Game Boy / Game Boy Color
(See this page for an overview of all known hardware.)
If you need help, please come chat with us on the VGPC Discord.
Introduction
Important Notes
- If you have an unused/sealed game, you should dump ROM and save data from the physical media before using it, and note in your submission if the physical media was new or sealed when you got it. This is to avoid inadvertent modification of the data and to help preserve the data in its unused/“factory” state. Its also a good idea to photograph the cart/packaging in its sealed state, in order to help with verifying it.
- If the dump hashes don't match an already existing item in the relevant database, you should try and verify that the dump is correct before submitting it as a new dump or new version. You can do that by cleaning the contacts (or equivalent) and dumping again.
Luckily there are numerous tools available for dumping Game Boy / Game Boy Color games, so you should be able to find a great dumper that suits your need.
Note on the Submodule GB01: This is not currently recommended, as there is no known way to manually change the dumping settings and the automatic setting detection does not work on some carts.
Tool Overview
| insideGadgets GBxCart RW v1.4 | BennVenn Joey Jr V2++ | Sanni Cart Reader | Epilogue GB Operator | J.Rodrigo Cart Flasher | insideGadgets GBxCart RW v1.3 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| tested with FW: R36+L7, SW: FlashGBX v3.14 | tested with FW: V2_02_29 Beta Firmware 64K | untested / source code analysis | untested / according to official website | tested (no FW update capability) | tested with FW: L1, SW: FlashGBX v3.14 | |||||||
| Media Type | ROM | Save | ROM | Save | ROM | Save | ROM | Save | ROM | Save | ROM | Save |
| No Mapper | ✓ | – | ✓ | – | ✓ | – | ✓ | – | ✓ | – | ✓ | – |
| MBC1 ≤ 512 KB | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| MBC1 > 512 KB | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| MBC1M | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ??? | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| MBC2 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| MBC3 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| MBC30 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| MBC5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| MBC6 | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| MBC7 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ (partially) | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| MMM01 | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ??? | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| M161 | ✓ | – | ✗ | – | ✗ | – | ✗ | – | ✗ | – | ✓ | – |
| HuC-1 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| HuC-3 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| TAMA5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| NP GB Memory | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| GB Camera | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| E201264 Dev Cart | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ??? | ??? | ??? | ??? | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Sachen | ✓ | – | ✗ | – | ✗ | – | ✗ | – | ✗ | – | ✗ | – |
| Wisdom Tree | ✓ | – | ??? | – | ✗ | – | ✗ | – | ✗ | – | ✓ | – |
| Action Replay | ✓ | – | ✗ | – | ✗ | – | ✗ | – | ✗ | – | ✓ | – |
| Xploder GB | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| 256M Multi Repro | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
Methods
Method 1 - GBxCart RW
Supports: GB/GBC/GBA, Game Boy Camera, and Nintendo Power Carts and Bootleg flashing
Please see the the page for Lesserkuma's open-source software for the GBxCart RW, FlashGBX.
Method 2 - The Joey Jr
Supports: GB/GBC/GBA, Game Boy Camera, and Nintendo Power Carts and Bootleg flashing
For latest official instruction on how to use the Joey Jr, please see the official user guide.
Method 3 - Sanni Cart Reader
The Sanni Cart Reader comes with Game Boy / Game Boy Color dumping capabilities by default. Follow the Sanni Cart Reader wiki for proper settings, and dumping instructions.
Identifying Game Versions
SSS-(T)GGR-V
S = System (DMG = Game Boy, CGB = Game Boy Color)
T = Type (N = Normal)
G = Game code (e.g. KY = Kirby's Dream Land)
R = Region (A = World, J = Japan, E = USA, P = Europe)
V = Version (starts at 0)