Hey, you seem pretty smart. I need some help. I want to make one of these bad boys load games from an sd card, or make a cartridge that reads the sdcard. any help? thanks.
@yoshie257 hey there, thats not a little task, the SD card cannot be read from by the gameboy in real time as its too slow, so the rom has to be loaded into flash first, so you need a flash chip, SD holder and a controller chip in between that can hold the gameboy in reset while it copies over the rom from the SD. its not impossible, but after adding an SRAM and battery backup and a 5 to 3.3 voltage controller etc you will get tight for space in a gameboy cart. and then there is the programming
ok im lost most people make portables of other systems, what would enthrall you to disassemble a gameboy and take the game part and put it on a male to female adapter? I see no point in it. I think its cool but pointless please explain why :)
@rabbitnightmare it was mainly for educational purposes, it proved everything i had worked out about how the gameboy worked was right. also it was a test of soldering, it was very challenging which can be fun. Also it becomes a modular gameboy, i can decide to run it just as something with a cart, or i can add a screen, and buttons, i can plug it into the TV and use a nes controller if i wanted to. google "nex modblog" and look this project up, it was hand soldered pin by pin.
@iToasterman the SD is too slow so it would need something complex to copy the rom from the SD to the flash on start up. not impossible, but the main problem is actually space.
@iToasterman its too slow to read directly from, the memory in SD cannot be referenced like a flash chip can. flash is better because its faster, but its write times are slower, so the roms would need to be transferred to flash on boot up, but the space on the board for a micro SD slot, and a transfer chip as well as the usual chips would be tight.
@RustyNex Dude stop saying slow slow slow. Get a class 4 card. your not reading directly from it. The avr will load a menu on the gameboy, its also what will switch games by loading them into the gameboy's ram from the microsd card, its fast eneugh to do this and alot more. Just try it. There's nothing to loose
@iToasterman i have, thats the thing, i originally tried to build a cart that used a microSD as the flash chip, i was running a genuine class 10 card, although it can copy the rom to the flash reasonably flash it can't read directly, there is also the issue of space, you have to have a 3.3v regulator on the cart. while an AVR chip can handle it including a menu, its physical space that is the issue, but like i said not impossible
@RustyNex adruino mini, try that, and use a micro sd, renember, its fast eneugh as you dont have to read from the card! the card is for storage, the avr does the hard work
@iToasterman an arduino doesn't have the memory capacity to store a whole rom, so it would also need a flash chip to write to, and it would need a 5v to 3.3v regulator, and of course there is the SRAM and a battery if you want it to be useful, but yea an arduino would be fast enough to write to a flash chip, but not to host the rom
@RustyNex its not holding the rom. why dont you understand?! >:C The arduino reads the file and sends it bit by bit to the gameboy. Its only a layer between reading and writing to the sd card at high speed. Try it. everyone said iPad would fail without waiting, now look
@iToasterman have you done this before? or have seen it done? because it cant, like i said the SD card is too slow, the arduino may be fast enough to keep up with the gameboy, but only just, because the gameboy runs in parallel so the arduino has to work very hard to keep up with that, but the arduino would have to work as a buffer to the SD card, it would have to take all the rom data, as replying to the rom and reading back wouldn't be fast enough
@RustyNex many people have done it. Just give it a damn try. stop saying no no no tooo slow. and try it. Worst that can happen is it wont work. even then you can still use the arduino to load games from a pc to the gameboy.
@iToasterman can you give an example? because i know about electronics and i know for a fact that you cannot make a gameboy cart using just an SD card and an arduino, you need at the bare minimum a flash chip to write the rom to,
@RustyNex do you have skype? the idea is the arduino runs bare code to make a menu read from the card and write to the gba like a cart. It moves the rom into the gba's memory then handles reading and writing between the two. Its not too slow. Everything is buffered by the avr / arduino.
@iToasterman my GF has skype, but if you want to talk about this you can email me: ralph (dot) nex (at) gmail (dot) com, the arduino doesn't have enough pins to connect to the gameboy on its own, and the gameboy doesn't have memory to store the rom, it would have to be on the cart, also the arduino doesn't have enough memory to act like a buffer, it would need an external buffer chip. but it could be done with a more powerful chip, but not an arduino
@iToasterman I've thought a lot about these things, it wouldn't be impossible for sure. But you would need custom logic (FPGA/CPLD) to let the microcontroller access the onboard memory without interference from the GB (i.e. not a shared bus.) And you would need to design the whole thing, hardware and software. It's easy to tell people to try it when you don't have to do the work. Give me an Apple type budget and I will have this done in two months.
