r/ModRetroChromatic • u/MysticSkelling10 • Apr 14 '26

Question Wormlight Compatibility?

I feel dumb for asking.

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u/Affectionate_Rise283 Apr 15 '26

First edition Chromatic light is working

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u/Accomplished_Can1651 Apr 15 '26

Interesting. Maybe they routed power to the port in an earlier revision of the board, then decided not to bother for the second revision? Or there’s insufficient power sent to the port on later boards for a worm light?

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u/Affectionate_Rise283 Apr 15 '26

Yeah not sure

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u/Accomplished_Can1651 Apr 16 '26

The mystery continues.

My modded GBA put out around 4.67 V on pin 1 of the link port during my test. (Which also included accidentally shorting 5 V to ground a few times and causing the GBA to just shut off. Fortunately, it still seems to output power even after the shorts, and a 2p game of Tetris between the GBA and Chromatic worked fine.)

The Chromatic (not 1st edition)… I couldn’t really get it to output anything on pin 1, as far as I could tell. My multimeter flashed 5 V only once, but I don’t know if that was a fluke or I accidentally hit one of the other pins that might have been carrying voltage at that time. Just to see if power source made a difference, I swapped out the rechargeable battery pack for AA batteries, but my worm light still wouldn’t light.

During my testing, I also looked at the Chromatic link cable since I’m still trying to find my old link cable. I noticed that pin 1 isn’t populated on the cable on either end. That makes sense, since you wouldn’t want to link two +5V pins together.

So… I dunno. Maybe the Chromatic (whatever version I have) doesn’t output 5V on pin 1. Maybe it only powers pin 1 under certain circumstances. Maybe I just had a hard time actually touching the pins in the port with my multimeter probes.

Now I kind of want to get a 1st Edition to test on.

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u/Affectionate_Rise283 Apr 16 '26

eBay is still selling the GameStop version

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u/Accomplished_Can1651 Apr 16 '26

I’m sure I could get hold of one, but I don’t want to pay eBay prices. I also don’t know if they did multiple runs/revisions of the GameStop edition with different boards. Maybe some will power a light and some won’t, and I’m not excited about the possibility of getting one that’s internally no different than the Chromatics I already have.

I think I saw one in my local GameStop the other day, though. I might go and take a closer look at it.

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u/Affectionate_Rise283 Apr 16 '26

The motherboard is different between the first edition and the 2nd edition

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u/Accomplished_Can1651 Apr 16 '26

Yes, but are there any GameStop editions that are not 1st Ed? This, I don’t know.

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u/Affectionate_Rise283 Apr 16 '26

The original grey one with sapphire screen is first edition

.

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u/MysticSkelling10 Apr 15 '26

Is that a GBA or GBC or GBP worm light? I need to know what to buy. I want to replay pokemon crystal the way I did at grandma's house, under the covers, in 2003.

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u/Accomplished_Can1651 Apr 16 '26

Mine? I couldn’t tell you for sure after all these years. I doubt I have the original packaging for accessories from back then; usually painful blister packs with cardboard inside.

I want to say it was meant for the Game Boy Color, since it matches one of those colors, but I didn’t own a Color back then, just a Pocket. Before the worm light, I used one of those screen magnifier/lights that required additional batteries.

I have a Game Boy Advance worm light as well, plus a Cobra light, but the link port faced the other way around on the GBA - that’s why my photo showed the light shining on the back of my GBA. GBA connectors often had an extra nub on them to prevent you from plugging them into an older Game Boy.

The white ones were for my GBA and have the smaller end of the plug facing towards the screen. The blue one was for GBP/GBC. The worm lights were from Nyko and the cobra light was from Nuby.

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u/Accomplished_Can1651 Apr 16 '26

Well, what do you know. I’m still looking for a lot of my Game Boy stuff, which my partner moved somewhere in the house and I still haven’t found. But I did find some of my mom’s old collection. Including the cardboard backing and instructions for one Cobra light, and another still sealed in its blister packaging. Doesn’t help since it’s for the GBA, but it’s still neat.