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[dai_uk]

Yeah I'm happy with mine too.  I have a couple 512 meg CFs now.  Holds a lot of games, more than I could ever play.  I compress my roms and delete real time saves on all but a few games that really benefit from them.  I think the issue with Urbz is it's too big to fit into the SC's 256 mb memory after the SC patches it.  People have posted that if you use a GBA Rom size reducer and then patch Urbz with only the saver it will fit into memory and work.

I've got it working but can't figure out how the save works, time to search the forum !

I understand how the realtime and normal patcher work (interupts which can cause slow down) what I can't figure out myself is how I save the save ram after performing a QPC, I've cheated and used an SMS memory stick for now.

btw, QPC and SMS is the easiest option out of the XG's awful battery life, changeable and rechargable are great but not when it dies in a day aparantly thanks to the RTC.

Like the other comments here, I had an original F2A, now an XG and a SuperCard, all have some flaws, but I am surprised how well the SC performs for a new product  

[isomorph]

Yeah I'm happy with mine too.  I have a couple 512 meg CFs now.  Holds a lot of games, more than I could ever play.  I compress my roms and delete real time saves on all but a few games that really benefit from them.  I think the issue with Urbz is it's too big to fit into the SC's 256 mb memory after the SC patches it.  People have posted that if you use a GBA Rom size reducer and then patch Urbz with only the saver it will fit into memory and work.

I've got it working but can't figure out how the save works, time to search the forum !

I understand how the realtime and normal patcher work (interupts which can cause slow down) what I can't figure out myself is how I save the save ram after performing a QPC, I've cheated and used an SMS memory stick for now.

btw, QPC and SMS is the easiest option out of the XG's awful battery life, changeable and rechargable are great but not when it dies in a day aparantly thanks to the RTC.

Like the other comments here, I had an original F2A, now an XG and a SuperCard, all have some flaws, but I am surprised how well the SC performs for a new product  

If you turn off and on the GBA you'll come back to the SC menu, you'll see at the top of the list the current game in ram, press right on the pad to the save menu, find your game save on it, select it and the SC will ask if you want to save to the CF and click ok.  Won't work for the real time save just a regular in game save.

[dai_uk]

Thanks I found a nice tutorial on here, and also that I need to setup a .sav for my emulator games to save their data to.

are you meant to chuck the roms through the supercard software to do this ? or just do it manually

[isomorph]

Thanks I found a nice tutorial on here, and also that I need to setup a .sav for my emulator games to save their data to.

are you meant to chuck the roms through the supercard software to do this ? or just do it manually

Not positive but I think the rom needs to be patched to save to get the .sav file.  You can run roms on the SC without running them through the SC software but I don't think you can save.

[zarcon6]

no do not run anything but gba roms throu the software if you want to save in emulators check here

[vhase]

Cons
1. Almost 9 out of 10 games have slowing down problem.
   -Admit it. Supercard is far from perfect let alone even ejoyable.
    This is a fatal problem for a flash card because it prevents you to
    have a fun gaming experience and then what is the purpose of getting
    the flashcard in the first place? just to see that the game "works"?
    I don't think so.

I have to agree with bedrone; There does not seem to be one game that functions at proper speed. I honestly don't want to offend anyone, but either:

a) My SuperCard is totally bad or

b) People are WAY too liberal in their assessment of speed!

There is not one game that I have tried so far that doesn't take some kind of hit. Some may not be "noticable," due to an overall consistant slowdown, but it's there, nonetheless, and that's with patches on or off.

Every game that I have tried that uses Mode7 runs ridiculouslly slow (Crash Team Racing, Mario Kart, any of the F-Zero series). This crawl is still present with none of the patches active.

Pinball Challenge Deluxe performs amazing feats of anti-gravity, as the balll suddenly speeds up when it hits a ramp. I assume this is because the ramp ball travel is just an animation, and the program doesent calculate ball travel around them, so the game speeds up to proper speed during the animation, then slows back down when the ball handling routines take over at the other end.

Atari Anniversary Advance has really odd problems in Centipede, as the game generally slows down whenever you start shooting, then speeds up when you stop - totally blowing the pace of the game. The rest of the games are slower overall.

I'm reading "working" next to Mario Kart Advance on the master compatibility list, and am trying to figure out "by who's standards?" 'cause it definitely putts around at a very slow pace!

Once again, I'm not trying to tick anyone off, but, aren't we all looking at this with the attitude of "I really want this to work" instead of "how well is this REALLY working?"

I was previously using a Game Wallet and a SMS for game saves - I thought this was going to be the best thing since sliced bread: saves and programs on the same card, real time saves, other emulators built-in - the works! But my bubble is bursting (*sniffle*)...

