FlashGBX 0.9b0

A GUI application that can read and write Game Boy and Game Boy Advance cartridge data. Currently supports the GBxCart RW hardware device by insideGadgets.

FlashGBX

by Lesserkuma

Introduction

Software features

• Backup, restore and erase save data from Game Boy and Game Boy Advance game cartridges
• Backup ROM data from Game Boy and Game Boy Advance game cartridges
• Write new ROMs to a wide variety of Game Boy and Game Boy Advance flash cartridges
• Many reproduction cartridges and flash cartridges can be auto-detected
• A flash chip query can be performed for unsupported flash cartridges

Confirmed working reader/writer hardware

• insideGadgets GBxCart RW v1.3 and v1.3 Pro with firmware versions from R19 up to R23 (other hardware revisions and firmware versions may also work, but are untested)

Currently supported flash cartridges

• Game Boy

  • BUNG Doctor GB Card 64M
  • DIY cart with AM29F016/AM29F016B (thanks RevZ, AndehX)
  • GB Smart 32M
  • insideGadgets 32 KB (thanks AlexiG)
  • insideGadgets 512 KB (thanks AlexiG)
  • insideGadgets 1 MB, 128 KB SRAM (thanks AlexiG)
  • insideGadgets 2 MB, 128 KB SRAM/32 KB FRAM (thanks AlexiG)
  • insideGadgets 4 MB, 128 KB SRAM/FRAM (thanks AlexiG)
  • insideGadgets 4 MB, 32 KB FRAM, MBC3+RTC (thanks AlexiG)

• Game Boy Advance

  • Flash2Advance 256M (non-ultra variant, with 2× 28F128J3A150)
  • Nintendo AGB Cartridge 128M Flash S, E201850
  • Nintendo AGB Cartridge 256M Flash S, E201868

Currently supported and tested reproduction cartridges

• Game Boy

  • ES29LV160_DRV with 29DL32TF-70
  • GB-M968 with M29W160EB (thanks RevZ)
  • GB-M968 with MX29LV320ABTC
  • ALTERA CPLD and S29GL032N90T (no PCB text)
  • SD007_48BALL_64M with GL032M11BAIR4 (thanks RevZ)
  • SD007_48BALL_64M with M29W640
  • SD007_48BALL_64M_V2 with GL032M11BAIR4
  • SD007_48BALL_64M_V3 with 29DL161TD-90
  • SD007_48BALL_64M_V5 with 36VF3203
  • SD007_48BALL_64M_V5 with 36VF3204
  • SD007_48BALL_64M_V6 with 36VF3204
  • SD007_48BALL_64M_V6 with 29DL163BD-90 (thanks LovelyA72)
  • SD007_BV5_DRV with M29W320DT (thanks Frost Clock)
  • SD007_BV5_V3 with 29LV160BE-90PFTN (thanks LucentW)
  • SD007_BV5_V3 with HY29LV160BT-70 (thanks LucentW)
  • SD007_BV5_V2 with HY29LV160TT (thanks RevZ)
  • SD007_BV5_V2 with MX29LV320BTC (thanks RevZ)
  • SD007_BV5_V3 with AM29LV160MB (thanks RevZ)
  • SD007_TSOP_48BALL with 36VF3204
  • SD007_TSOP_48BALL with AM29LV160DT (thanks marv17)
  • SD007_TSOP_48BALL with L160DB12VI (thanks marv17)

• Game Boy Advance

  • 28F256L03B-DRV with 256L30B
  • 36L0R8-39VF512 with M36L0R8060B (thanks LucentW)
  • 36L0R8-39VF512 with M36L0R8060T (thanks AndehX)
  • 4050_4400_4000_4350_36L0R_V5 with M36L0R7050T
  • 4050_4400_4000_4350_36L0R_V5 with M36L0T8060T
  • 4050_4400_4000_4350_36L0R_V5 with M36L0R8060T
  • 4455_4400_4000_4350_36L0R_V3 with M36L0R7050T
  • AGB-E05-01 with GL128S
  • AGB-E05-01 with MSP55LV128M
  • AGB-E05-02 with M29W128GH (thanks marv17)
  • AGB-E08-09 with 29LV128DTMC-90Q (thanks LucentW)
  • AGB-SD-E05 with MSP55LV128 (thanks RevZ)
  • BX2006_0106_NEW with S29GL128N10TFI01 (thanks litlemoran)
  • BX2006_TSOP_64BALL with GL128S
  • BX2006_TSOPBGA_0106 with M29W640GB6AZA6

Many different reproduction cartridges share their flash chip command set, so even if yours is not on this list, it may still work fine or even be auto-detected as another one. Support for more cartridges can also be added by creating external config files that include the necessary flash chip commands.

