info. I thought that might be the answer, but didn't
understand how one would use it on a GBA. Once I saw what a GBA Movie
Player was It became clear.
drax
drax
"Eric" <no...@nospam.not> wrote in message
news:10t41i1...@corp.supernews.com...
Where did you find the EZ-Flash II for $65?
drax
Eric
>
> drax
~$65 is consistent pretty much everywhere for the "EZ-Flash II 128Mbit
Powerstar"...
Here is one link though:
http://www.jandaman.com/games.mvc?c=GBADEVKIT
I also looked at the various ratings and feedbacks on the "Reseller Ratings"
website:
http://www.resellerratings.com
...and "Jandaman" seems to come out well on top of the other flash cart
sellers..
Cheers!
-Eric
Eric
> TIA
> --
> Regards,
> Doug
I've seen "New and Sealed" ones all over Ebay for cheap from sellers with
strong feedback and low shipping costs...
Just make sure that it is "Version 2". If their postings doesn't
specifically say that it is for the second version, more than likely its the
first version. (One major difference, I believe, is that the first version
doesn't have an embedded Famicom/NES emulator.)
They do look pretty cool. I've decided on a flashcart for now, but may get
one of these "Movie Players" down the road since I have a 512 Mbyte CF card
that gets very little use...
Raph
"Eric" <no...@nospam.not> wrote in message
I don't know much about flash carts but what can you do with them besides
play ROMs - I looked a bit at the pogo shell page and it looks interesting.
Do they really work for picture viewing and ebooks..etc Also, what is the
best one - I saw some info on EZ Flash III but the pic didn't show much,
couldn't tell what the cart itself looked like and how it will fit in the
GBA ( as in is it bigger than a GBA cart?). I don't have much interest in
copying ROMs on to one but digital photos, ebooks and maybe a movie or 2
would be cool.
Doug Fitzpatrick
Thanks. I'll have a look.
Eric
"Raph" <ra...@hotmail.com> wrote
> I don't know much about flash carts but what can you do with them besides
> play ROMs - I looked a bit at the pogo shell page and it looks
interesting.
Well, I'm sure there are many that use them for GBA "backups" (right), there
is also a lot of home brew software out there to play around with. My
interest is primarily just NES emulation, hence 128 Mbit (16 Mbyte) was more
than enough room for me. Sure, even with NES roms this is a "grey area",
but I can honestly say that I do physically own the particular NES
cartridges that I want to emulate on the DS/SP. In fact, having physically
owned these games for years (and all the hours invested in them) is the main
reason I'm wanting them on the DS/SP. Nostalgia? Probably. :-)
As for "Pogo Shell", you can download it and check it out by just using the
"VirtualBoyAdvance" emulator. Almost all the features of "Pogo Shell" work
fine in a GBA emulator on PC.
> Do they really work for picture viewing and ebooks..etc
From what I have played around with so far, plain ASCII text files and
.bmp's work great. I don't believe "Pogo Shell" can handle .jpg's, but I
wouldn't be surprised if there is a .jpg plug-in for it -- or if someone has
put together a .jpg viewer. "Pogo Shell" also seems to do .mod sound files
pretty well. Haven't looked into .mp3 yet. After getting a cart, probably
will look for "cool stuff" like that -- but primarily all I'm wanting to do
is NES.
> Also, what is the best one - I saw some info on EZ Flash III but the pic
didn't show much,
> couldn't tell what the cart itself looked like and how it will fit in the
> GBA ( as in is it bigger than a GBA cart?). I don't have much interest in
> copying ROMs on to one but digital photos, ebooks and maybe a movie or 2
> would be cool.
I'd be subjective if I tried to point out the "best one". The following
website helped me in making a decision to go with the "EZ-Flash II 128Mbit
Powerstar":
I was attracted to the external USB linker (won't have to dig out GBA-SP to
flash it, as I'll primarily be using it with a DS), it's compatible with the
DS, low power consumption, PC software for it (already downloaded it),
bootloader on the cart itself supposibly is very nice, and (even though
article on it at above site said it wasn't) several sites said "Pogo Shell"
works fine on it.
GBA Flash Compatibility with DS Test Results:
http://www.gameboy-advance.net/nintendo_ds/nds_flash_card.htm
A few reviews, plus really good forums:
http://www.gbadev.org/hardware.php
Hope that helps..
Cheers!
-Eric
Use Email Addr at Bottom of Post
is so much more expensive and longer to ship. ...and all without a tracking
number.
I found a place in the U.S. That sells movieadvance2 but they ran out during
xmas!
Finally found one on ebay so hopefully that'll come in.
On 12/29/04 5:30 PM, in article 10t6ffn...@corp.supernews.com, "Eric"
<no...@nospam.not> wrote ever so eloquently:
___________________________________________________________________
Reply to this addr after removing spaces and underscores. Thanks.
n u l l a n -at- H_o_u_s_t_o_n . R_._R . C_o_m
___________________________________________________________________
Use Email Addr at Bottom of Post
I've read some places that there are utils to help you compress or trim NES
roms over 192kb or 200kb for the purpose of getting some of the 250kb or so
roms to work on movieadvance2.
