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Game Boy / Game Boy Color
Check the dumping hardware overview for a list of known preservation hardware.
If you need help, please come chat with us on the VGPC or No-Intro discord servers.
Introduction
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 | |||||||
| 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)