Creating the Ultimate Pokémon Crystal Cartridge! Swapping the ROM chips from Japanese to English
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- Опубліковано 8 вер 2024
- Hey guys! Been a little while. Still trying to catch up on orders. Little by little as I wait for the new ElClonos and FreckleShacks from BennVenn.
This was a fun little project, I've always loved the back of the Japanese Pokémon Crystal cartridge, but want to play it in English. I saw someone on Reddit swap the ROM chips a long time ago ( / pokemon_crystal_rom_swap ) and have wanted to try it ever since. Turned out better than I expected!
And before anyone asks, I already gave away the Japanese Crystal that's inside the US cart shell. For some reason a LOT of people wanted that one on Instagram.
I have a bunch of new videos in the works and coming soon like How to add a rechargeable battery to your GBC. I'm also going to be officially working with BennVenn and KyleAwsm on videos for the new backlit screens for Atari Lynx, GameGear, GBA, and more! So I'm excited for that.
/ esotericsean
/ esotericmods
Tools and supplies I use:
Soldering iron: amzn.to/3NmLrSL
Iron stand: amzn.to/3njx1Iu
Solder: amzn.to/3HW6evl
Flux: amzn.to/3QJ2Yrr
Solder wick: amzn.to/3OG7u81
Hot air station: amzn.to/3QNP736
Screwdriver set: amzn.to/3bufQ4v
JIS Screwdriver: amzn.to/3NiFsOR
Scalpel handle: amzn.to/3OG6twJ
Scalpel blades: amzn.to/39OSMwV
Wire: amzn.to/3NgeUOg
Silicone mat: amzn.to/3OFH0DB
Metal spudger: amzn.to/3btL3Vb
Metal tweezers: amzn.to/3HQ544y
Plastic tweezers: amzn.to/3btgcZ7
Flush trim cutters: amzn.to/3OKVYZh
Awesome idea.
The Retro Future Thanks Elliot!
Why are you on all the vids I watch lol
@@playgroundsinc Probably shows you have good taste in videos.
This comment aged beautifully
@ethanhayden2255 Haha it did! :D
Holy shit! I thought I was the only one who wanted the English ver with the Japanese board!
I had no idea it was this DIY-able. This definitely made my day better.
I think any non-Japanese speaker who’s seen the back of the Japanese pcb wants it in their own language. Sorta feels like Nintendo doesn’t actually like any country but Japan.
I had a Pokemon Emerald with a problem on the motherboard where the time refused to be kept despite swapping the battery. I followed this guide and swapped the rom chip with a known working Japanese Pokemon Sapphire. This saved me a lot of money. I am ecstatic. Thank you thank you thank you!
This is valuable information! Did not realize there was a fix like that
Does it have a crystal In it? I think that is also the problem for time issues
i'm pretty amazed on your success in the sticker part. i don't think i've ever successfully taken a sticker off that cleanly
Try using lighter fluid. Drop it onto the sticker until it’s saturated and let it sit for like 30 seconds to a minute, then remove. It does something to break down the adhesive temporarily, and when the lighter fluid evaporates the adhesive is sticky again like it’s brand new.
better method for sticker removal/replacement: apply a few drops of liquid Zippo lighter fluid to the edges of the stickers. This will rubberize the adhesive, causing the bond to break between it and the plastic. The fluid will evaporate, and the remaining adhesive will easily brush away. this leaves you with a perfectly clean, adhesiveless sticker with no damage to the paper itself. then apply spray adhesive to the back and reapply.
the Japanese sticker is way cooler looking imo
Eh... I kinda disagree... it feels so cluttered... though I think the logo is kinda better for the Japanese and I like how Suicune is larger...
I like the Japanese one too, but wanted this to *feel* like an American cartridge, I guess. If you or anyone else attempts this, they can feel free to use the Japanese sticker :)
You can buy reproduction game cartridge stickers on the internet. I would also try adding a cmos battery slot for easier battery changing.
Just learn japenese
Ian McDonald i was just gonna say that lol
I just want to say thank you for keeping your workspace clean, I just watched a similar restoration video and it looked like they hadn't cleaned their workstation in months, flux and random stains and misc screws everywhere, it bothered me so much!!! yours is so much better
Your voice is very calming. I truly enjoyed this video and was immersed with your work. I learned something new today and will be subbing.
the back of the American crystal cartridge always bothered me when I was younger... I always wondered why they didn't put a cool design there with it being so much exposed blank space and a see through plastic. Didn't know about the Japanese design until a few years ago. I would definitely be interested in having the Japanese style on an American chip since crystal is my all time favorite game.
Been wanting to do this for ages, finally went ahead and bought a Japanese Pokemon crystal and did this mod myself. Love the look of the Japanese pcb!
That's really cool, I didn't know about the Japanese Back cover
Neither did I. Awesome...
