So here we have another RARE cartridge from ATLUS that looks like the brother of the Tamagotchi V3. OSUCHI & MESUTCHI GAME BOY JAPAN made by BANDAI.

Robopon cartridges have an Infrared panel on their top edge that allows them to trade information using waves much like a TV or VCR remote, allowing the cartridge to react to different objects. For example, pointing a remote control at the cartridges and pressing a button might boost the Robopon’s stats, or open a chest within the games. This feature was called the “GB Kiss”. The game included over 150 different Robopon to use, with the first 2 releases and then over 168, with the release of Moon version, though some had to be upgraded, similar to Pokémon’s evolution stages. The Robopon were classified as either Arm, Move, or Boot. Arm tended to have high offense, Move were fast, and Boot had the highest stats overall.

An internal clock is built in and will notify you of time-sensitive events.

ROBOPON game cartridge

Inside ROBOPON... Notice the two infrared at the top of the PCB

The top panel of ROBOPON, similar panel used with TV remote controls...

Ok guys this is one of the most rare stuff I ever seen about cartridge or gameboy accessories… the POCKET SONAR made by BANDAI and released in 1998 the price of this strange accessory was 14,800 yen (about $115 US). It’s a REALLY HARD TO FIND cartridge, so I can’t tell how it works or look’s like, but the truth is that you would catch some fish using your GAMEBOY pocket as a SONAR hardware station>>>> AMAZING!!!.

Here some stories about the POCKET SONAR that I found it over there + pictures, sorry for the bad quality there’s not too much resources or pics about this guy .

OVERVIEW:

Pocket Sonar (Game Boy)
The very definition of a peripheral is that it caters to a previously unexploited niche. And as previously unexploited niches go, lonely Japanese fishermen who are so terrible at their chosen hobby that they require a ‘portable sonar device’ to locate their quarry and who also happen to own a Game Boy probably isn’t the greatest money-spinner around. Still, the Pocket Sonar worked well, and there was even a fishing minigame to play when the koi weren’t biting.

Bandai developed the sonar device with Honda Electronics. A fish-finding sonar device designed to be used in conjunction with Nintendo Co.’s Game Boy hand-held video-game machine has been introduced by Bandai Co.
The device can detect fish up to 20 meters deep when placed on the surface of the water. It provides a readout on the Game Boy screen.
The product was developed in cooperation with Honda Electronics Co., which is strong in sonar products, Bandai officials said. They added that the new device costs about a third as much as a comparable sonar device. The product measures only 16cm in length.

Game Boy Pocket Sonar original box (front)

Pocket Sonar box (backside)

The entire kit... the blue hardware in this image would be the cartridge for your gameboy pocket.

Maybe you know or you have this information, but I think it’s totally amazing how this guy built a gameboy oscilloscope from scratch. Here’s a copy of the original MOD information that can be found in RANCH BOTS.com

Someone figured out how to make something useful out of a gameboy. How bout that?

I saw a website about this a few years ago and it sounded too cool to pass up. And it was. Although I since bought a PC based Oscope that is more powerful and practical, the GBDSO is nonetheless useful and if nothing else has an extremely high coolness factor. If I can’t do anything else with it, I can show it at my kids’ science fairs and get accolades.

This hack by S.G. Willis is a brilliant piece of work and speaks volumes about the art and utility of hacking

It is a 2 channel scope and works pretty good. The probe connectors are a bit rickety and I’m constantly afraid I’ll break them off or mess up the board similarly. Using the standard GB button interface to get what you need is a bit funny, but he did a great job with the firmware making it menu based. The only thing funny about mine is some ghosting of the image that happens after a while in operation. A reset clears it up, but it always comes back. Still, a really neat project.

You can now buy the kit from Elektor Magazine, based in the UK. Below is a link to the site for info on purchasing this.

www.elektor-electronics.co.uk

Link to the kit you will need: http://www.elektor.com/products/kits-modules/modules/990082-91-gameboy-digital-sampling-oscilloscope.91407.lynkx

As you can see, the board is sized to fit inside a standard cartridge. I bought a game from my 7 year old son Sam for $3 that he didn’t use anymore, and put this board into it. Sam has supplied many toys with which he no longer has interest to my robotics projects. At a reasonable price of course.

The shot on the right shows the 2 DC jack inputs where you connect probes. You’ll have to make a small adapter to go from BNC (most probes have this connector anyway) to the DC jack.

