Special
thanks to
For providing the sample for this review
– Introduction –
With slot 1 carts being extremely popular
in this day and age, many users fill the slot 2 of their
Nintendo DS with a dust cover. It seems like a waste to put a
piece of plastic and an empty circuit board into a slot with so
much potential.
Sometime a while back, the EZ Flash team
added an expansion pack to ship in a bundle with their EZ Flash
V flash cart. It revolutionized the market. With the expansion
pack, the EZ Flash 3 in 1, their slot 1 component was able to
run older Gameboy Advance games, run the Opera Web Browser, and
they also included a rumble pack. Initially this expansion pack
could only be used with the EZ Flash V, but it was not long
before some homebrew projects managed to utilize the EZ Flash 3
in 1 with all slot 1 carts.
With these programs, the EZ Flash 3 in 1
started selling quite quickly, practically everyone had one.
The EZ Flash team even started to sell it individually. Of
course, there was no way other companies would allow the EZ
Flash team to monopolize these expansion packs.
The eWin GBA Expansion Pak is eWin’s
affordable solution to Gameboy Advance games on the Nintendo DS
Lite. As a bonus, it also includes RAM for the Nintendo DS Web
Browser. Unlike the EZ Flash 3 in 1, it supports clean roms,
and the homebrew program it uses to run games is created
officially by the eWin team.
eWin team is fairly well known for their professional
products.
– Design –
The eWin GBA Expansion Pak came in a box
extremely similar to the eWin Rumble Pak box. There aren’t many
words on the package, nor is there too much color. It looks
very professionally done, using simple pictures and a few words
to describe the contents.
Nothing fancy, just a box, a tray, and the cart.
Inside the box is a clear plastic tray
holding the eWin GBA Expansion Pak. When I took it out and held
it in my hands, it is very light, but the casing is very
impressive. The two parts of the eWin GBA Expansion Pak close
together tightly, the entire expansion pack has crisp edges and
looks very much like the dust cover.
It uses the same tray as the one shipped with the eWin Rumble
Pak.
The eWin GBA Expansion Pak has a great
sticker on the front of it. It is probably one of the most
professional stickers I have ever seen, other than the similar
sticker found on the eWin Rumble Pak. It could even pass as an
official Nintendo product.
The case of the eWin GBA Expansion Pak fits
into the DS Lite very smoothly. It is definitely smoother than
most Lite sized products, but still far from attaining the
properties of the official Dust Cover. Either way, it fits
perfectly flush inside the DS Lite, however, it does not have a
glossy layer at the top. It doesn’t matter because even though
I have a Navy Blue eWin GBA Expansion Pak, it still looks
perfect inside my Onyx Black DS Lite.
It slides in and out of the DS Lite very smoothly.
– Software –
One of the critical advantages the eWin GBA
Expansion Pak has over the EZ Flash 3 in 1 is that it supports
clean GBA roms. There is no longer the need to patch the file
beforehand on the computer because the homebrew software bundled
with the eWin GBA Expansion Pak patches the games automatically.
The homebrew software used to input GBA
roms into the eWin GBA Expansion Pak is designed by the eWin
team themselves, and it works flawlessly together with the eWin
GBA Expansion Pak.
The loader is simplistic, but it is easy to use.
– Use –
There are two different parts to the eWin
GBA Expansion Pak. The first part is the extra RAM used for the
Opera Web Browser. The problem with the RAM is that the pack
has to be completely clean of GBA roms and properly formatted
into the RAM mode for a clean Opera Web Browser to work. This
takes about four or five seconds to do, but you do need to boot
your slot 1 cart, run the eWin GBALDR file and click L+R. Other
than the R4, you have to reset back to the menu with a hard
reset, actually physically turning the system on then off before
you can use the Opera Web Browser. Thankfully, if you don’t
touch the expansion pack, you can continue to use the Opera Web
Browser without the need to format later on.
This is probably all you need to know about the homebrew
program.
The second part of the eWin GBA Expansion
Pak is the GBA section. Basically eWin team has designed a
piece of homebrew software that allows you to patch GBA roms and
run it directly from your slot 1 cart. It uses DLDI, therefore,
theoretically, all DLDI-capable slot 1 carts are able to use the
homebrew software. Upon running the software, you will notice
that it is extremely simplistic, you simply direct yourself to
the rom and click A to run. If you want to use NDS-GBA Linkage
you click Y to soft-reset after running the game, or even do a
quick hard-reset to get this function.
– Functionality –
The eWin GBA Expansion Pak does not
disappoint. Every GBA game I threw in there worked and saved,
however, there are reports of a few games with save issues. I
was unable to locate these games, however I was able to find the
eWin official forum, which has addressed a few of these games,
and even had updates to the loader.
I can finally play some of my favorite GBA games again.
Running GBA games from slot 1 requires
patching and burning. Generally a 128Mbit rom takes 15 second
to patch, and about 7 seconds to write onto the cart. All other
sizes are factors and multiples of this time. Keep in mind that
the eWin GBA Expansion Pak only needs to patch a rom once.
However, their memory is volatile, unlike the EZ Flash 3 in 1,
meaning that you must write the rom onto the cart upon every use
because it will erase after you power off. Thankfully your save
files are kept separately.
The Opera Web Browser works fine with a
clean rom if you use the eWin GBALDR file by click L+R. But
another solution to ensure that it works at all times is simply
to use the Supercard Opera Web Browser patch. Once you have
patched the Opera Web Browser, you will no longer need to have a
completely clean and formatted eWin GBA Expansion Pak to run it.
On a side note, while I was testing this
cart, I had it mixed up with my M3DS Real GBA Expansion Pack,
and it seems that the M3DS Real and the G6DS Real will recognize
the eWin GBA Expansion Pak as their own expansion pack, but the
M3DS Real GBA Expansion Pack does not work with the eWin GBALDR
software. Perhaps G6DS Real users need not wait for the M3 Team
to release their expansion pack in a standalone packaging as
they can simply purchase the eWin GBA Expansion Pak.
Why does it work with the M3DS Real?
They even have similar names!
– Conclusion –
The eWin GBA Expansion Pak has proven
itself to be a cheap and effective alternative to the EZ Flash 3
in 1. It can run GBA games perfectly, and run the Opera Web
Browser perfectly. It should work on most slot 1 carts, and the
homebrew software is officially supported by the eWin team.
Even a navy blue eWin GBA Expansion Pak inside an Onyx Black
DS Lite looks nice.
However, the eWin GBA Expansion Pak has
some clear negatives, it is missing an RTC, which should not be
a major problem as you can patch over that, it does not rumble
like the EZ Flash 3 in 1, its memory is volatile, and overall,
the homebrew software is not as robust as the EZ Flash 3 in 1.
At least it’s built solidly.
I really like the design of the eWin GBA
Expansion Pak. It fits nicely into my DS Lite, and it supports
clean roms. But all in all, I would not say it is better or
worse than the EZ Flash 3 in 1. They both have their
advantages. The eWin GBA Expansion Pak is by far easier to use,
but it lacks support and many features from the EZ Flash 3 in
1. Perhaps its compatibility with the M3DS Real, or its $12
price tag will more than make up for its faults.
Saving $10 over the EZ Flash 3 in 1 more than makes up for
its faults.
– Score –
Design – 5/5
Software – 4/5
Use – 4/5
Functionality – 18/20
Tilt – 4.5/5
Overall –
35.5/40