It is 2023 and I got my first Gameboy. My parents never had the finnancial condition to get me one when I was a kid, and to be really honest, nor did most of the families of my street friends and school colleagues. It was probably only by the early 2000’s when I first heard about it. Pokémon Yellow was the reason I downloaded my first emulator and pirate roms.
For so many years after that I didn’t play any other games in that platform. I even started writing an emulator for it a few years ago, but not because I like it especifically, more like because I found out it’s not the most complicated system to start studying emulation. But this time I got interested in getting the actual hardware to play some old games and make a small game for it myself. It must feel really good to play a game I build myself from scratch in such an interesting device.
So I started by finding one on ebay, focusing on the DMG version, the first flagship model. Turns out there are a lot of them and it’s not really that expensive, especially coming from an old camera buying background.
![Gameboy DMG](images/gameboy.jpg)
Gameboy DMG
To play with it, I decided to buy one of the best games for the platform, according to Internet: Zelda: Link’s Awakening. Joined an auction and due to system issue that said that I didn’t win it at first, I joined another one and ended up getting two cartridges for the same game.
![Two Zelda cartridges](images/double-zelda-cartridges.jpg)
Two Zelda cartridges
But more impressive is that I didn’t, at any moment, think that buying a game in Germany ultimately means the game is localized in German. Back in a time where there’s only one language embedded in the game.
![Endlich kann ich spielen](images/zelda-in-german.jpg)
Endlich kann ich spielen
When I finally accepted that I bought two copies of the game in German, I decided to play and figure out my way through it, after all, many times my ADHD doesn’t allow me to follow the story in games anyway.
I noticed, though, that the d-pad had some issues. The right key was constantly being pressed even when I didn’t want it to. But thanks to the whole community still modifying and playing with this console, it was easy to find replacement parts.
![Replacement d-pad](images/replacement-parts.jpg)
Replacement d-pad
There are countless websites selling many different parts for the Gameboy and they cost very little. Got the d-pad and started the process of replacing it. Opening it is very exciting and also a bit enerving because I have close to zero experience in electronic or anything repairing related, and I don’t want to break it because I think that, once you’re into these kind of old devices (just like I am with old cameras), you have to have some responsability with keeping them in a good state, since there’s a limited amount of it out there and maybe one day you won’t want it anymore, but someone else will.
![Opening the Gameboy](images/opening.jpg)
Opening the Gameboy
It was really no problem opening it. Pretty straightforward. Also I imagine the devices from that time were made for easy repairing, unlike today’s. A few more screws down and I could remove the front panel and switch the buttons.
![New d-pad!](images/dpad.jpg)
New d-pad!
That was fairly simple and now my Gameboy was working. Just to realize that that screen… it’s just so difficult to play with it!
So I started working on a game. There are several options of tools to create games for that platform, but I picked the GBDK, a C toolkit. Thought of simple game concept that can be fun and then started coding it. After a few hours of work creating the map tiles and building it to the screen, I got this:
![Basic level rendering on the emulator](images/bombinha.png)
Basic level rendering on the emulator
I’ll eventually post more about this project, because I’m writing a cool level editor for it in Racket.
I wanted to try that on the device, so I bought a flash cartridge, where I could run a rom created using the toolkit.
![EZ-Flash Jr., a flash cartridge for the Gameboy](images/flash-cartridge.jpg)
EZ-Flash Jr., a flash cartridge for the Gameboy
And boom:
![The game running on the actual hardware, I swear](images/bombinha-running-gameboy.jpg)
The game running on the actual hardware, I swear
Not that you can see anything, but it was pretty rewarding to see that. Now I want to get a Gameboy Color, because at least I’ll be able to play something.
Ah, and the flash cartridge was also useful for something else. I can play Zelda in English!
![Finally I can play it](images/zelda-in-english.jpg)
Finally I can play it