From: "Michael Reid - CSCI/P2003" <m6reid@...>
> hi
>
> > Where did you read that one couldn't program an f2a through
> > the mbv2 ?
>
> in the mbv2 faq: http://www.devrs.com/gba/files/mbv2faqs.php#FlashSupport

You're right. It looks like the MBV2 is not as flexible as the f2a usb
linker cable - apparently it would need a new firmware to
flash newer cards.

The problem is that the MBV2 does not offer a simple way for a GBA
program to communicate directly with the PC (there's a serial interface
but you need another cable).

The F2A cards are writable from the GBA, this means any program
that runs on the GBA can just flash the cartridge. Uploading such
a program to the GBA is very easy to do with the multiboot facility.
All that remains is for the uploaded code to receive the contents of
the cart from the PC - this data obviously can't all be transferred during
multiboot since the RAM is only 256KB.

This is exactly how the f2a/usb cable works : they send a little bit of
code through multiboot, which starts and listens for data from the PC.
The PC sends the cart data to the GBA, probably in UART mode,
and the code on the GBA writes that data to the cart.

So in theory, assuming you had connected your MBV2 to your PC's
serial port in addition to the parallel port, you could write that bit
of GBA code and the controlling program on the PC, and everything
would work just fine. I don't know of anybody who has done that, though.

But I think you should rather buy the f2a/usb cable, as its price is
negligible compared to the price of the flash card anyway. And it can
do everything the MBV2 can, and more.

Cheers,
--Jonathan