But I'll keep trying, keep watching for updates and, most importantly, keep HOPING! (heck, I sold my game wallet to fund the SuperCard - so I'm definitely in for the long-haul!) And if you guys really think my card is somehow on the fritz, let me know.

I'll cry, but let me know!

Thanks all!

- V

[dai_uk]

I agree with the games you've stated problems with, mind you can I ask how much you paid for your supercard ?

Mine was £30 which is considerably cheaper than most flash carts with a cheap CF card I have the equivalent of a 4GB flash cart !

Now I do have a 128 XG Flash2, which I keep for some of these games, however I have a 512MB CF full at present = with games without slowdown.

I'm really into Mario Vs Donkey kong at present, Mario Golf (a tiny bit of slowdown if you're aiming into a tree but that's all)

I'm pleased with mine, I did however read on the speed issues and get a Flash Cart first, then this when I had the money - so between the 2 I'm covered for most games.

The realtime save is good where it doesn't cause issues, the emulators built in are out of date and to be honest I find it best to build them into a single gba file, then compress with the SC software, then you have a smaller file with 1 save for all emulated games in that emulator   I bought my SC mainly for the emulators, goomba and nesem are so cool that they make it worth having for this.

That and the fact it was only £10 more than the movie player - which I wanted makes it a bargain - not perfect but to be honest nowday's most main brand stuff can be just as bad except you pay more and do not know about it - Take my Dell PC with DVD Writer which had faulty firmware that took them 3 months to resolve whilst they denied the fault existed - YUP gadgets are cool but can suck !  :-x

[vhase]

I agree with the games you've stated problems with, mind you can I ask how much you paid for your supercard ?

I paid $60 US from linker4u.com. (http://www.linker4u.com/pp/linker4u.asp) I then picked myself up a 1 gig Kingston compact flash and a card reader/writer from EBay at fairly decent prices. I had sold my Game Wallet (Smart Media version) to a co-worker to fund the change, and only wound up spending about $20 bucks or so of my own cash for this transition.

I would have went a different route - or waited, had I known the slowdown problem. I'm afraid i didn't find out about this site until after my purchase, and the review at 64scener (http://64scener.com/gba/suprcart.htm) was very favorable, with no mention of slowdown.

I've put about 130 GBA games on the card (compressed), along with NES, GB and GG files. I love the concept and the functionality, I just hope some more improvements can be made.

I'm also thinking that maybe I should start working on an alternate version of the compatibility list. Perhaps I'll call it "The Really Picky Gamer's Compatibility List"    

Meanwhile, I'll have to go through my games and either toss or push off to alternate folders games that act odd or m o v e  r e a l  s l o o w . . .  

- V

[socket]

I completely agree.  I honestly bought it mainly to have a nes emulator.  But before I bought mine, I found barely any mention of the slowdown.  I think it's a pretty big problem, but maybe that's just us.  Definately worth a mention on ANY review of the SC.

I'm definately now going to buy another device ether to use alongside my SC or to replace it.  My favorite games are the mode7 games... oh well... Too bad though.  I really thought it was a dream device.  I guess that's what it was... just a dream...

Hopefully it'll continue to be improved...

[joshob2004]

I dont what you guys are talking about. I love my supercard and have no problems with slowdown. I too didnt find out about the whole slowdown thing untill after I bought it (or asked for it for my birthday) but I just got my supercard on June 3rd and it has worked fine for me. I havent had any of the problems with slowdown or playing movies or software installation which is suprising because my computer is a piece of shit. Grand Theft Auto says it has minor slowdown but it doesnt play any slower than it does on my 256Mb XG Flash card which runs at full speed. On my XG Flash I could store maybe 5 games at the most on it and with supercard I have a Sandisk 512MB and I can store like 35 and some movies. The only games that I have problems on my supercard with are the PD Rom StripPoker and Mario Party Advance freezes when you enter a minigame, but I can use my XG Flash for that as I dont use it for anything else since I got my supercard.

[vhase]

I dont what you guys are talking about. I love my supercard and have no problems with slowdown. I too didnt find out about the whole slowdown thing untill after I bought it (or asked for it for my birthday) but I just got my supercard on June 3rd and it has worked fine for me. I havent had any of the problems with slowdown or playing movies or software installation which is suprising because my computer is a piece of shit. Grand Theft Auto says it has minor slowdown but it doesnt play any slower than it does on my 256Mb XG Flash card which runs at full speed. On my XG Flash I could store maybe 5 games at the most on it and with supercard I have a Sandisk 512MB and I can store like 35 and some movies. The only games that I have problems on my supercard with are the PD Rom StripPoker and Mario Party Advance freezes when you enter a minigame, but I can use my XG Flash for that as I dont use it for anything else since I got my supercard.

