Thank you so much makho! By some miracle I either had or was able to get all the parts and follow your steps exactly and now have a programmable GB cart with RTC! Woohoo! Dang that was some rough soldering though. Would have been impossible for me without a heat gun, tons of flux, and a jeweler's lens to find the SINGLE pin that was raised a tenth of a millimeter from the soldered pad.
Yeah, I don't think soldering is a hobby I can get into except maybe for a simple battery change for the cart, I think I'll stick to buying premodded carts for when I want a rom hack on an authentic cart which is rarely I honestly just want the lastest version of crystal clear, but the buyer I last bought from is out of stock and I think they'll be for awhile
Hello, I got a question. What would have happened if you soldered the pre-flashed flash chip onto the cartridge board, without the flex mask ROM in-between? Would it work?
You realize that the flex board is what is providing the attachment points for the flash chip, right? The flex board does nothing but connect all the pins where they need to go. If you want, you can spend hours hand wiring all 44 some odd pins and it will work the same (assuming you did not make any mistakes).
2 years ago I didn't quite realize it. Now I understand it. I have another question: what is the wire between the ROM and the SRAM for? What would happen if you removed it?
Hey! I just discovered the AM29F016D-90SI SOP-44 flash chip. The pins of the chip I'm talking about are positioned in the correct to be soldered directly onto the cartridge PCB. Would they work?
Double check the pinout is the same. There are public schematics for GB carts and those should include the pinout of the MROM chips. Check it against the datasheet for the chip you found.
Awesome vid as usual. Do you have to flash the chip with a game prior to installing? or can you use a cart dumper/flasher once the cart is fully assembled?
Nah, you can flash it when all is assembled. I just choose to flash them first because I can and because if there is an issue with the soldering, it helps me know that the issue is with my assembly and not the parts I used (because when buying from aliexpress, DOA parts are more common).
Does the WR wire get soldered onto the 2 left most pins of the flash or only the leftmost? because the pictures from jRodrigo are not very clear, using the same board as you it seems that the 2 pins of the left are removed from the flash chip and in the Jp crystal it seems he soldered in the WR pin of the adapter and the next pin
Well, I'm sure if you plug in the full part number to your favorite search engine, you can find a datasheet. In the datasheet, you'll find info such as capacity (usually in BITs, divide by 8 to get BYTEs).
I have a jp crystal can i do this and swap it out with an kor patch rom? Should I work with the mx23c1603 12a ic? Or should I work like the video method?
The ROM should work fine (may require a 4MB chip though). I'm not sure about using that IC though, you'd have to check the datasheet and compare it to AM29F032
It's not really that simple but yes. You can always just add a 4mb flash chip instead of a 2mb one and put a switch on the highest address bit. High means you get the second 2mb bank of the 4mb chip and low means you get the first 2mb bank of the 4mb chip. 8mb isn't possible with 5v flash unless you install multiple 4mb chips (and tie the address lines to a switch so you can toggle them on and off).
Possibly. You'd need to replace the MROM with the suitable adapter. Make sure that the games have the proper RTC hardware equipped and enough save memory (SRAM) though.
@@makho yeah I've got some adapters on order from oshpark, just need to know what carts are compatible. I'm pretty sure the pocket planner game has RTC (wouldnt be much of a pocket planner without it) not sure about the other one though
At that point, just build one of HDR's carts. But yes. Also, don't use a flex adapter, get an actual PCB made instead because it's a lot easier and more reliable.
If you have an english ROM donor, yes. Otherwise it's cheaper to convert it to a flash cart and flash it with your definitely legit ROM that you dumped yourself.
Makho, I've successfully flashed pokemon crystal clear on a Japanese silver game, but once on awhile the game would just randomly freeze, any idea how I can fix it? Nothing is bridging, please help out
@@makho everything looks OK I checked, could probably be the am29f016b chip since everything is checked and flasher verifys rom and marks no error, this is the second mod and both do they same thing once in a while
@@Pale-Snake You just said you verified the flashed ROM so it cannot be the flash chip. It has to be the PCB or your soldering. I've done dozens of these things so please trust me when I say the soldering is more difficult than it appears. Double check your work. Redo it even.