GAMEBOY OSCILLOSCOPE

• Cartridge ID: GAME GENIE
• Released: 1992
• Manufacturer: Codemasters and Galoop
• Rare feature: Big cartridge shape kind of programmer to hack and get the all control over your classic gameboy games.

OVERVIEW:
“The Game Genie is a series of cheat systems designed by Codemasters and sold by Camerica and Galoob for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy, Mega Drive/Genesis, and Sega Game Gear that modifies game data, allowing the player to cheat, manipulate various aspects of games, and sometimes view unused content and functions. It is known as the first example of consumer-friendly “game enhancement” by means of (temporarily) directly altering the binary code of a game. Although there are currently no Game Genie products on the market, over 5 million units have been sold worldwide,[1] and most video game console emulators feature Game Genie support. Emulators that have Game Genie support also allow a near-unlimited number of codes to be entered whereas the actual products have a much smaller limit that usually tops between 3 and 6 codes. The Action Replay, Code Breaker, and GameShark are similar hacking devices, some acting as a spiritual successor on later generation consoles, although they were created by entirely different companies.

Nintendo fought this accessory in Lewis Galoob Toys, Inc. v. Nintendo of America, Inc., but the court ruled that the Game Genie did not create a derivative work.”

MY PERSONAL OPINION:
For me this was a great system regarding the game hacking concept, but trying to play using this cartridge beast plugged into my gameboy was sucks!! , anyway GAME GENIE was really helpful and polemic in the past… now is just another strange piece of hardware.

Original box (front view)

Original box (back view)

The game genie cartridge

Backside of the game genie cartridge

The game genie codes manual outside the cartridge

Yes!!!, believe or not believe there was a game boy camera in gold color. As you know the Game Boy Camera comes in five different standard colors: blue, green, red, yellow and clear purple (Japan only), but there was also a limited edition gold called The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time version, which contains different stamps from the standard versions and was available only in the USA through a mail order offer from Nintendo Power. About 2.000 units was built using this gold color that match perfectly with any game boy light (gold version).

Enjoy the pics, I tried to find some of these beauty’s on EBAY but seems really hard to find one .

Enjoy!

Game Boy camera Gold... Yeahhh!!!!

Ohhhh!!! it's GOLD!!!

Specifications:
• Cartridge ID (PURIKURA 1): DMG-APPJ-JPN
• Cartridge ID (PURIKURA 2): DMG-A2PJ-JPN
• Released: 1997
• Manufacturer: ATLUS
• Rare feature: White cartridge color shape.

WHAT THE HELL IS PURIKURA?
About a month ago I met whit a guy on the FLICKR network called “Vicky vs”… he told me about these games called “PURIKURA”, I was impressed about the game concept and of course I started my personal investigation to find these two versions (boxed) and also in mint conditions. Thank you very much Vicky to reffer these games to me. Here’s the original Vicky vs message:

Vicky vs said: Purikura are photocabinets in Japan wich hold a kind of photoshop-integrated software to add patches, brushes and whatnot to pictures. Theyre pretty popular. Theres a series of videogames of a girl hunting purikura pictures. The first one features a white cartridge and its pretty rare.

From Wikipedia: In Japanese popular culture, Purikura (プリクラ, Purikura) refers to a photo sticker booth or the product of such a photo booth. The name is a shortened form of the a registered trademark purinto kurabu (プリント倶楽部, Purinto Kurabu^?). The term derives from the English print club. Jointly developed by Atlus and Sega, the first purikura were sold in July 1995.

REFERRED LINKS:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purikura#Purikura
http://www.motomachicakeblog.com/?p=87 (Sorry just in spanish)

PURIKURA 1 - Original game box

Complete set

PURIKURA 1 cartridge

Original box of PURIKURA 2

Complete set

PURIKURA 2 cartridge

Specifications:

• Cartridge ID: BEESHU INCORPORATED Model #67006
• Released: 1993 by Beeshu Inc. FL, USA.
• Manufacturer: Beeshu Inc
• Rare feature: Rare cartridge that convert your gameboy into a stereo FM Radio. Comes with a retro (walkman style) heaphones

Why do I receive at GAMEBOYcarts.com:
This is one of the most rare, complex and freak cartridges I ever seen. On December 2009 I started some investigations regarding “online radio stations for chiptune lovers like me” and I find this GameTunes Stereo FM Tuner compatible with Nintendo GAME BOY. Works quite well and also I’m think to do some CIRCUIT BENDING improvements inside . This cart is difficult to find in europe, but there’s some units on ebay (USA). This Radio cartridge operates on Game Boy batteries. No additional batteries required.

