SuperCard v2.0 Review

Written by Brakken
August 2005

(click here for the newer review)
Introduction

The SuperCard has been an inexpensive high-quality development/backup booting solution for the Game Boy Advance (GBA) for some time now, but due to manufacturers’ lack of advertising and competition spreading misinformation not many people have known about this invaluable flash cart.

Taking a unique approached to its storage medium, the Super Card v2 uses Secure Digital (SD) memory cards instead of expensive proprietary internal memory chips which in turn will save you a large quantity of money and will also give you more storage space.

When comparing the average price of a 1Gb (gigabit) flash cart to the price of the SuperCard with a 1GB (gigabyte) SD card you save yourself around one hundred dollars and end up with eight times the amount of storage space. (Gb/GB info)

Recently the SuperCard team has added Nintendo DS (NDS) support to their hardware (for free) which only requires you to use a solution, such as PassMe or FlashMe to redirect NDS code from the GBA slot to the NDS slot. This adds much value to the unit especially if you already own a SuperCard v1. Moreover adding NDS support is as simply as upgrading the onboard BIOS.

Contents of the Package

The SuperCard comes in decent mid-grade branded cardboard packaging which inside you will find the flash cart and an 8cm software disc. The flash cart is very sturdy as it’s made from high-grade plastic and features a spring release mechanism for inserting and ejecting the SD card. Unlike the SuperCard v1 the removable media fits snug into the cart and does not hang out.

Installation

First I looked over the installation disc, read the instructions, visited their webpage and searched through the forums. I find doing your homework on a new product before attempting to operate it can save you and others much frustration, time and the occasional migraine headache.

If you’re starting with a new SD card right out of its packaging you will want to make sure it has been formatted with the FAT16 file system and if it hasn’t this is the first thing you should do.

Secondly you must prepare certain files so they can be loaded via the SuperCard’s operating system, but before I did this I realized the OS on the disc was not the most current so I downloaded the newest one from SuperCard’s homepage.

Some files require conversion and some do not so I installed the right applications to get this done with which were the SuperCard GBA, Movie Maker, and Movie Player files. Each program installed smoothly and is easily operable.

I tried the SuperCard GBA conversion program first, but it froze when I tried to convert archives even though they are supported format under the applications file selection box. So to remedy this I unzipped the files and then it worked putting the newly patched and converted .GBA, .SAV and .SCI files into the directory I specified. There are a few options you can select before conversion which will let you use the saver patch, in game restart, cheat codes and real time save functions. Additionally you can have the converter compress the output images to save you storage space.

Now that the GBA images were done I moved on to converting various media files. First I converted an mpeg file three times using the low, medium and high quality settings and then converted a couple of MP3 files*. The conversion time was quick, but due to the programs design I was unable to convert large media files as you limited to 512Mb.

Next it was time to prepare some NDS demos and games for the SuperCard which luckily only required you to rename any filename.ds.gba files to filename.nds and if they are already named .nds then just leave them.

Third I rounded up some images for the various built in emulators, which did now need to be converted, uncompressed them and copied them over to the SD card. Unfortunately you cannot directly link your GBA, GBA SP and/or NDS to the computer so you must rely on using an external SD card reader/writer which luckily my printer had one built in.

After I plugged in the SD card (which you access like a normal removable drive under Windows) I simply created a directory structure and put the various files I have prepared onto the card and then waited a while for them to be written. Copying 600 megabytes takes a while, but much faster then writing to a normal flash cart (if they ever supported this much data to begin with.)

Usage – GameBoy Advance Mode

The first thing to do was to test this device in GBA mode so for now I left my PassMe solution out of the equation and booted the NDS. I was greeted with a menu which let me select which file I would like to boot. Everything was working smoothly so far as it read the directory and let me browse through the various files. Sadly due to unknown issues you can only store 64 images per directory.

I explored the GUI a bit, going through its various menu options, which were pretty basic and then decided to boot the BIOS upgrade file. Once I did the SuperCard verified the file was legit and then displayed a menu with the current and the version you’re trying to upgrade to and asked you if you want to proceed. I picked yes and after a short period of time the BIOS was upgraded.

After this, loaded one of the Game Boy advance games and there was a brief loading time which as I count is around 1 1/2 seconds per megabyte. Once it was loaded it booted just fine and I went exploring around the game and started to test the various functions the SuperCard offers.

The first option I tried was the Real Time Save (RTS) feature which worked great. It is a very handy feature to have for portable gaming as sometimes you’ll find yourself in a situation where you have to either turn the system off or sit it down and hope the battery does not run out. To say the least it saved and loaded the game perfectly.

Next after making my way to the first save point and saving I dumped the SRAM (Saved Game Data) to the cart. To save the life of the SD card you must manually backup the SRAM once you have saved in your game so do not forget to do this if you do not plan on using the RTS feature. When you turn off your SuperCard and then reload the game it will automatically read the SRAM from the SD card so you do not have to load it manually.

