I made my own GameBoy cartridge
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- Опубликовано: 16 июн 2024
- I found a blank GameBoy development cart on ebay for £50! I decided to pick up the necessary bits to put my own games onto it and pretend im a developer from the 90s!
UV Eraser: bit.ly/3kBtao7
EPROM Flasher: bit.ly/3r1f6ql
EPROMS: bit.ly/3qaDioN
Screwdriver: ebay.to/352E5QY
Soldering Iron: ebay.to/2VVj6uV
Patreon: / theretrofuture
Instagram: / theretrofuturephotos
Twitter: / elliot_coll
Discord: / discord
GameBoy Parts: bit.ly/2tZQ4iF
Cheap GameBoys: bit.ly/38UrGzP
The Retro Future
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JE4 9RF
#TheRetroFuture #GameBoy #Retro
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Игры
![Make a real GameBoy game easy & user friendly [Tutorial, Gamedev]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/0xO5jCqs3As/mqdefault.jpg)
Somebody else has probably pointed this out but the other reason the EPROM carts have the stickers on the chip is to prevent gradual degradation of data from natural UV exposure over prolonged time.
Used to use them a lot back in the day when I did a B-Tec in 86.
There are much easier methods now, but this was so cool to see how they actually flashed EPROMs back in the day. I actually had no idea is was with UV light like that.
Yeah I just wanted to do it like they did back in the day! Was really fun.
How did you comment yesterday????
@@elfdruid2072 If you support Elliot on Patreon you can watch some of his videos early.
@@elfdruid2072 Patreon exclusivity. :b
Fortunately (for them), Game Dev had it easier. DMG & GBC dev hardware was directly interfaced to a PC, thus avoiding the tedious EEPROM flashing. It was either a PCB with all the hardware needed (input, chips, screen) with a PCIE interface, or a fake cartridge connected to a black box, connected to a PC.
Nonetheless, IDK if EEPROM was really used on production. Apart for simplifying the QA testing or sending previews to publishers.
So cool to see how things used to be. We have so many tools at our disposal these days.
What type of sorcery is this
Yeah, heheh.... *proceeds to make a bomb*
and yet somehow its still a pain in the ass to fix a macbook or iphone :p I love planned obsolescence
Yep, even for make Game Boy games
Devs had PCBs back then tough
When he gave the disclaimer before dumping the original cartridge, it sounded like he was being forced to say it at gunpoint by a Nintendo lawyer.
To be fair, he's probably gotten a bunch of flak over however long his channel's been around. He's done quite a few videos where it's pretty obvious he doesn't care about the legalities of roms. Especially when it comes to flash carts and things. So seeing him put some kind if disclaimer up NOW, seems odd. It wouldn't surprise me if he did it just to keep people happy.
Nintendo hitman
He was you can see a slight shadow lol.
Nintendo: "Oh Elliot... WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"
Is this a knockoff of "Junior what are you doing?" From nicobbq?
Elliot : just showing what should be done
For those interested: The reason why this cartridge can only run "small" games is because of the small chip on there, the MBC or Memory Bank Controller. There were different types which were used depending on the memory layout of the ROM. Games like Tetris use the simplest variant, while games like Pokémon use some of the later ones allowing for switching in more memory through a technique called bank switching.
The reason why ROM files work regardless in emulators is that .gb files contain a header that signals the emulator which MBC to emulate.
*ELLIOT:* Erases unknown EPROM data without dumping first
*Modding & Preservation Community:*
"I sense a disturbance in the force"
god yeah, he checked to see if there was data on the chip, saw there was, and his immediate reaction was to erase it? I really hope this EPROM was some random purchase that wasn't related to the adapter cartridge.
I did check what was on it. Nothing to do with any sort of video game.
@@TheRetroFuture was it just an empty chip, or was it just a hello world type program
@@TheRetroFuture What was it? And did you dump it anyway?
These 28 pin EPROMS have such widespread use that there's only a millions to one chance of it containing something of any relevance.
I always just thought you just recorded in a green empty room with only a table and a chair
and the ON AIR sign
I'm pretty sure the main reason you made a label was so you could use your fancy expensive scissors.
It feels like Elliot has recently stepped up his game SO much. I can feel the passion oozing from these videos, no matter if it's the primary or second channel. I still remember the first videos and it feels like he's come such a long way already. Can't wait to see what the future might hold for him and us.
