The History of EZ-Flash Cartridges — Part 1: From EZ-Flash 1 to EZ-Flash 3

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The History of EZ-Flash Cartridges — Part 1: From EZ-Flash 1 to EZ-Flash 3

The History of EZ-Flash Cartridges — Part 2: The GBA/NDS Transition Era

This year marks the 23rd anniversary of EZ-Flash — a company that has grown from a humble garage startup into one of the most recognizable names in the world of flash cartridges for portable consoles.

Fittingly, this year also saw the release of a new flash cartridge: the EZ-Flash Air. Positioned as a major milestone in the company's product line, it signals a new chapter in EZ-Flash’s ongoing evolution.

With that in mind, now is the perfect time to look back at where it all began — and how, step by step, EZ-Flash earned its reputation during the fast-paced rise of portable gaming.

The history of EZ-Flash began in 2001, when Borden bought his first console — the Game Boy Advance. Not long after, he got his hands on his first flash cartridge — the Flash Advance 128M.

Anyone who used the early versions of the Flash Advance knows it was a rough product. It took nearly a year to refine it into something reasonably usable. Unsurprisingly, Borden wasn't impressed either. He complained that the reader was too bulky, drained batteries quickly (requiring six AA batteries!), and frequently froze.

One day, Borden grew bored — he and his friends had been playing Counter-Strike day after day. During one of those evenings, he had an idea: to create his own flash cartridge. He pitched it to his friends, arguing that the existing cartridges were frankly terrible. As it happened, two of them were hardware experts, while Borden took charge of design and software.

Do you know where the name EZ-Flash came from? It originated from the CYPRESS EZ-USB AN2131QC chip used in the cartridge's flashing reader. Ironically, the name ended up perfectly capturing the spirit of the project: making usage as simple and convenient as possible. Additionally, in youth slang, “EZ” is read as “easy.”

And so, the team got to work. Interestingly, photos from the development phase have survived to this day. It's hard to say exactly how long the project took, but the earliest photos are dated February 2002.

According to Borden, the hardest part was finding the right balance between quality, functionality, and price.

Of course, there were challenges. Borden recalled that they had aimed to release the cartridge by Chinese New Year — a time when many factories shut down and demand for gifts spikes. The 128M version of EZ-Flash 1 was ready, but finding a reliable manufacturer proved difficult.

During the holidays, Borden discovered a critical bug that could brick the cartridge. The release had to be postponed. In the end, the delay turned out to be a blessing in disguise: it was during this time that the startup menu — the one users see upon booting — was developed.

Interestingly, the team developed three cartridge versions: 64M, 128M, and 256M. However, the 64M version never made it to market.

By March 9, 2002, everything was ready — but cartridge assembly had to be delayed, as the components hadn't arrived. The first batches of EZ-Flash were assembled manually, using soldering.

By May 2002, the first users began receiving their cartridges. The full kit — including the cartridge and reader — cost 1,180 yuan (excluding shipping), while the cartridge alone was priced at 980 yuan.

Notably, the 256M version was the first to hit the market. The package included neither a box nor a cable. While the box simply wasn’t ready in time, the cable had never been planned for inclusion.

Now, let’s take a closer look at the cartridge itself.

EZ-Flash 1

This cartridge came in a sleek white box with a minimalist design. Unlike the initial batches, the package included not only the cartridge and reader but also a cable.

According to Borden, the initial reception was lukewarm — largely due to the product's novelty. People didn’t immediately believe it would be a truly high-quality and reliable solution. However, once the first buyers received their cartridges and saw EZ-Flash in action, opinions changed dramatically.

EZ-Flash proved to be an outstanding solution. Let’s take a closer look at what set it apart from other flash cartridges of the time — particularly the Flash Advance.

By late 2001, Bung’s team — despite the company’s closure — released the Flash Advance 256M. It was their first cartridge to match the exact dimensions of a standard Game Boy Advance cartridge.

At first glance, the two cartridges looked almost identical. The main difference was that the Flash Advance had hardware support for saves via EEPROM, while EZ-Flash relied on software emulation. But for the average player, the only thing that mattered was that saves worked — few cared how it was achieved.

However, looking at the bigger picture, it becomes clear just how much more convenient EZ-Flash was compared to the Flash Advance.