The original GAME TUNES STEREO FM TUNNER box

Yes... this cartridge comes with a retro stereo heaphones!

FM Radio cartridge

Backside

Volume & Radio controls + Stereo headphones mini-jack

GAME BOY RADIO CARTRIDGE!!!

Another Radio improvement for GAME BOY was the tiny RADIO BOY. Picture courtesy of www.gamesniped.com

SMARTBOY 32 MB Flash Cart by SMB team

Specifications:

• Cartridge ID: SMARTBOY cart flash cartridge
• Released: 2009
• Manufacturer: (SMB) TEAM
• Rare feature: Smart Boy cartridge writer quite similar of EZ linker models for NINTENDO POWER cartridge GBx. The SMARTBOY cart capacity is 32 Mbits.

Why do I receive at GAMEBOYcarts.com:
My first intention to get one SMARTBOY cart was to use their FLASH WRITER with my GBx unit without positive success . All set comes as you see in these pictures, the SMARTBOY writer hardware is mostly comfortable to carry on and smallest than the USB programmer created by Bleep Bloop, but the functions and software are quite similar. Another important thing was the fact regarding LSDJ… The unit didn’t come with LSDJ pre-installed, so no worries about piss off the Johan works . It comes with a MANGA style story game inside and that’s all. I installed the software working with WIN XP “Parallels Desktop” (really quick and easy installation by the way,) and my first issue arrive… I erased the original ROM file and set LSDJ v 3.9.9 inside and “SURPRISE”, the LSDJ do not appear inside the cartridge rom + the original ROM file continue alive… at this point i said: “FUCK THIS SHIT”. After some meditations and mantra concentration hehehe,  I sent an email to the SMARTBOY team developers… this is the answer i got:

“Hi,
Please first “ERASE FLASH”, then “write flash” with a GB file.
Please use the computer motherboard itself, built-in USB interface.
If you still have trouble, please contact me again”

I applied the tips and… finally flashed my SMARTBOY cart… yujuuuu!!! . I tested the cartridge for about 2 hours and works pretty fine and stable for me.

There’s a interesting debate right now regarding LSDJ cartridge solutions out there. For my personal experience the USB Bleep Bloop cart is the best in performance (no USB programmer, transferrer needed), but maybe if you need to carry on more song data per each cartridge you will fine purchasing one EMS 64 MB cartridge or one 32 MB SMARTBOY cart. I didn’t tested other solutions like the 64 MB EMS carts, but if you are a 100% LSDJ user one of these three cartridges I mentioned would be great for you. I will post my review regarding the 64 MB EMS cartridge soon!.

SMARTBOY cart complete set

Instructions and some general information behind the package

SMART BOY cart pieces

SMARTBOY cart Flash and Data Writer

Nintendo Gameboy Pocket Pink & Tamagotchi pink cartridge set

Specifications:

• Cartridge ID: DMG-ATAJ-JPN
• Released: 1996-1997
• Manufacturer: BANDAI
• Rare feature: Pink cartridge color shape. Original set was come with a Pink Game boy pocket.

Why do I receive at GAMEBOYcarts.com:

Well… is not a photoshop effect … and yeah it’s a Pink color cartridge? also was come in a beautiful set with a special gameboy pink pocket version. Thanks RALP for the pictures, his the owner of one of this freaking things made by BANDAI.

Enjoy!

The game box set

OOOOOOHHHHHHHH

Pink Tamagotch cartridge

When I got my GBメモリ memory cartridge, the first question was… How can I access memory/rom and manipulate the data?. After two (2) hours surfing the net i got this:

www.tea4two.jp

BINGO!! a kind of USB transfer but made it for GBx and called EZ writer jump into my eyes…WOW I will order one right now BUT…EZ writers are discontinued and really HARD to FIND . Two days ago after the first investigation I found this: http://mootan.hg.to/fmgbx/ez_fmgbx.html (sorry japanese site but you can translate the site with the google translate service). I sent a letter to this guy and I got a sad email “sorry man I can’t sell you one EZ writer, they are really hard to find these days”

At this point I decided to stop my personal research… Until I discovered this: http://ayasuke.exblog.jp/10979597/ and… this: http://www.smartboy.ugu.pl/index.html

I ordered one SMART BOY cart to test this cartridge made by the SMB team and also because their kind of EZ writer will works with my GBメモリ memory cartridge . I will post another review showing you the flashing process…can’t wait!

Enjoy!

EZ Writer for GBx

GBx ready!

Screen capture of "Flash Manager" software Japanese version

SMART BOY cartridge writers