GBA
Flash Linker History
The Flash Advance
Linker was the first professional mass produced development
device for the Gameboy Advance and still is King! You connect
it to the PC, plug in Flash Advance Card into the FALinker and
now
you can write roms to the FlashROM or read out and backup on your
computer the Game roms from the Nintendo gba cartridges.
Its successor is FA
Linker Xtreme (uses USB instead of Parallel Printer Port)
also known as FA Linker Extreme. FA Xtreme is ~30% faster than FAdvance
but who really cares if you have to write the roms 2 or 3 mints -
what's more important Flash Extreme is better in the way that it uses
USB port, and when used with it does not require additional power
supply. So if you don't have a free printer port get this one!
Later on came Flash2Advance
Linker or you can also find it under the name of Flash
Linker 2 or II or F2A Pro... Its name has led to some confusion
- it is
not 2nd version of Flash Advance Linker as you might think. Flash
2 Advance is a link cable that connects Parallel Printer directly
to Gameboy Advance and lets you write gba roms to the Flash Card
that is plugged into the GBA. Because it is more simple it also
costs less! It has its own F2A 64M and F2A 128M Flash Cards, but
F2A 256M cart is the same as 256M Flash Advance Card and it can
be used both on F2A and FA.
As if it wasn't complicated enough there are also newcomers like
XG-Flash
(EZ-Flash)
and WiseBox
that also let you backup games and emulate gba roms in gameboy.
(uses EZ-Cart and Wise Card). EZ-Flash uses USB port and in that
manner is similar to FA Xtreme, when as WiseBox can be used with
Printer port OR it can be used separately to backup Games to WiseCard
directly without a PC.
The latest and in my opinion the best linker is EZF
Advance USB linker with Realtime card. Similar to F2A it plugs directly into
the GBA / GBASP. The linker has one big advantage - it can be used
to load small game roms and demos direclty to the gba built in
memmory so you can play them without a cartridge!
If you ask me - Go
for the EZF Advance USB Linker with 256M Realtime card as
it is the best most compatible device. The cartridge has built
in RealTime Clock for games like Pokemon that need RTC function.
If you can't afford it look
at
the 128M XG-Flash set. I wouldn't suggest you to buy any of
the cheap 64M sets as there are games like Lords of The Rings
:
Two Towers
that
take up all 128M and if you have a 64M Flash Card you will not
be able to play it :(
Related Links:
Linker and
Flash Card compatiblity 
Things you
can do with Flash linker & card
FAL Frequently
Asked Questions 
FAL Troubleshooting
and Help 
|