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In an unexpected turn of events, McDonald's has started a new marketing campaign, announcing the return of their beloved McDonaldLand characters, like Grimace, Birdie the Early Bird, Hamburgular and the McNugget Buddies, as well as promoting a new ice cream shake "Grimace's Birthday". However, that wasn't the only way in which McDonald's is making said promotions.

McDonald's opened a new website titled "grimacesbirthday.com", and users are greeted with a surplus of ad-like images containing McDonald's marketing material, and the most interesting of all, is a free-to-play game in the website, appropriately titled "Grimace's Birthday". At first glance, and for those who have been in the internet for quite some time, the title might seem like your typical Java or Flash game running in the website, but the reality of it is entirely different.

"Grimace's Birthday" is actually an entirely new GameBoy Color ROM developed by Krool Toys, a new release for the GBC system in 2023, more than 2 decades after the device has been out of stores.
Those interested in playing the game can do so directly through McDonald's website, but a dump of the game has also been making its rounds online in ROM format.

UPDATE: The game "Grimace's Birthday" was made specifically for this celebration in 2023, and it was done with the use of GB Studio.

Grimace's Birthday website
GB Studio Central article

 

[lenniequest]

Cool. I just grabbed the rom (I found two; one with a .gb extension and another with a .gbc extension, but both seem identical other than the file extension) and I'll give it a go on real hardware.

Where'd you grab the .gbc file at?

Post automatically merged: Jun 14, 2023

Cool. I just grabbed the rom (I found two; one with a .gb extension and another with a .gbc extension, but both seem identical other than the file extension) and I'll give it a go on real hardware.

Where'd you grab the .gbc file at?

Post automatically merged: Jun 14, 2023

Appears to work on real hardware.
View attachment 377715

I'm not digging out my flashers and a double-A's for a test on a real GBC and single game flashcart, but it's running on an Analogue Pocket and an ED X7 so it's basically guaranteed to work on original hardware as well.

Are you able to just throw the .gb file into the GB Studio folder, or how did you get a .pocket file?

 

[CanIHazWarez]

Are you able to just throw the .gb file into the GB Studio folder, or how did you get a .pocket file?

You have been able to play roms on the Analogue Pocket for some time now using openFPGA. But also, there are patches to convert normal roms to .pocket files. They exist for most games, but someone would need to create one for one-off games like this.

 

[skribbzthepirate]

Grimace looks like Barney's god damn testicles, of course those other fat fucks aren't anywhere to be found! They don't wanna hang around with a big stinky URPLE sack of fucking flesh like him! Well, at least he looks like he shaved...

Post automatically merged: Jun 14, 2023

At least the game has some nba young boy tunes too yeah im fuckin lovin it

 

[SylverReZ]

Grimace looks like Barney's god damn testicles, of course those other fat fucks aren't anywhere to be found! They don't wanna hang around with a big stinky URPLE sack of fucking flesh like him! Well, at least he looks like he shaved...

Post automatically merged: Jun 14, 2023

At least the game has some nba young boy tunes too yeah im fuckin lovin it

Somebody give this man a tip.

 

[GhostLatte]

Still better than TLOU2

 

[duwen]

Where'd you grab the .gbc file at?

Googled "Grimaces Birthday gbc rom" and one of the top results was a link to Internet Archive.

 

[Spring_Spring]

I'll always see him as grimer.

 

[willray]

I can easily put this on my everdrive and play on OG hardware, I'll just not do it. I don't want my gameboy to get fat.

(fine... I admit, I do liked this news, it's fun to see the gameboy color still alive after all those decades)

where did you get the rom been trying to fins it but i keep getting led back to the archives links witch done work fro some reason

Post automatically merged: Jun 15, 2023

I can easily put this on my everdrive and play on OG hardware, I'll just not do it. I don't want my gameboy to get fat.

(fine... I admit, I do liked this news, it's fun to see the gameboy color still alive after all those decades)

help could you tell me where you got the rom for it

 

[skribbzthepirate]

where did you get the rom been trying to fins it but i keep getting led back to the archives links witch done work fro some reason

Hold up cuh I got you, i am skribbler#1095 on discord

Post automatically merged: Jun 15, 2023

where did you get the rom been trying to fins it but i keep getting led back to the archives links witch done work fro some reason

Post automatically merged: Jun 15, 2023

help could you tell me where you got the rom for it

The archive.org link does have the game, you just have to download the GBC ROM and play it in an emulator.
*snip*
---------------------------------------------
I want to try and rip the rom myself too, I also wonder how the uploader on the IA got 4 versions?

 

[impeeza]

Where'd you grab the .gbc file at?

you can use any good web browser and using the debug network traffic for the page (https://grimacesbirthday.com/) you will find the URL for .gb file, tip: is the bigger file downloaded from that site.

 

[kehkou]

At least they don't have four eyes. That fiasco was probably the low point in McDonalds marketing history.

 

[Deleted member 194275]

where did you get the rom been trying to fins it but i keep getting led back to the archives links witch done work fro some reason

Post automatically merged: Jun 15, 2023

help could you tell me where you got the rom for it

People grabbed it legally on the developer's tab on the official website.

I got on an illegal and evil romsite.

 

[temp75]

Thanks. Gotta admit that was unexpected as f*ck.
GB Studio games are spawning like crazy here and there. Everyone who's a little bored seem to put one out and I appreciate it because even if only 1 out of 100 is decent it means I get a decent new GB game (Reddit helps a lot finding that 1 out of 100).
However seeing this from one of the biggest (fast food) franchises of the world, that worked together with Nintendo many times in the past, is a real surprise because, it definitely seem to be an unofficial aftermarket game. Legit but surprising. I take it.

I think I know who you talk about when you say you find 1 good game out of 100. There's a dude who post his gameboy games on reddit & they are very good.

 

[lincruste]

Weird. But neat! I can't help but wonder if this was some nearly-finished project from back then, and marketing got a whiff of it and decided to use it.

Provided the game was made with GB Studio it's probably not the case.

 

[lordelan]

I think I know who you talk about when you say you find 1 good game out of 100. There's a dude who post his gameboy games on reddit & they are very good.

Not sure lol, who r u referring to?

 

[Something whatever]

its not bad

 

[hecker_isaac]

going to try this on my nes classic!

Edit: it works great

 

[Marc_LFD]

Access denied. Looks like they wisened up. Anyone got a link?

https://file.io/wT5vAan2QcGx

Cool. How did you know where to look?

https://file.io/wT5vAan2QcGx

Wait, does that count as "sharing warez"? Honestly asking.

Nah. It's from the official website.

Where'd you grab the .gbc file at?

https://file.io/wT5vAan2QcGx

This file was downloaded from the official website which seems like the link no longer allows to download it. Cool GBC game.

 

[Bladexdsl]

why can't you download it anymore...did nintendo dmca it?

 

[impeeza]

Use the debug function of your browser and download the cache of the official website.