Super Mario Game & Watch Hacking

Watch out for the ninjas....

 

This is awesome and I'm glad there's a nice multi-emulator already ported for 8 bit systems, but the one thing I'm still waiting for that I thought would be near the top of people's lists is a port of the classic Game & Watch games, whether it's the recreations that dude did or the more recent actual emulations from MAME.
Oh I guess there's the GB/GBC collections of ports by Nintendo, LMK if you see or make a video of any of those running on this bad boy

 

I guess beyond classic G&W, the only other thing I'd especially like to see done for these is dumping the clock mode from the official firmware, and making it runnable from whatever you flash unofficially. I want it all.

 

Awesome, thanks for the update, and the video. The GBC game looks pretty at home on the device.
Glad the flash chip replacement wasn't too taxing, as it seems like an essential to make the project really useable. I got new soldering kit recently, and am planning to practice and improve my skills on dead electronics before I touch anything I care about, but this looks achievable.

 

Nice! Good work!
I thought about getting one but the price for this limited device is pretty high. The only reason for really buying one is this modification. With Game Boy and NES emulators it might be a fun pocket console.

How good is the LCD and the sound in the Game and Watch?

 

Good tips, thanks - yeah I do still need a multimeter, thanks for the reminder, that can go on the birthday prezzie wishlist.

Yes the screen is really nice. I think you'd struggle with button mapping for a SNES emulator even if it did have the processing power tho.

 

Screw the high price! I ordered a Game & Watch now. Will take some time until it is delivered (and I still need to order the other stuff – so don't expect results soon).
I will try to use a Raspberry Pi for the firmware dump and flashing. According to the Github pages it should be possible.

My main problems are:

• I do not find any real guide how to proceed. There are the five scripts on Github for dumping and unlocking. That does not tell me (on first look) how to install anything.
• What is that 16MB flash chip called? What would I have to order? I really didn't find a part number or similar.
• Any particular reason for 16MB? Why not 8MB or 32MB? Is 16MB a hard limit?

I'm not computer alliterate – but not a developer as well. There are these YouTube videos telling what can be done (with blurred image due to Nintendo DMCA'ing for video footage showing Super Mario Bros – *facepalm*). I didn't find a real howto.

Can anybody help me?

 

If some Chinese maker reproduces the game&watch with more flashable memory, I would buy it.

 

Sorry, can't do this. I don't have an account on Discord and don't want one either.
If there is no public information online which can be retrieved without singing up somewhere I will have to figure out on my own.

Can you at least tell me what flash chip you used so I know what to search for/buy?

 

Thanks you very much! That does indeed help.
Backing up the firmware surely is the first thing to do. Replacing the chip and not having unlocked the CPU and not having the flash contents would be pretty useless. Before getting out the soldering iron I will try to add something small like Tetris (NES/GB) or Super Mario Land (GB).

But it might take weeks until I get all the materials and the motivation to actually try this modification.

 

I was just looking to my game and watch and decided

I've been looking the videos and it actually doesn't look that difficult, but I'm pretty dumb to do this without a throughout guide... I hope you can be a hero and share what materials you buy and your process.

Putting mario 3 and pokemon red on it would be a dream and I'm willing to try it.