"Super 13 in 1" Bootleg GBC Cart

August 28, 2020

This is a story and display of a bootleg cart I've had almost my whole life. I have not been able to find anything about other copies of this specific cart or who made it, but I have a general idea of where it came from. Join me, as I show you the cart that I played more than any in my childhood summers.

When I was about 6 years old I started going to my Grandpa's place ever summer. His wife, who we all referred to as Cookie, came from Thailand. For as long as I could remember, she had this completely transparent Gameboy Color, and the bootleg cart we're here to talk about. I spent a lot of time playing this thing over the years. In particular, I was always trying to get a higher score in Tetris DX, and this is how I first experienced Link's Awakening.

You'll have to excuse the picture quality, this is the best I can do. This is the menu that it boots to. The games aren't named correctly to the games and romhacks that they actually are. But, I've done the liberty of finding the source of each game on this cart, and compiling a folder of all of them in order, so they can be played on an emulator.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1SX6LfF8eLHbvjVJocpNfc3-M7vkmXwKM?usp=sharing

There was some weird stuff about this cart, though. First, Link's Awakening had three files already on it originally. I eventually deleted them to play the game, and the battery died a few years ago. Anyway, each file was hacked in a weird way; I think the first one had everything, and the second and third were both stuck/glitched into a wall. Tetris DX had a file with over a million lines acquired in total. While not impossible, I played that game a ton over the years and didn't come close to that number. Lastly, Mario 4, never actually worked. At the very beginning of the game it would always start to glitch out with random tiles being placed everywhere, and it would just be impossible to progress. Over the years, it seems the corruption has actually gotten worse, and I can't even get as far as I could as when I was a kid. Every other game was normal.

This is the inside of the cart. A lot of epoxy, I know. I tried to replace the battery in it about a year ago but for some reason the replacement battery, which was the same number as the one that came in it, just didn't fit snug in there at all. I only just acquired soldering skills, so I might have another go at properly installing it, but for now it's being held in place while the shell is taped tight. It gets the job done I guess.

Now I'll tell you what each game really is.

"01. ZELDA" is actually "Link's Awakening DX"