M3 Pro Playing GBA GAMES?

[dud123]

As you all know, the M3 team has released a new generation of the M3 Professionals, allowing you to play GBA games under 32M. I thought of getting one. The site "gameyeaah" says the GBA roms can supposedly be Sram patched so you can play gba games over 32M(I think the M stands for MegaBit or something) So this is my question, If I buy An M3 Pro, and I patch My GBA Games with the program shown on the site "GBA Tool Advanced", will the M3 Pro play all the Gba games the M3 Perfect can? According to GameYeaaah, it could. Would this work? Or is it a Ram issue? M3 Pro is cheaper, that is why Im thinking about getting one, and also because maybe all the gba games will work if I patch them. Please Respond or test out if this theory works.

[DanTheManMS]

As far as I'm aware, the Pro version only has 4 MB (that's MegaBytes) of RAM, enough to play the smallest commercial games, which range from 4 MB to 32 MB in size. Most homebrew is smaller than that though, which means you'd be able to run it.

I don't see why they would add RAM to the M3 Pro, as it would be very pointless since they're already selling the M3 Perfect.

Basically, if you want full GBA support, and RAM for usage with DS Homebrew, you need a Perfect. The Pro can give you some GBA capability, but 4 MB really isn't that much.

Perhaps you're confused about the difference between bits and bytes. The Pro has 32 megaBITS like you said, which translates to 4 megaBYTES. Official GBA games can be up to 256 megabits = 32 megabytes.

EDIT: ah, I see the source of confusion. Looking at Gameyeeeah, they seem to imply that you can use GBA Tool to somehow make larger GBA binaries run. Unfortunately no, I'm pretty sure the option they show in that screenshot is only for fixing an overdump, meaning that if the game is 32 Mbits to begin with and you've overdumped it so that it's 256 Mbits with mostly empty data, it can trim that down to the 32 Mbits the file originally is supposed to be. Files larger than 32 Mbits to begin with won't work on the Pro at all, even using this program.

[dud123]

Well, I guess I'm going to get the EZ FLash IV Lite Deluxe, which has 99% GBA compatibility, all I want to play is GBA Games, so I'm getting the EZ-Flash IV. Hey, thanks for responding so fast, your one smart dude!

[hdofu]

Well, I guess I'm going to get the EZ FLash IV Lite Deluxe, which has 99% GBA compatibility, all I want to play is GBA Games, so I'm getting the EZ-Flash IV. Hey, thanks for responding so fast, your one smart dude!

just a heads up but I don't think the ez flash has an in game clock.

[Tikker]

i'm sure that would have helped 8 months ago

[heathenasparagus]

As far as I'm aware, the Pro version only has 4 MB (that's MegaBytes) of RAM, enough to play the smallest commercial games, which range from 4 MB to 32 MB in size. Most homebrew is smaller than that though, which means you'd be able to run it.

I don't see why they would add RAM to the M3 Pro, as it would be very pointless since they're already selling the M3 Perfect.

Basically, if you want full GBA support, and RAM for usage with DS Homebrew, you need a Perfect. The Pro can give you some GBA capability, but 4 MB really isn't that much.

Perhaps you're confused about the difference between bits and bytes. The Pro has 32 megaBITS like you said, which translates to 4 megaBYTES. Official GBA games can be up to 256 megabits = 32 megabytes.

EDIT: ah, I see the source of confusion. Looking at Gameyeeeah, they seem to imply that you can use GBA Tool to somehow make larger GBA binaries run. Unfortunately no, I'm pretty sure the option they show in that screenshot is only for fixing an overdump, meaning that if the game is 32 Mbits to begin with and you've overdumped it so that it's 256 Mbits with mostly empty data, it can trim that down to the 32 Mbits the file originally is supposed to be. Files larger than 32 Mbits to begin with won't work on the Pro at all, even using this program.

does this also apply to the M3Real ?

[DanTheManMS]

The M3 Real is a slot-1 device and cannot launch any GBA files without its slot-2 addon. The slot-2 addon contains 32 MB of RAM so it can launch all GBA binaries without issue.

[heathenasparagus]

The M3 Real is a slot-1 device and cannot launch any GBA files without its slot-2 addon. The slot-2 addon contains 32 MB of RAM so it can launch all GBA binaries without issue.

Im sorry for asking Noob questions, but i am assuming you are refering to the Rumble-Ram pack that came with the M3 Real ?

i can run opera (patched) which means the rumble-ram pack has 32 mb.
BUT, GBA games over 32mBIT (2mBYTE) wont run.
so, im guessing this requires patching of some sorts ?

any ideas ?

[DanTheManMS]

32 Mbits = 4 MBytes, not 2. Even still though, something's wrong with your setup. If Opera runs, you have at least 8 MBytes working, so I don't know why your GBA files are failing.

Does the M3 Real come with some sort of self-tester application or anything? It sounds like a hardware issue, though then again I know next to nothing about the M3 Real in the first place.

[heathenasparagus]

32 Mbits = 4 MBytes, not 2. Even still though, something's wrong with your setup. If Opera runs, you have at least 8 MBytes working, so I don't know why your GBA files are failing.

Does the M3 Real come with some sort of self-tester application or anything? It sounds like a hardware issue, though then again I know next to nothing about the M3 Real in the first place.

a friend of mine has an M3Real he bought at the exact same place, and he has the exact same issue.

i think the games should be able to be patched accordingly.
if you think of it logically, the problem must be the fact that a shared address bus is used for accessing ram AND rumble features.
if i knew how, i would write a loader that tells the DS it is disabling the rumble features for this instance, and see what happens.

[DanTheManMS]

Try running the GBA ExpLoader program, which recently gained support for the M3 Real slot-2 expansion pack.

[heathenasparagus]

Try running the GBA ExpLoader program, which recently gained support for the M3 Real slot-2 expansion pack.

Tried with metal slug advance (8mb) doesnt work.