EZ Flash IV Lite Review

Written by Brakken
October 2006

Introduction

Hot off the heels of their previous Nintendo DS development and backup unit the EZ Flash IV Company presents to you their EZ Flash IV Lite. This small cartridge which takes removable MicroSD media has been specifically designed to work with (and only with) the newly released Nintendo DS Lite handheld video gaming console. The purpose of the EZ Flash IV is to let you run your own code and backup images and it does the job well. Read on to see if this little guy is right for you.

Features

Small Form Factor
MicroSD Card Interface
Internal Updatable Kernel
Run Homebrew and Backups
256Mb PSRAM (32 Mbytes)
384Mb NorFLASH (48Mbytes)
32Mb Loader (4 Mbytes)
8Mb saver SRAM (1Mbyte)
Bundled with the MoonShell Multi-Media Player

Contents

EZ Flash IV Lite Cartridge
EZ SD Card Reader (USB v2.0)
USB Extension Cable (34 inch)
Light Blue Casing
Black Casing
Stickers (2 pc)

The EZ Flash IV Lite comes complete with a SD Card Reader, USB Extension Cable, two extra colored encasings and two stickers for the casings. The EZ Flash IV Lite comes prefitted inside a white casing, but you can place it into the black or light blue easily by removing one screw (although removing the screw will void your warranty).

If you’re going to be changing the casing make sure you are grounded and not to touch the EZ Flash IV’s integrated components on the circuit board. For god sakes, don’t lose the screw – took me 2 hours to find it!

The USB based SD Card reader is handy if you don’t already own one. SD Card? Yeah, you’ll only be able to write to normal sized SD Cards using the reader, but luckily mostly all of the MicroSD cards on the market come with a MicroSD to full sized SD converter so this shouldn’t be a problem at all. It’s a nice addition as these things in the store range from $10-$20. Take it as a bonus!

Installation

The EZ Flash IV is the next generation of units that have been created for the Nintendo DS Lite only. To make up for the size you’ll be required to use the MicroSD card. These really are small flashcards come in a variety of sizes with up to 1GB at the time of this review.

Installing the EZ Flash IV Lite simply requires you to insert your preloaded MicroSD card into the unit and then you plug it into the GBA port in your Nintendo DS. Of course to actually boot the device you’ll need a compatible PassMe solution.

Preloaded? Yeah, you’re going to have to find and use the EZ Flash IV PC side software to convert any game images you may be in possession of to a format the device can understand. For some odd reason the EZ Flash Company decided not to include any type of documentation or software with the device. To make matters worse they didn’t even include their website location! Google to the rescue!

Once I located their page the software was a few clicks away. (It’s located in their Forums). In addition to their software suite I also downloaded the latest kernel (firmware/bios/operating system) version for the device. It’s best to keep it up to date by flashing the kernel as often as it comes out. Well, at least with this company’s device. I can’t say the same for some other companies whom release buggy and dysfunctional upgrades.

I also found something interesting in their forums by the name of the EZPDA ROMBuilder. This small program is essentially used to create themes for the GBA mode loader. A very cool addition as being able to customize your device is always a good thing.

One last thing I found on their forums was a modified version of the MoonShell media player. This is an essential program if you’re going to be running homebrew on the Nintendo DS. Using MoonShell (currently they have ported v1.3) you can view, listen to and watch multimedia files including MP3 and DGP (video) files. I’ll get to this later in the review.

Once I had all of the files I needed I began to prepare the MicroSD card with the media files I am going to test out. First of all I extracted the EZ Client to a directory (there is no installation file) and created a shortcut to it. After running the program I was presented with a very basic yet clean interface. The first thing I did was go into the Configuration menu and set the output directory to the MicroSD card’s assigned drive letter. One also has the ability to change the programs skinnable interface.

Once this is done I selected a few images to write to the card and proceeded to do so. Using my own card reader and USB v2.0 interface I was able to write one image in less then thirty seconds. Great speed for media that is so small! I also directly copied over some more homebrew titles without conversion to see how good the compatibility is. Wait, I’m not done yet. I also copied over some multimedia files (such as MP3, DPG, Text, Jpegs) to see how well the current modified version of MoonShell works.

To convert video for use within MoonShell you will need to run the DPG Encoder which supports a wide variety of input file types including AVI, MPEG and DiVX. Encoding doesn’t take too long and leaves you with a much smaller file. The DPG Encoder isn’t located with the rest of the files on the EZ Flash website, but you can easily find it using a link I provided at the end of this review.

The last bit of installation was the initial startup and flashing of the Loader. You'll want to make sure to do this to keep up to date. All you do to upgrade the Loader is to place the updated file in the root directory (folder) of your MicroSD card, press a button combination at startup and then wait a little bit while it flashes itself onto the EZ Flash IV.