You are my favorite game related channel, interesting facts, info, products all with no BS. Thank you.
"It kinda feels like it's made out of ceramic"
That's because it is...
Lol I was like "Yeah you'll never guess why!" 😅
Great job, Elliot! I love the stickers you made for it. ^-^
next video: i made my own gameboy from old calculator and remote control
You did a really damn good job on making the stickers.
Decent job Elliot, another cool vid 👍🏻
Eliot I really enjoy your videos keep it up it's so refreshing reminding me why I love video games *.*
Elliot should collaborate with Tito from “Macho Nacho”
Yes! I've been binging his stuff recently, so so good!
I second this!
They kinda do it already, Tito used the limited run kit for a Dual Screen GBA SP.
Even knowing how all of this is done I still found this entertaining, great vid as always 👍
It looks so good! I wish I could grab this stuff for my brother who likes to develop for old consoles.
That collection is beautiful! It deserves its own video!
"UV light erases the data."
That explains why the games turned unplayable.
More than anything.... I love your display setup. Its pretty and well organised!
Also, those PCBs are really simple looking. It would be easy enough to reverse engineer them... And heck might be easy enough to make a flash reader style one instead of epproms.
Really cool video man!
I love your channel, you do amazing Gameboy work. Thanks a billion times for the content, it is just BRILLIANT
Nice find, and great creation man! Love this sort of content, it's informative AND entertaining.
I'm a budding repairer myself, just struggling to find parts! Any recommendation on where to find spare 3ds parts accessible to the uk?
The new lighting looks incredible!
Bbjghityu
This was a very enjoyable experience glad you shared it with us
Eliot: makes gameboy cart Nintendo: your on the list boi
great stuff as always! I always thought it would be fun to have a go at writing a game to an eeprom, have you ever come across the yellow gameboy color development flash cart that has rumble in it? I picked one up a few years ago and haven't seen it for sale online ever.
I like the fact you're trying, as closely as practical, to understand how developers did things at the time with their available technology.
I hope you give some Gameboy game programming a go, even if it's a crude PacMan clone or something.
My guess on the GBC development cartridge: Metal Gear Solid "Ghost Babel".
I'm a ginger with a condition known as deceptive albinism, I also get erased with enough UV light
What happens when you get stabbed by wooden sticks
@@ssg-eggunner I cry
@@MaggitJef seems about right
My birthday is tomorrow, a Retro future video is the perfect gift, thank you :)
Awesome video!!! Would recommend that a device that old the electrolytic capacitors might have dried out, so I would replace it while you give it a clean :)
I've done something similar recently using a Pokémon Silver Repro cart from ebay and an InsideGadgets GB/GBA cartidge reader/flasher. I backed up one of my many copies of GB Tetris and flashed it onto the Pokémon Silver cart. Then used it to play Tetris with the original copy I backed up, before putting the copy of Silver back onto it.
I’ve been looking at retro stuff and this guy is the only guy I’ve seen with all these rare shit I’ve never seen in my life
Cool Video, I have some old rare Bung Flash carts, but lost the flasher, they would be great in someone's collection ;)
Very cool project!
btw the reason for the sticker on the EEPROM chip is primarly to cover the little window, and prevent the data from being corrupted and slowly wiped trough UV light from the sun
Thanks for uploading such an interesting video!
Playing my Gameboy Color while watching this.
Love the label design!
I remember in high school doing some tours of majors at a college. One was a computer engineering course where they actually manufactured stuff like EEPROMs and other ICs. Wish I went for that instead of Information Technology
Don't know if you've looked into it any or had someone mention it, but in the video you mentioned not knowing how to work with the GB and GBA Flash cartridges. I never messed with the GB ones myself, but I did use a GBA flash cart for a while, and the way I used it was a special cable and program. The cable connected the GBA link port to a USB port, a button combination on startup (I believe holding Start+Select on power on) caused the GBA to boot into "slave" mode where it waited for code from the link cable, and the program basically would send a special program that would read/write from the cartridge slot. It would be used to either dump the contents of a cartridge, or to send the commands to the chip to program the flash cart with new contents. I imagine that something like that exists for the GB cart, or you'd use a device like the one you used to dump the original Tetris cart to interface with the GB Flash cart. If you can find technical data (possibly by looking up any markings on the inside?) you may be able to find or write a program that would send the necessary signals to store data.
