This Adapter Lets You Play Game Boy Cartridges On Your PC, And It Even Detects Fakes

I got one of these in the first run, and I love it. The software is still in Beta but it works really well!

That's okay, I already play those games on my PC.

Rather cheeky branding. Analogue must be pretty flattered right now.

Also, I'm confused - if it has to use a PC as a middle man, what are the chips on the board doing? The emulation? But there's a whole-ass PC just sitting there?

Seems like such a cool solution for people that collect or start collecting GB(C)(A)-line of games. For me personally, even though I would love to start collecting these games, I have my hands full keeping up with the Nintendo Switch physical library.

Will only be useful if it could be used as a rom dumper. Since the product is made with only commercial games in mind, after market cartridges will not work as the thing could detect fake cartridges so if you got one of those Shantae repro from Limited Run Games you won't be able to even play it on this thing as it will automatically detect it as a fake cartridge even though it's an official release cartridge. Also like Hyperkin, these idiots forgot to include a link cable port on the side like how hard is it that clone maker like these kept forgetting about that. If you're playing Pokemon or any game that requires trading or transfering data you need link cable support, not having it is just lame on their part.

Always a bit weird to see UK based writers write articles about things you can't really get in the UK unless you are sent one for free. I know they haven't been sent on this case but a lot of the time that is the only easy way to get one outside of the US

@a1904 They know that much of their audience is from the USA.

@Markiemania95 Oh Yeah, 100% but I feel like especially when it comes to Youtubers, they should point that out more often

Stuff like this makes me wonder if there is a possibility to "refurbish" your old game onto new cartridge tech. As my SNES continues to age, it becomes increasingly concerning when they will just keel over.

Might consider it if this is ever integrated into RetroPie

This sounds like an easy way to get photos off a game boy camera to your pc!

I really want a device that will let me play real 3/DS games on a PC or TV. Why does this not exist yet?! It's $currentYear for cripes sakes!!!

Would be cool if someone made a Switch cart adapter, that uses Yuzu/Ryujinx to play Switch games on PC.

@a1904 According to the checkout, they deliver to the UK, and it also says worldwide shipping.

As for the product, I may pick this up.

The Bootleg detection is kind of good for me. (multicart dumping, anyone?) That's the best part. Dumping GB/GBC games.

❗No thanks.

My Bittboy Pocket-Go/R4 Card will be enough.

@Piyo
Oh, in that case, @RupeeClock is absolutly right.
a Retrode2 with gb adapter is much better.
It also allows to transfer savegames back to the moduls

Good luck to anyone who start collecting old pokemon games if you don't have them already. You'll probably need to sell your arm to be able to pay for them.

Hmm, so it reads your cartridge rom and plays it in an emulator? 🤔 I might as well just use the emulator without the hardware attached. If it was hardware playback on a PC without emulation, that would be interesting.

Otherwise it seems more useful for those wanting to copy homebrew to a blank cartridge.

Cool, but pointless. Well, bootleg detection is useful, even if it isn't 100%.

@Chocobo_Shepherd Closest thing to what you are describing is something called powerslaves which repurposes the Powersaves dongle for 3DS into a cartridge reader. The main reason this never took off was that the dongle is really slow at reading data (it was only intended for backing up saves) and 3DS games are encrypted which would require AES keys from a 3DS. Games back then were smaller in file size and didn't have the level of security that Nintendo uses today.

@RupeeClock I'd reckon you need blank cartridges for ROM hacks as the OEM ROMs can't be flashed over or something...to my knowledge

The big question for this adapter is this, If you have a PC on you, why not just use an emulator?

I quite like this device and am probably going to end up picking one up at some point. I heard they are working on a SNES one next, but the one I really want from them is N64.

@DiscoDriver44 Because not everyone is a filthy pirate, that's why. And even some of those filthy thieves would like to be able to pull their own save files from the few games they actually own legitimately.