The most difficult part would definitely be the label swap, I’ve never done that successfully.
Just did this swap, but kept the japanese sticker! Really love this, such a good idea
I just completed this mod based on your videoand it came out great! I was lucky enough to have someone sell me a non-functioning U.S. copy and I scored a working Japanese copy for just $16. Only thing was I had a load of trouble trying to detatch the chips with the fine point solder tip, but switching to a chisel tip made it waaaay easier for me. Anyway, thanks for this! Awesome resource!
Hey, just wanted to say thanks for the inspiration to do this. I had a working JP cart and an EU cart with a broken RTC - clock would not advance during gameplay, or when the cart is switched off. Very annoying. Checked every trace and even replaced the quartz crystal with one from another working cart, but couldn't fix it. In the end I decided to do what you've done here and swap the EU ROM into the JP cartridge with the working RTC. Now I have a fully working EU cart and a JP cart with a broken RTC, which is definitely preferable! Thanks for the heads-up on that Chipquik stuff too, it's magic stuff - well worth the money.
That’s awesome! Glad you got a working cart in the end :)
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻I applaud your tenacity and patience great job great video !!!
Thanks so much!
Just a tip for the future, when you go to clean off flux use one side of the q tip with alcohol than the other try to get most of it than take a paper towel with some alcohol on it to fully clean it off well. The surface area of the paper towel really helps get it spotless.
I have to say, well done. It's obvious that the BIOS doesn't care that the board is Japanese, that's cool.
I guess all that's left is getting an EEPROM chip the same size and getting Crystal Clear into a legit cartridge, lol
You can already buy crystal clear on a cartridge look on ebay
Yeah, I have a few cartridges like that. Downside: playing vanilla crystal is hard to do now that I am used to always running on my CC cartridges!
@@vladamirkalashnikov3704 ...
tfw a ROM hack makes the original experience vastly inferior...
Not many examples of this exist in gaming, so it's definitely an achievement.
@@AmyraCarter indeed! see you on the discord, perhaps. I'm usually checking adventures, although my name is different there.
This is what I've been looking for! I have an english copy of the game but the golden fingers are done for and cannot be read by any of my handhelds. Thank you!
for the sticker is best to keep using the hairdryer as you peel off
José Tomás Albornoz That’s a good idea! I’ll try that next time. :)
José Tomás Albornoz He would need 3 hands then.
@@zZiL341yRj736 You literally only need 2 hands
The Pokemon ROM hack you describe already exists. It's called Pokemon Ash Grey and it's a mod of fire red/ lesf green
Just did this successfully a few days ago after buying a broken English copy of pokemon crystal
Same! Looks awesome 😄
Just bought a copy of Japanese Crystal thanks to you.
Awesome!
Why am I watching this at half 4 in the morning?
Idk did the same on a sunday
I laughed and looked at my clock 3:58 AM haha
Me right now..
The japanese board is also really nice too , because it is white and doesn’t look weird through the seethrough shell
Man this is cool. I want one now! xD
Have you ever fluxed a capacitor?
Fast2Furious4 Haha, totally stealing this joke. I probably have fluxed a capacitor 😆
I would try upgrad8ng it to flash save memory, if possible.
What would flash memory do?
@@_Asuri Flash Memory is how the gba games save. They keep saves forever. The Batteries in RSE only control the game clock.
@jason savchuk try the "Pokemon All Fairy" bootleg. The first 7 GB games on 1 cartridge, that save forever.
@jason savchuk not sure you can find it on ebay. I haven't checked in a while. Probably about $15 from China.
@jason savchuk I would get a Monster Brain instead. It allows you to backup your cartridge saves. Then you can replace the batteries, and put the old save on the new battery easy!
The save ram and mapper chip are different too, are your games saving progress at all? The international version uses the MBC3 and the japanese uses the MBC30, a variant of the MBC3. The japanese game sram is bigger too.
It's very good to see both carts being well taken care of, point being, worst case scenario you just need to put the chips back and it will be like nothing happened.
I wonder how the game software will behave with the wrong mapper and sram chip?
Been playing it for a few days now and it seems to be saving like normal. Will report back if I notice any glitches or anything different, but so far it's exactly the same as a normal American Crystal.
@@esotericsean I see. Probably the japanese game will have problems then, I wonder. Thank you for the answer.
@@MARCSLASH japan cart will likely run into issues doing the mobile phone features
i dont think anything else on the cart takes advantage of the ram unless there is a surfing pikachu style minigame i dont know about
You should be careful with lower fusion solder, since it can stain your work surface while you still place electronics on top of it. You can accidentally bridge something on the back of PCBs. And try using kapton tape when working on cartridges. You don't want solder to accidentally spill over the contacts...
I think Pokemon Ash Gray is a ROM hack you'd enjoy
Ohh, someone did make that already. Thanks for sharing!