Usage

Once I had my MicroSD card packed full of all sorts of stuff I proceeded to stick the tiny card into the EZ Flash IV and turn the Nintendo DS on. After a brief screen that loaded up so fast I couldn’t read it vanish one appeared that told me there was a FAT error. Next I proceeded to enter the Main Menu, but had to fix the FAT issue first. FAT or File Allocation Table is a type of format you can store your data on. So I proceeded to use Window’s Disk Management Tool to format it from FAT32 to FAT16 (in the tool it says "FAT" and that is FAT16).

One really annoying part about having to format the MicroSD card was the fact I had to remove it from the EZ Flash IV! Yeah, you’d figure this would be an easy operation, but after finding a small knife to wedge it out I was able to remove it. The designers did leave room to remove it (it’s not spring based), but not enough for me to remove without the need for a small tool. On a more positive note - one good thing about the EZ Flash IV Lite is the fact (unlike one of its competitors) it is a snap to insert and remove it from the Nintendo DS Lite.

Formatting the MicroSD card to FAT16 worked out well and now the EZ Flash IV Lite booted into its Loader (previously known as Kernel – commonly referred to as BIOS and/or Operating System) which gives you access to a stylus and button controlled menu system which starts off at default in the file listing menu. From here you can browse the contents of your MicroSD card and run them. The files are listed using the LFN (long filename) format and scroll so you can read the entire name of the file.

First I wanted to test its backup functionality so I tested a few titles. Games automatically load so there is no waiting period for them to load. Barely any slowdown was present in either GameBoy Advance or Nintendo DS mode. I even gave it the old Castlevania FMV (Full Motion Video) test and there was a tiny bit of slowdown and the sound was a little distorted. Overall I was pleased with the gaming aspect of the console.

In addition to the excellent playback and compatibility of games the saving and loading of the save game data is also executed very well. Once you’ve saved in your game you’re going need to reboot your console in a timely fashion. After you reboot it will write a save file in a subdirectory under the root of the MicroSD card named “SAVER”. This makes it easy to backup your saved data to your computer for safe keeping. Unfortunately, you can only have one save game per title unless you feel like copying files all of the time.

Next I wanted to test out the EZ Flash IV Lite’s ability to run homebrew files. So I downloaded a handful and ran them. I soon found out that you cannot execute (run) .nds files as only .ds.gba formatted homebrew would work. In addition to that – most authors haven’t included the EZ Flash IV’s FATLIB into their code so this leaves you with poor compatibility. This could all change in the future if the EZ Flash Team releases an updated Loader.

So far it’s going pretty well. Let us test the GameBoy Advance mode. There is no option to boot into GBA mode from the Main Menu so I had to do so via the Nintendo DS startup screen. After a rather reddish background loaded up (the Darth Vader theme) I got an error box with some sort of message in it and the console froze.

I guess they need to do some work in that department. Why? The GBA mode had its own Book (text) Reader, Game Launcher and Mini Game. I’m not sure why it’s not working, but hopefully it will be fixed as time goes on.

Conclusion

When all is said and done the EZ Flash IV Lite, like its predecessor is a very stable device. Also, including a SD Card reader in the package is a sure bonus. Of course the lack of documentation may make it difficult for someone to use the device. It may have a few issues, but hopefully overtime they will be remedied.

  

Negatives

MicroSD Card Hard to Remove
Lack of Documentation (or URL)
Poor Homebrew Compatibility
GBA Loader Errors

Positives

Easy to Operate
Great Backup Compatibility
Standard Save Game Support

Links

EZ Flash Website
EZ Flash Compatibility List
Shop@01Media - Official Worldwide ReSeller

Download DGP Tools



-=[ EZ Flash IV Lite Review Discussion Thread ]=-

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Nintendo DS Flash Carts also known as "Development and/or Backup" units are intended for expansion of the Nintendo DS's abilities including running "homebrew" software which is created by amateur unlicensed developers. Homebrew is totally free and legal to use as long as you follow the licensing agreement that comes with each title. Homebrew comes in many forms, but most "Flash Carts" come with homebrew that allows you to listen to music, watch movies, read books and look at pictures. These flash carts also let you run other homebrew titles. The use of homebrew does not infringe on Nintendo's or any of it's related companies rights. Flash Carts also allow you to make and playback backups of original and third party games for safe keeping purposes. Making backups of your data is also a non-infringing action. However, it is illegal to download and play ROM images of games you do not personally own. ISO-420 Reviews and TehSkeen.com do not encourage using Flash Carts in any illegal manner and do not endorse or condone users to "pirate" ROM files. Please support game companies and their developers by purchasing your games.