Does anyone have any insight or have URL's on this matter? Thanks in
advance.
On 12/28/04 1:41 PM, in article
1104262890....@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com, "Ejiisan"
<o...@yahoo.com> wrote ever so eloquently:
Eric
> I'm a little hesitant to order from lik-sang especially since the shipping
> is so much more expensive and longer to ship. ...and all without a
tracking
> number.
>
> I found a place in the U.S. That sells movieadvance2 but they ran out
during
> xmas!
>
> Finally found one on ebay so hopefully that'll come in.
Ordered a couple times from Lik-Sang and found their service to be simply
outstanding. Do a deja search for them (or check "Reseller Ratings") and
you'll see that the majority of their customers were very pleased with them
as well. I don't know how they do it, but their shipping proved to be
incredibly fast. Both orders arrived the third day after being placed --
from halfway around the world. Thats incredible.
I agree that the shipping is expensive though. Both of the orders I placed
were large orders. One was a bunch of Dreamcast stuff for myself and the
other was an order that two of my friends went in with me with. By ordering
many items at once, the shipping is offsetted (averaged out) fairly well --
but, yeah, it wouldn't be worth it for one $20 item...
Leo
>
> Just make sure that it is "Version 2". If their postings doesn't
> specifically say that it is for the second version, more than likely its
the
> first version. (One major difference, I believe, is that the first
version
> doesn't have an embedded Famicom/NES emulator.)
Not True! The 1st version movie player plays nes roms just fine. There is
no "embeded" famicom/nes emu. You put pocketnes right on the CF card and
thats the emu.
Heres how I did it as I havent used my movie player in months.
I went to movieadvance.com and dloaded update.e15 and GBA media. Updated my
1st edition movie player, and copied the included pocketnes file to my CF
card main directory. Then I went through my NES roms and copied all I wanted
to play to the main directory of the CF card ,where pocketnes file is) and
when I started up the movie player, selected the FC icon and away it
went.Pretty damn cool actually!
I would bet you could put on a sms emu and others as well.It might even
work already. You prolly just need to copy the sms emu to the directory of
the CF and rename it to pocketnes so that it will find and load it and then
just have some roms on there. Maybe ill give it a try later.
In short, dont be scared to buy either 1st or second edition movie players.
I think they are the same thing just different packaging. :)
Leo
--
Im looking for Commodore 64/Vic20 Cartridges! Got any? Check out my
tradelist & items for sale at http://www.commodore64.allhell.com
Leo
news:13DCd.691774$Pl.450267@pd7tw1no...
>
> I would bet you could put on a sms emu and others as well.It might even
> work already. You prolly just need to copy the sms emu to the directory of
> the CF and rename it to pocketnes so that it will find and load it and
then
> just have some roms on there. Maybe ill give it a try later.
>
>
Ok I made a .gba rom with DrSMS. I renamed the rom to pocketnes.gba to try
and trick the movie player into thinking it was the right file.It wouldnt
load it. They must use a modified version of Pnes. I think it would be
possible to modify the DrSMS file to work with it but thats beyond my
abilities.Anyways, now you know...
Eric
>
> Ok I made a .gba rom with DrSMS. I renamed the rom to pocketnes.gba to
try
> and trick the movie player into thinking it was the right file.It wouldnt
> load it. They must use a modified version of Pnes. I think it would be
> possible to modify the DrSMS file to work with it but thats beyond my
> abilities.Anyways, now you know...
>
>
> Leo
> --
> Im looking for Commodore 64/Vic20 Cartridges! Got any? Check out my
> tradelist & items for sale at http://www.commodore64.allhell.com
Awesome. Thanks for the info, wouldn't had known it was update-able and
PocketNES could be played on it. So, the .NES and .SMS roms can just be put
into a directory on the CF? Thats really cool. Much more convienent than
building PocketNES/DrSMS .GBA's that include .NES/.SMS roms. (Been doing
this since I just got a flashcard.)
Are there any problems with .NES roms over 200k? Someone previously wrote
that .NES roms over 200k wouldn't work for them. I think they were talking
about the NES emulator in v2.0 of the movie player though (?). All I've
been doing with my little 128Mbit flash card is just simply NES and SMS
emulation. Had I known that the movie player could've done both with no
probs, may just as easily went with that. Oh well... :^)
Thanks for info. May still just have to get one of these (Movie Player) off
Ebay as something else to play around with. :^)
Eric
Suzie
Suzie
192k. The GBA movie player loads everything into the GBA's limited RAM
and needed some space for the emulator as well as the rom. However,
they have done some tweaking and produced a new version (available at
forum.lik-sang.com in the Movie Player forum) which allows you to pack
the ROM initially with an included utility, which allows most 256k ROMs
to play ok.