Benefits of using modded cartridge

[callumsmith1989]

Hi

I wanted to get everyone's opinion on what the benefits of using the modded cartridge for the GBZ rather then having the sd card directly on the raspberry Pi? Is it purely to make it work as authentically as possible?

Thanks,
Callum

[Ganreizu]

Yes nothing but authenticity. I was thinking of having a second SD card for a music player though, and without a cartridge i would have to dismantle a GBZ on a plane or in a car or somewhere awkward and difficult.

[jmbrnt]

When I first heard about this project I assumed the cart SD card was a mounted drive, and the Pi Zero ran the OS on its own SD. If that's not the case, that will be my goal when I get sorted out and build my own

[wermy]

It's partly nostalgia, yes.

But I like to fiddle with the OS, try new ones, install the latest, etc. So having access to the actual SD cart was of real benefit to me. Plus, I've got a pretty standard set of ROMs that I like to put in builds like this, so I don't tend to need access to just the ROMs folder much.

[Popcorn]

When I first heard about this project I assumed the cart SD card was a mounted drive, and the Pi Zero ran the OS on its own SD. If that's not the case, that will be my goal when I get sorted out and build my own

You could probably do this really simply. And you'd only need four pins. You could keep the RetroPie SD card in the pi itself but repurpose the cartridge bay and have it mapped to an available port on the USB hub. Then you could just dissect some USB keys and put them into cartridges. Bingo.

You could even have a "Bluetooth" cartridge. Or a "wifi" cartridge. Doesn't have to be just USB keys.

[DaveGee]

This project is amazing.
Will an original GB cartridge work at all to play?
Or will it only work with the modded one?
I would like backward compatibility

[Ganreizu]

This project is amazing.
Will an original GB cartridge work at all to play?
Or will it only work with the modded one?
I would like backward compatibility

You mean using an original cartridge to play like a normal gameboy? The cartridge reader pins get hooked up to the SD card pads of the pi zero, so unless it's an SD card it won't read it...

[PeteB]

You could probably do this really simply. And you'd only need four pins. You could keep the RetroPie SD card in the pi itself but repurpose the cartridge bay and have it mapped to an available port on the USB hub. Then you could just dissect some USB keys and put them into cartridges. Bingo.

You could even have a "Bluetooth" cartridge. Or a "wifi" cartridge. Doesn't have to be just USB keys.

I really like that idea, of using a usb port in the cart instead of the sd card. I remember when the first raspberry pi came out there were lots of issues with sd cards and especially with micro sd card adapters not working. I wonder if there might be corruption issues with remote mounting the sd card. It looks cool but probably doesn't exactly follow sd card connection standards.

For someone wanting a second sd card slot there are the proper pins on the gpio pins for a second slot. This guy used them for a wifi adapter but they should work for a data card.
https://hackaday.io/project/8678-rpi-wifi

Pete