FlashGBX 2.0

Reads and writes Game Boy and Game Boy Advance cartridge data. Currently supports the GBxCart RW hardware device by insideGadgets.

FlashGBX (by Lesserkuma)

for Windows, Linux, macOS

Introduction

Software features

• Backup, restore and erase save data from Game Boy and Game Boy Advance game cartridges including Real Time Clock registers
• 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 (including Common Flash Interface information) can be performed for flash cartridges
• Decode and extract Game Boy Camera photos from save data
• Update firmware of GBxCart RW v1.3 devices

Confirmed working reader/writer hardware and firmware versions

• insideGadgets GBxCart RW v1.3 and v1.4 (Standard and Pro versions)
  • Official firmware versions R19 to R30 (other hardware revisions and firmware versions may also work, but are untested)
  • Lesserkuma’s high compatibility firmware version L1

Currently supported official cartridge memory mappers

• Game Boy

  • All cartridges without memory mapping
  • MBC1
  • MBC2
  • MBC3
  • MBC30
  • MBC5
  • MBC6
  • MBC7
  • MBC1M
  • MMM01
  • GBD (Game Boy Camera)
  • G-MMC1 (GB Memory)
  • M161
  • HuC-1
  • HuC-3
  • TAMA5

• Game Boy Advance

  • All cartridges without memory mapping
  • 8M FLASH DACS
  • 3D Memory (GBA Video)

Currently supported flash cartridges

• Game Boy

  • BUNG Doctor GB Card 64M
  • DIY cart with AM29F016/AM29F016B
  • DIY cart with AM29F032/AM29F032B
  • DIY cart with AT49F040
  • GB Smart 32M
  • insideGadgets 32 KB
  • insideGadgets 512 KB
  • insideGadgets 1 MB, 128 KB SRAM
  • insideGadgets 2 MB, 128 KB SRAM/32 KB FRAM
  • insideGadgets 4 MB, 128 KB SRAM/FRAM
  • insideGadgets 4 MB, 32 KB FRAM, MBC3+RTC
  • Mr Flash 64M

• Game Boy Advance

  • Development AGB Cartridge 128M Flash S, E201850
  • Development AGB Cartridge 256M Flash S, E201868
  • Flash2Advance 256M (non-ultra variant, with 2× 28F128J3A150)
  • insideGadgets 16 MB, 64K EEPROM with Solar Sensor and RTC options
  • insideGadgets 32 MB, 1M FLASH with RTC option
  • insideGadgets 32 MB, 512K FLASH
  • insideGadgets 32 MB, 4K/64K EEPROM
  • insideGadgets 32 MB, 256K FRAM with Rumble option

Currently supported and tested reproduction cartridges

• Game Boy

  • DMG-DHCN-20 with MX29LV320ET
  • ES29LV160_DRV with 29DL32TF-70
  • GB-M968 with 29LV160DB
  • GB-M968 with M29W160EB
  • GB-M968 with MX29LV320ABTC
  • ALTERA CPLD and S29GL032N90T (no PCB text)
  • SD007_48BALL_64M with GL032M11BAIR4
  • SD007_48BALL_64M with M29W640
  • SD007_48BALL_64M_V2 with GL032M11BAIR4
  • SD007_48BALL_64M_V2 with M29W160ET
  • 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
  • SD007_48BALL_64M_V8 with M29W160ET
  • SD007_BV5_DRV with M29W320DT
  • SD007_BV5_DRV with S29GL032M90TFIR4
  • SD007_BV5_V2 with HY29LV160TT
  • SD007_BV5_V2 with MX29LV320BTC
  • SD007_BV5_V3 with 29LV160BE-90PFTN
  • SD007_BV5_V3 with HY29LV160BT-70
  • SD007_BV5_V3 with AM29LV160MB
  • SD007_K8D3216_32M with MX29LV160CT
  • SD007_TSOP_29LV017D with L017D70VC
  • SD007_TSOP_48BALL with 36VF3204
  • SD007_TSOP_48BALL with AM29LV160DB
  • SD007_TSOP_48BALL with K8D3216UTC
  • SD007_TSOP_48BALL with M29W160ET
  • SD007_TSOP_48BALL with L160DB12VI