@RupeeClock
You can dump roms and write them on a cartridge if it isn't read-only. Meaning that most bootleg cartridges should be rewritable.

@Ghost_of_Hasashi
You misunderstood. The software tells you if a cartridge is official or not only as an indication, it doesn't prevent you from playing anything.

so your saying I just need a pc and a GBA pokemon kart and I can cheat now? sweet.

I'll probally pick this up to get myself all the events in emerald and the other games then. I've always wanted to go to the faraway island for mew in my legit emerald but never could.

@Heavyarms55 so let's say you've bought a used GB cartridge off Ebay and you're playing it on a system which was not intended for it by using unauthorized mod hardware + you didn't pay Nintendo a dime. How's that different from a piracy? It's just an emulation with extra steps.

Maybe you have cartridges that you've legally bought from official stores back in the 90's, then it'll work in some way but it's still a "Game Boy only" game, not "Game Boy to PC".

@Leo626 I can't seem to find any videos demonstrating the product and process. Can you link me to a good one??

@kupocake
Well my guess is that it's not as easy as just hooking up the pins of the cartrigde and routing them to a USB...
Someone probably had to do some reverseengineering and make a chip that could act as translator/formater between the cartridge and the PC .

So the actual game emulation still happens on the PC. the chip is only for communication purposes.

But thats just a guess..

I like the concept a lot, but don't want to play on the computer. I want them to go talk to Nintendo about releasing devices like this as accessories for Switch and future consoles. Maybe Nintendo would allow commercial emulator software if the emulation is tied to a physical copy? They could offer the option to buy or rent a digital license in the emulator too, for games they hold the distribution rights for.

@NinjaWaddleDee pirating games is a hate crime to PoCs (people of creativity)

@Heavyarms55 why don't the pirates just pirate this device too? why are they giving any money to anyone that created anything?

@Carnictis The port of the back of the operator is a USB-C, but it connects to the PC via USB-A. Or least that's the cable that came with it.

@ChakraStomps They would if they could. Trust me.

@Kutal The difference is that you're using hardware and games you physically own that were purchased legally.

Piracy is hopping online and downloading the whatever you want from some website.

Think of it like a print of a work of art, if you want to fold it or take it out of its frame or cut it or whatever, that's fine. But if you scan it into a PC and start distribution of it all over the web, you're hurting the artist. No one is going to want to buy from the artist when they can just get a copy for free.

@Chocobo_Shepherd Don't think anyone made a video on this considering it wasn't very user friendly. You had to compile from source code which most people aren't familiar with.

https://github.com/kitlith/powerslaves

@Leo626 Last question and then I'll stop bugging you: would it be possible to use the PowerSaves adaptor to download a save file from an emulator on your CPU to your physical cartridge? Cuz that would be roughly an equivalent experience. This is assuming 3/DS has reliable emulators which, I honestly don't know if they do.

@yuwarite That could only happen if the Switch is no longer supported by Nintendo, making any product that would take away sales from the Switch or its library at the moment will likely be hit with a lawsuit.

@Switcheroot Oh I see so it does work like the Retron 5. It'll say unknown cartridge but you could still play it. Now in the future I wonder if people will mistake repro cartridges for fake cartridges? There's repro of Limited Run Games version of Shantae but there's also fake Chinese version of the game too and some which even use LRG's own label and logo on it as well which could easily fool buyers.

@Ghost_of_Hasashi It's more a case of patent expiration, I believe. Though there may be ways around it, depending on how they implement a Switch card reader. Regardless, there already is a way to dump Switch games stored on a Switch SD card to PC, via a modded Switch.

@Chocobo_Shepherd Apologies for the late reply. The Citra emulator uses decrypted saves. Powersaves are encrypted, therefore they are incompatible. Powersaves encryption isn't proprietary I think but no one has made a tool to convert them. The best way to move a save from an emulator on PC to a 3DS cartridge, would be to soft mod a 3DS which is really easy than ever before and use a homebrew save manager app like Checkpoint or JKSM.