I know of a nice HD Color Gameboy player you may want to check out. It on Ali-Express and it's called the Retroad 5 Plus Handheld with the GB/GBC Extension Converter or they have one that isn't a handheld that is the Retroad SFC52HD that also uses the GB/GBC Extension Converter. No connectivity though ☹. The handheld is the way to go though because you can hook it to the TV as well. You don't want it for a kid though. It is friggin huge 7" screen bulky but has a stand and controller hook ups.
Hey man, let me ask you, did you already see that pokemon 7in1 cart? there's a way to dump the 7 in 1 pokemon rom into one of theses mbc3 rtc flash cart?
The "All Fairy" ones? If so, yeah, I have one. If not, link pls. Currently the All Fairy carts cannot be dumped, and if they could, the ROM would not fit on one of these carts.
@@alves02 No, it is not. If you want a multicart with RTC, Everdrive or Ezflash are your only options (and eventually el cheapo 3.0 if that ever comes out). If you want a single ROM cart with RTC, you can convert over nearly any OEM Game Boy cart with a flash adapter and install a flashable chip.
I looked about Legend of the River King 2 and don't see anything about Real Time Clock so you could probably put it in any cheap rumble cart but I would love yellow like Pokemon Pinball but with the fixed River king ROM.
@@makho They don't take a battery for the rumble and it isn't strong. I looked into it already. Your way is way better. I think you could just use Pokemon Pinball and do two separate carts. I have the 3ds download but I really want a cartridge. Well both cartridges. Legend of the River King 2 with rumble enabled with Gameboy rom Analyzer and Nushi Tsuri Adventure-Kite No Bouken English patch. If you get lotrk2 to work rumble will work at the beginning with the earthquake. The other just needs to be English. $200.00 if you will do it for me. It would be greatly appreciated.
@@makho How about I trade you two GBA original's with light up screens and nice neoprene cases for your time. I own the original just not with rumble because they took it out for America. Think about it. You may have fun and you would be really making someone happy. If not I don't think I will ever get real cartridges of these games. If not for me at least make them for yourself so they are out there. They will be priceless. Trust me.
Any reason you wouldn't use the "george foreman gameboy grill" to remove that chip? (Instead of the heat gun?) That lil "grill" thing is so nifty, definitely considering getting one
For sure. I didn't here simply because I didn't have it at the time (or wasn't comfortable with it yet, I don't recall the specific timeline). I use mine now for this stuff though
@@makho Ah ok, makes sense, thanks for the response! I recently got a heat gun but its massive, that small grill thing seems way more efficient. Sorry to bug you more but what do I look up to get one btw? Idk what its even called lol
What I want to do after watching this is tell you about Legend of the River King 2. You can use Gameboy Rom Analyzer to change the cartridge type to 1EH and force rumble. I wonder if you could put it in a crappy rumble cartridge. That may need something else though like Nushi Tsuri no Bouken 4 with real time clock. I wonder if there is a cheap real time clock rumble cartridge. I know Inside Gadgets does a flash but you need to patch the rom somehow to make the rumble stronger because it doesn't take a battery for the rumble. Hmmmmmm
There is also a English Translation for Nushi Tsuri Adventure-Kite No Bouken that has Rumble and could be put in a Pokemon Pinball. I Will give you another $100.00 for that too. Come on bro you would make my year even though I can play them on the V-90 with the firmware update I collect real cartridges.
Thank you so much makho! By some miracle I either had or was able to get all the parts and follow your steps exactly and now have a programmable GB cart with RTC! Woohoo! Dang that was some rough soldering though. Would have been impossible for me without a heat gun, tons of flux, and a jeweler's lens to find the SINGLE pin that was raised a tenth of a millimeter from the soldered pad.
Oh thx for the video.
I think flex can go faster damage then the normal board when you use it wrong
You got some great soldering skills :)
Could we use close to the same meathead to make a normal Gameboy cartridge pcb not a flash cart ?
what
Yeah, I don't think soldering is a hobby I can get into except maybe for a simple battery change for the cart, I think I'll stick to buying premodded carts for when I want a rom hack on an authentic cart which is rarely I honestly just want the lastest version of crystal clear, but the buyer I last bought from is out of stock and I think they'll be for awhile
Hello, I got a question.
What would have happened if you soldered the pre-flashed flash chip onto the cartridge board, without the flex mask ROM in-between? Would it work?
You realize that the flex board is what is providing the attachment points for the flash chip, right? The flex board does nothing but connect all the pins where they need to go. If you want, you can spend hours hand wiring all 44 some odd pins and it will work the same (assuming you did not make any mistakes).