@buggyiscool 25 as of this year, i started working with gameboys about 2 years ago, i have no official education in electronics, i am self taught and started when i was maybe 13, and lol i am not that smart, these things just make sense to me
@scattrr yea i know i am sorry about that, the camera is amazingly cheap and crap, it wont even switch on some times... i tried using my mobile but its the opposite, it doesnt seem to pick up any sound at all.
i am sure there is some video editing software which could block out the high pitch noises, i might have to see if i can fix it.
@gonepishing in what way do you mean? all the display buffering etc is done by the CPU, the screen is plugged straight into the CPU with no components between them. but there is a set of components to regulate power to the LCD. in the video i am using a little test module i built to check that all the wiring on my 25 way connector is correct. the test module allows a normal front PCB from a DMG gameboy to be plugged straight in as a test
Hey, you seem pretty smart. I need some help. I want to make one of these bad boys load games from an sd card, or make a cartridge that reads the sdcard. any help? thanks.
yoshie257 1 month ago
@yoshie257 hey there, thats not a little task, the SD card cannot be read from by the gameboy in real time as its too slow, so the rom has to be loaded into flash first, so you need a flash chip, SD holder and a controller chip in between that can hold the gameboy in reset while it copies over the rom from the SD. its not impossible, but after adding an SRAM and battery backup and a 5 to 3.3 voltage controller etc you will get tight for space in a gameboy cart. and then there is the programming
RustyNex 1 month ago
Amazing! You must be really goood at building stuff! I could never even try to make that I would fail at step 1 lol
TheMariobros101 3 months ago
@TheMariobros101 thanks, you just need a steady hand and a good soldering iron, the rest is easy :)
RustyNex 3 months ago
ok im lost most people make portables of other systems, what would enthrall you to disassemble a gameboy and take the game part and put it on a male to female adapter? I see no point in it. I think its cool but pointless please explain why :)
rabbitnightmare 3 months ago
@rabbitnightmare it was mainly for educational purposes, it proved everything i had worked out about how the gameboy worked was right. also it was a test of soldering, it was very challenging which can be fun. Also it becomes a modular gameboy, i can decide to run it just as something with a cart, or i can add a screen, and buttons, i can plug it into the TV and use a nes controller if i wanted to. google "nex modblog" and look this project up, it was hand soldered pin by pin.
RustyNex 3 months ago
@RustyNex now make a game for it
iToasterman 3 months ago
@iToasterman lol hardware wise the cartridge is the easy bit, programming the game though would be a little harder
RustyNex 3 months ago
@RustyNex use a avr with some roms and a microsd card or sc card ;D
iToasterman 3 months ago
@iToasterman the SD is too slow so it would need something complex to copy the rom from the SD to the flash on start up. not impossible, but the main problem is actually space.
RustyNex 3 months ago
@RustyNex sd isnt to slow, its just for storing the roms.
iToasterman 3 months ago
@iToasterman its too slow to read directly from, the memory in SD cannot be referenced like a flash chip can. flash is better because its faster, but its write times are slower, so the roms would need to be transferred to flash on boot up, but the space on the board for a micro SD slot, and a transfer chip as well as the usual chips would be tight.
RustyNex 3 months ago
@RustyNex Dude stop saying slow slow slow. Get a class 4 card. your not reading directly from it. The avr will load a menu on the gameboy, its also what will switch games by loading them into the gameboy's ram from the microsd card, its fast eneugh to do this and alot more. Just try it. There's nothing to loose
iToasterman 3 months ago
@iToasterman i have, thats the thing, i originally tried to build a cart that used a microSD as the flash chip, i was running a genuine class 10 card, although it can copy the rom to the flash reasonably flash it can't read directly, there is also the issue of space, you have to have a 3.3v regulator on the cart. while an AVR chip can handle it including a menu, its physical space that is the issue, but like i said not impossible
RustyNex 3 months ago
@RustyNex adruino mini, try that, and use a micro sd, renember, its fast eneugh as you dont have to read from the card! the card is for storage, the avr does the hard work
iToasterman 3 months ago
@iToasterman an arduino doesn't have the memory capacity to store a whole rom, so it would also need a flash chip to write to, and it would need a 5v to 3.3v regulator, and of course there is the SRAM and a battery if you want it to be useful, but yea an arduino would be fast enough to write to a flash chip, but not to host the rom
RustyNex 3 months ago
@RustyNex its not holding the rom. why dont you understand?! >:C The arduino reads the file and sends it bit by bit to the gameboy. Its only a layer between reading and writing to the sd card at high speed. Try it. everyone said iPad would fail without waiting, now look
iToasterman 3 months ago
@iToasterman have you done this before? or have seen it done? because it cant, like i said the SD card is too slow, the arduino may be fast enough to keep up with the gameboy, but only just, because the gameboy runs in parallel so the arduino has to work very hard to keep up with that, but the arduino would have to work as a buffer to the SD card, it would have to take all the rom data, as replying to the rom and reading back wouldn't be fast enough
RustyNex 3 months ago
@RustyNex many people have done it. Just give it a damn try. stop saying no no no tooo slow. and try it. Worst that can happen is it wont work. even then you can still use the arduino to load games from a pc to the gameboy.
