GBA Flash Advance Linker Frequently Asked Questions

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Beginners guide to writing / backup of gba roms

Q. What is the Flash Advance?
A. The Flash Advance consists of a Flash Advance cartridge and linker. The Linker is a device which transfers data between your PC and cartridge. The cartridge is rewritable (unlike normal GBA cartridges) and allows you to play backup games and homegrown ROMS on your Gameboy Advance. You can also backup your game saves and send them to your friends.
For a more detailed explanation click here

Q. Where can the Flash Advance be bought?
A. Read here for more information.

Q. When I finished all the games of the 128bit flash card can I erase these games and write other games in the same place?
A. YES. All GBA Flash Cards are rewritable like a ReWritable CD-RW. If you have 8 games on the card and finish 4 of them you can erase these 4 games and replace with a new gba roms.

Q. Are FA Extreme cards the same size as original gba carts.
A. NO. :( They are a little taller than original Nintendo cart. ~5mm.
Flash Advance Pro 256M card, Flash2Advance cards and EZ-Flash cards are 100% the same size as gba cart. Memory inside the cart can be 32X bigger than the one found in the Nintendo cartridges!

Q. I have a FAdvance Linker and I want to buy a F2A 256M. Is this a good couple or must I have the Flash2Advance card?
A. Flash2Avance 256M card and Flash Advance 256M Pro card are identical! So they can be used both with FA Linker and F2A link cable. So I guess you can say they are a good couple ;)
(it is the only F2A card that can be used with both - 64M and 128M cards are not compatible)

Q. Can I use the Flash Advance Linker Xtreme USB with FA 256m Card?
A. Yes. FA Linker Xtreme (Extreme) is compatible with eXtreme and Flash Advance Pro Cards. Click here for more details about flash card compatibility.

Q. Can I use the gba flash cartridge also in a gameboy color (for play) or it only works in the game boy advanced?
A. To use Flash Advance Cart in GBC you will need an ADAPTER > GB Bridge! With GB Bridge you can use the cart to play GB, SGB and GBC roms on both Gameboy and Gameboy COLOR. Without the adapter it only works for GBA!

Q. Now that USB Flash Advance Writer is available, how about a Mac OSX version of the driver software.
A. I really hope that there will soon be drivers for Mac but none have been made so far. UPDATE: Now there are Mac OS X - GBA and Linux - GBA drivers for Flash Advance / Xtreme Linker. You can also download Mac OS X linker software for F2A USB. Unlike Xtreme Flash2Advance Linker is still in production and can be bought form many online retailer.
Related: Mac Emulators GBA emulator for Mac

Q. Can you please let me know exactly how much, in british pounds, a 1Gb flash advance linker would cost thank you.
A. To calculate the prices in your currency use this tool -> Currency Converter

Q. Does the Flash Advance Cartridge support game saves for games that use EEPROM such as Mario Advance?
A. The 64M and 128M do not directly have EEPROM support. The Linker has to emulate the EEPROM by using the SRAM, this is done by patching the game ROM. The new 256M cartridges have support for most EEPROM saving and the majority of games do not need to be patched. More information and a guide on how to EEPROM patch your game can be found here

Q. Does the Flash Advance support Gameboy/Gameboy Color games?
A. Yes! For Flash Advance to run Gameboy/Gameboy Color roms you need to buy a small adapter named the GB Bridge which plugs between the GBA and Flash Advance cartridge. This GB-Bridge adapter will also let you use the Flash Card in Gameboy COLOR and GB B/W. Another option is to use GBonGBA emulator but that is way too slow at the moment - so just get the adapter.

Q. How many games (gba roms) can I fit on Flash Advance Cartridge.
A. Sizes of the currently available FA Cards are 64M, 128M, 256M and 512M. Current commercial gba game roms at the time of writing are a maximum of 128M with 32M being the smallest. These are not PC filesizes, 64M cartridge size would be a PC filesize of 8MB, 128M would be 16MB and 256M would be 32MB. Here is a example of what cart size you can fit on the Flash Advance.

64M - Two 32M games or one 64M game
128M - Four 32M games, two 64M or a mixture of both up to 128M
256M - Eight 32M games, four 64M games or a mixture of both up to 256M

For the new cards that you can buy now minimum sector size is 32KBytes (ie. 256Kbit) allowing 64Mbit F2A Cards to hold a maximum of 255 mini-games (Freeware / PD / Demos). In the case of 256Mbit Flash Advance Card, it can hold up to 1023 mini-games.

Q. What power supply do I need for the Flash Advance Linker?
A. We recommend using a Power Supply for the Flash Advance Linker, a 9v 300ma adaptor on center negative polarity works great. If you want to use batteries then choose rechargeable batteries that are 1700ma if possible. UPDATE: for Flash2Advance linker, FA Extreme USB and GBA EZ-Flash you do not need a power supply.

Q. What parallel cable do I need?
A. You need a Male to Male straight-through cable which should ideally be under 2 meters to reduce the possibility of transfer errors. You can also use a Female to Male converter. Most shops will supply you with the cable if you buy a FA Linker SET.

Fitting more games onto a 256M or 64M/128M PRO
It is possible to fit more games on these cartridges. ROMS are rounded up to the nearest cartridge size i.e. 32M, 64M and 128M, this can be a waste of space as some games may only use half of this space i.e. 45M in a 64M cart.

You can remove the unneeded space from a ROM which may allow you to fit more games onto your Flash Advance cartridge. Two ways of doing this is to use LittleWriter which does all the hard work and will remove this unneeded space or you can manually edit the ROM yourself and remove the space.

Q. If Your saying that I can connect the flash up to the computer, does it come with an installation disk? Will it work on a Aus PAL Computer!
A. When you buy a FA Linker it comes with installation disk but if you need the latest version or you want to test if your PC is compatible with the software before you buy you can find the downloads here. Also Flash Advance works with ALL GB/GBA Word Wide, and there is no such thing as Aus specific PC - PCs are the same in USA-JAP-EUR or AUS! Your TV is not the same! Aus PAL (USA - NTSC) but gameboys are same around the world!

Q. Is it possible to play a two player game if you only have one flash cartridge? 2 gba's, 1 game?
A. That depends on the game. If the game is meant to be played with one CARD like Mario Cart or Bomberman than 2 to 4 people can play with one card, BUT if the games is made like V-Rally 3 you have to have a Flash Card for every player...
Just look at the game boxes in a shop. When gba rom is in the Flash Card the game will work 100% the same as if you buy it in the shop!

Q. Does the linker have to be connected to the pc every time we just want to play gba? Or is it just to write/read roms & saves, and then we can be anywhere playing the games stored in the card.
A. NO - you have to connect the cable to the PC only when you WRITE or READ out the rom data. When the game is stored in the Flash Card it works just like any normal GBA cartridge would work - 100% Portable ;)

Q. Is there away to put Windows CE on my Game Boy Advance?
A. No - that is not possible at the moment :( there is no keyboard for the GBA that would be
widely recognized. Some people have been working on a keyboard for gameboy, but it is far from being finished. Instead of WinCE There is PogoShell OS for GBA.

Q. Can I use FA Card to play SNES roms on GBAdvance?
A. NO - at the moment only GBA, GBC, GB, SGB, NES, Z80, SEGA SMS and Arcade roms are supported..

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Related links:

Gameboy Roms FAQ
FAL Troubleshooting and Help