The Joey joe bags would allow you to backup and restore an english rom on the japanese cart without having to remove chips!
I have a Joey! :) Unfortunately, you can only dump a copyprotected rom and save file, you can't write a rom back to it. But there are flash chips that you can install in a Pokemon cartridge so you can use it with a Joey, definitely going to be picking some of those up sometime soon!
@@esotericsean ah ok! Guess I misunderstood what exactly it does!
@@esotericsean I think you have a Joey jr. The Joey joebags does write too I'm sure
Theres a rom hack like that already... Its called ash grey
actually really cool and it deserves more views, nice job man
There actually is a rom hack that is called ASH GRAY and it actually is just like the Pokémon series with misty and broke and it also includes the Pokémon movie in the game
I have played it before great rom
I've never had good luck with soldering on boards so I'm always anxious watching you do stuff like this but it always comes out cool
Dude soldering is easy it's just practise start with changing caps not surface mount ones, then start doing like 4 pin ICs
Take a look at Pokemon Ash Gray! It was a lot like what you're looking for
I was gonna comment on that
In my opinion, it would be even cooler to have the Pokemon Crystal Clear rom hack on that.
Personally "Polished Crystal" is my favorite version of Crystal. Re-adds missing areas in Kanto, adds decorations from HG/SS on DS, adds a mock Wonder Trade in one of the big city Pokemon Centers, adds XP gain on catching Pokemon like the newer games, makes trade evolutions possible by leveling with held items, adds tons of moves, and overall changes a bunch that makes the game better.
That sticker process made me feel so nervous sheeeesh
I feel like I just levelled up in my soldering knowledge tbh.
One question I have though; is there a risk in sandwiching the flux between the chip and the board? When you were resoldering the ROM chip to the JPN board, you used a lot of flux. Is that gonna corrode under the board or is the no-clean flux basically negligible risk?
Thank you for the video!!! Crystal is my fav pokemon game but somehow I had no idea the JPN board had that sick Suicune design!
Taking those stickers off would have been so much better with some metal gear music in the back ground, that shit was intense, love the video!
it sounds like a minecraft grass block at 17:53
Hyllning Haha it does!
You should download the Pokemon Ash Gray rom hack... it is the anime with fire reds graphics
Great job. Personally I would have stuck a sticker on the back of the board with the same image on it. Slap some Kapton tape on the back of the board first to make sure the sticker or decal does no damage and done.
THANK YOU! I just did this chip swap! I love it, its my baby now.
Just got a gbc back, paid 22usd for it, ship included. It was for repair. A bit of alcohol on the on off switch and its as good as.new.
Really wanna backlit it, but ill save it for a.gba, since more games.and comfort and all that.
Amazing "mod", i genuinely didnt knew you could swap rom chips and still have it running
Not a bad price for a GBC nowadays.
whaaat, I was literally planning to do the same and there is a vid about it! pog
Oh I want that. I would pay someone immediately if I knew someone that can do this.
hey there, its super easy. give yourself some credit. paying someone for something like this is silliness, literally a few step by step instructions, a soldering iron, and before you know it you too can rip off people for electronic repairs.
@@deepcitrus7023 If by rip off people you mean providing a service for money; then okay.
damn. Here I am learning Japanese to play my Japanese Pokemon Crystal!
That’s awesome! Keep it up. 😊
I think you would have better luck with solder blobs if you used a telescope but that's just me. I don't think I would be able to own an electronics repair business without one they are a godsend.
That flux literally says "no clean" on it which means it is not corrosive and you don't have to clean it off if you don't want to. I would always recommend cleaning up your work. But not all flux is corrosive. An alcohol based no clean won't even leave a residue.
I just did this a few days ago. Easy process. It's just as easy as taking a shit and kicking it out of bed. Finished result looks absolutely SHMICK.
That anime rom hack sounds fun! :D
You should find a custom "english" version of the Japanese sticker. It just has a better look to it imo
That ROM of the Pokemon anime sounds like what I have always wanted!!!
Really interesting! The cart turned out great. 😊
Thanks! Nice to see you here :)
This is so interesting and your voice is very calming! Nice video
Another great video! I may actually attempt this someday thanks to this.
It takes nerves of steel. Nice job bro. You're da man.
I honestly cannot figure out how on gods green earth people can solder small chips on to PCBs like that and not bridge every single pin.
Ah man Crystal had so much more than Gold and Silver, you if we did get remakes of Upper Games than they could have just also give exclusive Pokémon to them.
What’s the board on your desk called? It looks really convenient for hardware modding and Gunpla.
