(Pre-emptive) Frequently Asked Questions
Download
Useful Links
Changes
Final Notes
General Information
The Extreme Flash Advance II (EFAII)™ is one of many Gameboy Advance™ flash cart packages available on the market, which allow the loading of both backup dumps of commercial games (commercial ROM files), and custom coded games (public domain / private ROM files).The package is sold as a GBA™ developer's kit, enabling one to develop games for both the GBA™ and, through the use of specialised hardware such as a DS PassMe™ device, Nintendo DS™. Unfortunately, the EFAII™'s loader program (the interface through which the devices current ROM set is accessed) had a fairly weakly worded English menu. I found myself somewhat frustrated with this, and have taken it upon myself to help with the wording inasmuch as I am able.
I am not looking to make money off of this modification. I simply hope that it may be useful to all users of this device, and I hope that it will help encourage others to contribute to the community as a whole by coming out with new and entertaining GBA™ and NDS™ games.
FAQ
- Why did you do this?
- How do I use the English hack?
- From which ROM version was this software created?
- Does EFA™ endorse this hack?
- Some of the wording seems a bit awkward. Why is this?
- Where can I obtain this update?
- How do I open the file offered?
- Will this work with a cart other than the Extreme Flash Advance II™ 1Gb?
- Will this cause damage to or otherwise disable my EFA-II™ flash cart?
- Will there be any further updates to this hack?
I rather like the EFA-II™ flash cart, and I know a large number of
other people do as well. It's one of the better-made GBA™ carts out
there, and quality deserves reward. I figured, the best way I could
repay the enjoyment I'm deriving from this cart is to make it so that
even more people can enjoy the product without having a difficult time
understanding what's going on.
You upload the up253.874 file to your EFA-II™ cart, just as with the
normal flash procedure. The file will auto-patch just as with the
normal update to the client.
V1.004, or more specifically, the copy of V1.004 that is available at the Jandaman™ website.
The file that is available at the Jandaman™ site, and the file that I
downloaded from the EFA™ website differed, though they claimed to be
the same version. The Jandaman™ copy worked on my cart, whereas the
EFA™ copy did not.
As of the writing of this page, no. I will be making the EFA™ team
aware of this hack shortly after this FAQ is finished, as well as
making my hack public, and hope that the rewording will be of use to
the team, in terms of helping future generations of the Loader software
be more friendly to users who only know English, but as of this writing
(2006/02/16), the EFA™ team does not know of, nor endorse this hack.
Update (2007/04/06): The EFA™ page now links to this site as 'FAQ'. While this is not official endorsement of the hack, it is fairly ample proof that the EFA™ team does not object to it.
Update (2007/04/06): The EFA™ page now links to this site as 'FAQ'. While this is not official endorsement of the hack, it is fairly ample proof that the EFA™ team does not object to it.
I do not have access to the Loader program's source code, and the
strings used in the program are of an arbritrary length. Some of the
strings were padded with space (0x20) characters, whereas some were
terminated at the end. There seemed to be no pattern to this. If the
strings were terminated and then the ROM was changed to make the
strings longer, it would cause some fairly nasty problems, most likely
involving memory addresses referenced being incorrect. Needless to say,
I did my best with what I was able, but in the end I valued the ROM
working over precise wording. If you can think of a better way to word
something in the same number of characters that I used (many of the
strings went right up to the termination character!), please feel free
to tell me at hagios(-at-)hagios(-dot-)org.
Head on down to the download section of the page.
The file is in a format most commonly known as a 'tarball.' The popular program, WinRAR
has built-in support for .tar.gz files. Both linux and Mac OSX users
need not download anything to open the file. Simply run 'tar -xzf
<filename>' to extract the update.
This will not work with the first-generation EFA™ carts (purple carts).
This was made for the EFAII™ 1Gb cart, which to the best of my
knowledge is the only blue cart that EFA™ makes currently. I could be
wrong in this, though. Make sure that you aren't going to damage your
cart or accidentally lose information before even thinking about
flashing your cartridge!
I do not know! I can say, though, that I am using this hack
myself and it has caused no problems. The cartridge works the same as
it did with the normal V1.004 Loader.
It is noteworthy that in the event of a bad flash, more times than not the cartridge's functionality can be recovered by re-flashing the cart with the Loader software from the EFA™ site.
Regardless, this software is offered "as is" and offers no warrantee of usability, safety, or any other trait, express or implied. I am not responsible for any damage this software may or may not cause to your GBA™/varient, DS™, EFA-II™ flash cart, computer, or anything else.
