Seeking Help from Someone Who Knows Their Gameboy Accessories

[Chrysolite]

I have some technical questions I'm hoping someone can answer for me. I realize this isn't the best site for this, but I didn't want to give a game site my whole personal profile just for this, and I'm tired of trying to find help with Google.

Anyway, here's my situation: Currently I have two Gameboys (a Gameboy Advance and an Advance SP), two Color games (Pokemon Blue and Gold), and 5 younger siblings to share with. I don't mind sharing with them at all, but since the games can only save one file, this presents a problem. We each want to manage our own game. I solved this temporarily by purchasing a memory card for Gameboy Color called a "Mega Memory Card." Well this worked for a while, but now the card is acting nothing short of crazy. I'm ready to tear my hair out from all the scares of losing everyone's progress. I admit, there's a good chance I'm the one who broke it, but I'm still suspicious enough of it that I'm shy of buying another one. I'd rather buy a newer memory device, perhaps designed for the GBA, but I can't seem to find anything except mention of 'Flash Memory' devices with no helpful information as to whether they will work for what I need them for. If anyone can give me some reliable information about this, I'd greatly appreciate it!

On a minor sidenote, I'd like to buy a game link cable for trading pokemon, but I've read many stories online about how cables that fit in the slot wouldn't work because of compatibility issues. I really don't want to buy a cable and have it not work. Given the above game/system situation, can anyone tell me what to look for in a cable.

Again, thanks to anyone who takes the time to reply, or even to read all this!

[everdred12a]

Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure that all of those memory expansion devices for Game Boy games are more than a little unreliable. Sadly, you'll most likely have to end up buying additional copies of your Pokemon games in order to have separate files.

Beyond that, you'll likely want to stick to games from the same generation of games (Red/Yellow/Blue; Gold/Silver/Crystal; Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald) because they're the easiest to link up. I'm fairly certain that the RBY generation can only send to the GSC generation and not the other way around, while I know for a fact that you can't trade RBY/GSC to the RSE generation. You'll probably get a better deal on eBay than you would from GameStop or any similar store. Just run an eBay search for "Pokemon game lot" and you'll find some auctions that feature several copies of Pokemon games, but make sure you read the description to make sure you're actually getting multiple Pokemon games.

As far as link cables go, I think any cable designed for the GBA should work with any version of it (GBA/SP/Micro), so as long as you get a decent one you should be okay. Just as I recommended with the games, you're best off looking on eBay for GBA link cables. I just ran a search under 'Game Boy Advance Link Cable' and got several responses with Buy It Now's of 8 bucks.

Hope this is somewhat helpful to you.

[MasterDias]

We each want to manage our own game. I solved this temporarily by purchasing a memory card for Gameboy Color called a "Mega Memory Card."

Hey, I think I have that somewhere. Years ago, I tried to use it to get past Nintendo's cheap trick of allowing only one save file per Pokemon game...That all ended when a friend accidentally deleted my save file...

[Chrysolite]

Thanks, everdred! I actually have looked on ebay quite a bit or this stuff, and that's where I was planning to buy it, but I wanted to make sure the compatibility was okay. *sigh* I don't think I should spend that much on a bunch of Pokemon games, so I guess I'll just have to get another 'unreliable' memory card. They're pretty cheap, though, so I guess I could get two and that would double my chances of retaining our games if one dies. Anyway, thanks a lot for the advice!

I read something about a flash memory card that's supposed to let you backup your games on your computer's hard drive. Does anyone know anything about that?

[everdred12a]

Glad to be of some help. Personally, I haven't experimented with the GB memory cards - I've only heard stories (mainly about how they would corrupt the savegame data) from my friends who used to use them back when the GB/GBC Pokemon games were still new. Fortunately, it seems like you can get them pretty cheap on ebay, so I guess it's not a bad way to go.

[Chrysolite]

Thanks. I read on Wikipedia that GBA cables don't work between older games. Do you know if that's true?

[everdred12a]

Thanks. I read on Wikipedia that GBA cables don't work between older games. Do you know if that's true?

No, can't say I've ever tried it, to be honest. But knowing Nintendo, I wouldn't be too terribly surprised if that was true. That's another good reason to pick up the Pokemon games designed for that generation of games.

[Sparx00]

Hmm. I wonder with the newer FireRed and LeafGreen, will they be comming out with newer GSC versions? Maybe not since it's all DS now.

[AsianBlossom]

If you have a GameStop nearby, you could try going there to look for the older games. They might have them in the used Gameboy cases if you don't want to look on eBay, and you could always call ahead and ask them. They might even hold them for you if you ask.

[Chrysolite]

I have several Gamestops nearby. They rarely get those old games in, though. I'd have to call every day. I think I'd better stick with ebay. Thanks a lot for the suggestion, though! I am quite fond of Gamestop.