# how to make my own gbc backups?



## migles (May 31, 2014)

if i want to dump GBC roms and saves from cartridges in 2014 what is the best option for me?


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## WaryLouka (May 31, 2014)

Why?


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## migles (May 31, 2014)

WaryLouka said:


> Why?


 
because i have some botleg cartridges i can't find on the internet, i also have some region games which there is only the english version on internet
and i would like to copy\restore my saves from pokemon cartridges when i adquire them....

edit: and why not?


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## FAST6191 (May 31, 2014)

Not sure what exists in the commercial world (though there are now a few flash carts most are more concerned with LSDJ and playing games rather than dumping them). Going into electronics there are some options for people that can swing a soldering iron
http://reinerziegler.de/readplus.htm#Home made programming systems is a great link, elsewhere I have seen things aimed at more common programmable chips/devices. http://hackaday.com/2013/05/17/reading-game-boy-carts-with-i2c/ would be one of them.

Bootlegs are one thing but are you sure you have undumped games? As you want saves as well that matters little (one usually does the other) but the GB/GBC world was pretty well sorted. That said dumped and dumped and still readily available on the internet are two different things, doubly so when it comes to non English, non Japanese games.


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## Silentsurvivor (May 31, 2014)

A Retrode with the GameBoy plugin will do the job: it can dump ROMs and Save Files. It isn't cheap though, but the standalone Retrode reads/dumps SNES and Genesis cartridges as well as having original controller ports to use on the PC, so it's a pretty neat bonus you get nonetheless.

The upcoming Retron 5 console also handles save file dumping and restoring, I don't know about ROMs though.


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## migles (May 31, 2014)

FAST6191 said:


> Not sure what exists in the commercial world (though there are now a few flash carts most are more concerned with LSDJ and playing games rather than dumping them). Going into electronics there are some options for people that can swing a soldering iron
> http://reinerziegler.de/readplus.htm#Home made programming systems is a great link, elsewhere I have seen things aimed at more common programmable chips/devices. http://hackaday.com/2013/05/17/reading-game-boy-carts-with-i2c/ would be one of them.
> 
> Bootlegs are one thing but are you sure you have undumped games? As you want saves as well that matters little (one usually does the other) but the GB/GBC world was pretty well sorted. That said dumped and dumped and still readily available on the internet are two different things, doubly so when it comes to non English, non Japanese games.


 
i really love to make my own backups... and yes i had tried to find the botlegs i own and didn't found them... i wanted something like i do with gba games but for GB\GBC, backup\restore saves dumping roms, cheats etc the ds lite thankfully to his slot2 is a really good device for this things

retrode is an option which i met in the past but with the adapters thing is a deal breaker.. (since the adapters are expensive and i just want 1-2 systems)

can't i use a gamecube game boy player for this purpose? using homebrew? it does play GB\GBC games, but i guess its hard to code for support game boy player slot...

if there is no gamecube homebrew for this, maybe i can try making my own adapter with my friend.. i will give him the schematics and ask what we can manage to build...


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## NicEXE (May 31, 2014)

There is probably a simpler method but I'd desolder the ROM, solder it on those all-in-one chip programmers and save it on my computer.


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## migles (May 31, 2014)

NicEXE said:


> There is probably a simpler method but I'd desolder the ROM, solder it on those all-in-one chip programmers and save it on my computer.


 
no, i would like to plug the cartridge to a device, so i could use it again on a GB\C\A


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## NicEXE (May 31, 2014)

You can solder the ROM chip back to the cartridge. You can even put a socket in it's place and have a removable Flash chip instead of an SMD ROM


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## Plstic (May 31, 2014)

You could use a transferer II but those are hard to come by and you need legacy hardware aka a parallel port and windows 98


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## migles (May 31, 2014)

Plstic said:


> You could use a transferer II but those are hard to come by and you need legacy hardware aka a parallel port and windows 98


do you have a picture of it?

parallel port and 98 is not really a problemo


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## Plstic (May 31, 2014)

migles said:


> do you have a picture of it?
> 
> parallel port and 98 is not really a problemo


 
I was just saying that because most people don't have a legacy machine lying around. http://www.hkems.com/product/gb/gba-tr.htm


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## thaddius (May 31, 2014)

You could use a number of linkers out there. Good luck finding one though. I personally use a SmartBoy 64mb. It's linker (which works on Windows post-XP) can be used to dump ROMs and saves. The guy who sold them was notoriously unreliable though.


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## reprep (May 31, 2014)

here is a cheap alternative if you have a N64. Everdrive 64 has an application which lets you dump your ROMs and SRAMs for gb/gbc games through transfer pak. everdrive 64 costs about 100-130$ depending on extras.


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## tbgtbg (May 31, 2014)

Silentsurvivor said:


> The upcoming Retron 5 console also handles save file dumping and restoring, I don't know about ROMs though.



The only thing I've heard of it doing in that regard is to internal memory, to play off the built in emulators (since it's an emulator based system not a clone). I don't believe it has any SD slots or PC connectivity or anything you could use to get your stuff to use elsewhere.


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## Thirty3Three (May 31, 2014)

I'd honestly say doing so would not be worth the effort compared to how easily they can be found today. But if you decide to continue going such a route, best of luck!


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## junn (Jun 1, 2014)

migles said:


> if i want to dump GBC roms and saves from cartridges in 2014 what is the best option for me?


 
if you have or can find an ez/xg flash linker, you can do a level1 mod to dump a gb/c games or saves.
this site also has info how to do the mod.
or if you have $75, you can skip the mod and preorder an Altane cartridge programmer.


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## FAST6191 (Jun 1, 2014)

If you can find an EZ/XG linker (that mod might also be for the earlier versions of the linker -- there was a second and third class at one point for the EZ3 and later models of the EZ3 and EZ2) in 2014 you are doing exceptionally well, hell you would be doing exceptionally well to pull that off in 2006. Not to mention if it you did find such a device you could probably it and use it to fund a raspberry pi.


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## enarky (Jun 1, 2014)

I own one of these, they work quite fine for dumping. It's a Chinese clone of the flasher featured on Rainer Ziegler's page.



NicEXE said:


> There is probably a simpler method but I'd desolder the ROM, solder it on those all-in-one chip programmers and save it on my computer.





NicEXE said:


> You can solder the ROM chip back to the cartridge. You can even put a socket in it's place and have a removable Flash chip instead of an SMD ROM


Are you serious? Not everybody has a reflow oven at home. Good luck unsoldering SMD chips with a soldering iron.


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## NicEXE (Jun 1, 2014)

enarky said:


> Are you serious? Not everybody has a reflow oven at home. Good luck unsoldering SMD chips with a soldering iron.


You can do it with a soldering iron if you have not Shrek-like hands


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## thaddius (Jun 1, 2014)

junn said:


> or if you have $75, you can skip the mod and preorder an Altane cartridge programmer.


 
Wow. Bung and EMS; that's awesome. Now if only they'd get Bleep Bloop compatibility...


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## junn (Jun 5, 2014)

thaddius said:


> Wow. Bung and EMS; that's awesome. Now if only they'd get Bleep Bloop compatibility...


 
probably it’s supported. that's my guess.
http://chipmusic.org/forums/post/206672/#p206672


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## thaddius (Jun 5, 2014)

That'd be great because I'm still sitting on two non-USB bleep bloops with no flashing hardware.


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