I Found ILLEGAL GameBoy Cartridges

[@GermanPeter]

I'm so glad Ashens swooped in and fixed the biggest problem in the video: not properly showing the rubber covers in action.

[@sushiacid]

why u so glad

[@goldgodryukendo913x]

Ashens has been my favorite youtuber since 2006. Always happy to see him pop up.

[@torokcreations1483]

The SDB would probably be used for: 1. When swapping out a battery in a cartridge, you lose all save data. This way you can keep your progress if you need to change it out. Some re-sellers see it as a bonus to have old saves as well. 2. You need to sell a game but want to keep your progress in case you get another copy. 3. You share the cartridge and do not want to risk your saves being written over or deleted by the other person. 4. You have a really good save and want to trade with or give someone a head start.

[@BlazingKhioneus]

It's also for just in case something happens to your cartridge

[@turkysanwtch]

Yeah all good cases. I also think another one would be to add essentially an extra save slot or more to a pokemon game since they only have one. Sort of like a backup but you can choose from multiple files to upload.

[@torokcreations1483]

@@turkysanwtch This is true, I forgot you only got one. Was thinking you got 3 for some reason when thinking about Pokémon for use cases lol. Also considered using it to send yourself items or Pokémon over and over by using a second copy of the game.

[@torokcreations1483]

@@BlazingKhioneus That is fair, he said that one so did not want to be too redundant.

[@MJFallout]

First reason can only apply in part though. Most GBA games used the more advanced FRAM that didn't require batteries any longer. But some games still had old-fashioned volatile SRAM (and there are games where some units had SRAM, and some had FRAM (depending on availability at the time, one must assume))

[@RyanMercer]

The search is for seaching values in the game to detect changes in the memory and attempt to change them. The same way we've hex edited game for decades, including trainers.

[@RisingRevengeance]

Oh yeah the same way cheatengine works no? I may have used that a lot back in the day

[@MrWMyself]

I’ve recently started in the games decompilation scene, so seeing this, essentially a debug tool, was wild! This is basically how binary hacking works!

[@EmaSideProject]

It's Like "modern" Cheat Engine

[@mainnine]

I was surprised that he was so baffled by this. It was built into Action Replay/GameShark etc

[@RyanMercer]

@ I think even some of tbr later game genies, plus the nes game genie told you how to kinda guess in the manual and had blanks to write in your own codes.

[@TheSpacepigeon]

Thanks for the surprise Ashens episode, David.

[@Danny.._]

probably the most common use for the save backup thing is more like, copy the save data, trade all my good pokemon from emerald to ruby, then restore the save so now they're on both games, or copy my save, do some gameshark stuff that might break the game, but have a backup just in case, lol

[@CompletelyAverageGameplay]

That's what I like to do (trade pokemon and then restore a save). Working on a living 'dex so backing up saves is a godsend. At the rate I'm going, will be long dead before I could even get close to completing it.

[@dannydanny9875]

nice channel name, how do you get it?

[@jasonharrison3167]

I had a game shark for GBC growing up, when i saw the shark logo and the floppy disk i yelled at the screen that its a gameshark clone but you didnt hear me.

[@BenjaminHari]

It's odd how he didn't put those two things together....whenever I see gameboy and shark I instantly think of GameShark lol.

[@Almamu]

19:05 Suggestion, make a copy of the floppy and upload it to the web archive for anyone that might need it in the future, judging from the icon of the app, it's a self-extract file created with winrar or similar and should be possible to extract without actually running it.

[@Roadent1241]

How do though? I ask as someone who used floppy disks a tiny bit for them old huge chunky 90's Apple laptops.

[@MagikGimp]

The file was indeed a self-extracting WinRAR archive. It's likely crashing because it's meant to be run from the A:\ drive and Stuart was using D:\ (typical CD-ROM). Whether he used the an external drive or made an image and didn't mount it as a floppy I'm not sure. It's possible to turn the contents of floppy disc into a disc image file that can be mounted either as a virtual regular drive or in a virtual machine (an emulated computer) for anyone who's not aware. He also mentioned a website and there are quite a few archived snapshots of it as well as a .jp domain too. There are downloads of the software on the Internet Archive and I'm assuming what's on the floppy is the same. There's the device driver and software to find codes and my guess is the archive contains both. The company made updates to it however but some of the latest ones aren't available sadly. I've spent far too long on this but the latest downloads still available that I can find are here (one is flagged as malware but this probably a false positive)- web.archive.org/web/*/www.sagame.com/SOFTWARE/* (%b6%c0%aa%f7%a4%d3%b6%a7%a2%ba%ad%d7%a5%bf.exe is what happens when you convert Chinese characters into an URL but decoded it's 黃金太陽Ⅱ修正 (Golden Sun II Correction as in The Lost Age).) The other file like this just means update and the download is broken anyway (not that it's the latest version available). The installers and software run on modern Windows but you may want to use Locale Emulator ( xupefei.github.io/Locale-Emulator/ ) in Traditional Chinese mode to see the Chinese characters (it was a Hong Kong company). Without a device to use this with there's not a lot to see anyway as the software launches but closes with an error message. There is a version II of the reader (there were at least 3 from what I could find) on eBay with English packaging and manual if you really care- www.ebay.co.uk/itm/203885508180 To be honest, most cheats worth using were probably released as trainer ROMs (AKA intro ROMs) if you can find them. Most people nowadays seem to hate the cracktros on ROMs though and prefer going straight into the vanilla games so good luck finding them. Man, getting GBA ROMs back in the day was SO easy. They weren't encrypted at all and I remember dumps going out almost as soon as the game was released, each handily numbered and easily downloadable all over the place. Nintendo learnt a thing or two from that I expect. Kaizou means hack BTW.

