The gbadev.org compo cart is entering the final stage of completion and preorders are now available at www.gbadev.org

A total of 500 carts will be produced, complete with manual and box. But if you want one of these you might have to hurry up a bit as there was just under 200 left earlier today and the preordering has only just started.

In case you have absolutely no clue of what I'm talking about here, let me make a small introduction of the cart. Late last year the gbadev.org website held a competition where you had to develop a Gameboy Advance game.

Unlike other competitions where the entry authors wins money or other merchandise, the gbadev.org also gave the best entries the opportunity to have their game included on a real Gameboy Advance cartridge.

A total of 28 games were submitted to the competition, where 10 of these were selected for the cartridge.

But things have happened very slowly since the competition ended and the cartridge has yet to be published du to serveral reasons such as fixing a lot of bugs in the games as well as some faulty cartridges in the first batch.

The goal is almost here now, so why not secure yourself a copy by preordering today... I've already been there :-)   

UPDATE 04/30/2005 - 22:33 CET - only 90 carts left!

THE FOLLOWING WAS TAKEN FROM WWW.XGFLASH2.COM

[2005-5-1] XG2pro 0.8 V6 version

1. Fixed many bugs,support XG2pro very well.
2. Can select the SMS memory size by manual

http://www.xgflash2.com/download/XG2_Pro_V0.8_Rev-6.exe

THE FOLLOWING WAS TAKEN FROM WWW.XGFLASH2.COM

[2005-4-30] XG 2005 Slim Driver V1.20

1. Rewrite the burning core complete,upgrade to V1.20 new core.
2. Upgrade the driver for 2000/NT/XP again, can run "c:\SlimLoader\USB_Driver\Update USB Driver.exe" to upgrade driver.

How to install the USB Slim Loader III:

1. Close all firewall(specially the NORTON) and virus protection software.
2. Firstly do NOT plug in the USB Slim Loader III in PC before you run the install file.
3. Run install file,the default installation path is " c:\SlimLoader " , please DO NOT change this path to avoid any
   software problem.
4. After installing the program, plug in the USB Slim Loader III to the PC, the system will auto recognize it and show
   " UNKNOWN USB DEVICE " , then  specify the USB driver patch to " c:\SlimLoader\USB_Driver " by manual.
5. When you see the GREEN LED flash 1 time and RED LED flash 3 times and hear one sound, it means the USB driver
   install has finished, and now your USB Slim Loader is ready.
6. Important: If your PC can't recognize the Slim Loader III, please try to plug it into backside of PC motherboard's
   USB port directly, if it works, it mean your PC's front USB port or USB extension cable can't support enough hi-speed
   USB data transfer rate for Slim Loader III, now you HAVE TO use one real USB2.0 HI-SPEED extension cable or one USB2.0
   USB HUB to add length for it. The Slim Loader III is true USB 1.1 FULL SPEED running at 12M/Sec, normal USB 1.1 cables
   cannot allow it to work smoothly.

http://www.xgflash2.com/download/Usb_Slim_Loader_III_English_V1.20.exe

2005.04.30 - Gladius_PAL_GERMAN_NGC-NOMIS - SFV
2005.04.30 - Metal.Gear.Solid.The.Twin.Snakes.PAL.GERMAN.NGC-DRabbits
2005.04.29 - The_Tower_of_Druaga_JAP_GC-RARE *DUPE Of The_Tower_of_Druaga_JPN_NGC-DNL*
2005.04.30 - Sonic_Heroes_PAL_MULTI6_NGC-GCUBE - SFV
2005.04.30 - Resident.Evil.Code.Veronica.X.PAL.MULTI5.NGC-DRabbits *DUPE of Resident_Evil_Code_Veronica_X_Pal_Multi_GC-GCP*

THE FOLLOWING WAS TAKEN FROM WWW.XGFLASH2.COM

[2005-4-27] XG 2005 Slim Driver V1.07
[1]. Revised one bug of Multi-Booter Loader
[2]. XP driver upgrade again,please goto hardware manager to upgrade the "USB GBA Write" driver by manual,and reboot the system.

http://www.xgflash2.com/download/Usb_Slim_Loader_III_English_V1.07.exe

That's right, its starting to smell of running commercial material using a PassMe, while we wait for the NeoFlash to arrive.

Last night a demo of the commercial game Polarium was released, initially for WifiMe users (wireless version of passme), but later a few guys managed to make a PassME version of it.

The release has been tested and is working great, however it will not be avaiable here due to it's commercial status, eventhough it's just a demo.

Search the net and you should be able to find it though... And it'll of course be added to our NDS release list shortly.

TAKEN FROM WWW.XGFLASH2.COM

[2005-4-22] XG 2005 Slim Driver V1.06
[1]. Reprogram the cartridge recognise core,and fixed the bug of can't list the title after burn.If the slim loader program can't find the cartridge,please click the "Refresh" in toolbar to recognise again.
[2]. Fixed one bug of stop response when burn to 99%.
[3]. Finish the new WINXP SP2's driver,the compatibility is better then before. But need to upgrade the "USB GBA Write" driver by manual to make new XP driver works.

http://www.xgflash2.com/download/Usb_Slim_Loader_III_English-1.06.exe

2005.04.29 - Star.Fox.Assault.PAL.MULTI5.NGC-WAR3X - SFV *DUPE Of Star_Fox_Assault_Pal_Multi_NGC-ALiEN, Pred 3 hours earlier*
2005.04.29 - Star_Fox_Assault_Pal_Multi_NGC-ALiEN
2005.04.29 - Catwoman.PAL.MULTI6.NGC-DRabbits - SFV
2005.04.28 - Transworld_Surf_Next_Wave_USA_NGC-STINKYCUBE - SFV
2005.04.25 - Cocoto_Kart_Racer_PAL_MULTI5_PROPER_NGC-DEATHCUBE - SFV
2005.04.22 - Star_Fox_Assault_READNFO_MULTi4_NGC-GZONE - SFV<--- CRC Errors while extracting + iso is 1.459.978.396bytes when GC isos suppose to be 1.459.978.240bytes
2005.04.22 - Cocoto.Kart.Racer.DIRFIX.PAL.MULTI5.NGC-WAR3X - SFV
2005.04.15 - Viper_Multi_Boot_ISO_Creator_V1.2b-LOONYCUBE

