XG2Turbo 256M GBA flash cart

The main characteristics of the XG2Turbo carts:

• Flash memory size 256M for storing gba game roms
• 2M seperate SRAM Save Game memory for .sav files
• Built-in Super Memory Stick (SMS) save game manager with addicional 28 mem slots!
• Real-Time Clock (RTC2) that supports Pokemon and Our sun games
• Built-in Boot loader that doesn't take up any of the Flash Memory space and lets it all be used for game ROMS.
• Lowest GBA battery power consumption to date. Only 11 mA (XG1 - 80mA)
  (That is even lower than using EZ2 PowerStar)
• Can upload the cart game save data to PC or download the game save data from PC, support VBA save format, can use the save file in VBA directly!
• Full set include 1 pcs XG2Turbo cart / 1 pcs XG2Turbo USB Link cable / 1 pcs user menu.

XG2Turbo Link & XG2 Flash Card Review

by gameboy-advance.net

Detailed XG2Tubo installation manual

Recently we had a chance to test the latest linker and flash card from the XG-Flash family. It is called XG2 Turbo or for short XG2T. The set that we were looking at had 256M flash card but sets with 512M and 1G XG-Flash 2 cards are available.

XG Flash 2 Turbo Linker Set

Comes packaged in a nice looking gift box with:

• 1 x USB XG2 Turbo Linker II
• 1 x XG-Flash 2 Turbo Cart
• 1 x CD with Software and Drivers

XG2Turbo Link (version II)

This USB link cable connects PC USB port to GAMEBOY ADVANCE or GBA SP Link port [EXT.1] and is used for writing GBA ROMS from PC-to-GBA, Backupng Game roms from Nintendo made Gameboy cartridges to computer and managing SaveGames - .sav files.

Unllike XG-Flash Writerand XG2 Lite the TURBO version doesn't use an external writer - all the read and write operations are performed to a cartridge that is inserted in the Gameboy same as with F2A USB, EZF Advance and X-ROM linkers.

XG2Turbo Linker version 2 of has been designed taking in account the suggestions from users. Of course the main function of the linker is to connect a computer to GBA so that you can write roms to the XG2Turbo flash card but this linker does more thna that. 2 addicional cables that come out of the XG2T can be used for charging GBASP or GB ADVANCE batteries drowing the power from the USB port. You could buy a seperate adapter for charging the SP from USB but now you dont have to. It is possible to Write GBA Roms and ReCharge Game Boy batteries at the same time!

XG2Turbo Flash Card

XG2T Flash Card that we tested was nice black - maching the color of my GBA SP. Other colors are awilable. The phisical size of the XG2Turbo flash card is the same as any other Nintendo GBA cartridge so it fits in the GameBoy perfectly.

Now as mantioned before we teste the 256M cartridge.
(1M Byte on PC = 8M bits in GBA) so it can hold anywhere from 2 to 8 commercial gba roms.
8 x 32M gba games / 4 x 64M roms / 2 x 128M or a mixture of games up to 256M in size.

XG2Turbo catridge can also be used for playing emulated NES, SNES, GB, GBC, Z80, SEGA roms ect. as well as specialy encoded MPEG and AVI video files, MP3 files, Slidehows and e-Books. The cartridge we got came pre-Flashed with XGflash Power Wiever - windows like aplication for GBA that had some instruction TXT files and pictures of the cartridges that we could view on GAMEBOY.

All the different save game formats are suppoted by hardware without rom patching:
SRAM, 1M SRAM, Flash, 1M Flash, EEPROM, v1244 EEPROM so you will noth hav any problems with games not being able to save your progress.

What is different from other carts is the built-in Super Memory Stick (SMS). This feature lets you backup / restore game saves in seperate memory so that you can have more than one save file for any game. Or you can hold gamesaves for roms that are not on the cartridge but you plan on playing later. For example, I and my brother are playing Bayblades Vforce but the game has only one savegame slot so after I play I backup my sav and my bother can play and save without worrying that he will overwrite my save. I can even erase the game from the flash card, play and save some other roms and a month later when I put the Bayblades back on the cart I can restore the savegame and continue from where I left off. Somethig that you wouldn't worry about if you had a seperate cartridge for every game but it is important if you have 8 games on the cart. Plus SMS memory doesn't use any battery power so savegames will never be lost because of the batterys running out.

Real-Time Clock version 2 (RTC2) - works just like it does on Nintendo cartridges plus it is fully compatible with all games that have time related events (Pokemon, Our Sun, Gba PDA) and again there is no need to patch.

Another thing that s different and better than on other flash cards is that the Boot Loader - that is the menu where you can see and select the games that you have on the flash card doesn't use Flash Memory. On other cards this menu takes up ~25KB or the memory That is not much but it means that if you have 2 x 128M roms on the 256M card one of them would have to be reduced in size to fit the loader but that can not be done with all of the roms so someties you coldn't fit these 2 128M games on the 256M cart becase of the loader! With XG2Turbo carts you don't have to worry about it.

In the Boot menu of the XG2T you have 3 options:

• [StartGame]   - select and start playing one of the game roms
• [Manage]       - SMS save game manger Bacup / Restore or Delete old gamesaves
• [ClockAdjust] - set or reset the RTC clock time      YY/MM/DD

XG2Turbo Software

XG2 Turbo Link v1.22 - The software supplied allows you to read / write roms to the cartridge and also save games from and to SMS.At this time English and Chinese languages are supported but support for more languages can be added usng plugins. Its fairly simple but has all the features needed. What we especialy liked about writing roms to the cart is that if you like you can manualy edit the Game Tytle that you will see in the Boot Menu.

More details about XG2 Turbo Link software here

More details about XG2 Turbo Link software here

GBA & GBASP Crystal Lense

As an addiconal bonus you get free replacemet screen lense with XGflash2 logo. One for GBA and one SP. If not now they surely they will come in andy later when the origina gba screen nevidable gets scratched.

XG2Turbo Linker II installation.

Software and Drivers for the XG2T come on a 3½ diskette (or mini CD). It is always the best to check online to see if a newer version has been released.

SHORT XG2T installation instructions.

•  Install the software [Install -> Next -> Next -> Finish]
•  Plug in the USB linker and browse to the drivers located in the c:\XG2Link\Win*** directory
•  Connect XG2Linker to GBA/GBASP EXT. port
•  Hold down START+SELECT and turn on the GAMEBOY
•  Run XG2Flash client ad you are ready to go!

Pros:

• Latest generation linker kit
• Hardware compatible with all save game formats
• Only linker that can be use for charging GBA batteries
• USB 2.0 and USB 1.1 compatible
• Rechargable 3.6v save game battery
• High-tech Realtime Clock (RTC version 2)
• Inbuilt 4Mb Super Memory Stick
• Very low power consumption - 10h+ play time
• 256Mbit flash cart can hold 8 gba games
• Simple to install and use
• Free GBA and GBA-SP crystal lens

Cons:

• Slower rom write speed from PC to cartridge than with other linkers - because XG2 verifies the data after sending it to the cart.
  (I would say that it i scompensated by the fact that you can be chargin the batteries wile wrting roms)
• No inbout support for CheatCodes (could be added in the new software version)

Overal 9.5/10

• GBAnet can higly suggest this GBA Flash Linker & Card set as one of the most advance, compatibel and feature rich linkers on the market.

Detailed XG2Tubo installation manual