Installing and running

The application should work on pretty much every operating system that supports Qt-GUI applications built using Python 3 with PySide2 and pyserial packages.

If you have Python and pip installed, you can use pip install FlashGBX to download and install the application. Then use python -m FlashGBX to run it.

To run FlashGBX in portable mode, you can also download the source code archive and call python run.py after installing the prerequisites yourself.

Windows binaries

Available in the GitHub Releases section:

• Windows Setup: An installer that will add the application to the start menu and optionally create a desktop icon
• Windows Portable: Have everything in one place including the config files

These executables have been created using PyInstaller and Inno Setup.

Troubleshooting

• If something doesn’t work as expected, first try to clean the game cartridge contacts (best with IPA 99%+ on a Q-tip) and reconnect the device.

• On Linux systems, you may run into a Permission Error problem when trying to connect to USB devices without sudo privileges. To grant yourself the necessary permissions temporarily, you can run sudo chmod 0666 /dev/ttyUSB0 (replace with actual device path) before running the app. For a permanent solution, add yourself to the usergroup that has access to serial devices by default (e.g. dialout on Debian-based distros; sudo adduser $USER dialout) and then reboot the system.

• On some Linux systems, you may need the XCB Xinerama package if you see an error regarding failed Qt platform plugin initialization. You can install it with sudo apt install libxcb-xinerama0 etc.

• For save data backup/restore on Game Boy Advance reproduction cartridges, depending on how it was built, you may have to manually select the save type for it to work properly.

• The save data backup/restore feature may not work on certain reproduction cartridges with batteryless-patched ROMs. As those cartridges use the same flash chip for both ROM and save data storage, a full ROM backup will usually include the save data. Also, when flashing a new unpatched ROM to a cartridge like this, the game may not be able to save progress without soldering in a battery.

DISCLAIMER

This software is provided as-is and the developer is not responsible for any damage that is caused by the use of it. Use at your own risk!

Contributions

The author would like to thank the following very kind people for their help and contributions (in alphabetical order):

• AlexiG (GBxCart RW hardware, bug reports, flash chip info)
• AndehX (app icon, flash chip info)
• easthighNerd (feature suggestions)
• Frost Clock (flash chip info)
• JFox (help with properly packaging the app for pip)
• julgr (macOS help, testing)
• litlemoran (flash chip info)
• LovelyA72 (flash chip info)
• LucentW (flash chip info, testing)
• marv17 (flash chip info, testing)
• RevZ (Linux help, testing, bug reports, flash chip info)

Changes

v0.7β (released 2020-09-25)

• First started tracking changes
• Added a way to launch the flash cartridge type auto-detection process from the type list
• Added support for SD007_48BALL_64M_V6 with 29DL163BD-90 (thanks LovelyA72)
• Confirmed support for BX2006_0106_NEW with S29GL128N10TFI01 (same as AGB-E05-01 with MSP55LV128M) (thanks litlemoran)
• Fixed config file for 4455_4400_4000_4350_36L0R_V3 with M36L0R705 (sector size map was incomplete)
• Renamed some labels of flash cartridge types
• Made config files UTF-8 compatible
• File open and save dialogs will now remember the last used directory for ROM files and save data files respectively (stored in settings.ini in AppData/Roaming), clearable with the --reset switch or by editing/deleting settings.ini
• Added CRC32 checksum comparison for Game Boy Advance games by using a database based on header SHA1 hashes
• Fixed a bug with save data restore and improved save data backup speed
• Fixed a few status message errors
• Added a warning when changing platforms
• Made some messages suppressible (stored in settings.ini)
• Added detection of ungraceful device disconnects when starting a new task, with optional automatic reconnect
• First public beta release

v0.8β (released 2020-10-03)