[@RisingRevengeance]

The backup tool would've been neat just to have different save files in pokemon. They only ever allowed you one save file so you wouldn't want to restart without a good reason.

[@benayers8622]

and trading duplications of ur best to friends /selling i sold a mew once for 50p 😁proud moment lol!

[@Ddamians]

ashens collab out of nowhere, wild.

[@___Zack___]

Another "wild" NPC bot comment. Next say something "crazy" and call my comment "diabolical". Useless bot 🙄

[@NemaJeffman]

@@___Zack___ what

[@Bovrillor]

9:17 What immediately occurred to me was backing up your save before trading away your pokemon, then restoring the save. Easy duping with no risk.

[@mmm-xc8zk]

I do this but with Analogue Pocket save states hehehe

[@retro_yoyo]

I’ve missed you ❤ 😂 man I love your videos been a fan since 2021 I remember first stumbling on your videos while my wife was in the hospital after giving birth and out of no where I started getting into handhelds . This was during the time you reviewed emulation handhelds 🔥

[@konman10000]

Huh... So that's what a Japanese GameShark/ActionReplay looked like. Very cool find!

[@phelyan]

A cheat device with a shark logo? Unheard of!

[@benayers8622]

kids today...

[@Danilyn_Livao]

That’s an exciting find!💯 It’s always fascinating to see what kinds of obscure or unexpected titles you can find on these cartridges. I can’t wait to hear about the cool games you get to play! 🎮

[@SectorfiveYT]

this is cool if you want to clone the cartridge saves if you have the same game, or if you're helping out friends and etc.

[@colby_ybloc]

I look away for 2 mins and when I come back Ashens is on my screen?? Fire.

[@nerfco2330]

13:57 Ashens!?! Well This was unexpected. owo”

[@theoldtechhandheldtinkerer4092]

I guess the most useful thing about the savedatabank is that you could save you save file before switching the battery on the cart.

[@FennecTECH]

For 1. Loaning out your games to friends and family 2. Back up your save to start a new game fresh without loosing your old save 3. Backing up your saves at home in case your gameboy gets stolen or your game cartridge gets damaged

[@ASBO_LUTELY]

If I didn't own an Action Replay in the 90s I too wouldn't have a clue how this thing worked...

[@c.n.crowther438]

i gotta say i have to respect that you didn't use the rubber covers to try and fluff up the runtime. others would have spent at least 3 mins talking about them and use cases.

[@Cyranek]

enjoyed the phd level gameshark segment

[@yeismeload]

He's called Dr. Ashen for a reason. Absolute mad lad, big brain.

[@monster3339]

oh hey! i have a save backup device like that, but for GB/GBC! i got it to backup pokemon saves, and i use it a ton. its great insurance against cart battery death induced save deletion, and it allows me to essentially have multiple save files per cart. wanna do a nuzlocke run? lending your game to a friend? just feel like fucking around in a fresh save for an afternoon? i can just backup my save to be restored later. its been an invaluable tool. for pokemon specifically, its also a fun way to clone pokemon. backup your save, trade the pokemon you want to clone to a different game, restore your save and bam! youve now got 2 of that pokemon. i can see it being a godsend for families where siblings share games that normally only have one save slot too.

[@patrickbrayne647]

Yoooooooo that Ashens cameo took me by surprise, but I'm loving it.

[@DragoSmash]

i generate backups of my Pokemon games before migrating Pokemon to a more recent gen, so i can restore the save after migrating and still have my save as it was before migrating

[@liamjones2131]

That is correct, restoring a backup will bring you back to when the backup was made. This means you could transfer any number of mons off the game post backup, and restore back to get them back. Not a conventional way of cloning mons, but it works.

[@Analia-t4k]

I watched this twice and it still hits!

