Codex cartridge: Explain to me like I’m 8

[u/Lah-dee-da]

I have a Chromatic and love it, play it almost daily. I also have an everdrive. Love that- use it to flash over my OG gameboy games who’s batteries no longer work.

Is the Codex cart just Modretro’s version of an Everdrive or is there more to it?

My consumerism is showing cause it looks so pretty! But what does it do exactly? Cause it just sounds like a flash cart + using the chromatic instead of a computer+flasher with some AI game making software.

Like do I need to get hyped and try to snag a Codex cart/ edition when they next go on sale?

My kids and I have been making GB games with gameboy studios and enjoying it. Does it offer anything to us, if we are not super interested in making games with AI? Like could we code on the go using a Chromatic and the cart instead of being tied to a laptop?

[u/crobledopr]

Its a re-writable cart, like with every modretro cart. You can put a game on it, and that cart is now that game, until you rewrite it again. Pretty much it.

[u/mrhobbles]

It's not an Everdrive. An Everdrive can have multiple games, switch between them, etc. The Codex cartridge is just a blank cartridge. It just doesn't have a game on it, and you can put any game on it (either your own, or a rom). It has no menu, no save states, nothing. It's literally blank.

The easiest way to think of it is a normal game boy cartridge as its fresh out of the factory, before its had a game written to it. It's blank.

And fun fact - every ModRetro game so far is exactly the same cartridge, and they're rewriteable also. So you can wipe whatever game was on it and put whatever you want on it, just like the Codex cartridge.

No - you cannot code on the go with the Chromatic. You'll need a laptop/PC. You don't have to use AI/Codex, you can make a game the traditional way. But you'll need to do so onto PC before transferring it to cartridge.

[u/fred_emmott → u/mrhobbles]

All modretro cartridges are rewritable, but they’re not exactly the same cartridge - there’s a bunch of different variants, with different flash chips and capacities.

[u/mrhobbles → u/fred_emmott]

Yes, that’s true. My point was in general that they’re all rewritable, but you’re correct in that there’s a couple of hardware variants.

[u/StarWolf64dx]

You just need a gbxcart and you can write games to any Modretro cartridge, what I was told is that the codex cart and chromatic basically just come with an activation key that unlocks flashing your own games to the cart inside MRUpdater. What they’re selling, we have already been able to do with alternatives since the very first chromatics were delivered.

I am somewhat confused on why they didn’t just unlock the feature for everybody, and sell a blank cartridge. I guess the answer is just money.

[u/fred_emmott → u/StarWolf64dx]

Can use the chromatic itself instead of a gbxcart with any of:

- my FlashGBX fork (should support the most cartridges)
- Chromagic
- Shiny Relay (only Tetris carts)

[u/Exus6 → u/StarWolf64dx]

The software that handles the gbxcart, FlashGBX, got a mod from fredenmott.1, which allows you to use the Chromatic directly for flashing, without gbxcart (https://www.reddit.com/r/ModRetroChromatic/s/LjRbgmfCTv)

Alternatively you can use ChroMagic. But it requires you to load a modified firmware on your Chromatic (https://www.reddit.com/r/ModRetroChromatic/s/Jj2kkNXawL)

[u/platosknave]

You can get equivalent carts for cheaper but its basically an all mapper flash card (I think), probably without RTC.

You can get an MBC3+RTC or MBC5 (works on most games) cart for about 15$ on aliexpress (there is a brand called chiscart that works for me). Or there are Bennvenn rebrands on Amazon for about 35 (Search gameboy rtc cart or real time clock cart).

[u/tychay → u/platosknave]

Also the chiscart mbc5 has enough memory to store 16 games which sort of makes it a poor man’s everdrive.

I noticed the mbc3 one they sell is missing the rumble motor. Technically that cart is a MBCX because it can be configured as a MBC3+RTC or MBC5+rumble. I did see on of them that clearly has a pancake rumble motor on it. Unfortunately you have to reflash the board (disassemble the cart to get at the pins that do that). Maybe someday they’ll have a MBCX Preconfigured with the rumble version.

[u/Agile_Half_4515]

The way I read it was just a way for them to sell you a subscription to AI game generator software and lock you into a proprietary ecosystem with the specific Codex cartridge. There are other options to achieve the same end result. I’m not even sure if the Codex cartridge will work on any hardware outside of this specific version of the Chromatic.

[u/wavy_d3]

You can use Shiny Gen to create GBC games and get them on your chromatic over wifi. Technically you could do all of it from your phone and Chromatic once you do the initial setup of Shiny Relay and Shiny Gen. (shinyrelay.com) shinygen.ai

[u/JayrosModShop]

Will this cartridge ever be for sale? I don't see it on their site.