@@Eddies_Bra-att-ha-grejer Yes and no. It funtion on windows, linux and mac. I currently have it running on my Pi. But yes as in you need software. But with my understanding of this project, it probably wont work with the GBCamera .
It does work with the Game Boy camera (why wouldn't it?). For example the outro was recorded with the Interceptor. But more to the point of the discussion: Being able to record or stream the Game Boy Camera is just a nice side effect. Streaming games while playing on the original hardware was the main consideration, so the focus of the Interceptor is quite different from the GBxCam. If it can do some of its functions too, that's just a bonus. In terms of additional software it indeed should just be usable like a webcam, which it does on Linux and MacOS (with the next firmware update and on Intel devices): you just plug it in and select it in Zoom, OBS, VLC etc. Unfortunately, on Windows VLC and Zoom are not happy with its video format and do not accept it (yet). Here you can use OBS to send the stream to Zoom, but if it you are not already using OBS it could be considered additional software.
This seems like one of those ideas where you would pitch it and everyone would call you crazy.... It's amazing to see how well it works and how clever it actually is
I got GB Interceptor earlier this month and I am now streaming Game Boy games live on my Twitch channel CantStopTheRaj (and uploads to my TH-cam). This invention is EXACTLY what I wished for when I first started streaming, as I love playing my Game Boy but I want to play ON my Game Boy and not through emulation or another device like Game Boy Player. The GB Interceptor is perfect and allows me to show my viewers a big screen version of what I see on my Game Boy! I even posted my first TwinGalaxies Game Boy World Record this week with the use of the GB Interceptor (Most Points in Skate or Die: Bad N Rad)! I just wanted to say THANK YOU FOR THIS AMAZING INVENTION! You are a hero! THANK YOU!!!!
This is unbelievably metal! This is taking the party gotcha of "well _technically_ everything goes through that one place in the system [which is practically useless for all reasonable intents and purposes]" and just frigging running with it! Amazing!!
Awesome! A very very cool project and great execution! I like how you do not cut or modify the device, how you made it just show up as a USB camera, and many of your design choices. They show a clear attention to detail and a lot of care. Kudos! I made a somewhat tangential device for speedrunning competitions on the NES - with slightly different design criteria. I ended up going with an FPGA, although the rp2040 is a really neat option. Regardless, thanks again and great job!
This is a clever architecture. Before you explained you were running an emulator on one of the RP2040 cores I was thinking that maybe you were sniffing enough bus traffic while CS for the cartridge was not asserted to put the video state back together. I love your videos!
once u mentioned the vram problem, my brain quickly figured out you basically needed an whole gb emulator running on the pico but I quickly tossed that idea away cause too much work etc...just to see that in fact u did just that!^^
Das eigentliche Produkt außen vor. Dieses Video alleine. RICHTIG nice wie viel Mühe und Arbeit alleine da rein geflossen ist. Und das Produkt an sich natürlich entsprechend auch. Hut ab. Richtig richtig nice!
Your work with the interceptor es priceless! Also the explanation of how it works is really detailed and well explained, I have one interceptor and functions really well with the games (and especially with the GB Camera). Greetings from Argentina!
Well done! I’ve been following this project on your other social media accounts and am incredibly impressed by this execution. Emulating the GB (no trademark violation 😝) on a RP2040 core is awesome! As always, great presentation and project breakdown, too!
This is exciting to see and seems like it should make a great small project for a novice. Thanks for all the work you put into this and for sharing this video.
Thank you so much, this is amazing. I'm here from MVG's video, subscribed before watching. Just wanted to say that you've made an old guy extremely happy & you've blown my mind. I will be ordering this. First I need to see the GB WiFi video, but I'm not sure this old brain can handle being blown away twice in one day!
Incredible project and a stunningly elegant solution. I’m a big fan of the original GameBoy and often feature its games on my channel. I’ve always struggled to capture classic GameBoy - usually either use a Super GameBoy or point a camera at a GBA SP AGS-101 model both of which work ok - but this captures the right “look” too (except with those exceptions noted in the video) Brilliant work - love this kind of thing!