[@shrekdvdking]

Cap

[@Day100]

Bot

[@shrekdvdking]

@ no

[@delta250a]

Damn bots

[@TurnaroundDrifterz-fh3nf]

Awesome video, I can always count on you for high quality content

[@ThegamerV1]

hope you the retro future are well-your video is very entertaining and well made and has good energy

[@BunieLuv]

save backup was probably useful if you let a friend borrow your game for example, they could start a new save. Also cant believe you've never heard of Game Shark. "Sagame" is a play on "Same", the japanese word for Shark, and Game. GameShark, a popular cheat device in the early 2000s

[@JamesonD.Holloway]

Hey Elliot, try copying your childhood savestate to an English cartridge and see if it works. If it works, you can just continue playing your childhood progress in English, wouldn't that be really cool. I would love to see that in a Video

[@rembrandx]

Great stuff as always, David!

[@davlord9470]

Love the collaboration... Keep it up gents!

[@Niosai]

Was not prepared for the surprise Ashens video smack in the middle of this lmao

[@PettPett11]

YEYYYYYYY!!! New RetroFuture vids is always exciting!!!!!!

[@James_D.]

David kinda looks like Elliot. 🤔😂

[@Maxjoker98]

11:51 That search function seems to me like a RAM/save value search. You can look for changed values in the games memory, to identify the places where important game information is stored(like HP, remaining lives, etc.), somewhat like CheatEngine on a computer.

[@qwertykid26.]

Keep up the good work love your vids and hope to see many more

[@jonclark886]

Hexadecimal is base 16, you are used to base 10 (aka decimal), so 17 in hex is 1, with 1 remainder hence 11 :-) love your videos, keep them coming.

[@Synth_Dragon]

Okay I wasn't expecting Ashens. 10/10

[@Malford]

I had a battery backup device for the original Gameboy which could save multiple saves. It was good because you could start a new game without losing your original data, but also because you could actually transfer your save between versions, so I caught all the Pokémon on blue and on red by swapping my save between my abs my brother's cartridges

[@Osoros666]

not fully related to todays items, but the egg-grip is one of the most hilarious accessories i have ever seen in my life - i want one of those so bad😂

[@charlescarey914]

The cheat code device is actually a huge part of gaming history. It can be credited for the name "gameshark" due to the shark logo on the device. Nintendo disliked these devices so much they eventually made a built in enter cheat code area that functioned similarly but made it more secure. It didnt allow users to change the game values or code, which was something you could do with the original device if you were smart enough.

[@Arlock41]

Surprise Ashens appearance! So the gist of the Sagame is (If I I'm understanding this correctly) that it is a hex editor of sorts. Also that game backupper thingy would of been so great to have back in the day.

[@chevelle70ss350]

LOL 😂 Your reactions in this video are perfect!

[@willfultrain6779]

I like the Ashens crossover, also my cousin had a og gameshark for the gba.

[@Rillant]

Hahaha I did not expect an Ashens intermission. Amazing.

[@LuluTeala]

Did Ashens have Battle Network???? That's amazing. VEry good video!!!

[@kevintappminville195]

"They still have a website." Well no Eliott, the website was printed on the box and didn't erased itself when the website got pulled out of the internet! I'm glad i understood how the SAGame worked before Stewart explained it.

[@mattdownernz]

Yeah dude, thats how I used to do cheats as a kid on computer. Searching and tracking game values like money or health or ammo as they change. Even collected the memory addresses and assigned them buttons in a homemade dialog box app. That is early day trainers bro!

[@XerneusVGC]

I was not expecting Ashens in a video on this channel but here we are

[@juliusrolf531]

ngl i love these varm and cozy videos :3

[@frijoles0007]

@8:30 the application is so that you can back up your save games then replace the battery in the cartridge. You can also transfer it from one cartridge to another of the same game (lets say you have a damaged game and bought a replacement) etc..

[@yearls]

So this is what it's like for a newbie to see a cheat engine, very interesting. Reminds me of my good old Action Replay days, those were fun.

[@tailsprower9542]

These videos are always somehow a banger

[@theodoretekkers]

I had a dark blue one when I was a kid.

[@retromaru]

the legend is back ♥

[@yoshiien]

I could see the game file back up cart being used in say like, Fire Emblem if you know you are about to be in a very risky fight and potentially lose someone for good, OR back up your pokemon save, trade everything, and then restore everything. Emerald had its own duplication trick though and you could dup an entire team in one go.

[@Minionz]

Wow, random Ashens. This video has everything.

[@marcosvillarreal1387]

I love the ashens colab

[@myrmeko]

You're so pure for not knowing how to use a hex editor. Never cheated in a game once. 😂

[@geoserenity]

(New retro future vid) Oh cool (Suddenly it's an Ashen's collab) Oh COOL!!

