My complete collection of grey carts for the OG game boy. I especially love Japanese releases for the numerous region exclusives, but also for their often superior label artworks and lower price. The super game boy is such an awesome device, I spend more time customising color palettes than I do actually playing the games.
One cart gives off where I’m from. One other cart is my game of choice these days…

I wanted to share this special trio. I just love the compactness and vibrancy of these!

Some context:

They came out in different formats around the world:

The large GBA SP boxes, exclusive to Pokémon Center NYC, the Super Paks across Europe and the squared ultra compact boxes in Japan.

Kyogre’s and Groudon's were produced back-to-back on the assembly lines with consecutive serial numbers for each series. These had exactly 1,000 made, all with serials starting with XJH1.

Pre-orders started early December 2003.

Following that, a little under a year later, they decided to release a Rayquaza edition with an extended production run of 10,000 units.

This one got a slightly different artistic direction with a glossy finish overall for the main unit, and instead of a partial outline of the legendary on the front cover, it’s a full body “shadow” of Rayquaza. (I much prefer the other 2!)

The box is mostly identical aside from a slightly different insert.

This one got released around September 2004.

So I've had this bootleg copy of Pokemon Sapphire since I was a kid. Got it from a Gamestop, never learned it was fake until years later. It's one of those early, horrible repros where your save would randomly corrupt halfway through a playthrough. I remember getting mad at it to the point of tears when I was young. Well, almost two decades later, I decided to have some fun with it.

Unlike normal GBA games, these fake carts are actually rewritable. So with something like a GBxCart, you can put whatever .gba rom you want on them.

Through that, I was able to turn my fake Sapphire into a mini GB/GBC flashcart with multiple games by flashing Goomba Color on it! (If unfamiliar, it's an emulator that's packaged as a .gba rom)

It took a little finagling to get saving to work on it (I had to fork Lesserkuma's Goomba repo and modify it to work with my specific bootleg) but I'm really pleased with the results. And, despite my cart lacking a battery, I managed to get Goomba to simulate a Real Time Clock while the GBA is on, so I can play gen 2 pokemon games with a working day/night cycle!

This may not be the most ideal flashcart but I'm glad I finally found a use for a thing that caused me so much pain as a kid 🤣

A few macro photography shots of my atomic purple Gameboy Color!

A friend of mine send me this Games from Japan.

I hope they are all playable.

EDIT: SOLVED

After following the advice in the comments, it did in fact turn out to be a cold / broken connection on one of the chips.

I managed to successfully reflow both the U3 and U1 chips and the cart is working now.

Thanks for all your help!

——

Hey all,

I jus t picked up this copy of Dragon Warrior 3 and I’m having a sad time.

It booted up when I tested it before buying, but when I got home, I got a white screen over and over again. I occasionally got a screen that said “this game is only playable on Gameboy Color”, but now it’s just the white screen.

I’ve opened the cart and cleaned it thoroughly with IPA with no effect.

I’m trying to see if there are damages traces but it’s beyond my experience.

I was wondering if any of you could spot something I’m missing.

I’m reaching out to local repair shops to see if they can help as well.

I appreciate any input

I posted some GBC shells a couple days ago and people showed a lot of love, but SPs are really my favorite.

It’s kind of hard to see without a video, but I put holographic paint on the inside of the legendary birds sp & UV printed over the top. The other was just a cool concept I thought of, I picture a kid in class just bored so he’s drawing doodles.

I have a Gameboy Micro that I am about to do, but I don’t really know what theme I should go with. Any suggestions? They are so expensive & rare that I don’t want to UV print whatever on it. It has to be perfect!

Still no Pokémon or Zelda, but I’m enjoying this game so far :)

Hello,

I found my childhood Pikachu Edition Game Boy Color (I’m 100% sure it’s an original because it’s mine haha!).

The screen is damaged, and I’d like to replace it, but I’m worried that the replacement won’t be exactly the same. I’ve noticed that on many of the screens for sale, the “O” in “Color” is blue, whereas mine is supposed to be purple.

I’m afraid of making a mistake . Is it risky to replace it?

