#retrohandhelds — Public Fediverse posts

Answering my own question: FPGB Mini for playing GB/GBC cartridges and NDS for GBA carts seem like the best options

#retrohandhelds #gameboy

Some days ago I had asked about it, concerned as the original hardwares are aging devices but functional (and even new) cartridges are still aplenty in the market:
https://thebrainbin.org/m/[email protected]/p/949486

The NDS from what I both could and couldn't find seems to be indeed the newest device around capable of running GBA carts. Better than nothing I guess, though it's quite an aging device too, and one prone to problems by design.

And yesterday I came across this news piece about the retrohandheld "FPGB Mini", which is marketed as being able to run GB & GNC carts:
https://retrododo.com/we-finally-have-official-specs-of-the-fpgb-mini-handheld-that-plays-gb-gbc-cartridges/

Hopefully it helps someone. =)

Also, a bit of a rambly part:

There's a piece information I hadn't come across previously that a dumping tool I bought helped with learning, and that gives a better picture to why devices support either GB/GBC, or GBA, but seldom both: these carts use different voltages.

The intake from GBA carts is much lower than the GB or the upgraded GB carts that are the GBC ones. Using the wrong voltage could potentially fry the carts, specially the GBA ones.

For a device to read all types of carts, it'd need either a software toggle, a hardware toggle either manually activated or that detects and triggers automatically, or the most unreliable option since few carts have it, for the carts to have means to handle different voltages (GBC games with GBA mode afaik).

Safer to just split support.

But fingers crossed that GB/GBC physical support keeps gaining traction, and GBA support appears next.

And lastly, community mention as user because Mbin microblogging posts are having some issues automatically federating to Lemmy and PieFed: @retrohandhelds

Answering my own question: FPGB Mini for playing GB/GBC cartridges and NDS for GBA carts seem like the best options

#retrohandhelds #gameboy

Some days ago I had asked about it, concerned as the original hardwares are aging devices but functional (and even new) cartridges are still aplenty in the market:
https://thebrainbin.org/m/[email protected]/p/949486

The NDS from what I both could and couldn't find seems to be indeed the newest device around capable of running GBA carts. Better than nothing I guess, though it's quite an aging device too, and one prone to problems by design.

And yesterday I came across this news piece about the retrohandheld "FPGB Mini", which is marketed as being able to run GB & GNC carts:
https://retrododo.com/we-finally-have-official-specs-of-the-fpgb-mini-handheld-that-plays-gb-gbc-cartridges/

Hopefully it helps someone. =)

Also, a bit of a rambly part:

There's a piece information I hadn't come across previously that a dumping tool I bought helped with learning, and that gives a better picture to why devices support either GB/GBC, or GBA, but seldom both: these carts use different voltages.

The intake from GBA carts is much lower than the GB or the upgraded GB carts that are the GBC ones. Using the wrong voltage could potentially fry the carts, specially the GBA ones.

For a device to read all types of carts, it'd need either a software toggle, a hardware toggle either manually activated or that detects and triggers automatically, or the most unreliable option since few carts have it, for the carts to have means to handle different voltages (GBC games with GBA mode afaik).

Safer to just split support.

But fingers crossed that GB/GBC physical support keeps gaining traction, and GBA support appears next.

And lastly, community mention as user because Mbin microblogging posts are having some issues automatically federating to Lemmy and PieFed: @retrohandhelds