EZ Flash/FAQ

General FAQ
Welcome! This FAQ seeks to answer the random questions that often get asked on the Sosuke forums. Hopefully it will serve as a resource to new and experienced users alike.

The questions
Where can I get commercial games? For legality reasons, users of the Sosuke forums cannot help you find these sites. However, many people use search engines to find games.

What's homebrew? Homebrew is software that is made by users (instead of Nintendo or a commercial developer).

ROM Trimming
What's ROM trimming? ROM trimming is the process of removing garbage data from commercial games to decrease their size. This makes them more easily transferred (since they are smaller, they can be copied more quickly) and allows a person to fit more on their MicroSD card.

Why do ROMS need to be trimmed? Basically, Nintendo sells game cards in 16MB, 32MB, 64MB, and 128MB capacities. Games don't typically use every last bit of that space- if a game is 18MB at completion (e.x. Trauma Center: Under the Knife), the developer must buy a 32MB card and leave 14MB as wasted.

This unused space is padded with "F"s in hexadecimal. While ROMS are distributed with this excess space filled, it's a waste of space for a flash cart user. Trimmers remove this unused data.

What is a safe trim? Early trimmers cut off as much space as possible. This, however, broke "download play" (single cart host, others select download play from the DS menu) and WiFi in many games. "Safe" trimmers are careful to not trim the RSA area that breaks download play or any WiFi related data.

3-in-1 questions
What is the 3-in-1, anyways??? The 3-in-1 is an add on cartridge that fits into slot-2 (the GBA slot) of the Nintendo DS/DS Lite. It adds rumble support, RAM support for the Opera Browser and Homebrew, and GBA ROM support.

Does the rumble pack work with original game cartridges? No.

Does the rumble pack work with commercial ROMS? Yes, natively.

'''Why isn't my game rumbling? The game has rumble support and the 3-in-1 is plugged in...''' Make sure that you tap the "GBALink On" text on the EZ-Flash menu so it changes to "Rumble On" before starting your game. Otherwise, check to see if you have a good connection. It's possible, though rare, to recieve a bad 3-in-1.

I have an EZ-Flash V. Do I need to do anything special? No. The EZ-Flash V natively supports the 3-in-1.

'I don't have an EZ V, I have a (competing flash cart)''. How do I make it work?'' A few carts, like the CycloDS evolution, include native 3-in-1 support. Most will require homebrew applications to use the 3-in-1.

EZ-Flash V features
Does the EZ-Flash V support MicroSD cards above 2 gigabytes/SDHC? Currently, the answer is no. The EZ-Flash supports the SD standard, which tops 2GB. There are non-SDHC 4GB cards, but they are rare, expensive, nonstandard, quirky, and generally bad.

This doesn't mean that the EZ-Flash V will never support SDHC. Many competing cards use the same ProAsic 3 logic chip as the EZ-Flash V. If the SD reading is controlled by that chip (and the team chooses to do so), it is possible that SDHC support may be added in the future.

Does the EZ-Flash V support 100% download play? No, the EZ-Flash can support download play if games or untrimmed or safe trimmed and otherwise unmodified in certain games. Some games may/will not work. It's possible that the EZ-Team is working on this.