Genius GB Backup Station - A look at a lesser known Chinese copier device!

With the advent of our fellow member Subbie getting back into the Game Boy, I thought it would be nice to do a little review for a lesser-know Game Boy accessory. Hope you enjoy it! (PS: I apologize in advance for the annoying watermarks. I had to include them to prevent scamming or bandwidth theft).

The Game Boy is perhaps the most famous hand-held console ever conceived. Although being technologically inferior to other devices of its time, the Game Boy became a worldwide hit. From North America to Asia, almost every kid had one. But what good is a console without games?

As kids in China soon found out, not very much. Games back then used to cost a great deal and families struggling to make ends meat could hardly afford to buy their kids a library of cartridges. What is a loving parent to do? Manufactures at the time all came up with the same answer: Produce products that let kids copy games for free. Copiers of all kinds started entering the market. While many of these devices did solve the problem of having to pay for games, most of these systems required a computer - Something most people could never dream of affording. Until in comes a new challenger...

The Genius GB Backup Station!





This little device contains 16-mbits of on-board flash, SRAM memory bank, integrated card reader, rumble support, and copier software all in one! At first glance this device looks similar to your standard Game Boy cartridge with the exception of being quite longer and containing a card-reader port. One might think it was simply a clone of a Game Genie until you see the back of the box...



Play game? Backup Card? That doesn't sound like a Game Genie... Let's see how the card looks like:





So now that we've seen how this card looks, how does it work exactly? Well let's paint a small scenario to make it all clear:

YOU: Hey Subbie, I'm really interested in that prototype game your selling. Would you mind if I tried it out before I buy it? I don't care what it is as long as it's a genuin prototype.

SUBBIE: Sure! Here you go!





SUBBIE: I'm just going to go to the washroom. Be back in a jiffy.

YOU: Sure, take your time.

(Takes out Genius GB Backup Station...)





(Attaches cartridge to the card reader port...)







(Inserts cartrige into Game Boy and boots up the system...)





(Selects backup card....)





(Backup game...)





(YOU: I can't belive I copied crappy battle ship! Hello proto!)





(Copies Game in a few seconds...)





(Turns everything off...)

SUBBIE: Hey I'm back! So is it a done deal?

YOU: Ah, well I just got a call and it turns out that ants have taken over my home.

SUBBIE: Ants?

YOU: Ya, it's the darnedest thing. I need to use the money to pay to get rid of them now.

SUBBIE: Um... Ok... I guess I'll see you another time then.

YOU: Sure, take care! <Snickers>

(Later that night...)





(Loads game...)





(YOU: A prototype of Sailor Moon!? Dammit! SUUUUBBIE!!!)




So as you can see, operation of the device couldn't be simpler. You can store up to 4 games in memory at a single time and transferring SRAM between internal memory and cartridge is all possible. It's also one of the handiest devices to have when you want to play 2-4 player games and need extra cartridges for players who don't already have one. Simply clone the game and go!

All in all, this makes for one of the easiest backup devices for the Game Boy. You really need nothing else for this in order to work. Still don't believe me? Take a look at the manual:











Like I said, it's dead simple to use. I'm not even sure why they needed a manual. Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed this little review. It would be ashame if people forgot about these things, so it's always nice to open up and share! And to be perfectly clear, no I don't condone stealing protos from people (^_^);

Cheers!

 

Interesting little device. What were these things selling for at the time and what's the current market for them like?

 

Good Review, Thank you!!

I can really see how that can be useful in the right circumstances, wish some one could recreate one and add a usb port to ummm, "Backup" your games once there on the device.

PS Actually have a few "cheat devices" that look very similar, but they cant backup a game, only the sram and I think one can do a savestate,still very cool though...

 

UFO sold a similar device, called the Game Boy Challenger:
http://www.superufo.com/product_html/GameBoy_Advance___Micro_Game_Boy_Challenger__GB_0171_.html

unfortunately it's out of stock.

 

This is one of the coolest gameboy things I've ever seen. Thanks for the info and pics, mate.

 

here are some for sale:

http://cgi.ebay.de/Genius-GB-BACK-U...pt=de_entertainment_games&hash=item564556cf30

 

Someone here in the states made a similar product but IIRC it only backed up SRAM.

 

It's called the Mega Memory Card. It works quite well.

 

Yeah, I've got one of those. Saved my ass when it came to Pokemon carts/saves.

 

I think I remember them selling for about $90+ around the time. That was when the US dollar was worth something too. (^_^); But memory costs were much higher back then, so considering carts costed like $20-$39 bucks each, it was a pretty good deal long-term.

Now days there are loads of GB flash cards on the market, however there are only about 3 (that I can remember) which can do on-board copying. The Genius, Touchboy, and Challenger. The rest of the legacy copiers available used a rather picky PC + Parallel port setup which (IMHO) is pretty hard to get working right. There are exceptions of course, like the UFO docking station, EMS PS1 GB Link, etc, but in general they are not really common. I'd say, because of the limited quantity sold, the uniqueness and versatility of the self-backup functionality, and general age of these devices, the collector value has retained itself quite well.

 

the ebay seller above had 7 new genius backups for 15 euro each

Edit: Still has 2

 

Heh, yep that's a steal in my opinion. Too bad shipping says he won't go outside of Germany.

 

Haha Golden, how come I didn't spot this topic sooner. =P

Neat stuff.

 

Well according to a good friend at UFO, the remaining stock was "disposed" a few years ago...

 

lol, funny lil' story

 

I own this. Extremely easy to use and very convenient as well.

 

I ordered one from the german guy.... but he supposedly never had the number he had put up for sale.

 

Hrm... Did your order end up falling through or did you actually get the unit he was selling? Given the great price it's a total deal. Hopefully he'll still honor it for you.

Being exposed to the copier scene for a long time (Most Chinese stores don't sell official products unfortunately), I've managed to squirrel away my fair share of these over the years as well as other copiers. I'll probably end up selling since I'm not really much of a collector anymore.

Ah, how life priorities change once you grow up! (^_^);

 

The order fell through, he mailed me saying they had an inventory error and he couldn't supply the item.

Too bad, it looks like an awesome product (for collectors of the obscure stuff, like me).

 

Ah, i'm sorry to hear that. I guess they should confirm if they have items in stock before offering it for sale, unless it was done intentionally for publicity or something. That, or they realized the value of these things and wanted an excuse to re-list at a higher price.