As some of you might recently have seen in the blog section of gbatemp, I got my hands on a box containing a white gamecube with an additional purple top shell which seems to be brand new, a GB micro and few Test Cartridges for the GB, GBA and NDS.
I decided to check out the GBA cartridges and record what they do (I wont be sharing the ROMs here as they are surely copyrighted by Nintendo). The video I made also contains the NDS Cart for fun.
Here's my Rundown of the cartridges:
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GBA Cards
-----------------------------
The first thing you'll notice about the GBA Cartridges is the interesting color scheme. All 7 Test cartridges come with a regular black GBA front and a yellow backside which is unlike any GBA game I have seen. It closely resembles the color I remember the Pokemon yellow cartridges to be, even though I can't verify it since I don't own that GB Game anymore. The japanese text on the front label translates to "Aging cartridge", four of these test cartridges will boot into a Key Input Test, the other three will boot into a Flicker Adjuster. Upon dumping all 7 cartridges I found out that the 16Mbit ROMs an all 7 cartridges are identical, all roms have the exact same checksum. The game title in the header is "AGB CHECKER TCHK 10". The cartridges contain a 4k eeprom save chip which determines the function of the cartridge.
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The EEPROM save
-----------------------------
The EEPROM contains a 512 byte save of which only 26 bytes are used, a further 6 bytes are filled with 00 and the rest is padded with FFs. Byte 0x0F will determine the function of the cartridge. Here's a table of which value will produce which result. Note that byte 0x19 also needs to be altered as it contains a simple checksum. I will list the correct value for this as well.
Anything beyond 06 will cause a blank screen. Wiping the save from the acrtridge or an invalid checksum will cause the cart to fall into the "AGS Aging Cartiridge" Mode, which is the same as the "Aging Cartridge" Menu except it will have a timer of 2h if run from the menu, 3h if initiliased by a blank/invalid save. After the 3 hours have passed my GBM would turn to sleep mode (screen turns off, start/select flashing). After waking the device using the start button the aging test would continue indefinatly, I don't know if this is intended behaviour of the programm or if the GBM has an automated sleep function that was causing this.
The menu allows you to run various tests, including the Key Input Test and Flicker Adjuster my cartridges initially were set up with.
The menu can be accessed by holding L+R on boot up which allows us to configure any of the cartridges. Same manipulation is no longer needed, the savegames cannot be created "on the fly".
-----------------------------
Compatibility
-----------------------------
After I dumped the contents of the cartridges, I decided to try a few things. The ROMs can be flashed or run from Flash Cartridges like the Flash2Advance or the EZ-Flash IV without any issues. The cartridges work fine on a AGB-001, and ABG-001 with an AGS-101 screen, an AGS-001 and an OXY-001 (Game Boy Micro). Compatibility with VBA, batgba and the Revo K101+ is limited. It works fine if set to the menu, LCD Unit Checker, Flicker Adjuster, Self Test Cartridge or Key Input test, however the Aging Cartridge Mode (or a blank save) will not work. The system is doing various tests (Memory, Screen, Interupts etc.) before running that test which fails on VBA, BATGBA, the Revo K101+ and mGBA.
So, Interesting to see, even though this will probably not be usefull at all. But I thought maybe someone is interested in a short overview. Attached are some pictures and a link to a youtube video containing a short preview of what these cartridges do (Video currently still uploading to youtube. Be patient).
PS: Info on the NTR and GB cards might come in the future as well, if you guys are interested.
I decided to check out the GBA cartridges and record what they do (I wont be sharing the ROMs here as they are surely copyrighted by Nintendo). The video I made also contains the NDS Cart for fun.
Here's my Rundown of the cartridges:
-----------------------------
GBA Cards
-----------------------------
The first thing you'll notice about the GBA Cartridges is the interesting color scheme. All 7 Test cartridges come with a regular black GBA front and a yellow backside which is unlike any GBA game I have seen. It closely resembles the color I remember the Pokemon yellow cartridges to be, even though I can't verify it since I don't own that GB Game anymore. The japanese text on the front label translates to "Aging cartridge", four of these test cartridges will boot into a Key Input Test, the other three will boot into a Flicker Adjuster. Upon dumping all 7 cartridges I found out that the 16Mbit ROMs an all 7 cartridges are identical, all roms have the exact same checksum. The game title in the header is "AGB CHECKER TCHK 10". The cartridges contain a 4k eeprom save chip which determines the function of the cartridge.
-----------------------------
The EEPROM save
-----------------------------
The EEPROM contains a 512 byte save of which only 26 bytes are used, a further 6 bytes are filled with 00 and the rest is padded with FFs. Byte 0x0F will determine the function of the cartridge. Here's a table of which value will produce which result. Note that byte 0x19 also needs to be altered as it contains a simple checksum. I will list the correct value for this as well.
Code:
Programm 0x0F 0x19
Menu 01 80
LCD Unit Checker 02 7F
Flicker Adjuster 03 7E
Aging Cartridge 04 7D
Self Test Cartridge 05 7C
Key Input Test 06 7BAnything beyond 06 will cause a blank screen. Wiping the save from the acrtridge or an invalid checksum will cause the cart to fall into the "AGS Aging Cartiridge" Mode, which is the same as the "Aging Cartridge" Menu except it will have a timer of 2h if run from the menu, 3h if initiliased by a blank/invalid save. After the 3 hours have passed my GBM would turn to sleep mode (screen turns off, start/select flashing). After waking the device using the start button the aging test would continue indefinatly, I don't know if this is intended behaviour of the programm or if the GBM has an automated sleep function that was causing this.
The menu allows you to run various tests, including the Key Input Test and Flicker Adjuster my cartridges initially were set up with.
The menu can be accessed by holding L+R on boot up which allows us to configure any of the cartridges. Same manipulation is no longer needed, the savegames cannot be created "on the fly".
-----------------------------
Compatibility
-----------------------------
After I dumped the contents of the cartridges, I decided to try a few things. The ROMs can be flashed or run from Flash Cartridges like the Flash2Advance or the EZ-Flash IV without any issues. The cartridges work fine on a AGB-001, and ABG-001 with an AGS-101 screen, an AGS-001 and an OXY-001 (Game Boy Micro). Compatibility with VBA, batgba and the Revo K101+ is limited. It works fine if set to the menu, LCD Unit Checker, Flicker Adjuster, Self Test Cartridge or Key Input test, however the Aging Cartridge Mode (or a blank save) will not work. The system is doing various tests (Memory, Screen, Interupts etc.) before running that test which fails on VBA, BATGBA, the Revo K101+ and mGBA.
AGB-001: works
AGS-001: works
AGS-101: works
OXY-001: works
Revo K101+: Does not work, fails a few tests, freezes at interupts
mGBA: Does not work, fails a few tests
vba: Does not work, fails a few tests
batgba: Does not work, fails a few tests
Nintendo 3DS VC (injected): works
AGS-001: works
AGS-101: works
OXY-001: works
Revo K101+: Does not work, fails a few tests, freezes at interupts
mGBA: Does not work, fails a few tests
vba: Does not work, fails a few tests
batgba: Does not work, fails a few tests
Nintendo 3DS VC (injected): works
So, Interesting to see, even though this will probably not be usefull at all. But I thought maybe someone is interested in a short overview. Attached are some pictures and a link to a youtube video containing a short preview of what these cartridges do (Video currently still uploading to youtube. Be patient).
PS: Info on the NTR and GB cards might come in the future as well, if you guys are interested.
Attachments
Last edited by Localhorst86,