Incredibly done! You also did an amazing job at explaining how the GB Interceptor works. I did spot one error in the video, though, at 4:39 : "The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past" never came out for the GameBoy (at least, not officially, but I couldn't find any fan-made port), but in the video you somehow show the first lines of the game.
You definitely deserve a like, comment and subscribe! Every video of yours is interesting, funny, clearly narrated and explained, and the perfect length. Thank you so much for sharing your work!
Legend, loved the project, it's always a pleasure to see someone on this world thinkering over this old devices. Nice explanation too, thanks for posting
Wooooow, this project is so cool, and the fact that you leave the option to either get it through the PCB service or build it using the source and design files is even more awesome, thank you for doing all that!!!
Maybe the interceptor could have an audio INPUT (where you'd connect the headphone jack of the GameBoy)? That way you'd make sure you sync video and audio properly
We are so close to grass-rootes manufacturing high tech products. The only thing that is missing is a standard for requesting ready made products where you can register for a build and than a service of jlpcb will automatically assamble the product and ship it once enough customers ordered the product or a sufficient amount of money is pledged. I love how hardware as a service develops year by year.
Exactly. I actually refused their sponsorship at first because I was hoping to find a manufacturer that offers such service. The only one that seemed to be close was Aisler, but the resulting price per unit was absolutely disproportionate unless you ordered excessive numbers. So, I decided to do an instruction video for the order process instead.
I saw a news thing on this and glad this hit my YT feed. Awesome piece of tech, and GB Camera would probably be even better after modding for DSLR lens. I hope we get to see compatibility for GBC at some point
Gute Arbeit, bin beeindruckt 🙂Ich würde zwar der Einfachheit halber mein Analogue Pocket und das Dock verwenden um zu capturen aber als Nostalgiker gefällt mir dein Adapter besser und es hat mehr retro Charm.
Dude, ever since the wi-fi cartridge I've been following you and your content is amazing. Wish I could put my electrical engineering diploma into stuff like this if I had the time and creativity lol
I just discovered this channel and perhaps the answer is in previous videos, but I’m thoroughly mind-boggled at how you acquired so much low-level knowledge of these devices! I have to ask: What on Earth (or beyond) do you do for a living? Now, excuse me while I binge-watch all of your videos…
I am a physicist, but most of what I need for these projects is self-taught - usually through projects like the ones I am showing on my channel. For example, there is so much that went into the Interceptor that I learned from the Wifi cartridge project about the Game Boy, about electronics and about coding. Some of it while searching for a solution, some of it from trying and also a lot from comments I got on the Wifi cartridge video from people who are much more knowledgeable in electronics (which I would consider my weak spot). But as you are also asking specifically about the low-level knowledge of the Game Boy: I learned most of it from many others who looked into the Game Boy before me. Have a look at gbdev.io/ and you will find that the Game Boy might be one of the best documented and researched piece of hardware in human history. Even now some enthusiasts are still trying to figure out the last edge cases of timing differences in the CPU or secrets of some obscure game cartridges.
@@ThereOughtaBe Ok, now I’m even more amazed… I was convinced you had been an engineer in the tech space for a few decades, and I’m an engineer who’s been in the tech space for a few decades! Thanks for the info and thanks for this fantastic content!
mega geile Idee. Danke für die Arbeit die da rein geflossen ist, und dass es veröffentlicht wurde. Anpassungen der FW werden bestimmt mit der Zeit durch die Community kommen!
"At this point, anyone who knows a little bit of how the Game Boy works should be complaining that there is no video signal on that memory bus." Yes! I was thinking the only way you could do this is to emula... okay, yup. That's what you're doing. :) Great job on this! I was going to say it's not technically video capture, but you never actually claim that it is.
Me: "Why would you do that you'll have to basically emulate the whole thing?" there oughta be (6;24): "Solving those details was a lot of fun" That's mildly insane..... Thank you for doing it.