Rodan Hibiki It’s a silicone soldering mat. If you search for that, you can find them on Amazon, eBay, and Aliexpress :)
esotericsean Thanks!
gonna do this next weekend if the Japanese crystal shows up in time 😂
man this video is awesome. this is great work
Thanks Izzy!
esotericsean no problem 🤙🏽
If youre trying to remove the chip, id advise against putting on more sauter on top of it. Its better just to heat up the contacts and remove the chip, then if the contacts need more sauter, ad it and attatch the new chip.
The solder I used in this video is a special low melt solder which is designed for removing chips. It’s not your regular lead solder. :)
You have a lot of technique with the electric circuits
Nice job, buddy continue like that
Somehow I was under the impression that gameboy cartridge’s pcbs were flashable (mostly because of the flashable light Nintendo carts for sale on Etsy.
That's is super cool. Is it possible to flash a Gameboy color cartridge with a different rom? You should check out pokemon crystal clear. It's really the ultimate pokemon crystal game.
The ROM chips that are on the carts are copy protected, but there are chips you can buy (BennVenn used to sell one and JRodrigo still does) that let you flash the ROM to whatever you want. A friend of mine did exactly that with Crystal Clear! I have CC installed on my flash cart, it's a really amazing rom hack. :)
@@esotericsean Do those guys have youtube channels or a store I can buy those chips from?
@@dakotalee24 Here's j.rodrigo's tindie store: www.tindie.com/products/jrodrigo/flash-memory-adapter-for-some-game-boy-cartridges/ But unfortunately he's sold out at the moment. Hmm.
Hey Sean, where did you get the silicone tray? I'd love to have something like that for when I work on my projects.
Got mine on Amazon, but they're available on eBay, Aliexpress, and lots of places. Search for Silicone Soldering Mat :)
What a fucking nice guy
The Japanese sticker was way cooler and I would say the original one not the boring European one
They're both cool, but I really wanted it to look like a US cart so I used the US sticker. You can use a Japanese sticker if you do this yourself. :)
@@esotericsean yeah of course you like the other on more then ok ps. Great video😊
Or you could alter the us board white paint then a decal or hand drawing or you could make one big sticker and put on back of logic board.
Awesome video, and I think they have a fan made Pokémon hack for the Gameboy advance that follows the anime. Not sure how far it goes though.
Jc Delahoussaye Really? I’ll have to look into that!
This is really cool i wanna try it. Quick question tho. Where did you get that mat?
Some of the Japanese rom chips are configured differently from the United States and other countries. This is part of the way the copyright protection works. It's also something similar in the way that the games from the DS and beyond that is part of the reason why Japanese games have so many problems with other countries.
I literally just had this same idea when I found out about the silkscreen difference. I am tempted to grab a Japanese copy now.
Do it! Expensive, but worth it I think :)
@@esotericsean not nearly as expensive as a US version, sadly 😂 and also cheaper than Japanese lessons.
Isn't there already a ROM hack based off the anime called Ash Gray?
Lovely work sean,your video is amazing..
this entire video was asmr
Thats a very nice work
It's very great switch mod, thanks. I learn and work for the switch chips
tip, soft toth brush and iso alchool... works like a charm
The game your talking about is called ash gray it plays like the anima
18:25 Thanks for showing us how to remove these stickers even if its not entirely perfect its effective
I play the games in French, it's the only way I get even a slight challenge.
i wouldn't do this, but the result is amazing.
You never need a soldering braid on bridged pins. More flux, clean tip and some patience.
Did you leave flux _underneath_ the rom chip?
Nice work! I love the Japanese cart!!!
Thanks! I love it too :)
You need to get on that rom hack idea. I'd play the crap out of that.
OMG I just did a similar project with the Pokémon crystal. Awesome man!
is so unnecesary! I love it!
Hi Sean, you should've used a heatgun, makes it much easier to pull the ROM chips off. But great work!
Does this mean you’ll be able to find and catch Celebi in the version now?
Thomas Frost It should function exactly like an English version, so no probably not. At least not without a glitch. But I’m not sure!
Oh ok! Thanks
Hay man, try getting yourself some soldering paste and a heat gun. It is amazing stuff for fine pin work.
alsso the japanese version looks a bit more opaque so i think its better too and the board is more white so u dont notice well any green really
What are you periodically cleaning your solder with? sounds like its making a hissing sound
Zachary O'Donnell Just a little wet sponge I wipe my soldering iron tip on. :)
Smart thinking! I wanted to thank you for your videos/content. They are 100% the reason for getting my first soldering set-up for electronics/my gbc. Speaking of do you think a 40watt max soldering iron is sufficient for gbc modding?
There’s a rom hack call Ash Grey that does that.
really cool thank you for sharing really nicely done.
Appreciate it!
They’re already is a Pokémon Rom called Pokémon Ashgrey version it follows the First season of the anime to a T
It's just that you can't read Japanese, that's not cartridge's fault. I have a trimmed down CR2032 battery holder installed, that's what I would call Ultimate.