Hi, I managed to make a zelda yesterday using your guide. I used kubuntu. Everything went smoothly, exactly as in your video. Thank you for taking your time to prepare this tutorial. I look forward to your next videos with more improvements. I will follow and modify along with you. Best regards👍
Great video, thanks! The other day I also rewired the chip on Game & Watch - now all my childhood is in one pocket) Good luck and greetings from Russia! I subscribed to your channel.
Didn't know how easy this was to do with a PI! i'm half tempted to do it now and see the neat Emulators people have written for this thing, My mario one is being used as actual clock and the Zelda's still in the box, this might be a better use for the zelda one, as they're so nice and compact.
Zelda has one advantage (potential - I'm not sure if it's used by anything today) - two additional buttons. Apart from that it's just a matter of preference... They're both equally easy to mod... I prefer Mario (not sure why - probably good old NES nostalgia ;)). As for your Mario/clock - you can do dual boot and you'll keep all original stuff (including clock) and have emulators at the same time... Se my other video on Mario.
@@RetroTechCorner I’ll check out the other vid for sure! The Mario one is actually a handy desk clock propped up by a stand on a shelf so I think I’ll leave that one, as it’s kind of a pain to get it propped up on the USB C cable do it doesn’t fall over, the Zelda one seems super good for NES emulation as like you said it also has the Start and Select button, plus I tried it and don’t really like it’s as a clock, its way harder to read from a distance, so it seems like the perfect candidate for this. Can the Zelda one not also dual boot?
Hi, Great Video you got my sub. I was just wondering would you be able to use macos or windows for the rasberry pi? Also if you don't upgrade the storage, can you still keep the original software? Thanks!
You could potentially use Mac OS but it's going to be a lot of work getting the software installed correctly... A lot easier to get VMware player and just run linux (have a look at my other videos where I do the same thing just with linux and you can download my VMware image there). As for the flash upgrade - you won't be able to install much with original flash size. Maybe one or two games (depending on rom size) but I don't think it's really worth it... Subscribe to my channel - I will probably have a giveaway closer to Christmas. I may have a spare G&W...
Very well documented and good video quality. Thank you! Im going to try this, but I have two questions. I have both lead and lead free solder of same thickness. Which one will be easier to work with? What temp should I set the soldering iron to? Or what's safe for these boards.
Leaded solder is a lot easier to use so I'd recommend you use leaded. As for the temperature - 270 to 280 Celsius should be fine. Just don't push hard on the pins - light touch is sufficient. I'd suggest practising on something that's broken or some practice kit
I desoldered them. If I ever wanted to flash it again then I'd probably wire debug cables to USB port (see my other video where I'm doing this on Mario variant)
I successfully flashed a Mario g&w with my rpi last year. Now I want to flash a Zelda g&w but stuck in step 3. Do you believe I could continue step 3 with you're image? The commands are all the same as mine.
It doesn't matter what system you use - I'm using Mac to ssh to the rpi. Everything is done from the raspberry (and you don't even need to ssh to it - just connect a monitor and keyboard to your rip and you're good to go)
Fantastic work! You’re very talented and have you ever considered providing a paid service for others to send in their Game & Watch to you for modding? I’ll bet many people would pay you well for this mod as many can’t do this kind of specialized work.
I'm on discord so if anybody want's the service - please have a look there (discord.gg/BxutsGSE ). But I'm in Ireland and postal services here are rather expensive...
Thanks a lot! Happy to know i can upgrade this beauty g&w to 64 MB chip and usb flashing :D !!!!! Did you know how many games can be compressed in the g&w with the upgrade ?
Depends on what games you want (ie. rom/dump size). I have over a 100 games on 32MB Zelda but again - depends on what you're flashing it with... One of the make commands will calculate the size of the generated flash size so you can check before flashing...
@@RetroTechCorner its great to know at least 150 really good games on 64MB its all i would need xD,, thanks again for the vid !! I will try to make a spanish guide 4 spanish friends,, also i could link your video too because is so good ! I Saw Soldering level pro inside ehehe
Hello. Thank you for this perfect video. I was able to unlock my zelda game and watch using your pi image. When it comes to flashing retrogo (make -j8 flash GNW_TARGET=zelda) I get this error: „You have changes in the submodule. This is not normal.“ Perhaps you have any idea.