Thank you for the in-depth information. I love your animations, they gave a clear concise illustration. The machine code parts were very interesting and brought me back to my college days. Keep up the great work and sense of humor 😅 Will this work with a flashcart? I’m not sure how they exactly differ vs original carts.
Yes, I do not have that many games left from my childhood and tested many on a flash cart. Not entirely sure if there could be problems with fancier ones like an Everdrive, but in principle it should work, too.
There is actually a reason for this: The Tetris guy explained to me that there are two common techniques used to play: Holding it (like normal people do) or placing the Game Boy on the table and typing on the buttons like on a keyboard. I simply wanted to allow it to lay flat, so I placed it on the other side of the PCB.
That break out board gives me an idea. It would be really funny to build a cartridge that is actually several Gameboy cartridges plugged into it, like an old CD changer or an analog version of a flash cartridge.
Are you sure that they really write data from the joypad input directly to the scroll registers? The only way I can think of would require bit masking the gamepad input, then bit shifting the value into position such that you get a value that is suitable to be added directly to the scroll register value and then actually add the value to the old one. In that case, yes, the Interceptor would not be able to follow. But why would anyone do that? Not only is it annoying to code, but it is also slower if you need to do anything else for a particular direction like changing a sprite, so the character looks in the correct direction or doing collision detection. Even if the controls really just scroll the window (like scrolling a world map without moving the player), you probably want to check if you hit the edge of the map and with this bitmask-shift-and-add method you would still end up with conditional jumps for these edge cases. Worse: You will end up checking both edges when you could have checked a specific direction. Unfortunately, I cannot try those two games as my flimsy flash cart cannot hold these large GBC/GB dual mode ROMs. I hope someone can report back once more people have an Interceptor. But, indeed, I think there will be some edge cases like this that will not work and I really want to find them. Either to create a game-specific workaround or to admire the problem :) So, let me know if you can think of similar possibly problematic games.
@@ThereOughtaBe I just remember a bunch of games do this for e.g. the map screen. Conker is definitely one. Also check the Pokémon games - I think the sprites for "pokémon facing away from the camera" (during battle) are actually blown up 2x by the CPU directly, to save space. You might see on your Interceptor that they are spaced-out blocks of tile data? Maybe...
Thanks, just checked Pokemon Blue and the scaled sprites are fine. Makes sense as they are loaded from the cartridge. Problems usually arise if data comes from one of the I/O registers. I have also ordered a better flash cart to try GTA and Conker, but it will be a while until it is delivered.
To solve the link cable issue, you should intercept the link port also; like have an in and out port on the device. Also, it's too tall, you should use a U shaped cartridge port (like on the NES), so that the device is just a little thicker at the top. Without that, it can snap if something pushes on the top.
The current design has two reasons: a) I was told that some of the Tetris players prefer to play with the Game Boy lying flat while pushing buttons as you would on a keyboard. b) I don't have all Game Boy models here to test the correct clearance on the backside, so the straight version was the safe bet. But that's why there is a break-out board that allows to build alternative versions with almost arbitrary cartridge positions (seen at 13:22).
Finally, it exists :D That would be cool if there was one for GBA games too, since there's no way to capture the GBA video output without using an emulator
Very cool project even though it is not working perfectly. For those people wanting to record original game boy games without having to emulate the PPU: You could use a Super Game Boy (or for the correct clock speed a Super Game Boy 2) and just record the video out of your SNES or Super Famicom. If you want to use the Super Game Boy 2 on a PAL or US SNES, you'll have to modify it. In the case of a PAL SNES, you need to do a region mod. If you use a NTSC console, you need to modify the cartridge slot as japanese games physically won't fit. Another method would be using the Game Boy Player on the Game Cube.
My SNES with Super Game Boy cartridge has been the easiest way to capture video. I like how the GB interceptor is intelligent enough to reconstruct the data in video ram by making educated guesses at the state of- and without having to fully emulate the Game Boy cpu. Best of all, the GPL license allows curious minds to peek at the code.
