Extreme Flash Advance II
From PHWiki
The EFA II, part of the Extreme Flash Advance series, is one of the many GBA Flash Cards available for use on the Game Boy Advance systems, which includes the original GBA, GBA SP, Micro, and Nintendo DS. It is also known as a flash linker cartridge. This cart allows you to store multiple game ROM images, and play them on a GBA system. Unlike the original EFA which only had 256 Mbits of NOR flash memory for storage, the EFA II has a separate 1 Gbit of NAND flash, which behaves as a standard USB storage device to a PC/Mac.
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Features of the EFA II
The EFA II features the following (from the official site and notes in italics from me):
- Compatibile with GBA, GBA SP, Nintendo DS.
- 1 Gbit of NAND storage aka 128 megabytes.
- 256 Mbit of NOR storage aka 32 megabytes.
- Plug and Play USB mass storage device. Shows up as a removable drive in Windows 2000/XP.
- Tested to work under Linux, also works under Mac OS X (Verified 2007/05/20 on Mac OS X 10.4.9 by Hagios).
- Drag and drop files directly to the EFA-Linker II.
- Write the ROMs directly from NAND FLASH to NOR FLASH.
- Ultra fast writing speed (from NAND to NOR) (same as on EFA Linker).
- Instant save.
- RTC (Real Time Clock).
- RTS (Real Time Save) and normal save function.
- SMS (Super Memory Stick) for backup of save files.
- Soft-reset.
- Cheat function.
- Custom backgrounds. Someone tell me how this is done.
- Does not need an external writer (bridge).
- Very small. It uses mini USB connector to PC, has internal USB control chip.
- Power saving. Use 1.8v memory and saves you GBA/NDS battery. Consumes 60% less power than many other flash kits (with 3.3v memory).
Using the EFA II
The EFA II features 1 Gbit of storage which equates to 128 megabytes of storage. Plug one of the included EFA II cables to the cart and to the computer and a red light on the unit will light up to tell you it is getting power and a proper link has been made. The very same light will blink when data is being transferred. You will see an USB mass storage device show up in Windows XP and you will see a new drive letter assigned to it for use on any modern computer. Because it is an USB mass storage device, the EFA II can actually work under Linux and MacOSX. Under Windows, there are two ways to put ROMs on the unit. You can use Windows Explorer's drag and drop of files or you can use the EFA II Client.
The EFA II Client
During the installation of the EFA II Client, it will ask you if you want to use English or Chinese. I selected English. The EFA II Client is fairly simple to use.
- Current List Capacity area lists the current GBA ROM that you've selected, the name of it and the size of it. In my screenshot, the ROM image takes up 64 megabits.
- The Language option lets you select Chinese or English menus.
- The path button is where your EFA II shows up as when it is attached to your computer.
- Add allows you to select the GBA ROM image you want to Export to the EFA II. Del removes it from your list.
- Export Disk Info tells you how much space out of the one gigabit of space is used and is left.
- Para Setup: Soft Reset, Instant Save, No Use are currently a mystery to me. I believe if you select Soft Reset, you can reboot back to the EFA II menu without power cycling the GBA.
- Save tells you the save type along with the Save Size required for the game.
- I do not know what Save Patch is for and I do not know what Cheat Info is for. I can only assume that it is for cheat codes ala Game Genie / Gameshark.
Using the EFA II in your GBA
When you first power on your GBA with the EFA II in place, you see this logo.
The built in help accessed by pressing the L-trigger. There is another help menu which is not shown. The functions of the keys change depending on which screen you are on. The B-button is usually cancel, A-button is usually accept.
By default, after you have powered on the system, you will see the NOR flash area. This is where you can boot the game up instantly after selecting a game. This is the area of the cart that contains 256 megabits of storage. It is not visible in the photo, but it is titled Current Rom List. As a side note, in the list in my screen shot, you can see one called NES.GBA, which is a GBA ROM with PocketNES and some NES ROMS in one file. SEGAMS.GBA is the same using DrSMS, but for Sega Master System. These work near perfectly. :) Also, as you can see, you can have more than one ROM handy to boot any time you want.
Pressing the SELECT button in the Current Roms List menu will bring up this menu. I am not sure what all the features available means. Back saver will save the currently selected game's game-save data. I do not know if and how you can restore it once saved. Erase cart erases the whole Current Rom List area (NOR flash). The NOR flash is not accessible from your computer. I do not know what the rest of the menu options are for.