Farnell if you're in Europe or Dici-Key if you're in US. I think Farnell is also available in US (and some other countries). I normally buy stuff from mouser or tme.eu but they don't have these chips in stock currently.
Have a look at discord server discord.com/channels/781528730304249886/783282561001717771 There's people doing this. Unlocking and upgrading a chip is jot a problem but flashing rooms is problematic.
Hi, great video. Can you help me, I got to the part where the screen should be blue when I reconnect the power but it just stays black. Any idea where I could be going wrong?
I managed to get the blue screen by disconnecting the battery and reconnecting it. Now I'm stuck after trying to flash the roms. I'm getting an error saying You have changes in the submodule. This is not normal. You may set CHECK_DIRTY_SUBMODULE=0 to suppress this warning Any idea on how I could get past this. The last hurdle lol
Thank you so much for providing detailed guide and all needed apps and scripts. All made super simple and straight forward. One question though. When planning this mod including memory upgrade, is there actual difference between zelda and mario unit?
Debug port has more pins on Zelda but the pins used for this mod are exactly the same. Zelda has 4MB chip and Mario has 1MB so commands for flashing are slightly different. Checkout my other video where I'm modding Mario.
@@RetroTechCorner Thanks for the answer. I meant more like is there any reason to prefer zelda, if I plan to upgrade memory chip any way. Are those extra buttons somehow useful? Btw raspberry pi image link seems dead...
Zelda has two additional buttons which may be useful at some point (not sure if they are useful currently - I'm using Mario personally and I don't have any issues.
no, have a look at my other video on Mario... These are pretty much exact same devices. The two differences (I know about) is 4mb flash on Zelda (vs 1mb on Mario) and two additional buttons on Zelda. Flash size doesn't really matter as we're upgrading flash anyway. Two additional buttons might be an advantage (but I'm personally using Mario and didn't have any issues or desire for two more buttons ;))
@@RetroTechCorner i see... i bricked my zelda G&W because i made a backup when the screen was blue, so i dont have the zelda.bin backup and i was trying to get the file (if exist) in this package you kindly provide us, so, if that backup exist in the file, how can i extract it to the folder and loaded to my G&W? thank you in advance
Can you hack one for me? It's a long shot, no one in the Philippines can do it and I'm not a tech guy, I'm just an 80's kid who grew up playing nes games and wants this zelda version so bad.
Good work!! Hmm interesting , but there is one major hardware protection left in this device…. its ridiculously high price. It’s better to buy some different.
@@RetroTechCorner finally I couldn't resist and I bought one :) for around 32EUR. I was curious what could I do with it, I do embedded stuff and STM32 at work already 😉
Depends on the point of view. The chips are being programmed (ie. flashed). I'm flashing a firmware N..endo never intended to support so that's hacking..
Again - depends on your definition. Hacking quite often requires additional devices. Same goes for flashing. Anyway - I'm OK with all this being "modding".
It's not that complicated... And yes - it's easier to get some other ready-made device. But the G&W is so portable, small and lightweight you can literally have it in your pocket (very small pocket)... But for me it's the joy of "hacking" that counts. I just like spending time with soldering iron ;)
Dear Max. This video and channel is about (retro) technology and my passion and not English language and accents.. English is not my native language - correct. But I'd suggest you ask yourself if you can speak Polish, Chinese, German or Japanese. If you don't speak these languages fluently, with the "right" accent then please refrain from commenting on others abilities (or inabilities). And one more thing - there's no obligation to watch my videos. Feel free to watch something else.
This guy is here is putting his heart and soul into his channel trying to help people with the best intent possible and a VERY clear well made tutorial and this is what you have to say?? His english isn't even bad!! It's hard enough for non-native english speakers to even learn it and it takes a lot of courage to appear on camera in your non native language. Change your attitude man, damn!
It's always the forever one language useless bums that are fixated on English complaining and they can't even speak or write it correctly half the time nor do they have decent jobs and are infinitely miserable from the day they were born. Amazing tutorial btw! Keep up the great work!!!
