GAMEBOY-ADVANCE.net GBA Flash Card Linkers
 Flash Advance Cards - Xtreme GBA ROM backup tools

search legal info affiliates gba rom faq contacts
Flash Linker Xtreme USB
  » HOME & News
  » How to make GBA ROMs
  » GBA Flash Linker
  » Flash Advance Cards
   ·  GBA X-ROM 512 M
   ·  EZ-Flash 2 PowerStar
   ·  GBA Qbus QBoy
   ·  XG2Turbo Link II
   ·  EZF Advance Realtime
   ·  Flash2Advance Ultra
   ·  XG-Flash 1 & XG2
   ·  256M Flash Card
   ·  128M Flash Card
512M Flash Xtreme USB
   ·  1Gbit Flash Xtreme Card
512M Flash Xtreme USB
   ·  512M Flash Xtreme Card
   ·  G-Bank GBA MMC & SD
   ·  GB Bridge for GB & GBC
   ·  Compare Compatibility
  » Flash Advance Software
  » Best online shops
  » Download Gameboy Roms
 
  » GBA Emulation
  » GBA rom IPS patches
 
NDS Roms Flash & Emu
 
  :: Gameboy Lights
  :: GBA Screen Backlight
  :: GBA TV Tuners
 

 

gba qbus qboy roms flashGBA QBus QBoy Review

Jan 2004. Not too long ago a nice little packed arrived at our test labs containing one of the latest GBA Flash Card & Linker set from China. It is called QBus

GBA QBus Linker Set

Comes packaged in a gift box and contains:

  • 1 x QBus Linker / Flash Writer.
    Shaped as GB ADVANCE and can be used as a PC Joystick!
  • 1 x 256M QBus Flash Cart
  • 1 x CD with Software and Drivers
  • 1 x USB-to-Mini USB cable for Writer/ Game Controller

Take a look at our pictures of the box and its contents

QBus Flash Writer ROM Linker - Joystick - 2in1

Qbus Writer is unique in many ways. Of course the main purpose of a GBA Flash Writer / Linker is to backup gba roms to the Flash Card and QBus does this nicely, but it doesn't look like any other linker we have seen. As you can see from the picture it looks like a GAMEBOY ADVANCE. In addiction to that it can be used as a PC Joystick for playing gameboy emulator games or any PC game.

Read more about:
QBus Flash Writer / Linker
Game Controller - Joystick Functions

QBus Software - QBoy

Is a combination of Flash Writer Software + GBA Emulator + Rom Manager & Downloader.
Designed to be as user friendly as possible. Using QBoy's software you can:

  • Search and download gba roms (fast downloading of files in ~1-3 min.)
  • Write gba roms to the flash card for playing games on GBA, GBA SP or NDS.
  • Play games on PC using keyboard or gamepad.
    (PC emulator is reconfigured to use QBoy as a joystick with al the buttons working exactly as they do on the real GB Advance.)
  • Synchronize save games from flash card to PC. (for use in emulator)

Read more about:
QBus Software QBoy

Writing GBA ROMS to the Flash Card

  • Before we can start backuping roms to the card choose one and Download.
  • Go to My Favorites  Click on Write Flash.
  • Select the ROMS from the left side menu ADD>
  • Click on Start Write

After writing gba backup is finished put the flash card into the gameboy or DS and you will see the following menu with a list of games that are currently on the card.

game boot menu

As you move down the list the background will change showing the title screen of the game. (This is one of the nicest looking boot menus that we have seen so far and it looks like the menu does not take up any rom space so there is no problem in writing 2 x 128M gba roms)
Push [ A ] button to start the game.

Note : Single ROM - launches the same as regular GBA Game cartridge without a boot manu.

 


Q-Bus Flash Card

The physical size of the Qbus flash card is the same as any other Nintendo GBA cartridge so it fits in the GameBoy perfectly.( Use it with GBA GBASP or Nintendo DS)

  • Flash memory size 256M.
  • Separate SRAM Save Game memory.
  • Boot loader displays game list + game title screenshots in the background.

