Game Boy Game Save Backup: Exploring the Options

After a too-long hiatus, I've decided to resume playing the first-generation Game Boy Pokémon games. Before I even start, I want to have a reliable way to keep my saves secure, which, as far as I'm concerned, means being able to store them on my computer.

First off, anything involving a Mega Memory Card is out. I own two of them, and both have failed me several times by corrupting Pokémon saves, and sometimes just losing saves for no apparent reason, which I know isn't due to battery failure because when some of my saves disappeared, others didn't. I've also read accounts of other people having similar problems. So, no Mega Memory Cards.

My first thought was to just get a Game Boy flash cart. If I were dealing with (almost) any other GB game, then I would have already bought a flash cart and I wouldn't be posting this. BUT, I want to be able to use my games with Pokémon Stadium via a Transfer Pak, and I haven't been able to find any information on which, if any, flash carts are compatible with the Transfer Pak (though I suspect that none are, since a Transfer Pak isn't analogous to GB hardware; then again, I suppose maybe it could work if the cart stores the ROM and SRAM in the right places to trick the Pak into thinking it's a real Pokémon cart). Can anyone offer some enlightenment on that?

If I can get a flash cart (or two, technically) that will work just fine with a Transfer Pak and allow me to connect my games to Pokémon Stadium, then that's my solution, the end. But if not, then I need to find some other way. I've heard of the GB Xchanger, but my only computer doesn't have a parallel port. This may be a stupid question, but will an Xchanger work with a parallel-to-USB adapter (I know that those adapters are great for printers, but I'm not sure if they're universally compatible with parallel-connecting peripherals)? If not, then what are my other options?

Oh by the way I use Windows 7, just in case that would cause any compatibility issues with anything.

 

i am using Mega Memory Card without a problem. though before backing up the save, be sure that the game is plugged well and working. change the switch on the mega memory card to boot the game (one position boots the game and the other position boots the mmc). if the game boots well and plays well, then change the switch to boot mmc and backup the save. i haven't encountered any problem this way.

 

lol an emulator and a PSP...or a DS with a GB emulator? I know your pain man, I feel the same way when it comes to the pokemon you only get via the special events...maybe I wanted those later...I export my saves for this reason. but then again I'm talking about the ds not original GB.

 

reprep, I am glad that you have had such success with Mega Memory Cards, but as you may have gleaned by my original post, I have not. I have taken the measures you suggest and more, but they did not keep safe my saves. Do you use them to store Pokémon saves? Maybe they're reliable with some games but not others.

I don't want to use an emulator, I want to use original hardware. It's better.

 

No disagreeing on the better part, I want to take a usb nintendo controller and a broken gameboy and make a usb gameboy controller...that'd be awesome haha but does the MMC allow you to copy the saves to pc? I have one in my collection so I'm just wondering.

Found this: http://store.kitsch-bent.com/product/usb-64m-smart-card and I might buy one myself!

 

What about Retrode ( http://www.retrode.org )? Does an excellent job backing up SNES SRAM, but it needs a custom adapter for GB.

 

This is how i backed up my Pokemon saves:How to backup GameBoy and GameBoy Colour save games

I see no reason you cant just play on the original cartridges and backup to your computer randomly. You probably will need an old PC though as the software will not work on anything beyond XP, however I cant honestly say if a parallel-to-USB adapter would get you anywhere.

 

I would imagine that you could back up a save from your retail cart to the 'mega memory card', then restore it to a GB smart card, then use the smart card to upload the save to your PC via USB. Haven't tried it myself though

 

Wow.... awesome. I think this will meet my needs perfectly. Many thanks to you.

 

Game Boy (Color) saves are experimental at the moment and Advance saves are not currently supported on the Retrode, so be aware of that.

 

You can probably get a SmartBoy copier and backup saves that way. Just plug it into the docking station, plug the USB end into your PC and use the SmartBoy software provided. Here is what I am talking about:

 

yup, i used pokemon games. and i didn't let my saves stay in the mmc for a long time. as soon as i backed up the saves to mmc, i wrote them to the 64 MB usb gb flash card linked above and got them to my pc.

i remember that EMS card working well with my transfer pak, but i didn't try to save.

 

Not buying one of these when they were available is something I regret hugely.

I'm also exploring options to have a permanent ongoing save on a Pokémon R/B/Y cartridge.

Few ideas I've had is bastardise a Game Boy to make swapping of the battery easy, with the sRAM being powered by the machine as the battery is swapped - or swapping the chip out for a non-volatile chip. Has anyone done that yet btw?

 

I decided against the Retrode, after doing some research and finding that it's not reliable with GB games. Apparently most of the GB games that work with it are PAL versions, which makes sense since it was based in Germany.

Great news though, Smartboy Carts are available once more from www.smartboycart.com. I ordered one and am awaiting its arrival.

 

I know you said no Mega Memory Card, but hear me out. I use the MMC with a GB USB 64M cart (http://store.kitsch-bent.com/product/usb-64m-smart-card). I will play my game like normal on a cart, back it up to the MMC, plug in the flashcart to the MMC, WRITE the .sav onto the flash cart, and then copy the .sav from the flash cart to my computer.

I've been doing this since 2011 with no failures, mostly for my Gameboy Camera. If you're worried about the MMC failing - play, save, back up, copy to flashcart, save to computer...THEN wipe the original cartridge. This way incase of the rare failure of either the MMC or the cart, you will still have your save on your cart to try again. *shrug* Just a thought.

 

Another thing you can do is get a flash cart for the N64. There is a program made for it that will dump the data off a game boy cartridge that is in the transfer pack.

 

Granted, that program doesn't write it back but, well, I'm sure something will be done about that eventually.

(Just to be a wet blanket, the GB tower in Stadium is emulation ;*)

 

Scroll all the way down to the home made programmers for something that can read the saves.

http://www.reinerziegler.de/readplus.htm

 

It still your best bet for what you want to do. You're going to have an N64 and the transfer pack anyway right? So all you'll need is the N64 flash cart and official carts of the gameboy games you want.

Another option could be to build your own cart reader but it depends how comfortable you are with that sort of thing.

 

Not sure anyone cares but I finally decided to tackle the project I linked above (been on the back burner for a while now)and will hopefully have a working board within a month or so. So this will be a good way to backup your saves and ROMs.