Hi, I managed to make a zelda yesterday using your guide. I used kubuntu. Everything went smoothly, exactly as in your video. Thank you for taking your time to prepare this tutorial. I look forward to your next videos with more improvements. I will follow and modify along with you. Best regards👍
Thanks! That's the plan - I try to follow the community and will certainly try more upgrades. Also - any suggestions are welcome.
Really great in-depth video, thank you for making this.
Great video, thanks! The other day I also rewired the chip on Game & Watch - now all my childhood is in one pocket) Good luck and greetings from Russia! I subscribed to your channel.
I'm windows user and completely scared to do that but It's a fantastic idea. Congratulations for the video
15:52 Excellent video! 🙏. What is that solder you mention to get the chip off? Can’t really make out the name of it “lomalsolder”?
Low melt solder eg. chipquik
@@RetroTechCornerAt what temp does it melt? I normally work with through-hole components at around 350C / 662F.
Didn't know how easy this was to do with a PI! i'm half tempted to do it now and see the neat Emulators people have written for this thing, My mario one is being used as actual clock and the Zelda's still in the box, this might be a better use for the zelda one, as they're so nice and compact.
Zelda has one advantage (potential - I'm not sure if it's used by anything today) - two additional buttons. Apart from that it's just a matter of preference... They're both equally easy to mod... I prefer Mario (not sure why - probably good old NES nostalgia ;)).
As for your Mario/clock - you can do dual boot and you'll keep all original stuff (including clock) and have emulators at the same time... Se my other video on Mario.
@@RetroTechCorner I’ll check out the other vid for sure!
The Mario one is actually a handy desk clock propped up by a stand on a shelf so I think I’ll leave that one, as it’s kind of a pain to get it propped up on the USB C cable do it doesn’t fall over, the Zelda one seems super good for NES emulation as like you said it also has the Start and Select button, plus I tried it and don’t really like it’s as a clock, its way harder to read from a distance, so it seems like the perfect candidate for this. Can the Zelda one not also dual boot?
Hello. could you please let us know on which version of the Raspberry Board can work your IMAGE file ? RaspBerri 4 ? BCM2711 ?
Hi, Great Video you got my sub. I was just wondering would you be able to use macos or windows for the rasberry pi? Also if you don't upgrade the storage, can you still keep the original software? Thanks!
You could potentially use Mac OS but it's going to be a lot of work getting the software installed correctly... A lot easier to get VMware player and just run linux (have a look at my other videos where I do the same thing just with linux and you can download my VMware image there). As for the flash upgrade - you won't be able to install much with original flash size. Maybe one or two games (depending on rom size) but I don't think it's really worth it...
Subscribe to my channel - I will probably have a giveaway closer to Christmas. I may have a spare G&W...
Very well documented and good video quality. Thank you! Im going to try this, but I have two questions. I have both lead and lead free solder of same thickness. Which one will be easier to work with? What temp should I set the soldering iron to? Or what's safe for these boards.
Leaded solder is a lot easier to use so I'd recommend you use leaded. As for the temperature - 270 to 280 Celsius should be fine. Just don't push hard on the pins - light touch is sufficient. I'd suggest practising on something that's broken or some practice kit
Superb work 👋
You did good. Appreciate it!
awesome video, subscribed! 😄🍻
Okay the giant white triforce on the inside is a completely awesome easter egg
It glows through the back of the plastic
What an excellent tutorial!
Can you please reupload the raspberry pi image with software? the link is down thanks
Link updated in the video description.
Fantastic video! One question, what do you do with the wires when you are done? Just tuck them into the case for future flashing? Unsolder?
I desoldered them. If I ever wanted to flash it again then I'd probably wire debug cables to USB port (see my other video where I'm doing this on Mario variant)
Nice Video! I have a question: what kind of chip has it to be?
Here's the list of compatible chips: www.reddit.com/r/GameAndWatchMods/wiki/flash-upgrade/
@@RetroTechCorner thanks a lot, men!
What’s the height size memory chip you can use in the game and watch Zelda?
Awesome Content. Just found your channel. Another Sub For You Sir!
Awesome, thank you!