Excellent write-up. Any idea how the retail display for the GB in the result 90s worked? The Gameboy screen (and audio) was displayed on CRT within the cabinet. Must have been tricky with the much slower microcontrollers of the day.
th-cam.com/video/C990wzFsoho/w-d-xo.html at 4:15 you see the insides. I wonder if it was achieved similar to what Elliot did there: th-cam.com/video/rdRL4naV5VU/w-d-xo.html
I would assume the gameboy was modified to access the video signal running to the LCD, and then that was converted into something that could feed a CRT.
sorry for this question but its unclear for me - can i use it with game boy camera to get/record a video just like your video at the end (from 14:22s)?
Yes, just put it between a Game Boy and a Game Boy Camera and you can use the Game Boy Camera like a regular webcam and record from it or use it for streaming. Also, with the latest firmware compatibility has been massively improved since I made this video. It works with everything I tested on Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android and iPadOS. Only exception is one obscure Android App and my Samsung Smart TV which only accepts specific camera models.
🤩 Seeing this project come to life is a dream! Great work, great result! (A Tetris enthusiast)
THE Tetris enthusiast :)
DMG Tetris is the best Tetris
Hi tolstoj 😂
@@creepercraftytT99 Hey creepercraft! 🙂
@@tolstoj_ when the Tolstoj
GB Camera as a webcam is just priceless. Congratulations on this project! Really well done and impressive! And thanks for open sourcing it ✊
Can already be done with GBxCam
@@pocketsuke That requires extra software though, and it's only on Windows. This works by simply functioning like a webcam.
@@Eddies_Bra-att-ha-grejer Yes and no. It funtion on windows, linux and mac. I currently have it running on my Pi. But yes as in you need software.
But with my understanding of this project, it probably wont work with the GBCamera
.
It does work with the Game Boy camera (why wouldn't it?). For example the outro was recorded with the Interceptor.
But more to the point of the discussion: Being able to record or stream the Game Boy Camera is just a nice side effect. Streaming games while playing on the original hardware was the main consideration, so the focus of the Interceptor is quite different from the GBxCam. If it can do some of its functions too, that's just a bonus.
In terms of additional software it indeed should just be usable like a webcam, which it does on Linux and MacOS (with the next firmware update and on Intel devices): you just plug it in and select it in Zoom, OBS, VLC etc. Unfortunately, on Windows VLC and Zoom are not happy with its video format and do not accept it (yet). Here you can use OBS to send the stream to Zoom, but if it you are not already using OBS it could be considered additional software.
@@ThereOughtaBe nice, well consider me wrong! nice work!
This seems like one of those ideas where you would pitch it and everyone would call you crazy.... It's amazing to see how well it works and how clever it actually is
I got GB Interceptor earlier this month and I am now streaming Game Boy games live on my Twitch channel CantStopTheRaj (and uploads to my TH-cam). This invention is EXACTLY what I wished for when I first started streaming, as I love playing my Game Boy but I want to play ON my Game Boy and not through emulation or another device like Game Boy Player. The GB Interceptor is perfect and allows me to show my viewers a big screen version of what I see on my Game Boy! I even posted my first TwinGalaxies Game Boy World Record this week with the use of the GB Interceptor (Most Points in Skate or Die: Bad N Rad)! I just wanted to say THANK YOU FOR THIS AMAZING INVENTION! You are a hero! THANK YOU!!!!
This is unbelievably metal! This is taking the party gotcha of "well _technically_ everything goes through that one place in the system [which is practically useless for all reasonable intents and purposes]" and just frigging running with it! Amazing!!
We need something like this for the DS/3DS. A non intrusive way to capture footage from original hardware would be amazing
3DS has NTRStream but it's still relatively low quality compared to an actual capture devicr
@@danmakufan It's only for New 3DS, through.
Support the Channel promote
that is NEVER happening. it's $200 to get your new 3DS XL modded from loopy. absolutely worth
@@danmakufannot a solution at all.