After this came the cheat system and it was straight forward. Just select the cheats you wish to use and return to the game and now you’re a lamer who can blast his or her way through the game without having to actually think.

The only negative aspect I experienced when playing the game is when there was massive background layer and sprite movement as the game itself slowed down a bit, but not nearly as bad as slowdown back in the day that plagued NES and SNES games. To remedy this I rebuild the GBA images without using all of the SuperCard's extra functions and there was no slowdown at all.

Usage – Nintendo DS Mode

Now it came time to test the SuperCard in Nintendo DS mode. So I inserted the hardware PassMe I purchased from dsPassMe along with the Metroid Prime Hunters Demo Cart then turned on the system. I was greeted by a SuperCard logo on the bottom screen and then the normal interface from the GBA on the top screen.

The first thing I tried the load was Darkain’s Multi-NDS loader which failed to boot. After this I tried to run an original .NDS demo and it too failed to boot. Third I tried to run the various .NDS roms I had renamed from .ds.gba and they all worked perfectly. So it seems that loading just plane .NDS files does not work at this point in time.

Lastly dealing with the NDS loading I tried some backups which also failed to boot. To remedy this I inserted a game into the PassMe which contained its own SRAM (as Metroid doesn’t) and the retail games loaded and worked fine.

Usage – Emulators

Now I moved on to its other features first of which was the built in emulators and media playback functionality. Currently the v1.50 BIOS uses built in versions of ~Goomba (GameBoy Mono/GameBoy Color), PocketNES (NES), PCEAdvance (PC-Engine/Turbo Graphix 16), and DrSMS (Sega Master System/Game Gear) so it’s emulation functions and a copy of the GBA Media Playing utility for movie, music and e-book viewing functions.

The first emulator I tried was Goomba and it worked great, featured excellent compatibility, sound, control. Sadly it lacked full screen support and was missing complete GBC support (color palette). Due to the GBC restrictions games that have been coded to only work on the GBC itself will not run.

The version of PocketNES it uses (v9.97) was never a final version so it did contain some sound bugs, but ran mostly anything I tried loading without issues. It’s too bad you cannot update the emulators yourself as this would be a great feature to have so you can always have the latest builds installed. If you’re going to use your SuperCard to play NES games I would suggest you use your own rom compilation you can make with the latest version of PocketNES and it’s image creating utility.

Next I tried Dr. SMS and the sound was tolerable, but it did not sale the screen and ran a bit slow. After pressing select I found its menu screen and was able to adjust the screen size and change its speed which fixed both of those issues. You can also save and load your game using this menu, but of course make sure like with the GBA games once you save it in the game to save the SRAM onto the SD card itself.

Lastly I tried the PC engine emulator, but it failed to boot anything I threw at it. Possibly it has been broken in the new firmware upgrade, but I have been unable to verify this.

Usage – Media Playback

Next it was time to test the media playback functions. I would suggest putting the media player binary in the root folder, running it from there and then selecting the file you wish to view.

As I mentioned above I used all three conversion settings for the mpeg video. The lowest setting produced horrible video/sound quality, but it did playback without lagging at all. I would recommend using the medium setting as the video/sound quality is better and would stay away from the highest setting as it skips (lags) during playback.

The MP3 playback sounded great and works just like any other normal MP3 playing device, but it lacked bass so I would suggest using another solution such as MoonShell which is a free multi-media player for the NDS which features better compatibility and higher quality playback functions

Lastly I tested the text reader inside of the media player and it works really good so hopefully I’ll be able to finish up some technical reading I’ve been meaning to do.

Positives

Uses Hi-Capacity Inexpensive Non-Proprietary Media
GBA and Nintendo DS Compatibility
Boot NDS Homebrew and Backups
Product Price and Quality
Ease of Use
Built in Emulators
Built in Media Center
Free BIOS Updates

Negatives

Initial Loading Times
Minor Slowdown in GBA Games
Pre-Conversion of Some Media Types
Inability to Boot normal .nds Files
Limitation on Multi-Media Sizes
PCE / TG16 Emulator Not Functioning

Suggestions

Update Emulators Manually
Use More Then Fifty Files per Directory
Release the Retail ROM Patcher Soon!

Links

SuperCard's Homepage

Worldwide Distributer and Wholesaler
FlashME Homepage
PassMe Creator's Homepage
PassMe Distributer

Goomba
PocketNES
Dr.SMS
PCE Advance
MoonShell

Research and Editing Team

mithos, softdev, #dsdev and furre

-=[ SuperCard v2 Discussion Thread ]=-

Revision 0

Resources: ¹http://www.sdcard.org, ²http://www.serverwatch.com/tutorials/article.php/2239651