I successfully flashed a Mario g&w with my rpi last year. Now I want to flash a Zelda g&w but stuck in step 3. Do you believe I could continue step 3 with you're image? The commands are all the same as mine.
can you speak more about the raspberry what you use.what a system yiu use?i see you work with apple.what i need when i work with windows
It doesn't matter what system you use - I'm using Mac to ssh to the rpi. Everything is done from the raspberry (and you don't even need to ssh to it - just connect a monitor and keyboard to your rip and you're good to go)
@@RetroTechCorner have you a clean Zelda Backup File.Reading with rpi?
Does this work on the mario version as well?
Does it also work with a Pi zero?
Fantastic work! You’re very talented and have you ever considered providing a paid service for others to send in their Game & Watch to you for modding? I’ll bet many people would pay you well for this mod as many can’t do this kind of specialized work.
I'm on discord so if anybody want's the service - please have a look there (discord.gg/BxutsGSE ). But I'm in Ireland and postal services here are rather expensive...
@@RetroTechCorner Do you have another discord invite ? I am tempted to send mine over.. I just want Super Mario Bros 3 on it !!!
Thanks a lot! Happy to know i can upgrade this beauty g&w to 64 MB chip and usb flashing :D !!!!! Did you know how many games can be compressed in the g&w with the upgrade ?
Depends on what games you want (ie. rom/dump size). I have over a 100 games on 32MB Zelda but again - depends on what you're flashing it with... One of the make commands will calculate the size of the generated flash size so you can check before flashing...
@@RetroTechCorner its great to know at least 150 really good games on 64MB its all i would need xD,, thanks again for the vid !! I will try to make a spanish guide 4 spanish friends,, also i could link your video too because is so good ! I Saw Soldering level pro inside ehehe
Hello. Thank you for this perfect video. I was able to unlock my zelda game and watch using your pi image. When it comes to flashing retrogo (make -j8 flash GNW_TARGET=zelda) I get this error: „You have changes in the submodule. This is not normal.“ Perhaps you have any idea.
try updating the repo: git pull --recurse-submodules (in the directory you're running the command)
@@RetroTechCorner it does not work for me same error
Thank you
Deos this still work?
The guide in the description says that it is broken and is only there for reference, does the same apply for the video
Still works as per the video. I'd suggest using linux VM instead of RPi though (I've videos covering that as well).
Hi, can this also be flashed by using the usb-c, like in your video of the super mario bros model ?
Yes, you can. But you'll need debug wires connected to usb port first.
why you connect 4 wires to the pi if only 3 are connected to the G&W? Does it have a purpose?
I'm connecting three wires - yellow, green and blue...
nice video
Where can I buy the chip in Europe?
ie.farnell.com/macronix/mx25u51245gz4i00/flash-memory-512mbit-40-to-85deg/dp/3129236?ost=MX25U51245GZ4I00
Wheres the best place for the bigger flash chips ?
Farnell if you're in Europe or Dici-Key if you're in US. I think Farnell is also available in US (and some other countries). I normally buy stuff from mouser or tme.eu but they don't have these chips in stock currently.
@@RetroTechCorner ty very much , im in the us and very interested in this mod
Did you use a Mac to do this???
yes. but it doesn't really matter - I'm only using the Mac to connect to the pi.
How much would you charge to do this for someone
Have a look at discord server discord.com/channels/781528730304249886/783282561001717771
There's people doing this. Unlocking and upgrading a chip is jot a problem but flashing rooms is problematic.
I did everything like you got an errorwhith last step
Double check if the chip is soldered correctly.
Hi, great video. Can you help me, I got to the part where the screen should be blue when I reconnect the power but it just stays black. Any idea where I could be going wrong?
Can't remember exact procedure but perhaps you need to hold the power button while reconnecting power?
I managed to get the blue screen by disconnecting the battery and reconnecting it. Now I'm stuck after trying to flash the roms. I'm getting an error saying
You have changes in the submodule. This is not normal.
You may set CHECK_DIRTY_SUBMODULE=0 to suppress this warning
Any idea on how I could get past this. The last hurdle lol
try running this command in the directory you're running make:
git pull --recurse-submodules
Thank you so much for providing detailed guide and all needed apps and scripts. All made super simple and straight forward.
One question though. When planning this mod including memory upgrade, is there actual difference between zelda and mario unit?