iToasterman 3 months ago
@iToasterman can you give an example? because i know about electronics and i know for a fact that you cannot make a gameboy cart using just an SD card and an arduino, you need at the bare minimum a flash chip to write the rom to,
RustyNex 3 months ago
@RustyNex do you have skype? the idea is the arduino runs bare code to make a menu read from the card and write to the gba like a cart. It moves the rom into the gba's memory then handles reading and writing between the two. Its not too slow. Everything is buffered by the avr / arduino.
iToasterman 3 months ago
@iToasterman my GF has skype, but if you want to talk about this you can email me: ralph (dot) nex (at) gmail (dot) com, the arduino doesn't have enough pins to connect to the gameboy on its own, and the gameboy doesn't have memory to store the rom, it would have to be on the cart, also the arduino doesn't have enough memory to act like a buffer, it would need an external buffer chip. but it could be done with a more powerful chip, but not an arduino
RustyNex 3 months ago
@RustyNex itoasterman at gmail dot com, lets chat there.
iToasterman 3 months ago
@iToasterman I've thought a lot about these things, it wouldn't be impossible for sure. But you would need custom logic (FPGA/CPLD) to let the microcontroller access the onboard memory without interference from the GB (i.e. not a shared bus.) And you would need to design the whole thing, hardware and software. It's easy to tell people to try it when you don't have to do the work. Give me an Apple type budget and I will have this done in two months.
Gameboygenius 3 months ago
omg how do you even start to do this? This is magnificent!!!
AnImmortalEra 5 months ago
@AnImmortalEra thanks, its just step by step one wire at a time, the build photos are on my blog
RustyNex 5 months ago
para que es eso?
jorgemtz97 5 months ago
@jorgemtz97 it says in the discription
RustyNex 5 months ago
!gameboylite!
xXSpencanatorXx 6 months ago
and thats the gameboy lite version xD nice work
Officer94 6 months ago
@Officer94 very! thanks :)
RustyNex 6 months ago
MY HEAD IS ABOUT TO BURST!!!!!..... nice Gameboy btw
nekosama23 7 months ago
@nekosama23 thanks!
RustyNex 7 months ago
OH GOD THAT SCREECHING NOISE MAKE IT STOP FOR THE LOVE OF GOD MAKE IT STOP!!!!!!!!!!!
afatsweatyman 7 months ago 9
no offense, how old are you...how long ago did you start modding gameboy...do you have any official education in electronics, lastly WTF YOUR SMART
buggyiscool 8 months ago
@buggyiscool 25 as of this year, i started working with gameboys about 2 years ago, i have no official education in electronics, i am self taught and started when i was maybe 13, and lol i am not that smart, these things just make sense to me
RustyNex 8 months ago
wats the music at 0:36
hank7210 1 year ago
@hank7210 thats the music i wrote on LSDJ, its a million miles away from being finished and at the moment is just used to test.
RustyNex 1 year ago
@RustyNex k sorry
hank7210 1 year ago
@hank7210 no need to be sorry :)
RustyNex 1 year ago
@RustyNex ok
hank7210 1 year ago
@RustyNex sounds awesome though :D
Shockszzbyyous 10 months ago
@Shockszzbyyous thanks :)
RustyNex 10 months ago
i would love to watch all of these videos if it wasn't for the high pitched mosquito tone in all of your videos : /
scattrr 1 year ago 13
@scattrr yea i know i am sorry about that, the camera is amazingly cheap and crap, it wont even switch on some times... i tried using my mobile but its the opposite, it doesnt seem to pick up any sound at all.
i am sure there is some video editing software which could block out the high pitch noises, i might have to see if i can fix it.
RustyNex 1 year ago
cool idea,
is the display circuitry is complex?
gonepishing 1 year ago
@gonepishing in what way do you mean? all the display buffering etc is done by the CPU, the screen is plugged straight into the CPU with no components between them. but there is a set of components to regulate power to the LCD. in the video i am using a little test module i built to check that all the wiring on my 25 way connector is correct. the test module allows a normal front PCB from a DMG gameboy to be plugged straight in as a test
RustyNex 1 year ago
@RustyNex I see, I was curious about the circuitry remaining within the Gameboy case you connected it to.
gonepishing 1 year ago
Wow congratz
Psifork 1 year ago
@Psifork thanks :) it was worth it just for the sake of doing it
RustyNex 1 year ago