Push left or right on your GBA's directional pad and you will see a list of the ROMs in the storage area. In this screen/menu, A-button accepts, B-button cancels. There are 1024 megabits of space available for storage. These games have to be written to the NOR area before they can boot. They need to be written to the Current Rom List area. The title for this menu is Path:\ and you will also see the version of your EFA II loader. In the time of the screen shot, it is version 1.004.
Pressing SELECT in the Path menu brings up this menu. Language lets you change between English and Chinese. Set Clock lets you set the real time clock on the cart.
Screenshot of the real time clock.
To add a ROM to the Current Roms List (NOR flash), move down on the directional pad and select the ROM, which will be highlighted blue, and press the A-button. You will be presented with the screen above. In the screen above, you can change (I think) the size of the save file size. To do so you press up and down. To delete the last written ROM written to the Current Roms List area, move to the Delete button via pressing left or right on the directional pad and then pressing the A-button. You can not delete them at random. They need to be deleted in the order they are written to the Current Roms List area, but in the LIFO order. In order to exit this menu, press the Select button on your GBA. This will bring you back to the Path menu.
After selecting a ROM to add and also possibly ROMs you want to delete in the Current Rom List, you will need to confirm you really want to go ahead with this procedure.
Whether or not you chose to deleted any ROMs or only chose to add a ROM file, you will see the erasing procedure shown above. The delete procedure mentioned above is not instantaneous. You need to actually select a ROM to write to the Current Rom List area and confirm the changes before it will actually delete it and add whatever ROM image you had just selected.
The picture above shows the newly selected ROM file writing to the Current Rom List area. When it is done, you will be back in the Path menu. Press left or right in the Path menu and to enter the Current ROM list and then select a ROM to play.
Backing Up Game Saves
To back up the game saves of game, first power on your GBA and go to the Current ROM List area, which is default, and select the game with saves that you want to back up for future use. Hit the SELECT button and choose the option that says Back Saver. The next screen should give you the option for naming the save. The directional pad moves your cursor, the A-button selects the current character on the pick-keyboard, and the B-button deletes. When you are done, hit START. It will be saved to a .SAV file in your Path:\ menu under the directory (folder) SAVEFILE.
Restoring Game Saves
Select the Path:\ menu by pressing left or right on your directional pad and press down the select the SAVEFILE folder. Once you are in there, select the SAV file you want to apply to your game and then hit the SELECT button. On the menu that appears, select Saver OP and press the A-button. The next menu shows you the Current ROMS List folder, but it will be called Saver OP instead and it lists the games you want to restore the saves to. Select the appropriate game and then press the SELECT button, and then select Update saver. The menu will disappear when it is done. You can select your game now to play. The gamesaves should now appear back in your game.
Resetting the EFA II
There appears to be two ways to reset the EFA II. I am not sure what the proper names are, that is, I am not sure which one is considered a hard reset and which one is considered a soft reset.
- I assume this is considered the soft reset. It resets the GBA game to the game's boot up logo. To activate, press and hold down the A button, B button, SELECT, START buttons all the together and then let go.
- Hard reset: This will reset the system back to the EFA II menus. To perform this, press and hold down the R-trigger, A-button, B-button, SELECT and START buttons all together.
The resets do not seem to work with PocketNES or DrSMS. I assume this is true for other emulators as well as the keybindings / trappings are probably different.
EFA II / EFA Cable
Here's a shot of the connector used for the EFAII / EFA carts. Someone mentioned it was a mini USB, type B connector, but so far, it has not been proven yet. All pictures found so far have not proven that it is the same thing as a mini USB type-B plug.
DS Homebrew Limitations
The EFA II has a loader menu for GBA roms that cannot be removed. This means that it doesn't work with DS homebrew or pirate roms without a clunky workaround that requires access to a PC with a USB slot. See this GBATemp review for more details.
About this Page and the Images
The original write-up is available at deww's Very Basic EFA II Guide. Thanks to the folks especially accolon at Pocketheaven, in specific, accolon, for providing me with information and for this Wiki, and a special thanks to Titney for helping me out. All the images, save the screenshots, are created by deww. You have permissions to freely redistribute and/or modify this entire document, including all the images, but only if you host the entire document on your own (i.e., do not hotlink the images from the original site). If you plan to reuse/reproduce this any part of this documentation, in part or as a whole, crediting the original source would be nice, but is not required.
Links
- Official EFA site
- Unofficial Firmware Hack - Adds better english support
- Pocket NES Site
- DrSMS SiteProject has been, unfortunately, discontinued.
