Backing up GameBoy Pokemon Red Game to PC

[LimeiBook86]

Hello everyone,

So my Pokemon Red game refuses to boot up anymore. I tried cleaning the cartridge to no end. But it isn't helping. Anyway I do have another (My brother's) Pokemon Red game and a Gameboy Mega Memory card (which can backup and manage game saves). So I do have my Pokemon Red save on there.

So my issue is, I want to backup the save to my computer and maybe use it in an emulator, or at least preserve it. The only device I have is an Blaze MPXchanger (http://www.angelfire.com/ut2/pwn0/blaze_mpxchanger.html) which I bought at EB games over 10 years ago or so. Using the old parallels cable it is able to dump a save file, but I can't get it to be read through any emulator. It saves it as a 'bleem' file and I think maybe the software is just messed up.

So I was wondering, what GameBoy cart readers are available today for the PC? I know the GameBoy advance adapters are not compatible, because of the voltage difference. I currently have a GameBoy Color, a GameCube (soft-modded with SD Media Launcher) with GBA player, and a GameBoy Advance, and an original Nintendo DS (phat). So I'm wondering maybe if a PC adapter is easier, or if there is someway to use the GameCube which is modded with the GameBoy player to copy the game save (although that seems complicated).

Any ideas or advise would be very helpful, thanks! :)

I was googling around and thought these were good starting points:
Downloading pics from a Gameboy Camera
http://jamesumber.com/?p=23
USB cart (which seems to be available to order in a few days)
http://store.kitsch-bent.com/product/usb-64m-smart-card

[alec006]

Well, the only thing I was able to find is something called a EMS Gameboy Transferer 2.

http://www.hkems.com/product/gb/gba-tr.htm

http://www.projectgameboy.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=103

http://digiex.net/guides-reviews/console-guides/1187-how-backup-gameboy-gameboy-colour-save-games-retail-cartridges.html

Looks like it works fairly well, only thing is it's sold out on the second website and the first website seems to be an order form from Hong Kong.

Then there's the Retrode which you can order a N64/GB plug in adapter, but that's sold out.

You could always replace or have someone replace the battery in another copy of Pokemon Red and transfer your save to it, should last another 5-15 years.

Also if you own a copy of Pokemon Stadium or Pokemon Stadium 2 and a N64 Transfer Pack, you could always back up all your Pokemon, except one, to the PC boxes on the N64 Cart.

So you have a few options if you wanna keep your Pokemon and all the time you spent leveling them up.

[WesternNYCollector]

That thing uses a parallel port but requires USB for power? Strange.

[APE992]

That thing uses a parallel port but requires USB for power? Strange.

Common amongst older hardware actually. THe parallel port is cheap and easy to design hardware for compared to USB which is expensive by comparison (at least back in the day). On top of that parallel doesn't put out much juice if any where as USB gives a solid +5v@500ma which is more than enough for most devices.

Your USB keyboard probably only eats about 100-150ma.

[LimeiBook86]

Well I did it! :D I got it to work, success!!

I followed the guides I linked above. Thankfully the USB 64M was in stock (and still is) and I was able to get all my saves backed up. I had some minor issues, but I wrote a blog post and made a YouTube video highlighting the process. It's quite easy, the USB adapter makes it 100x easier than any old parallel port solution. It was $40 well spent. :)

I have my Pokemon save backed up and over 50 other saves (from my two Mega Memory Cards). I also was able to download my GameBoy camera photos too, the process was a bit tricky (cleaning the carts help) but I eventually go them to crisp B&W BMP files.

My blog post with instructions:
http://stayornay.com/tech/?p=295

YouTube Video highlighting the process:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMBpsajVqho

Gameboy Camera example:
http://www.stayornay.com/images/gameboy/GB-Camera03.jpg

Gameboy Pokemon Red save in emulator:
http://www.stayornay.com/images/gameboy/steve-game.png


Yay! :D