Awesome! A very very cool project and great execution! I like how you do not cut or modify the device, how you made it just show up as a USB camera, and many of your design choices. They show a clear attention to detail and a lot of care. Kudos!
I made a somewhat tangential device for speedrunning competitions on the NES - with slightly different design criteria. I ended up going with an FPGA, although the rp2040 is a really neat option. Regardless, thanks again and great job!
I certainly have to start messing with FPGAs one day. The rp2040 was just a familiar tool that fitted the problem.
This is amazing. Was looking for something similar for years. Just ordered one!
This is a clever architecture. Before you explained you were running an emulator on one of the RP2040 cores I was thinking that maybe you were sniffing enough bus traffic while CS for the cartridge was not asserted to put the video state back together. I love your videos!
once u mentioned the vram problem, my brain quickly figured out you basically needed an whole gb emulator running on the pico but I quickly tossed that idea away cause too much work etc...just to see that in fact u did just that!^^
Was nice meeting you after your talk! Keep up the good work😄
I am very pleased with this purchase, most definitely this is a keeper for me!..
man are you doing all this hardware design and 3d rendering and video editing yourself? If you are, then you are an absolute legend!
Das eigentliche Produkt außen vor. Dieses Video alleine. RICHTIG nice wie viel Mühe und Arbeit alleine da rein geflossen ist.
Und das Produkt an sich natürlich entsprechend auch.
Hut ab. Richtig richtig nice!
The 3D rendering explanation is top notch
Your work with the interceptor es priceless! Also the explanation of how it works is really detailed and well explained, I have one interceptor and functions really well with the games (and especially with the GB Camera). Greetings from Argentina!
Well done! I’ve been following this project on your other social media accounts and am incredibly impressed by this execution. Emulating the GB (no trademark violation 😝) on a RP2040 core is awesome! As always, great presentation and project breakdown, too!
This is exciting to see and seems like it should make a great small project for a novice. Thanks for all the work you put into this and for sharing this video.
Yes please!
I have a spare one that would not mind some visibility, in case you don't want to try the build process.
@@ThereOughtaBe send an email to retrofutureinfo@gmail.com!
Impressive research and the presentation alone is also outstanding!
Thank you so much, this is amazing. I'm here from MVG's video, subscribed before watching. Just wanted to say that you've made an old guy extremely happy & you've blown my mind. I will be ordering this. First I need to see the GB WiFi video, but I'm not sure this old brain can handle being blown away twice in one day!
Wow, just watched the whole video. Amazing, just amazing. I'll cover this on my next FPGA/Retro gaming video.
Amazing product, great ingenuity.
6:44 Shout-out to my bois Cave Johnson from Portal, Nolan Sorrento from Ready Player One, and Wilson Fisk from Spider-Man
Was actually surprised that nobody commented about these (and the others).
I've come over from Recessim. Subscribed. Great work and video 🙂
This is SO cool!
Incredible project and a stunningly elegant solution.
I’m a big fan of the original GameBoy and often feature its games on my channel. I’ve always struggled to capture classic GameBoy - usually either use a Super GameBoy or point a camera at a
GBA SP AGS-101 model both of which work ok - but this captures the right “look” too (except with those exceptions noted in the video)
Brilliant work - love this kind of thing!
You are such an inspiration.
I wish you the best!
This is such a cool idea! i never thought it would even be possible to get video out without ANY modifications to the game boy. very cool solution
Honestly, the quality of the GB webcam is stunning
Incredibly done! You also did an amazing job at explaining how the GB Interceptor works. I did spot one error in the video, though, at 4:39 : "The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past" never came out for the GameBoy (at least, not officially, but I couldn't find any fan-made port), but in the video you somehow show the first lines of the game.
Thanks, and yeah, I mixed up the labels (twice). It's Link's Awakening.
Awesome stuff, you earned a sub for that, can't wait to see what you do next
Great work, and the 3D animations are dope. This channel is really top notch content.