Missed Oldie
2003.11.23 - Lost_Kingdoms_2_USA_NGC-HOLYCUBE - SFV

The most discussed topic right now has to be the news regarding the NeoFlash copier which will allow you to run *cough* commercial NDS games using a PassMe clone and a GBA Flash cartridge.

Sofar there hasn't been much info available, or the unit itself for that matter, according to the manufacturer it'll be released sometime in May, with an estimated price tag of US$180 for a 512Mbit version and US$229 for the 1Gigabit version.

Good news for game developers is that they're able to receive one 512Mbit set for free, hopefully that'll kickstart the NDS "scene" if it need such.

The PassMe, an adapter which tricks the NDS into running NDS roms, non-commercial, off a GBA cart has already been available for some time and works quite nice, but I'm sure the NeoFlash s welcome.

We'll be back with more news later...

After months of testing, lazyness, talking to the manufacturer and other interesting stuff we're finally ready with our review of the XG2 Turbo 2005 version.

You can check it out ( here )

If things go as planned, you should see a review of the X-Carts copier soon. Also if anyone out there has a G-Bank (GameBank) copier for sale, cheap, mail me! :-)

The people responsible for the Flash 2 Advance product recently released a new USB "stand alone" Linker (not a cable, thank god) and the driver software was released on their website yesterday.

http://www.flash2advance.com/tools/F2AUSBWRITER_v101Setup.exe

It seems that a fake Cobra bios v1.1 was accidently posted on 64scener earlier today. Please delete the file immediately, the 88 of you who downloaded.

I have no idea if the file will damage your ViperGC chip or not, hope not, so please please do not use it and I'm sorry about the mistake.

2005.04.19 - Spyro.A.Heros.Tail.PAL.GERMAN.NGC-DRabbits
2005.04.19 - Super_Mario_Sunshine_PAL-NGC-PreTeenXxX
2005.04.16 - Fire_Emblem_Path_of_The_Blue_Flame_JAP_NGC-STINKYCUBE - SFV <-- Woot Go StinkyCube :)
2005.04.16 - Der.Polar.Express.PAL.GERMAN.NGC-DRabbits
2005.04.10 - Rayman_Arena_USA_NGC-STINKYCUBE - SFV
2005.04.10 - Taz_Wanted_USA_NGC-STINKYCUBE - SFV
2005.04.10 - Beach_Spikers_JAP_NGC-STINKYCUBE
2005.04.09 - HomeLand_Beta_JAP_NGC-iND
2005.04.08 - Tak.2.Der.Stab.der.Traeume.PAL.German.GC-PiraTes
2005.04.08 - The_Urbz_Sims_in_the_City_PAL_MULTI6_NGC-GCUBE
2005.04.07 - Teenage.Mutant.Ninja.Turtles.2.BattleNexus.PAL.MULTI5.NGC-WAR3X
2005.04.06 - Zapper_One_Wicked_Cricket_USA_NGC-STINKYCUBE - SFV
2005.04.05 - Nascar_Thunder_2003_USA_NGC-STINKYCUBE - SFV
2005.04.03 - Viper_Multi_Boot_ISO_Creator_V1.0b-LOONYCUBE
2005.04.03 - Judge_Dredd_Vs_Death_PAL_MULTI6_NGC-DEATHCUBE - SFV
2004.11.24 - Madden_NFL_2005_USA_NGC-UBD_INT - SFV

This update has been under way for quite some some, but G6-Flash is finally ready with their new generation of Flash carts, largest one being a massive 4Gigabit!

Their site has also received a assive overhaul, for the better... looks very professional compared to the previous one.

http://www.g6flash.com/main.htm

Right now there isn't much more to say than "wow" and a hope for a better product than their previous one.

Seems like there has been quite a few software updates the past week for GBA copiers, so I've decided to collect the rest of them in a single news post.

Flast2Advance Power Writer V2.60
- Support added for the new 2G flash cart.

EZ Client V3.12
- EZ2 update (EZ A12 carts should use this version only)
- Xcode and romnamelist updated to 1934

Ecube V3.00
- MP3 feature
- Photo feature
- Movie feature
- Added View menu, allows the user to open/close toolbar/folder windows
- New ECube Flash loader 

The "copier tools" section has also been updated with various old drivers for the more or less unknown copiers such as Ewin, FireLinker, EZ-POP and others.

You can access the copier tools section, here

EZ Group has updated the software for the EZ3 GBA copier. The updates are as follows (taken directly from the developers website):

• Add OS auto detect and update function.
• Add "Backup Saver folder" button, backup all savers to the "Saver" folder located in EZManager folder.
• Xcode and Romnamelist updated to 1953
• Fixed a bug of file allocation system in EZ-DISK

The software will soon be available on 64scener, until then you'll have to get it from the authors website http://www.ezflash.cn/indexe.asp

Looks like we've missed a bios release for the GBA Movie Player Advance by a few days as well as one released late ast year, woops!

V1.92 (2005-3-24)
This seems to be mainly ebook updates with various languages supported.

V1.70 (2004-11-23)
Same as above, a lot of languages supported now :-)

You can get the updates from our Movie Player tools page.