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It’s been nearly 2 years since I last worked on my Gameboy Cartridge Reader (GBCartRead) and I never released a PCB but it has been something I’ve been meaning to do for a while which I can now check off my list.

Gameboy_Cart_Shield_v1.0_Top_Built

I received the PCBs for the Gameboy Cart Shield a few days ago, soldered all the components and noticed that somewhere along the lines I didn’t connect up the VCCs together so I have a bodge wire on the bottom of the board. Something I should have done was make the silkscreen text much larger than what it current is.

Gameboy_Cart_Shield_v1.0_Bottom_Built

The Gameboy Cart Shield PCB is now available for sale.

17 Responses to “Gameboy Cart Shield released”

  1. Very cool to see it come this far!

    This is the reason I follow you, love it!

  2. Susan says:

    Hey, this is pretty cool and was wondering where do you ship to? I’d love to order but it’s going to be overseas.

  3. Richard says:

    Hi Alex, the shield seems to be out of stock at the moment? Are you still selling these? If so please can you email me when you get more stock? I’d really like to get one of these to play about with 🙂

  4. Alex says:

    Hi, I live in belgium and i would like to order the kit version but, are the 2 74HC595D already soldered to the pcb ? if not is it difficult to solder them and is it difficult to solder the gamecard slot ? i asked you that because i only have a simple soldering iron … and last thing, can you email me when you get them in stock ?
    Best regards,
    Alex.

    • Alex says:

      Hi Alex,

      The GB Cart Shield is now back in stock.

      The 74HC595D are not soldered to the PCB if you buy the kit version (it’s just a bare PCB with no components soldered).
      You can solder the 74HC595D fairly easy if you have a good quality soldering iron with thin solder wire and/or flux will help. If you have a low quality iron, thin solder wire will help and you may need to switch to a thin solder tip if you find that you are bridging connections.

      The cartridge slot isn’t too bad, but the pads are fairly close so it’s very easy to bridge pads, a solder sucker is useful for this one or thin solder wire will help.

      • Alex Mathieu says:

        Thanks for you fast reply Alex ! the leds and resistors aren’t soldered on the pcb in the kit version ?

  5. Siddharth says:

    Hi.

    Thanks for the great tutorial. I recently found my old Gameboy Advance SP and I want to backup my save of Pokemon Ruby so I can start a fresh game. I was wondering if your shield works with the Gameboy Advance SP as well?

    Thanks.

    • Alex says:

      Hi Siddharth,

      Unfortunately this shield only works with Gameboy / Gameboy Colour, not with Gameboy Advance.

  6. Netroshin says:

    Hi Alex,
    Is this card shield in stock? I just want to know it before I send you the money to bought one^^

  7. alcruma says:

    Hi Alex.
    I’ve build the cart, and I’m using last software downlodable in your web, in Windows XP.
    Works ALMOST well.
    Identifies perfectly the cartridge, MBC, Title, RAM and ROM and dumps the rom OK, but always says: Logo CHECK: Failed.
    I use the C version of the dumper (not tried Phiton scrip).
    Just for your info.
    Best regards.
    albert

    • Alex says:

      Hi Alcruma,

      If you read the header a few times, does the title or anything else change? Have you tried a different cart as well?
      Could you please double check all connections are soldered well?
      Also check the cart is inserted correctly, sometimes it takes a couple of insertions to make proper contact.
      Do you have any bypass capacitors on your board? I would add one or two just to be on the safe side.

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