[@kdcampo]

wait is the shark thing a "cheat engine" program for the gba. thats pretty awesome.

[@SMOKEFRMDA6IX]

a use case could be for when you only have 1 cartridge and you have siblings that play the game too. You can use the save dumper to have multiple saves instead of everyone playing off 1 save

[@festersa]

The random cut to Ashens was perfect lol

[@_Turbocat777]

ASHENS!!!!!!!! ♥

[@philtrauferson]

Imagine asking Ashens to review a cartridge and you watch the footage he sends back and it starts with him burying a game boy in his garden.

[@PalworldDrive]

that save editor has shown us all you've never used cheat engine on pc before 😂😂🤣🤣

[@Roadent1241]

Or never heard of a Gameshark XD and I don't think that's emulation teaching me.

[@justingreene9952]

Awesome video dude 😁

[@randylawrence6077]

The modern version of back-up are game save states that one can use on a flash cart like a Everdrive or Analogue Pocket.

[@Chickenbreadlp]

For the GBA SP in Surf Blue, there was a variant of it sold in Europe, but it was exclusively an AGS-101...

[@christophermorin9036]

That SAGAME cartridge looks like the equivalent of the MonsterBrain Game Accessory that let you hack Pokemon games. I have fond memories of my level 100 Shiny Tauros with 4 different beam attacks lol.

[@JulezChilluminati]

You could use the SDB to duplicate Pokemon. For example, make a backup of your firered save, trade your lvl 100 charizard to another game, restore the backup and now you have two charizards. Another use case would be starting a new save file without losing your old one.

[@elsombero1747]

I noticed that the shark cartridge is kinda like the GameShark module. Back when I went to school, I used to modify people's save games for 10$ with this device and it was actually illegal in my country but hey, I didn't care because the cops were stupid and when I got caught driving a car while being 13 years old, I just pulled out some vodka or Jack Daniels like bewerage from the trunk and was able to continue driving XD

[@Lazyman1975]

It's actually I think it saves your saved games and just think if your cartridge fails you might have to replace it but you'll still have your saves to upload to the new cartridge.

[@AshitakaYakul]

Floppy disk flopping out was genuinely funny.

[@squidlover7615]

Love this vid, ashens ftw

[@prodtfm]

the unexpected ashens collab

[@jamiepike6909]

Amazing video Elliot❤

[@pearl.gadgets]

I love this episode

[@ruegore]

That Gametech GBA Save Data device has nearly the exact same shape/case as my old GBAMP media player that uses Compact Flash (CF) cards. Cool.

[@eraeusboorwel]

Ashens crossover hype!!!

[@Anna-s7k4v]

You're a creative genius, no joke!

[@Arctelas9]

I saw one Surf Blue SP at the St-Eustach fleas market in Quebec, Canada. The seller told me it was a Walmart special edition, he was asking 300$ for it. He also had an imported 4 in 1 Donkey Kong Country Boardgame, the box was soo cool :')

[@krzbrew]

A random Ashens cameo! 10/10

[@thefray123]

Elliot gameboy content is my happy place 😂

[@ramonazero]

OMG ashens! XD so unexpected!

[@JustinBarcellos-fp5qc]

That's a pretty sweet t-shirt you're wearing.

[@charlescarey914]

If the battery in your game dies, your saves are lost forever. Thats why certain pokemon are so rare.

[@AddiJay2397]

I bought a DS ML because of you lol. I got a red one and it’s like… my main DS now? lol

[@Kevin-zd5bi]

All my favorite British youtubers are friends. I swear your island is about 2 miles across.

[@SimmyBassline]

An excellent collabaration

[@OPEK.]

There was an AUS only dark green SP/emerald bundle that I got in California USA in 2006 from a target. At the time I didn’t know about it being rare it was just the perfect pokemon game boy bundle. In 2020 after getting back into Pokémon I tried to repurchase the same SP I used to own which is how I learned it was an AUS only color way I had

[@ubernewb3005]

catch rare pokemon, backup save, implant save on another cart, use that cart in another gameboy to trade a 2nd rare pokemon on first cart.. rinse repeat, bam! fighting team made up of 6 mewtwo's or yeah, keep save safe for battery swaps, corrupted carts, etc.

[@WhackieEwelelel]

that ashens bit is nostalgic

[@dylanjwicklund92]

2:46 Yeah, I'm canadianand got mine from somebody in Toronto on the other side of the country and got a fake one. So you still have to be careful.

[@Those_Weirdos]

Suddenly, Ashens!

[@AtoManPL]

You can potentially transfer the save file from the French version to English one. Your Pokemon would keep their French names, but it would otherwise work perfectly.

[@KaPH33n]

I have a similar device called the monster brain. I use it to back up my pokemon game save before I replace the on pcb battery. Then I can put the save back onto the cartridge.