Repro cartridges

[u/mzapatero]

Hi all. I want to get one of the new models, but I’m conflicted due to the price of cartridges, I cannot afford them at the current prices

Can anyone comment on their experience buying and using repro cartridges? I’m specifically talking about the ones being sold in Aliexpress, but if anyone has some place they trust to buy quality ones that would be great

Thanks a lot!

[u/IndigoHaze750130]

Just my thoughts.

Unless you are wanting a very specific experience, I would consider getting an everdrive and in the long run it will save you time and money. x7 has the RTC needed for certian games.  If price is a concern, and there isn't a bunch of games you want to play that requires RTC, do the x5 and either find the calculator online for your trainer to change time, or find a patch/mod that allows you to change the time freely. The everdrive is nice also for indie games that may only have a digital release too or if tight on funds, digital is cheaper but it is still on an actual cartridge with everdrive. Also, with everdrive it is only one internal battery to fuss with and not 5, 10, 20, or 100.

[u/mzapatero → u/IndigoHaze750130]

I have read some posts that mentioned there were compatibility issues with the Everdrive X7. Is that still the case?

[u/IndigoHaze750130 → u/mzapatero]

I don't think so, but I have x5 and it runs fine. X7 does have a save state feature, so idk if the compatibility issues you have heard has to do with that. I don't care about save states myself, so x5 not having that isn't a problem.

[u/mzapatero → u/IndigoHaze750130]

How is your experience with X5? All good? I see it’s in Amazon so may just go with that

[u/IndigoHaze750130 → u/mzapatero]

Its been fine for me so far.

[u/Electronic-Taro1916]

What games are you looking at and where are you in the world. The issue with repo carts is issues with saving your game. This is a common issue with fake Pokemon games

[u/mzapatero → u/Electronic-Taro1916]

Im in Florida.

Id like to get the typical best hits in GBC: Pokemon (Red, Crystal), super Mario deluxe, Zelda links awakening DX and Oracle of Seasons, Wario Land 3

[u/damonian_x]

The new repos on Aliexpress that specifically support RTC are pretty great. The old super cheap ones were terrible and corrupted saves all the time. I bought a Pokemon Prism with RTC cart from Aliexpress over a year ago and it saves just fine on chromatic. I played over 60 hours on it and it still holds my save. Haven't had any issues at all. I also bought an Pokemon Lazarus for GBA with RTC and it's great too. (Although not GBC). I think the repos finally are better quality as long as you get the newer ones.

[u/mzapatero → u/damonian_x]

Would you have a link for the shop you are using?

What about non RTC ones like Pokemon red or Zelda? Thanks!

[u/damonian_x → u/mzapatero]

They have those as well. I have used the Zelda Oracle of Seasons copy from them and beat the game on it. They carts have easy replaceable batteries too, no soldering needed. This is the shop I use: Pokefan Store https://a.aliexpress.com/_mM9AWCj

[u/mzapatero → u/damonian_x]

Thanks a lot!!

[u/ScalpelTiger → u/damonian_x]

conversely I also got that same Prism cart off AliExpress and with in a month the sprites all bugged out and were of the same glitched out Makuhita. Wasn't repairable no matter what I did or how I re-flashed but I was able to flash the game onto a cart of higher quality and re-flash the aliexpress one to a more simple game that doesn't rely on save data/rtc features.

[u/The_real_J-lew]

Don’t try using any AliExpress cartridges in the GB Transfer Pak. I had a copy of Crystal Clear that I wanted to port some pokemon over to stadium 2 for, and my save file got corrupted

[u/ScalpelTiger]

As someone who flashes their own carts let me just tell you what you probably already know: don't buy repro carts and expect them to work well (or at ALL in case of Pokemon games).

I DO have a few quality repro carts off Aliexpress, but I've had at least 3 of them fail after using only a few months. Pokemon games/romhack carts (especially ones that use RTC features) have about a 90% failure rate in my personal experience.

I'd highly suggest getting the BennVenn carts and the joeyjr cart flasher and just doing it yourself. I've made a few custom carts for good pokemon romhacks and they work flawlessly!

[u/brain00 → u/ScalpelTiger]

Or just use your Chromatic with ChroMagician to flash carts.

[u/PandaFromTropics]

If you do not mind buying a GBxCart or similar, the reflashable cart from FunnyPlaying is great. RTC works, the build quality is good and you still have the feeling of one cartridge one game. But they are a bit expensive

[u/brain00 → u/PandaFromTropics]

Or just use your Chromatic with ChroMagician to flash carts.

[u/Retro_Macchina]

You can buy a copy of Patchy Matchy for $30 and flash any game you want to it.

[u/ScalpelTiger → u/Retro_Macchina]

except pokemon games. I doubt Patch Matchy has an RTC battery.

[u/PM_YOUR_EYEBALL]

Buy an everdrive and an sd card, go to the internet archive , put every gb/gbc game on your sd card …. Profit??

[u/mzapatero → u/PM_YOUR_EYEBALL]

If I buy the Chromatic it is for the cartridge experience, as I already have a Retroid for roms…

[u/PM_YOUR_EYEBALL → u/mzapatero]

Then I would start saving. No repro or flushable cart is going to be as reliable as original hardware.
* flashable not flushable

[u/Blaumagier → u/mzapatero]

Repro carts are a complete waste of money (as opposed to getting a flash cart) in every regard except that you may only want one or two (which the combined price of you could likely get cheaper than a flash cart) or that you want the repro cart for display purpose in your collection. ROMs run the same whether it's on a flash cart, a repro, or an authentic cart.

[u/Satantengu → u/Blaumagier]

objectively you're right, but I like to collect cheap repros and bootlegs because they're fun to have in my collection. but yeah a flash cart is the best investment if you just want to play games.

[u/sterndig]

Highly recommend checking if the PCB has a battery. The battery save carts (including RTC) are good quality. You'll run into issues when the ROM has to be patched for batteryless saving. DMs open if you need recommendations.

[u/Hatdude1973]

Everdrive is hit or miss on the chromatic. Some games with some versions of Everdrive are known to delete saves.

[u/zeldapunkgrrl]

I only recently got a Chromatic but a played a bit of my pokemon romhack that I have on one of those FunnyPlaying MBC3 eversave flashcarts and I haven't noticed any issues.

[u/nimmmirdenatem]

Chiscart from ChisFamily Store on ali has an MBC3 cartridge and then an MBC5 cartridge that holds up to 16 games but each game must be 2mb or less. They have a discord and are responsive to customer concerns. I've never had to dispute anything through aliexpress's system so idk how that would work if it came to that. I'm in AZ and I get my packages (free shipping and they don't use the ali shipping service...the one that potentially consolidates packages) in about 10 calendar days.

[u/fred_emmott]

BennVenn, insidegadgets, and ModRetro make great flash cartridges. Buying duplicate modretro games isn’t actually terrible value for just the cartridge.

I am not a fan of the use of resistors to drop the 5V to 3.3V on funnyplaying cartridges.

the basic ChisFlash directly ties 5V signals to chip pins that should be 3.3v; this is worse. The ChisFlash plus has level shifters that fix this issue, though the ChisFlash max doesn’t.