GameBoy CD Player

by jordi87

49K7877

Intro: GameBoy CD Player

Build a CD player with an old GameBoy, an ATAPI drive and some electronics. The CD player it's a kind of game cartridge to play CD. This is the final version, plug it to a GameBoy and listen to music!

Wanna see how it works?
http://personales.ya.com/proyecto_gb/ ->down
the new web page is http://perso.wanadoo.es/jordi__87/

Do you like it? Give me feedback please!

STEP 1: Get a GameBoy!

First of all we will need some things:

-A GameBoy to show track information and control the playing.

-A GameBoy cartridge: we will need it to interface the GameBoy to a board.

-An ATAPI drive to play the CD.

-A 12v-5v power supply.

-An interface board: we can find it at http://personales.ya.com/proyecto_gb . Go to Hardware section and build the schematics. We will talk about later.

STEP 2: Let's Make a Cartridge!

We need to wire the GameBoy pins to a board. We can open it, but we prefer to preserve the GameBoy to play our favourite games. So let's make an adaptor cartridge. Get a boring game and open it with a screwdriver, be careful not to broke the board inside.Well Prince of Persia was not boring but I had no one else.

STEP 3: Cutting the Inside Chips.

We see some chips, the game program and some interface chips. We need to remove it, so let's use a cutter to cut it. We could use a soldering iron but that would wear away the board.

STEP 4: Wiring the Cartridge

Get a ribbon cable and solder it to the board following a logical order, I mean, the pin 1 of the cartridge to the pin 1 of the ribbon cable. I used an IDE cable as a ribbon cable.Follow the pins paths to get a termination solder point,it's easier and better(then you can close the cartrigde).Check for shortcircuits when you finish. If it's all ok, fix the cable to the board with glue.

STEP 5: Cutting the Plastic Case.

In order to put the cartridge inside we need to cut the plastic box. Use a cutter or a tool you consider better.

STEP 6: Building the Board

I will not cover the board construction process, but i will put the schematics and some comments. I've made modular schematics, you must interconnect them to have the complete board.Axx , Dxx and /RD,/WR,RESET signals come from the GameBoy cartridge.GND and +5V are common to the power supply,chips and GameBoy.You must burn the z80cdplayer.gb in the EPROM. Sorry it's in spanish I will translate it some day.

The schematics also are at http://personales.ya.com/proyecto_gb/

STEP 7: Putting It All Together

This is the last step. We must put it all in a box to make it useful. You can use a wood box,plastic box or even a cardboard box!! With imagination all it's possible.You can see how it works at videos section of http://personales.ya.com/proyecto_gb/

78 Comments

engquiky 12 years ago

Incredible!
It looks like the ship put into the Delorean in Back to the Future Part III !

cdmaster 13 years ago

how about adding a schematic of the ide port on the cd drive?

mariomurder 15 years ago

did anyone else notice the serial number on the POP game???the first 3 letters are OMG. Fitting i think considering its fate. lololol

Kasm279 13 years ago

err, actually thats DMG, and its the model number. All the original US Game Boy games have DMG-xx-USA (where xx is the game, like Qix has QX) , just like the DS games say NTR-xxxx-USA, where something like Mario Kart says NTR-AMCE-USA or Metroid NTR-AMHE-USA

Kasm279 13 years ago

Yeah, that bit of dust/plastic shavings does make it look like an O. Had I not had a few of these carts i would have thought it was an O too :)

Colonel88 14 years ago

Can someone make an 'ible on how to make the GBA SP into a video player? It's got good battery life, and a pretty good LCD as well!

Kasm279 13 years ago

Theres a thing called the Game Boy Movie Player just for that. Its found more use as a storage device for DS homebrew, though >.>

dude22072 14 years ago

Can you modify it so you could but a link cable on it and have sound coming from the GB?

sc4rzz 14 years ago

very nice, doable project.
What did you use to flash the chip?

I'm thinking about recreating this, only with an atapi to SD adapter, and flash to chip to play the roms from the SD... that would be epic. Now for the code.. anyone that can help me with that?

dfc849 17 years ago

PPL on e word four letters IPOD much smaller, lighter, easier, and holds 750 times as much as a CD (60B) or 375 times as many (30GB) Nano: 50 times as much (4GB) 25 times (2GB) and thats a 20 song cd ( not common)

Colonel88 14 years ago

PPL the ipod costs freakin 150$ for only a 4gb nano. That's freakin too much! I bought a sandisk for only like 100$, and no im not advertising

ARVash 17 years ago

One word.. Stupid.. Dfc, do you understand that this is Instructables, not Advertise apple overpriced products? Honestly .. try to use some grammar as well, this isn't aim. You know how much it costs for a 2 gb ipod? .. way too much.. XD.

nature223 15 years ago

ahem...he's correct though,a nano 2 gb is way more portable and carries so much more dataload as to be a "why bother,but as an intellectual excersize". I have "only" 90 songs in my 2gb..it doesnt even register as IN there..tell me what CD/player contains 90 songs in a player I can stick with earbuds in a altoids tin,and charge off ANY USB port,including my Playstation2??

ReCreate 15 years ago

YEAH APPLE SUCKS sorry i just had to

drummonkey92 15 years ago

he wasn't realy blatantly advertising apple products, he was just suggesting an improvement. that's pretty much what the comments are for. that said, it did seem a bit over the top to say the full range on ipods and how much more data they hold than a cd

dfc849 15 years ago

Okay, I apologize for my unpleasant remark. Instructables is a creative community of smart, fun projects, not entirely of permanent solutions for everyday routine use, though some projects do serve as such a permanent solution or project. I realize the "GameBoy CD Player" is a project to have fun and play around with. My previous comment was, in face, quite stupid and inconsiderate.
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