It's very likely. I'm happy with the updates that I've done so far, and
feel they make the EFAII™ more useful, but I'm by no means satisfied
with the end result. I plan on doing everything I can to make the
english as clear as it can be. If Fly (either the owner and proprieter
of EFA™, or else the public frontman for the same. I'm not entirely
clear as to what his official role is, but he's obviously someone who
is involved with the project on the whole) is willing, I'd be more than
happy to work with him on making the english as clear as I'm sure the
Chinese menus are (While I speak a small amount of Japanese, I speak no
Chinese, and have great difficulty reading the latter).
Download
The EFA-II™ loader V1.004 with english hack can be obtained here.Useful Links
| EFA™ Support Forum | This is probably the most useful link that I can give. This forum is almost entirely made up of owners of EFA™ and EFA-II™ flash carts, and is a great source of knowledge. |
| Jandaman's Import Videogame Accessories |
Jandaman's website is both where I bought my flash cart, and where I
obtained the copy of the V1.004 Loader that works with my cart (as
mentioned above, the version available on EFA™'s website does not work
for some unknown reason, whereas the Jandaman copy does.) The original
decision to go with Jandaman's was due to their Reseller Ratings profile, and now I can quite happily and readily reccomend the website to any who may wish to buy an EFAII™ GBA™ dev-kit.
A direct link to the EFAII™ information and purchase page can be found here. |
Changes
Detailed below are the changes I've made to the Loader ROM. Please note that many of these strings are padded with space (0x20) characters at the end, and as such the Original and New string will appear to be of different length. This is not the case, though, when considering the data stored in the ROM.Also, please note that any change with the address in bold signifies that the original string had spaces preceding any text that caused the string to display awkwardly in the Loader, and that this has been fixed, though it would be difficult to convey the difference via HTML.
| Address | Original String | New String |
|---|---|---|
| 0x00FB96 | Update saver | Restore Save |
| 0x00FBA3 | Back saver | Write save |
| 0x00FBC2 | Erase cart | Format |
| 0x00FC0A | Saver OP | Restore |
| 0x00FD45 | Now begin Erasing | Flashing memory. |
| 0x00FD75 | Write over | Overwrite |
| 0x00FE39 | Write Rom or NOT | Write this ROM? |
| 0x00FE7B | A To select file to operate | A selects a file to copy to NOR |
| 0x00FE9C | SELECT to enter option | SELECT enters the option menu. |
| 0x00FEBD | Left OR Right enter Rom list | Left and right view NOR memory |
| 0x00FEDE | Up and Down to select file | Up and down select a file |
| 0x00FEFF | R Show the current time | R shows the current time |
| 0x00FF20 | L Show the online help | L shows this help. |
| 0x00FFE8 | A To enter rom with hardreset | A starts ROM with hard reset. |
| 0x010012 | B To enter rom with softreset | B starts ROM with soft reset. |
| 0x010034 | SELECT to enter option | SELECT enters the option menu. |
| 0x01004C | Left OR right enter Disk list | Left and right view NAND memory |
| 0x010075 | Up and Down to select file | Up and down select a file. |
| 0x010096 | L Show the online help | L shows this help. |
| 0x010167 | A To confirm the operation | A confirms selected function. |
| 0x010188 | B To refresh list | B refreshes current NOR memory |
| 0x0101A9 | Left OR Right select operation | Left and right select function. |
| 0x0101CA | Up & Down to select saver size | Up and down select savefile size |
| 0x0101EB | SELECT to quit to Disk list | SELECT aborts to file list. |
| 0x01020C | L Show the online help | L shows this help. |
| 0x0102DE | A To switch the stat of cheat | A toggles the cheat status. |
| 0x0102FE | Up & Down to select cheat item | Up and down select current cheat |
| 0x010320 | SELECT to quit to Rom list | SELECT exits cheat menu. |
| 0x010342 | START to confirm & entern ROM | START confirms and starts ROM. |
| 0x010363 | L Show the online help | L shows this help. |
Final Notes
I have no problem with people mirroring this FAQ or the hack proper. I do ask, though, that if you do so, please link back to this page. I may update the information or hack, and as my schedule can be unpredictable there's no timeframe to check back, and I can't keep track of who all has anything here mirrored.I do not own the software offered here. The software is a modification to the Loader software offered by the EFA™ group.