• Game Boy Advance

  • 28F256L03B-DRV with 256L30B
  • 36L0R8-39VF512 with M36L0R8060B
  • 36L0R8-39VF512 with M36L0R8060T
  • 4050M0Y0Q0-39VF512 with 4050M0Y0Q0
  • 4050_4400_4000_4350_36L0R_V5 with 4050L0YTQ2
  • 4050_4400_4000_4350_36L0R_V5 with M36L0R7050T
  • 4050_4400_4000_4350_36L0R_V5 with M36L0T8060T
  • 4050_4400_4000_4350_36L0R_V5 with M36L0R8060T
  • 4400 with 4400L0ZDQ0
  • 4455_4400_4000_4350_36L0R_V3 with M36L0R7050T
  • 100BS6600_48BALL_V4 with 6600M0U0BE
  • AGB-E05-01 with GL128S
  • AGB-E05-01 with MSP55LV128M
  • AGB-E05-01 with MX29GL128FHT2I-90G
  • AGB-E05-02 with M29W128FH
  • AGB-E05-02 with M29W128GH
  • AGB-E08-09 with 29LV128DTMC-90Q
  • AGB-SD-E05 with MSP55LV128
  • B104 with MSP55LV128
  • BX2006_0106_NEW with S29GL128N10TFI01
  • BX2006_TSOP_64BALL with GL128S
  • BX2006_TSOP_64BALL with GL256S
  • BX2006_TSOPBGA_0106 with M29W640GB6AZA6
  • BX2006_TSOPBGA_0106 with K8D6316UTM-PI07
  • GE28F128W30 with 128W30B0
  • M6MGJ927 (no PCB text)

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

Binaries (Windows)

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

Download and run from source (Windows, Linux, macOS)

If you have Python and pip installed, you can use pip install FlashGBX to download and install the application, or use pip install --upgrade FlashGBX to upgrade from an older version. Then use python -m FlashGBX or python -m FlashGBX --cli 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.

The application should work on pretty much every operating system that supports Qt-GUI applications built using Python 3.7+ with PySide2, pyserial, Pillow, setuptools and requests packages.

⚠️ On some platforms you may have to use pip3/python3 instead of pip/python.

Troubleshooting

• If something doesn’t work as expected, first try to clean the game cartridge contacts (best with IPA 99.9%+ on a cotton swab) 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.

• On some Linux systems like Fedora, you may need to install the python3-pillow-qt package manually in order for the GUI mode to work.

• If the PySide2 package is not available for your system, you can install FlashGBX like so instead: pip install pyserial Pillow setuptools requests followed by pip install --no-deps FlashGBX.

• On older systems such as MacOS X El Capitan 10.11, you may run into an error that says TypeError: 'Shiboken.ObjectType' object is not iterable. Installing Python 3.7.9 instead of the latest available version may resolve this issue. If that still doesn’t work, you can try to uninstall PySide2 (pip uninstall PySide2) and then run FlashGBX again in command line interface mode.

• 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. However, 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. See the Flash Cart DB website for more information.

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!

Thanks

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

• AcoVanConis (bug reports)
• AlexiG (GBxCart RW hardware, bug reports, flash chip info)
• AndehX (app icon, flash chip info)
• antPL (flash chip info)
• bbsan (flash chip info)
• ClassicOldSong (bug reports)
• djedditt (testing)
• easthighNerd (feature suggestions)
• Frost Clock (flash chip info)
• howie0210 (flash chip info)
• Icesythe7 (feature suggestions)
• 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, bug reports)
• marv17 (flash chip info, testing, bug reports, feature suggestions)
• paarongiroux (bug reports)
• Paradoxical (flash chip info)
• RevZ (Linux help, testing, bug reports, flash chip info)
• Super Maker (flash chip info, testing)
• Veund (flash chip info)
• Zeii (flash chip info)
• Zelante (flash chip info)