Debug port has more pins on Zelda but the pins used for this mod are exactly the same. Zelda has 4MB chip and Mario has 1MB so commands for flashing are slightly different. Checkout my other video where I'm modding Mario.
@@RetroTechCorner
Thanks for the answer.
I meant more like is there any reason to prefer zelda, if I plan to upgrade memory chip any way. Are those extra buttons somehow useful?
Btw raspberry pi image link seems dead...
Zelda has two additional buttons which may be useful at some point (not sure if they are useful currently - I'm using Mario personally and I don't have any issues.
Would love to know as well...
does this only work on the zelda version? :)
no, have a look at my other video on Mario... These are pretty much exact same devices. The two differences (I know about) is 4mb flash on Zelda (vs 1mb on Mario) and two additional buttons on Zelda. Flash size doesn't really matter as we're upgrading flash anyway. Two additional buttons might be an advantage (but I'm personally using Mario and didn't have any issues or desire for two more buttons ;))
hello, i cant mount the img file 😔
You don't mount it - you need to copy it to sd card (using dd on linux of Mac or some other tool that can write raw image to sd card on windows...
@@RetroTechCorner i see... i bricked my zelda G&W because i made a backup when the screen was blue, so i dont have the zelda.bin backup and i was trying to get the file (if exist) in this package you kindly provide us, so, if that backup exist in the file, how can i extract it to the folder and loaded to my G&W?
thank you in advance
@@RetroTechCorner note: i was following another guide using only stlink
Can you hack one for me? It's a long shot, no one in the Philippines can do it and I'm not a tech guy, I'm just an 80's kid who grew up playing nes games and wants this zelda version so bad.
Good work!! Hmm interesting , but there is one major hardware protection left in this device…. its ridiculously high price. It’s better to buy some different.
Well... There was a time when they were on sale for 10 Euro :)
But they are hard to beat when it comes to portability - incredibly small and light
@@RetroTechCorner finally I couldn't resist and I bought one :) for around 32EUR. I was curious what could I do with it, I do embedded stuff and STM32 at work already 😉
Sucks that you have to go through so much to only be able to add up to 64mb of storage
64mb is more than enough for me tbh. I've all the games I wanted and still have some space left ..
With a RasPi and soldering this is rather modding that flashing or hacking :(
Depends on the point of view. The chips are being programmed (ie. flashed). I'm flashing a firmware N..endo never intended to support so that's hacking..
@@RetroTechCorner Well you are using additional devices and modfiy the hardware - that's modding
Again - depends on your definition. Hacking quite often requires additional devices. Same goes for flashing. Anyway - I'm OK with all this being "modding".
Why we don't have tutorial for windows!
shame needs soldering
yeah, well... I don't think Nintendo wanted us to do this ;)
THat is just too Complicated.. and easier to buy an Emu Device. Like the ANBERNIC RG350
It's not that complicated... And yes - it's easier to get some other ready-made device. But the G&W is so portable, small and lightweight you can literally have it in your pocket (very small pocket)... But for me it's the joy of "hacking" that counts. I just like spending time with soldering iron ;)
Good effort but not of an easy mod and really doesn't worth it, thank you anyway
I think it's well worth the effort. It converts a pretty much useless device into a really nice gaming handheld :)
“R” “rrrrr” whats your native language? Nasty eng 😖
Dear Max. This video and channel is about (retro) technology and my passion and not English language and accents.. English is not my native language - correct. But I'd suggest you ask yourself if you can speak Polish, Chinese, German or Japanese. If you don't speak these languages fluently, with the "right" accent then please refrain from commenting on others abilities (or inabilities). And one more thing - there's no obligation to watch my videos. Feel free to watch something else.
This guy is here is putting his heart and soul into his channel trying to help people with the best intent possible and a VERY clear well made tutorial
and this is what you have to say?? His english isn't even bad!!
It's hard enough for non-native english speakers to even learn it and it takes a lot of courage to appear on camera in your non native language. Change your attitude man, damn!
RTC, I can understand your video just fine. Thank you for putting out content and sharing it in English.
*What's*
It's always the forever one language useless bums that are fixated on English complaining and they can't even speak or write it correctly half the time nor do they have decent jobs and are infinitely miserable from the day they were born.
Amazing tutorial btw! Keep up the great work!!!