First, Borden and his team implemented an incredibly useful feature — one still rare even in modern devices: automatic battery recharging. As long as the cartridge was inserted into the reader or a powered-on GBA, the battery would recharge.

Second, the reader became significantly more compact and convenient thanks to the use of USB instead of LPT. And it wasn’t just about size — USB provided direct power to the device. You simply connected the reader to a computer with a cable, and it was ready to use. In contrast, the LPT port required a separate power source: either six AA batteries or an external power supply — which, by the way, wasn’t included.

Third — and perhaps most importantly — was ease of use. EZ-Flash was leaps and bounds ahead in this regard. This was especially evident in the SMS (Savegame Management System). Backing up a save on EZ-Flash required just a single button press. With Flash Advance, things were far more complicated — managing saves meant dealing with a complex memory bank system.

The cartridge had four memory banks, each divided into 32 parts of 8 kilobytes. It was a complicated setup — especially for beginners. If you're curious about how it worked, check out the guide on the Flash Advance cartridge.

The issue wasn’t just usability. During development of the first EZ-Flash version, Borden discovered a critical memory hardware bug that caused save data to be lost — a major drawback.

Soon after, a second revision of the cartridge was released. It came in a transparent shell, with the bug fixed and various hardware improvements.

EZ-Flash 1 in Transparent Shell

Around mid-2002, after EZ-Flash found success, Borden and his friends were hired by Chongqing Media Game Paradise. Apparently, the company acquired full rights to the cartridge. It's unclear how directly involved they were in developing the new version — EZ-Cart 1 — but their role was certainly significant.

The original white EZ-Flash had a distinctive inscription on its shell: "CaiBird-BDN 2002." This likely referred to the three people behind the project: Cai, Bird, and BDN (Borden) — the team of enthusiasts who created the very first EZ-Flash.

Later, as the project grew and the team expanded, this signature disappeared. The cartridge had evolved from a hobbyist creation into a fully-fledged commercial product.

By November 2002, the second version of the cartridge was ready. It featured not only new packaging but also updated internals — all save-related issues had finally been resolved.

As you can see, both the cartridge and the reader now featured a sleek transparent shell.

This version even came with its own flashing software, which was incompatible with the original white EZ-Cart 1.

The cartridge proved so successful that it remained the standard until 2004. Yes, newer solutions appeared with additional features, but the core idea stayed the same: a USB reader or cable for flashing, and a focus on ease of use.

However, a new problem soon emerged — and this time, it wasn’t technical. A conflict broke out within the company where Borden worked. According to him, he and his friends were essentially forced out.

So, in early 2003, the team began working on a new project: EZF-Advance — their next-generation flash cartridge.

By April 2003, the device was officially unveiled.

At this point, EZ-Flash and Borden parted ways for good. But since this article isn’t about him, let’s turn our attention to where the EZ-Flash developers went next — because soon after, on June 12, 2003, they released their next cartridge: EZ-Flash 2.

EZ-Flash 2

In essence, EZ-Flash 2 wasn’t drastically different from its predecessor.

The packaging became slightly more refined, but the contents remained the same: cartridge, reader, and cable.

The changes affected only a couple of key features.

First, RTC (Real-Time Clock) support was added — built-in clocks essential for games like Pokémon.

Second, hardware save support replaced the earlier software emulation.

Ironically, Borden had already implemented both of these features in his new cartridge — the EZF-Advance. In many ways, EZ-Flash 2 was simply catching up to the work of its former creator.

But the most important update came on September 3, 2003: a new revision of EZ-Flash 2 featuring a power-saving chip. This wasn’t just an upgrade — it was a genuine breakthrough in usability.

The new chip extended gameplay time on a single charge by 50–60%, making EZ-Flash 2 one of the most energy-efficient cartridges on the market. While the first two additions — RTC and hardware save support — were useful but expected, the power efficiency was a standout feature.

However, this revision sparked a minor scandal.

When the new power-saving version launched, it looked identical to the previous one. Even the release date printed on the packaging and shell remained unchanged, which misled users.

The situation grew more confusing due to driver inconsistencies: EZ-Flash 2 PowerStar had two driver revisions. Some were compatible with both the regular EZ-Flash 2 and PowerStar, while others worked only with the newer PowerStar version. As a result, many players became frustrated and suspected foul play — that the same cartridge was being resold under a new name.