2 years ago I didn't quite realize it. Now I understand it.
I have another question: what is the wire between the ROM and the SRAM for? What would happen if you removed it?
Hey!
I just discovered the AM29F016D-90SI SOP-44 flash chip. The pins of the chip I'm talking about are positioned in the correct to be soldered directly onto the cartridge PCB. Would they work?
Double check the pinout is the same. There are public schematics for GB carts and those should include the pinout of the MROM chips. Check it against the datasheet for the chip you found.
Awesome vid as usual. Do you have to flash the chip with a game prior to installing? or can you use a cart dumper/flasher once the cart is fully assembled?
Nah, you can flash it when all is assembled. I just choose to flash them first because I can and because if there is an issue with the soldering, it helps me know that the issue is with my assembly and not the parts I used (because when buying from aliexpress, DOA parts are more common).
@@makho Yea i dont blame you. bought a GBP backlit lcd and it was a dud, haha.
watched it all but great video as always
Does the WR wire get soldered onto the 2 left most pins of the flash or only the leftmost? because the pictures from jRodrigo are not very clear, using the same board as you it seems that the 2 pins of the left are removed from the flash chip and in the Jp crystal it seems he soldered in the WR pin of the adapter and the next pin
the two pins in each corner of the AM29F016 chip are NC
What happens if you use a amf030 in one of these? I know i cant use the 4mb but i have a ton of them
Well, I'm sure if you plug in the full part number to your favorite search engine, you can find a datasheet. In the datasheet, you'll find info such as capacity (usually in BITs, divide by 8 to get BYTEs).
I was wondering if this work correctly with pokemon second gen games that will also trade?
As long as the cart is flashed with a compatible game, yes. Should work with Pokemon Stadium as well.
Love your videos
How thick is this flex PCB?
I just received some 0.1mm PCBs, and yours looks more rigid. Is yours 0.2mm?
I have a jp crystal can i do this and swap it out with an kor patch rom?
Should I work with the mx23c1603 12a ic?
Or should I work like the video method?
The ROM should work fine (may require a 4MB chip though). I'm not sure about using that IC though, you'd have to check the datasheet and compare it to AM29F032
@@makho Is the ic AM29F016 needed to make the crystal? Or is it AM29F032?
@@눈꽃빙하 look at the datasheets
@@눈꽃빙하 did you ever figure this out? And where can I buy those two chips?
Can you add more than one game on these and how many, like a multicart?
It's not really that simple but yes. You can always just add a 4mb flash chip instead of a 2mb one and put a switch on the highest address bit. High means you get the second 2mb bank of the 4mb chip and low means you get the first 2mb bank of the 4mb chip. 8mb isn't possible with 5v flash unless you install multiple 4mb chips (and tie the address lines to a switch so you can toggle them on and off).
I have some MBC3 carts (Mary Kate & Ashley Pocket Planner and Tottoko Hamutarou) Would these be suitable for rom hacks like Pokemon Prism?
Possibly. You'd need to replace the MROM with the suitable adapter. Make sure that the games have the proper RTC hardware equipped and enough save memory (SRAM) though.
@@makho yeah I've got some adapters on order from oshpark, just need to know what carts are compatible. I'm pretty sure the pocket planner game has RTC (wouldnt be much of a pocket planner without it) not sure about the other one though
Thank you for this mahko! I have a question, is it also possible to put FRAM into this, in addition to the the flex PCB+Flash ROM?
At that point, just build one of HDR's carts. But yes.
Also, don't use a flex adapter, get an actual PCB made instead because it's a lot easier and more reliable.
Where do you get the pink GB cartridge shell from?
I made it. I dyed a transparent shell.
Great video as always
I have a jp crystal can i do this and swap it out with an eng rom?
If you have an english ROM donor, yes. Otherwise it's cheaper to convert it to a flash cart and flash it with your definitely legit ROM that you dumped yourself.
Can new writable rom chips be purchased anywhere? Wondering what the part number is
check the description...
Makho, I've successfully flashed pokemon crystal clear on a Japanese silver game, but once on awhile the game would just randomly freeze, any idea how I can fix it? Nothing is bridging, please help out
Dirty contacts? Cracked solder joint?
@@makho everything looks OK I checked, could probably be the am29f016b chip since everything is checked and flasher verifys rom and marks no error, this is the second mod and both do they same thing once in a while
@@Pale-Snake You just said you verified the flashed ROM so it cannot be the flash chip. It has to be the PCB or your soldering.