You definitely deserve a like, comment and subscribe!
Every video of yours is interesting, funny, clearly narrated and explained, and the perfect length. Thank you so much for sharing your work!
Nice project ! Good to see you again too !
What a cool idea, and well implemented. At first I assumed it would never work, but it looks like it is pretty solid.
I've been waiting finally here. I love your content.
Saw this posted on mastodon. Cool to see a video on it.
Legend, loved the project, it's always a pleasure to see someone on this world thinkering over this old devices. Nice explanation too, thanks for posting
I totally geeked out for this, great video.
I really like the idea of joining video meetings through the original gameboy cam.
When I heard about it, I was wondering how that'd work, with just hooking into the cartridge slot. Pretty nifty solution, props to you!
Wooooow, this project is so cool, and the fact that you leave the option to either get it through the PCB service or build it using the source and design files is even more awesome, thank you for doing all that!!!
Maybe the interceptor could have an audio INPUT (where you'd connect the headphone jack of the GameBoy)? That way you'd make sure you sync video and audio properly
That's a really impressive build! I loved the shots of using the GB Camera as a web cam, too. Thanks for sharing!
This is phenomenal stuff! What you do is really impressive
Der absolute Hammer! Sehr gute und wichtige Arbeit!
We are so close to grass-rootes manufacturing high tech products. The only thing that is missing is a standard for requesting ready made products where you can register for a build and than a service of jlpcb will automatically assamble the product and ship it once enough customers ordered the product or a sufficient amount of money is pledged. I love how hardware as a service develops year by year.
Exactly. I actually refused their sponsorship at first because I was hoping to find a manufacturer that offers such service. The only one that seemed to be close was Aisler, but the resulting price per unit was absolutely disproportionate unless you ordered excessive numbers. So, I decided to do an instruction video for the order process instead.
Nice contrast between the 3D animated PCB and the following hand drawn (though clear) explanation on how things work.
I saw a news thing on this and glad this hit my YT feed. Awesome piece of tech, and GB Camera would probably be even better after modding for DSLR lens. I hope we get to see compatibility for GBC at some point
This is absolutely brilliant! Really taught me a lot about how the GameBoy works!
I like your drawings. And that PCB animation was crisp!
Wow this is one of the most impressive videos I've seen! Thank you so much. I cannot wait to try it out
Hi Toni!
Hello Tolstoj, thanks for helping this amazing project to become reality 🤩
man, cheers for this, it's just incredible !
thats such an odd way to solve this problem that i never would have thought about, and im here for it
Gute Arbeit, bin beeindruckt 🙂Ich würde zwar der Einfachheit halber mein Analogue Pocket und das Dock verwenden um zu capturen aber als Nostalgiker gefällt mir dein Adapter besser und es hat mehr retro Charm.
Ciao! (E grazie) :) Outstanding project, as usual. You are a mad scientist and I like it. ^_^
Dude, ever since the wi-fi cartridge I've been following you and your content is amazing. Wish I could put my electrical engineering diploma into stuff like this if I had the time and creativity lol
It's awesome. ❤ Great work 💪
This is a great in-depth video on your invention, well done!
What an insanely cool project! Really impressive! Subscribed
I just discovered this channel and perhaps the answer is in previous videos, but I’m thoroughly mind-boggled at how you acquired so much low-level knowledge of these devices! I have to ask: What on Earth (or beyond) do you do for a living? Now, excuse me while I binge-watch all of your videos…
I am a physicist, but most of what I need for these projects is self-taught - usually through projects like the ones I am showing on my channel. For example, there is so much that went into the Interceptor that I learned from the Wifi cartridge project about the Game Boy, about electronics and about coding. Some of it while searching for a solution, some of it from trying and also a lot from comments I got on the Wifi cartridge video from people who are much more knowledgeable in electronics (which I would consider my weak spot).