I love the simpleness of the dmg.
Uv erasable eproms are pretty resilient. I normally have to do much longer than 10 minutes.
Congrats, you can use that exact programmer and likely the eproms for NES games.
You have a very cool B.C. Kid II copy right there!
When ROM flashing was literally flashing it.
Another awesome video, I’m guessing the game on that flash cartridge is James Pond, robocod 2
I've wondered if you've done a video on gameboy cartridge battery replacements, I've kinda wanted to see your opinion on the "battery holders" they sell on ebay that enable you to use certain watch batteries in the game cartridge instead of using the traditional battery saves.
Love the Mac plus art
With how much they're used, I heavily doubt that no one's manufacturing EPROMs anymore. Pretty sure you can get factory-new ones still.
Neat cartridge you made there, the stickers look quite nice, at least on camera!
@Lassi Kinnunen 81 True
I was interested in this video because I was looking in to ways to retro fit old Pokemon games that needed a battery for save file (Gen I and II) so that the data wouldn't be lost when the battery ran out. (perhaps a secondary rechargeable battery?) This is not that but its a step in the right direction. Very cool.
I hope you know that these chips are still made and available to buy because I used them in College when learning about ROM, PROM, EPROM, EEPROM and MPROM when doing microprocessors analysis to talk about their memory, those devices you used are familiar to me lol
Elliot you are such a Nerd! and i dig it! Love you Elliot
I really appreciate that you made it clear that what you did was homemade and not in any way offical (on the cart itself). As a collector I don't necessarily have a problem with people creating reproductions and the like for their collections. My only problem is whenever their belongings are inevitably gotten rid of (selling it off or death) someone will end up buying a fake reproduction thinking that it is real. Just putting something like "reproduction" somewhere on the object saves this from ever happening.
the first time I have seen this so cool, can you put custom games on a cartridge?
wow you have a massive great collection
You could probably use a modern EEPROM in place of the old stock UV EPROM. I don't know much about how the bank controller chips work and what compatibility issues there are , but there are definitely still EEPROM chips in that form factor being made. They're much more easily eraseable with that TL-866 'eprom flasher'.
"You don't want to fool anyone into thinking that it's not homemade, that would be a horrible thing to do"
And that's totally what the makers of an ARG would do.
It really feels like those disclaimers were only so people wouldn't complain. He's made it pretty obvious in the past, especially when discussing flash carts and things, that he has no problem with the questionable legality of roms.
@@TXFDA He hasn't tried to sell any "Dual Screen Tinendo Name Toys" to me yet.
That title got me excited
you can actually get an electrically flashable version of that eprom. called an eeprom Electrically Erasible Programable Read Only Memory. As long as the pinout on the chip is the same then you can use than. no need for that old UV stuff. you can just use a cheap flasher like a TL866. those are made brand new on mouser and digikey so you wont have to worry about them disappearing due to old, limited stock
you might be able to put some games on those gameboy colour and advance carts with a game dumper. I think you reviewed one on your channel. All though sometimes not every cart is compatible, its definitely worth a try. You may even be able to find one that works of yours do not
also I'm surprised you didn't put the game made for you on that cart instead, would have made it way more personal and original in my opinion
would suggest a blackout sticker over the eeprom window, to prevent data degradation from UV leakage. if you pull a sticker off a normal eeprom u'll see it has a blackout layer to block accidental uv exposure
I think I would have chosen Star Hawk personally. You and your Tetris. I guess you can never have to much of a good thing. Lol
You probably want to place black electrical tape over the window in the EPROM before placing your paper label over it. Paper alone probably won't block enough UV light, and the contents could be erased or corrupted over a long period of time.
"Debug the game if there's any faults in it"?! Silly Elliot! Don't you know all Nintendo ROMs descend perfectly formed and flawless from the heavens?
*laughs in Pokemon*
First time I've been early to this channel!
This channel is great.