I've done dozens of these things so please trust me when I say the soldering is more difficult than it appears. Double check your work. Redo it even.
@@makho thanks for the reply, that gave me hope, I will do try out a total reflow
I wish to have something similar for gba carts
it's not feasible because the ROM on GBA carts is a specialty chip that does much more than just hold the game data
Can you add more games ?
Is it possible to do the same with a original gba game?
No. GBA MROM chips have MBC functionality built in.
I know of a nice HD Color Gameboy player you may want to check out. It on Ali-Express and it's called the Retroad 5 Plus Handheld with the GB/GBC Extension Converter or they have one that isn't a handheld that is the Retroad SFC52HD that also uses the GB/GBC Extension Converter. No connectivity though ☹. The handheld is the way to go though because you can hook it to the TV as well. You don't want it for a kid though. It is friggin huge 7" screen bulky but has a stand and controller hook ups.
You can connect with Super Gameboy 2 from Japan.
Hey man, let me ask you, did you already see that pokemon 7in1 cart? there's a way to dump the 7 in 1 pokemon rom into one of theses mbc3 rtc flash cart?
The "All Fairy" ones? If so, yeah, I have one. If not, link pls. Currently the All Fairy carts cannot be dumped, and if they could, the ROM would not fit on one of these carts.
@@makho yes, these ones. Is it possible to mod them to have rtc?
@@alves02 No, it is not. If you want a multicart with RTC, Everdrive or Ezflash are your only options (and eventually el cheapo 3.0 if that ever comes out). If you want a single ROM cart with RTC, you can convert over nearly any OEM Game Boy cart with a flash adapter and install a flashable chip.
that was awesome
I looked about Legend of the River King 2 and don't see anything about Real Time Clock so you could probably put it in any cheap rumble cart but I would love yellow like Pokemon Pinball but with the fixed River king ROM.
insideGadgets sells some rumble carts that would probably work nicely for that
@@makho They don't take a battery for the rumble and it isn't strong. I looked into it already. Your way is way better. I think you could just use Pokemon Pinball and do two separate carts. I have the 3ds download but I really want a cartridge. Well both cartridges. Legend of the River King 2 with rumble enabled with Gameboy rom Analyzer and Nushi Tsuri Adventure-Kite No Bouken English patch. If you get lotrk2 to work rumble will work at the beginning with the earthquake. The other just needs to be English. $200.00 if you will do it for me. It would be greatly appreciated.
@@michaeldemers2716 I don't take commissions. Sorry.
@@makho How about I trade you two GBA original's with light up screens and nice neoprene cases for your time. I own the original just not with rumble because they took it out for America. Think about it. You may have fun and you would be really making someone happy. If not I don't think I will ever get real cartridges of these games. If not for me at least make them for yourself so they are out there. They will be priceless. Trust me.
Any reason you wouldn't use the "george foreman gameboy grill" to remove that chip? (Instead of the heat gun?)
That lil "grill" thing is so nifty, definitely considering getting one
For sure. I didn't here simply because I didn't have it at the time (or wasn't comfortable with it yet, I don't recall the specific timeline).
I use mine now for this stuff though
@@makho Ah ok, makes sense, thanks for the response! I recently got a heat gun but its massive, that small grill thing seems way more efficient. Sorry to bug you more but what do I look up to get one btw? Idk what its even called lol
Do you guys have a link to that grill you are talking about? I can't find anything on Google.
@@TheGugustar miniware mhp-30
Do you sell theses
What I want to do after watching this is tell you about Legend of the River King 2. You can use Gameboy Rom Analyzer to change the cartridge type to 1EH and force rumble. I wonder if you could put it in a crappy rumble cartridge. That may need something else though like Nushi Tsuri no Bouken 4 with real time clock. I wonder if there is a cheap real time clock rumble cartridge. I know Inside Gadgets does a flash but you need to patch the rom somehow to make the rumble stronger because it doesn't take a battery for the rumble. Hmmmmmm
There is also a English Translation for Nushi Tsuri Adventure-Kite No Bouken that has Rumble and could be put in a Pokemon Pinball. I Will give you another $100.00 for that too. Come on bro you would make my year even though I can play them on the V-90 with the firmware update I collect real cartridges.
If you make a Legend of the River King 2 with Rumble and real time clock I will give you $100.00.