But as you are also asking specifically about the low-level knowledge of the Game Boy: I learned most of it from many others who looked into the Game Boy before me. Have a look at gbdev.io/ and you will find that the Game Boy might be one of the best documented and researched piece of hardware in human history. Even now some enthusiasts are still trying to figure out the last edge cases of timing differences in the CPU or secrets of some obscure game cartridges.
@@ThereOughtaBe Ok, now I’m even more amazed… I was convinced you had been an engineer in the tech space for a few decades, and I’m an engineer who’s been in the tech space for a few decades! Thanks for the info and thanks for this fantastic content!
0:28 those pictures .. whahaha awesome !
You're an inspiration... now I just need to find the motivation to seek out a random problem and solve it...
Incredible work! I can’t wait to get my hands on one!
mega geile Idee. Danke für die Arbeit die da rein geflossen ist, und dass es veröffentlicht wurde. Anpassungen der FW werden bestimmt mit der Zeit durch die Community kommen!
12:35 bro took the jif thing to a whole new level. Wtf is Jithib?
Speedrun community will enjoy this device, already shared it on their reddit!
Thanks, I think I just joined that thread...
This is so cool! Very creative solution
Top notch work. Subscribed!
Amazing, and the explanation was very clear and helpful! Great work 🤩
really awesome work! your videos are incredibly cool.
Very high quality video!
I am in love with this
"At this point, anyone who knows a little bit of how the Game Boy works should be complaining that there is no video signal on that memory bus." Yes! I was thinking the only way you could do this is to emula... okay, yup. That's what you're doing. :) Great job on this! I was going to say it's not technically video capture, but you never actually claim that it is.
Impressive work, congratulations!
Me: "Why would you do that you'll have to basically emulate the whole thing?"
there oughta be (6;24): "Solving those details was a lot of fun"
That's mildly insane..... Thank you for doing it.
Super inspiring project! awesome work! Not to mention the great presentation, thanks!
Incredible!
This is so cool! Love seeing creative solutions instead of modding the device.
Wow that's very very clever! Well done!
finally someone made it. thank you very much
Thank you for the in-depth information. I love your animations, they gave a clear concise illustration. The machine code parts were very interesting and brought me back to my college days. Keep up the great work and sense of humor 😅
Will this work with a flashcart? I’m not sure how they exactly differ vs original carts.
Yes, I do not have that many games left from my childhood and tested many on a flash cart. Not entirely sure if there could be problems with fancier ones like an Everdrive, but in principle it should work, too.
My ocd just complains that you have to insert the cartridge the wrong way round… kidding (poorly). I wish I had your skills. Just outstanding!
There is actually a reason for this: The Tetris guy explained to me that there are two common techniques used to play: Holding it (like normal people do) or placing the Game Boy on the table and typing on the buttons like on a keyboard. I simply wanted to allow it to lay flat, so I placed it on the other side of the PCB.
@@ThereOughtaBe this is so cool
I can’t wait for mine this weekend!
This is brilliant!
You're amazing
this is amazing hopefully you get help to eventually output GBC and GBA games
That break out board gives me an idea. It would be really funny to build a cartridge that is actually several Gameboy cartridges plugged into it, like an old CD changer or an analog version of a flash cartridge.
Haha, I am now visualizing a tape robot with Game Boy cartridges.
What about games that control the X and Y scroll registers from the game pad directly?
Try Conker’s Pocket Tales, or GTA.
Are you sure that they really write data from the joypad input directly to the scroll registers? The only way I can think of would require bit masking the gamepad input, then bit shifting the value into position such that you get a value that is suitable to be added directly to the scroll register value and then actually add the value to the old one. In that case, yes, the Interceptor would not be able to follow. But why would anyone do that? Not only is it annoying to code, but it is also slower if you need to do anything else for a particular direction like changing a sprite, so the character looks in the correct direction or doing collision detection. Even if the controls really just scroll the window (like scrolling a world map without moving the player), you probably want to check if you hit the edge of the map and with this bitmask-shift-and-add method you would still end up with conditional jumps for these edge cases. Worse: You will end up checking both edges when you could have checked a specific direction.