This could be important - are there different models "under the hood" that we are not aware of? I have tons of slowdown - Have you played any of the mode 7 games - Crash Team Racing, Mario Kart, F-Zero, etc? These are what I would call "cart killers;" they seem to take the most processor power and slow down no matter what I do with my card - options on or off. Check them out and let me know!

I am using a GBA SP, with a Kensington 1 Gig CF card.

- V

[isomorph]

I dont what you guys are talking about. I love my supercard and have no problems with slowdown. I too didnt find out about the whole slowdown thing untill after I bought it (or asked for it for my birthday) but I just got my supercard on June 3rd and it has worked fine for me. I havent had any of the problems with slowdown or playing movies or software installation which is suprising because my computer is a piece of shit. Grand Theft Auto says it has minor slowdown but it doesnt play any slower than it does on my 256Mb XG Flash card which runs at full speed. On my XG Flash I could store maybe 5 games at the most on it and with supercard I have a Sandisk 512MB and I can store like 35 and some movies. The only games that I have problems on my supercard with are the PD Rom StripPoker and Mario Party Advance freezes when you enter a minigame, but I can use my XG Flash for that as I dont use it for anything else since I got my supercard.

This could be important - are there different models "under the hood" that we are not aware of? I have tons of slowdown - Have you played any of the mode 7 games - Crash Team Racing, Mario Kart, F-Zero, etc? These are what I would call "cart killers;" they seem to take the most processor power and slow down no matter what I do with my card - options on or off. Check them out and let me know!

I am using a GBA SP, with a Kensington 1 Gig CF card.

- V

I'll have to rent Fzero and compare the two because I was playing it on my SC the other day and it did not speed up or slow down.  It may be running slow overall or something but it seemed fine.  Some games like Tony Hawk Underground and Yoshi's have major slow down that are very apparent.  Most of the games I play I don't notice any.  For what I spent on the SC I'm still really happy with it.

[dai_uk]

Hmmm

Fzero is slow, try mario kart - it's unplayable on mine !

or pinball challenge deluxe as it speeds up and down as mentionned here !

I dont what you guys are talking about. I love my supercard and have no problems with slowdown. I too didnt find out about the whole slowdown thing untill after I bought it (or asked for it for my birthday) but I just got my supercard on June 3rd and it has worked fine for me. I havent had any of the problems with slowdown or playing movies or software installation which is suprising because my computer is a piece of shit. Grand Theft Auto says it has minor slowdown but it doesnt play any slower than it does on my 256Mb XG Flash card which runs at full speed. On my XG Flash I could store maybe 5 games at the most on it and with supercard I have a Sandisk 512MB and I can store like 35 and some movies. The only games that I have problems on my supercard with are the PD Rom StripPoker and Mario Party Advance freezes when you enter a minigame, but I can use my XG Flash for that as I dont use it for anything else since I got my supercard.

This could be important - are there different models "under the hood" that we are not aware of? I have tons of slowdown - Have you played any of the mode 7 games - Crash Team Racing, Mario Kart, F-Zero, etc? These are what I would call "cart killers;" they seem to take the most processor power and slow down no matter what I do with my card - options on or off. Check them out and let me know!

I am using a GBA SP, with a Kensington 1 Gig CF card.

- V

I'll have to rent Fzero and compare the two because I was playing it on my SC the other day and it did not speed up or slow down.  It may be running slow overall or something but it seemed fine.  Some games like Tony Hawk Underground and Yoshi's have major slow down that are very apparent.  Most of the games I play I don't notice any.  For what I spent on the SC I'm still really happy with it.

[stupid2ass]

I found some games to be completely unplayable (mainly the racing titles).
But I don't play with those anyways (got a PSP for them, now for Mario Kart I actually bought the cartridge so no loss there ).  
There are some very minor slowdowns in the RPGs (which I love playing on the GBA since they remind me of the old school snes days) but they don't affect the gameplay all that much.  I can live with it esp with the realtime saves.  I've played thru 3 RPGs so far and I can't complain.  
The platformers don't seem to slow down at all for me.

[socket]

Try yoshi's island... It's unplayably slow at times... It seems to play ok, but once too much is going on at once, it sllloooooowwwwsss down to a crawl... i guess i could just buy that one, heh...

Games I must buy: Mario Kart and Yoshi's Island... probably two of my favorite games... too bad for the SC and me...