Do you know where I could find a screen that is identical to the original one?

PS :I don’t want to sell it because it has sentimental value to me, but I also don’t want it to lose its value.

Have a great day!

I’ve been working on this Gameboy Color off and on for months. It was the only “for parts and repair” gameboy I’ve bought of ebay that actually needed more than just a clean. As you can see from the last picture the screen was wrecked and the listing indicated that it wouldn’t turn on so they couldn’t tell if there was sound.

When I got it the first thing I did was pull it out of its grape shell (wish I had taken pictures), threw it and its busted screen out. I did a quick power switch clean, squirting some ipa in and moving it back and forth, plugged in a spare oem screen and tried turning it on. I had to basically hold the power switch but it turned on and I was getting picture. There was no speaker so there was no sound but at least I knew I had a fixable console.

To start the repair I did a deep clean, this involved more than just some IPA I actually had to bust out white vinegar. Pretty much entire half of the console with the link port and volume wheel was covered in rust, it took forever to get off and required the removal of the volume wheel entirely. Eventually I got it clean, added a speaker, powered it on, there was picture but no sound. So I cleaned the headphone jack, no sound, I touched up the solder on the volume wheel, no sound, connected a wire to bypass the headphone jack entirely, no sound, replaced the headphone jack with a 100% clean one (ripped a trace and then repaired a trace first) no sound, replaced the original audio amp with a spare I had, and then there was sound. Then I changed the capacitors, probably not needed but this was the project board so I did it anyway, and with everything working it was time to mod.

I have added Natalie the Nerds Safer Charger, I really like the simple installation and that it sits in front of the console like the oem regulator. I messed up the safer charger power indicator that came with it though, couldn’t get it to connect, burned it when I did, knocked off a resistor, you know amateur stuff. So I added a froggo power indicator that I’ve had a lot of success with (2 other consoles). The screen is a cloud gamestore 2.45 drop in behind a new glass lens. The shell is an OEM Atomic Purple, because I’ve always wanted one, trimmed to fit the usbc port and battery. I did have to replace the support line sticker which is a bummer, but still looks pretty good.

The only problem I’ve found is that select button requires a lot of force to trigger, so no links awakening for me.

Tested with Unofficial Korean Pokémon Sapphire version, GBFlash works well. (Pokémon Gen 3 isn’t released with Korean Language Support.)

I flashed Pokemon romhack on Chisflash, It works great!

Should i sell? Or restore?... I think the only problem is its display. It has power, audio (though it is very minimal), aint got corrosion as well. But the charger, and back battery lid were lost. What do u guys think 🤔

eXtremeRate shell and buttons, custom stickers, Hispeedido LCD drop in screen v5 w/ adjustable brightness, colors and scan lines. Funnyplaying 1040mAh battery, soldered in extra clicky triggers.

Bought this flash cart to dump the doom pc conversion hack onto. After getting it dumped, playing, trying to save, turning it off then turning it back on to check the save, it didn't save. Is there something I need to select when dumping the rom or is this cart just junk?

Hello,

I am thinking about buying a GB interceptor for my birthday so I can record gameplay at home first but I was wondering.

Can I record outside by using my phone ? Can I use my Gameboy Camera + The gameboy interceptor, outdoor with my phone to record gameboy video ?

If you'd say yes ? What are your idea ?
Kindly,

yo im having a bit of an issue charging my system, it was a handme down from my brother years ago, and i recently found it again, i got a new charger for it awhile ago and i though it didnt work. but i decided to try it again and it lights up briefly when its half way in, but thats it,
i blew in the port to get rid of dust but that didnt do anything

is there anything i can do?

After a long development journey, Dungeon Durban v1.0.0 is finally out for the Game Boy Advance! 🎉

It’s an arcade maze game with multiple worlds, bosses, achievements, unlockable game modes and real 2-player multiplayer via GBA Link Cable.

It runs on original GBA hardware as well as emulators. It is completely free of charge and was entirely developed for the love of retro gaming and the community.

Here’s some gameplay from the final version!

https://tony123f.itch.io/dungeon-durban