Unfortunately, I cannot try those two games as my flimsy flash cart cannot hold these large GBC/GB dual mode ROMs. I hope someone can report back once more people have an Interceptor. But, indeed, I think there will be some edge cases like this that will not work and I really want to find them. Either to create a game-specific workaround or to admire the problem :) So, let me know if you can think of similar possibly problematic games.
@@ThereOughtaBe I just remember a bunch of games do this for e.g. the map screen. Conker is definitely one.
Also check the Pokémon games - I think the sprites for "pokémon facing away from the camera" (during battle) are actually blown up 2x by the CPU directly, to save space. You might see on your Interceptor that they are spaced-out blocks of tile data? Maybe...
Thanks, just checked Pokemon Blue and the scaled sprites are fine. Makes sense as they are loaded from the cartridge. Problems usually arise if data comes from one of the I/O registers.
I have also ordered a better flash cart to try GTA and Conker, but it will be a while until it is delivered.
9:54 link cable intercept? or is that too complicated to run in the single frame?
To solve the link cable issue, you should intercept the link port also; like have an in and out port on the device. Also, it's too tall, you should use a U shaped cartridge port (like on the NES), so that the device is just a little thicker at the top. Without that, it can snap if something pushes on the top.
The current design has two reasons: a) I was told that some of the Tetris players prefer to play with the Game Boy lying flat while pushing buttons as you would on a keyboard. b) I don't have all Game Boy models here to test the correct clearance on the backside, so the straight version was the safe bet.
But that's why there is a break-out board that allows to build alternative versions with almost arbitrary cartridge positions (seen at 13:22).
Finally, it exists :D
That would be cool if there was one for GBA games too, since there's no way to capture the GBA video output without using an emulator
Theres some mods for gba and a gba consolizer kit and you can use the gamecube gba player too for capture
That's what Switch Lite needs.
Amazing. What a work!
Impressive! 👍
Very cool project even though it is not working perfectly. For those people wanting to record original game boy games without having to emulate the PPU: You could use a Super Game Boy (or for the correct clock speed a Super Game Boy 2) and just record the video out of your SNES or Super Famicom. If you want to use the Super Game Boy 2 on a PAL or US SNES, you'll have to modify it. In the case of a PAL SNES, you need to do a region mod. If you use a NTSC console, you need to modify the cartridge slot as japanese games physically won't fit.
Another method would be using the Game Boy Player on the Game Cube.
What did you use to make the 3d visuals?! They’re SO GOOD!! 2:05
These are done on Blender. I bought the Game Boy model on cgtrader and the PCB and components have been imported from the KiCad design.
My SNES with Super Game Boy cartridge has been the easiest way to capture video.
I like how the GB interceptor is intelligent enough to reconstruct the data in video ram by making educated guesses at the state of- and without having to fully emulate the Game Boy cpu.
Best of all, the GPL license allows curious minds to peek at the code.
This is so awesome!!
Excellent write-up. Any idea how the retail display for the GB in the result 90s worked? The Gameboy screen (and audio) was displayed on CRT within the cabinet. Must have been tricky with the much slower microcontrollers of the day.
th-cam.com/video/C990wzFsoho/w-d-xo.html at 4:15 you see the insides. I wonder if it was achieved similar to what Elliot did there: th-cam.com/video/rdRL4naV5VU/w-d-xo.html
I would assume the gameboy was modified to access the video signal running to the LCD, and then that was converted into something that could feed a CRT.
sorry for this question but its unclear for me - can i use it with game boy camera to get/record a video just like your video at the end (from 14:22s)?
Yes, just put it between a Game Boy and a Game Boy Camera and you can use the Game Boy Camera like a regular webcam and record from it or use it for streaming.
Also, with the latest firmware compatibility has been massively improved since I made this video. It works with everything I tested on Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android and iPadOS. Only exception is one obscure Android App and my Samsung Smart TV which only accepts specific camera models.