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Flash Carts For Gameboy
Brett Profitt writes: "Ever want to program for the Gameboy? What about uploading up to 3 roms to a cart and playing them later? Visit this web site to get info about how you can build your own Gameboy cart with flash memory. btw, if anyone actually gets one working, how about sending me one?" Unlike some DIY gaming-hardware sites, this one organizes the information readably and meticulously -- and shows some finished work that demonstrates more than a little bit of patience.
I've been using my BUNG cart kit for the last year to upload up to 30 ROM's to one cart. If you can still buy them in the US, they're a much better investment than to build your own ... work quite well.
...
Nothing like having a library of 1000's of games at hand for the gameboy, though I have to admit that the thrill of playing GB has gone. I think that a big part of the 'mystique' about the GB scene from a consumer perspective was in *NOT* having all the cartridges - you buy one, play it for a while, etc. When you've got 1000's of ROM's at hand, and you can choose your own game selection to carry 30 games with you, the GB gets boring fast.
You start to see just how mundane the game design industry really is, when you've had access to hundreds of games in a matter of hours. I think this same effect is experienced by Game Magazine reviewers, and I start to see just how jaded things can be...
Maybe the real reason that game mfr's don't want everyone to have every ROM instantly downloadable in a large gigantic mega-library is the fact that by having access to it, people start to see just how crappy things really are in the design realm
I certainly stopped playing GB for a while after I got my cart setup...
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Sort of. But, unfortunately, the MPAA is defending the Movie Industry(tm). Since movies are IP, and you'd be copying movies, then there are issues raised. But, with a game boy, the only thing that could be considered IP when making your own ROM with your own tools are the Game Boy's instruction sets - which have previously been declared as reverse-engineerable(Intel vs. AMD).
Dave
Barclay family motto:
Aut agere aut mori.
(Either action or death.)
I just bought a GameLink from the UFO guys ( http://www.cd64.com/ ) on "Fuk Wa" (really!) Street in Hong Kong. Programming and running your creations on an emulator is pretty good, but nothing beats seeing it on an actual gameboy. No linux support for the GameLink, though other devices do have open specs and C code.
Nintendo recently shut down another company which makes these devices called " Bung "; this is really disappointing to me. It's probably true that most people use these things for piracy, but I really am using mine legitimately.
On the other hand, I understand that the GB game "Harvest Moon" began as a amateur project. So maybe there is still hope for Nintendo...
How to get started programming for the GAMEBOY:
http://www.loirak.com/prog/gbprog.htm
M$: "We're #2!"
The GBDEV scene has been out for a very long time now.WHile I dont want to downplay Mr. Ziegler's work (I visit his site veyr frequently), there is more information available for it than you could ever use.
.ROM file, and starts up the emulator to run. Emulators such as the new VGBWIN provide excellent debugging platforms, showing tilesets, memory/variable contents, and easy step-throughs.
//z80 asm cribsheet rules, and the RGBDS is a good platform for asm game dev.
//for emulators, suggest VGBWIN
//many documents and links
// Jeff's been the best and most widely respected hacker on the gameboy. Has all of the links needed to get you up and running.
GB dev is one of the most refined console dev groups out there. The information on the processor (modified z80) is well know and documented, and easy to code for. Complete IDE's are available, using GCC as the compiler, links into a
The hardware for this flash cart requires some serious soldering on a very fine point scale; I hate doing it. For those interesting in GBdev, check out some of the sites available like:
www.otakunozoku.com
www.vintagegaming.com
www.consoledev.com
www.devrs.com
Dont worry about the hardware, just download the free (and usually open source) software to compile stuff for game boy, read the documentation available, test your code out on an emulator, and then, after all of this work, if you REALLY want to see it on a real GB, then buy the parts instead of spending the time soldering your own. www.cd64.com has black carts and reader/writers available at a very respectable price.
Toodles
Into GBDev, PSXDev, and DCDev
Toodles D. Clown