Another day or two and this guy is gonna make his own Nintendo
This is very interesting, I didn't know there were blanks around
Hello from Germany! For the first time, I can follow your Video and build this thing by my own...with a little more time😂
Elliot “UV light erases this eprom”... leaves covering the erase window till last. ..yeah, grand idea 🤦🏻😱🤯
The EEPROM isn't affected by visible light only UV (UV-C to be precise) the amount of UV if any in artificial light is minimal not a concern in the short term. It is also not very prominent in sunlight you would have to leave it outside in direct sunlight for 1 to 2 weeks to completely erase it. UV-C is also completely filtered out by ordinary glass so anything coming through a window is nothing to worry about.
@@Bushougoma well, it wasn’t an EEPROM, because UV wouldn’t be a “thing”. If any UV light hits the window it could cause corruption, so yeah, it is an issue.
@@memsom This is a myth that's been perpetuated for a long time. Indoor light WILL NOT erase an EPROM. I said minimal concern previously to take into account some stray sunlight from an open window. All fluorescent lamps used for general lighting emit UV-C however the tubes are made of glass which blocks 100% of it. LEDs for general lighting also do not emit UV.
Only UV-C emitted by specially made germicidal lamps (tubes made of quartz rather than glass to pass UV-C) will work.
This specific wavelength of light and ONLY this wavelength will bleed the charge off the floating gates to erase the chip.
I'm actually surprised you haven't done this before
I guess those blank dev cards are super rare so he had to wait for one to be on sale
Probably...
Nice tip I learned from tprshadow on Instagram: You can clean the cartridge contacts with regular eraser (like the ones we had in school).
I start with that first, then clean the most stubborn stuff with IPA. And it shines like new. :) Thanks for yet another very entertaining video.
Great vid man. I appreciate it.
I’m glad you wrote homemade.. But what if someone down the line just removes the label(s).
I’d laser-etch that info on the chip😂
I literally accidentally clicked this as the notification appeared. I ain’t mad though, new retrofuture video!
This video is the moment Elliot became a legend.
Not really. Elliot is always a legend.
Awesome mate... now make ur own game and flash it. Now you really do have a custom card
Pro tip. But your little UV trash thing just under some box to keep the UV leaks contained. Just don't do that for to long due to heat being trapped.
YO I LOVE YOUR SHIRT
Elliot, can you imagine in a few decades, your Tetris "development" cart could be in someone else retro collection? That would be cool!
I had already seen this and YT recommended it again 56 seconds ago with a notification
actually if you desolder the EEPROM off a retail cartridge and replace it with a socket + you bypass the security you can probably make a dev cart
Next challenge is to make your own Neo Geo MVS cartridge by programming all the individual flash chips. It's one of the big reasons I want to buy one of those EEPROM programmers
Check out GB Studio. You can design your own GB rom and it's fairly easy, even for a beginner.
Those cart PCBS look really simple, you could probably get one of those made at somewhere like PCB Way and just 3d print the case.
PCB stands for Perifratic Can Boot, right? :-)
Some people also sell blank gameboy carts that you can flash your own game on too
I know you can buy blank cartage boards for the mega drive so if the do for the game boy you can make your own "new" carts with the help of a 3d printer
The label across the back of the EPROM is not only to label what's on it, but because they can also be erased accidentally by sunlight and other sources of UV light if not careful. It's there to protect the data, as well as inform what's on the chip itself.
Great another retro future great way to end a Wednesday 🙂
I can’t wait to make my own gameboy cartridge, that will make it explode! :D
I hope you checked what was on the eeprom? They can have really rare development versions of old games that should be dumped for the scene. NEVER just say "Yes, there's data on it lets wipe it..."
If a gameboy could grow up would it become a gameman /musicplays (Nice t-shirt btw)
I think eeprom's are still being manufactured and used in virtually any device that needs to store some data when a power cycle happens.. Printers and microcontrollers use them for example.
Also, I would not recommend using UV light to erase it. Too much exposure could render it useless. It's more of a last measure for old eeproms if some bits are stuck in a '1' state.
If the eeprom is good then you should be able to just write 0's on it before you flash your program
Cool looks very nice
its like the hipster flash cart no i dont put roms on micro sd i right them on eprom chips haha pretty awesome dude
What are you using to remove that adhesive? It went off pretty fast and clean.
And now we know why they put stickers on the top of the EPROMS :D
I guess the thing inside of that flash cartridge is a Pokémon prototype
Elliot has accomplished something that has never been accomplished before...