• Added support for the DIY cart with AM29F016/AM29F016B with AUDIO as WE (thanks AndehX)
• Renamed VIN to AUDIO in config files and the command line switch --resetconfig to --reset
• Added experimental support for GBxCart RW revisions other than v1.3 and fixed a crash when connecting to unknown revisions of the GBxCart RW
• The app is now available as a package and can be installed directly through pip (thanks JFox)
• Changed the way configuration files are stored (for details call with --help command line switch)
• Added the option to write an automatically trimmed ROM file which can reduce flashing time, especially in Game Boy Advance mode (note that not all ROMs can be trimmed)
• When dumping a flash cartridge that has been flashed with a trimmed ROM, the ROM will be fixed so checksums will still match up (can be disabled for debugging by adding _notrimfix to the file name)
• Added a button that opens a file browser to the currently used config directory for easy access
• Added the option to erase/wipe the save data on a cartridge
• Rearranged some buttons on the main window so that the newly added button popup menus don’t block anything
• Improved the database for Game Boy Advance titles (now detects SRAM_F_V### save types properly)
• Rewrote some of the save data handling for Game Boy Advance cartridges to speed transfers up a bit
• Fixed a couple of instability issues that used to caused timeouts on macOS (thanks julgr)
• Confirmed support for SD007_48BALL_64M_V5 with 29DL163BD-90 (thanks julgr)
• Added an option for flashing at 5V for a few flash cartridge types that sometimes require this; if you think your cartridge is affected, you can add "voltage_variants":true, to the config file for it
• Fixed support for Windows 7 when using pre-compiled exe file packages
• Reduced size and decompression time of the pre-compiled exe file packages by excluding unnecessary DLL files
• Fixed a timing issue that could sometimes cause a loss of save data when hot-swapping Game Boy cartridges
• Added some warnings that help with troubleshooting, for example that manually setting the feature box to a MBC5 option may be necessary for a clean dump when dumping ROMs from flash cartridges
• Added taskbar progress visualization on Windows systems

v0.9β (released 2020-12-17)

• Confirmed support for BX2006_TSOP_64BALL with GL128S
• Confirmed support for SD007_48BALL_64M_V2 with GL032M11BAIR4
• Added support for 4050_4400_4000_4350_36L0R_V5 with M36L0R8060T/M36L0T8060T
• Rewrote parts of the GBxCart RW interface code
• Removed the option to trim ROM files and will now instead just skip writing empty chunks of data
• Fixed config files for MSP55LV128 and MSP55LV128M flash chips
• Confirmed support for SD007_48BALL_64M_V6 with 36VF3204
• Confirmed support for SD007_TSOP_48BALL with 36VF3204
• Added the option to add date and time to suggested filenames for save data backups (thanks easthighNerd)
• Added a check and warning for unstable ROM readings
• Added Common Flash Interface query for both unknown and known flash cartridge types
• Added support for 36L0R8-39VF512 with M36L0R8060B (thanks LucentW)
• Added support for another version of 36L0R8-39VF512 with M36L0R8060B/M36L0R8060T (thanks AndehX)
• Added support for AGB-E05-02 with M29W128GH (thanks marv17)
• Added backup and restore of 1M SRAM save data in GBA mode
• Confirmed support for BX2006_TSOPBGA_0106 with M29W640GB6AZA6 (thanks LucentW)
• Confirmed support for AGB-E05-01 with GL128S
• Improved writing speed for MSP55LV128M, S29GL128 and similar flash chips (requires GBxCart RW firmware R23 or higher)
• Before flashing a ROM it will now be checked if its logo data and header checksum are valid and a warning will be shown if not
• Added support for SD007_BV5_V3 with 29LV160BE-90PFTN (thanks LucentW)
• Added support for SD007_BV5_V3 with HY29LV160BT (thanks LucentW)
• Added support for SD007_48BALL_64M_V5 with 36VF3203 (thanks LucentW)
• Added support for SD007_TSOP_48BALL with M29W160ET70ZA6 (thanks LucentW)
• Added support for AGB-E08-09 with 29LV128DTMC-90Q (thanks LucentW)
• Confirmed support for SD007_TSOP_48BALL with L160DB12VI (thanks marv17)
• Added support for SD007_TSOP_48BALL with AM29LV160DT (thanks marv17)
• Added support for SD007_BV5_DRV with M29W320DT (thanks Frost Clock)
• Added experimental fast read mode support for GBxCart RW v1.3 with firmware R19+ (about 20% faster)
• Bumped the required minimum firmware version of GBxCart RW v1.3 to R19
• Confirmed support for 4050_4400_4000_4350_36L0R_V5 with M36L0R7050T
• Added the option to enable the preference of sector erase over chip erase when flashing a ROM (this can improve flashing speed for ROMs smaller than the flash chip capacity)
• Some flash chips may have reversed sectors despite shared flash ID; if you think your cartridge is affected, you can add "sector_reversal":true, to its config file for a prompt upon flashing
• Renamed config.ini to settings.ini to avoid confusion with the term “config file”