Only later, when "PowerStar" began appearing on the cartridge shell, did it become clear that this was a genuinely updated and improved version — not just a marketing rebrand. And so, the name stuck as the official designation for the second revision of EZ-Flash 2.

By late 2003, the situation had stabilized: the revision confusion was cleared up, drivers were updated, and users were convinced of PowerStar’s reliability through experience.

Given that all improvements were genuinely beneficial, one thing became clear — the sequel was excellent. EZ-Flash 2, especially in its final revision, helped the company solidify its reputation as a reliable manufacturer of quality flash cartridges.

It wasn’t revolutionary, but it set a new standard: stable, practical, and user-friendly.

Meanwhile, the EZ-Group team was already preparing for their next move — the release of a new-generation cartridge: EZ-Flash 3.

Riding on the success of EZ-Flash 2, the company now had experience, reputation, and feedback from thousands of users. So EZ-Flash 3 wasn’t envisioned as just an upgrade — it was meant to be a true leap forward for GBA flash cartridges.

EZ-Flash 3

On September 10, 2004, EZ-Group unveiled its new flash cartridge — EZ-Flash 3. This was a truly revolutionary product that forever changed perceptions of what GBA flash cartridges could achieve.

Even the packaging reflected this shift: the box was made of wood — sturdy, almost collector-grade. However, the contents remained familiar: cartridge, reader, and cable. Only now, everything came in bright orange, symbolizing a new phase in development.

Now’s the time to explain what made EZ-Flash 3 truly revolutionary. For that, we need to take a step back.

The first EZ-Flash versions were essentially rewritable clones of standard Nintendo cartridges. They used NOR chips to store games and SRAM for save data.

NOR memory had two major drawbacks: slow rewriting speeds and limited write cycles. But it came with one crucial advantage — instant game loading. So while flashing a game could take up to 10 minutes, launching it was nearly instantaneous.

Other memory types existed — NAND and RAM — but each had its own limitations:

NAND: cheap and spacious, but slow — which could cause in-game lag.
RAM: lightning-fast, but volatile — it lost all data when powered off, making it unsuitable for long-term game storage.

EZ-Flash 3 was the first cartridge to combine all three memory types: NOR, NAND, and RAM — setting a new benchmark for GBA flash cartridges.

NOR was used for primary storage and loading large games — just like before.
RAM allowed small games (up to 16 MB) to be loaded instantly.
NAND served as long-term storage: users could store multiple games and transfer the one they wanted to play into NOR or RAM on the fly.

This hybrid approach made EZ-Flash 3 more convenient, faster, and more spacious than anything else on the market at the time.

In essence, the flash cartridge began to function like a hard drive: large-capacity NAND for storing entire game libraries, and two types of memory — NOR and RAM — for fast loading depending on the game size.

This fundamentally changed how cartridges were used. Players could now load dozens of games onto NAND and transfer titles to internal memory for quick launch — all without a computer, directly from the cartridge’s menu.

Importantly, all legacy features were preserved:

RTC (Real-Time Clock) support for in-game timekeeping (essential for games like Pokémon),
hardware save support,
SMS (Savegame Management System) for simple save handling,
and PowerStar’s power-saving mode.

But EZ-Flash 3 also introduced groundbreaking new features:

ROM compression — allowing users to store more games on NAND,
Instant saves (savestates) — a long-awaited, game-changing addition.

EZ-Flash 3 wasn’t just the next logical step — it was ahead of its time.

Look at modern flash cartridges from major brands like Krikzz, M3, or G6, and you’ll notice they follow the same architecture: large storage (NAND or memory card) combined with two types of memory (RAM and NOR) for flexible loading and fast game launching.

This very concept — first introduced with EZ-Flash 3 — became the industry’s de facto standard.

Epilogue

Until the launch of the Nintendo DS, EZ-Group confidently led the GBA flash cartridge market. There were plenty of competitors — Borden with EZF-Advance, as well as M3, G6, SuperCard, and others — but EZ-Flash remained unmatched thanks to its stability, user-friendly design, and forward-thinking technology.

And of course, this didn’t go unnoticed — EZ-Flash started getting cloned. Clones began appearing on the market en masse.

However, the arrival of the Nintendo DS changed everything. The market evolved rapidly, priorities shifted, and competition reached entirely new heights.

But that’s a story for another article.