At this time only 256M cartridges are available. (1M Byte on PC = 8M bits in GBA) so depending on the size of selected games you can have from 2 to 8 gba games on the card at the same time. 8 x 32M gba games / 4 x 64M roms / 2 x 128M or a mixture of games up to 256M in size.

While actual support for all the save game formats is unknown the ROMs have been already patched so you will not have any problems with games not being able to save your progress. For example GBA ROM 1246 - Mario And Luigi Superstar Saga that has a rear save game type - EEPROM_V124 (64Kbit) and has problems saving on older flash cards works just fine..

read more about:
QBus Flash Card


System Requirements:

Computer with: Pentium or Compatible processor, 128MB RAM, Windows XP / Me / 2000 / 98 SE
Additional: Internet Explorer 6.0, Internet Connection for Auto Updates and Game Downloads.
HDD: 10 MB for software installation and as much space as you can get for storing roms ;)
On average uncompressed gba rom on PC takes up ~5 MB of space.

Note: Files for video game consoles are measured in Mega bits. On PC the files are measured in Mega Bytes. 1 Byte = 8 bits. So for example 64M GBA ROM would take up 8MB on PC HDD


Pros:
  • Simple to install and use. Plug-and-Play support.
  • Looks cool - only linker that is shaped like a GAMEBOY Advance.
  • Nntendo DS Compatible (for playing GBA games - currently no NDS roms support)
  • Flash writer doubles as a PC Joypad.
  • Game Downloading built into the software - no need to search for gba roms.
  • PC Gameboy Emulator built into the QBoy.
  • USB 2.0 and USB 1.1 compatible
  • 256Mbit flash cart can hold up to 8 gba games

Cons:

  • Can not backup games from Nintendo cartridges.
  • Have to download games using QBoy - can't use .GBA files that you already have.
  • Can not upload your own Home Made / PD roms to the flash cad.
  • No RTC so games that have Real-Time Clock based events will have to run without it.
  • Cheat Codes can be used only on PC in GBA Emulator - not on the flash card.

Conclusion

With simple Plug-and-Play installation (no drivers required), Free downloads of all GBA games and easy to use software for managing and writing roms QBus is the best solution for non-advanced users, kids or parents who don't have time to search the internet for the latest games. Everything is nicely packed and ready for PLAYING.

Now that we said that - this linker& card set is not for the Advanced users who already have a complete GBA roms collection. QBoy uses its own rom format (*.qboy files) so you can not make your own rom compilations and upload them to flash card... can not use NES, PCE, GB etc. emulators as they require you to build your own .gba rom.

So if you look at QBoy as a package for young kids it gets 9/10
(add RTC and Cheat Code support and you could get 10)

For advanced users it would be 5/10
We have heard from the makers of QBus that they plan on making a new version of software that would NOT include downloading and will let users u


 

pload their own .GBA roms but until than this is not the card for advanced users.

Buy QBus at Merconnet - Price: $89 USD
(Free Shipping to Canada and United States)

List of stores selling GBA Flash Cards

 




 

  » Free / Public Domain roms
  » Emulators running on GBA
  » Best X-ROM Flash Linker
  » NES roms on GBA

  » Gameboy-Games.com
  » SNES-ROMs.net
  » SDXC Flash Cards
  » GBAroms.info
  » R4 Shop
  » GBAroms.us
  » Rosmter.com
  » R4 3DS Flash Card
  » GameboyPower.com
  » micro SDXC Cards
 
  » GBA QBus Review
  » Whats in the Box
  » QBoy Drivers & Software
  » Flash Linker / Writer
  » QBus GBA Flash Card
  » Joystick / GamePad
 

 

 

Make GBA ROMs | X-ROM | F2A Ultra | EZ-Flash | Flash 2 Advance Linker | GBA Flash Card | XG2 | Accessories | GBA ROMs | Emulators | Contacts
All trademarks and logos featured are copyright of their respective owners
© 2001 - 2013 Gameboy-Advance.net Bookmark and Share

eXTReMe Tracker