READING game kid CARTS WITH I2C

After seeing a game kid emulator for the first time, [Thijs] was amazed. A small box with just a handful of electronics that turns a game kid cartridge into a file able to be run on an emulator is simply magical. [Thijs] has learned a lot about GB and GBC cartridges in the indicate time, but still thinks the only way to really learn something is to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty. thus was born [Thijs]’ game kid cartridge dumper, powered by a pair of I2C port expanders and a Raspberry Pi.

Inspired by a build to dump ROMs off incredibly Nintendo games with the help of a Raspberry Pi, [Thijs] grabbed all the hardware needed to create his own GB cart dumper. A DS Lite cartridge adapter provided the physical connection and a pair of MCP23017 I/O expanders – one soldered to a slice of PI/O board – supplied the electrical connections.

In the end, [Thijs] managed to dump the ROMs off the Japanese editions of Pokemon Yellow and Gold in about 13 minutes. This is a much slower transfer rate of 26 minutes per SNES cart in the post that gave [Thijs] the inspiration for this build. Still, [Thijs] will probably be the first to say he’s learned a lot from this build, especially after some problems with discarding the ideal banks from the cartridge.