Drop in a video and get a cartridge that plays it — on a Game Boy Color, a Game Boy Advance, or any emulator on your computer. It is all made here in this tab; nothing is uploaded anywhere.
Almost any video works. MP4, MOV, WebM and MKV are the quickest.
or drop one here
160 × 144 on a Game Boy Color · 240 × 160 on an Advance
You get a ROM: a real Game Boy program with your film inside it, which boots and plays on its own. Nothing about it needs this website again. Pick the console before you start — the two are different formats, and the difference is mostly how much film fits.
A browser port of the GBVideoPlayer2 converter, which squeezes far more colour out of the hardware than it is supposed to have by rewriting the palettes as the screen draws.
This project's own format and player. Past 32 MB the film is split into pages you step through with Left and Right, which is how a feature-length video fits on one flash cartridge.
The Color cartridge needs an accurate one — SameBoy or BGB. It leans on the exact timing of the real machine, and a loose emulator will show you a mess. The Advance cartridge plays in mGBA.
Copy the file onto a flash cartridge — an EverDrive or any cart that takes a ROM — and put it in the console. It boots straight into the film. Nothing else is needed and nothing has to be installed on the machine.
The Color format has run on real Game Boys for years. The Advance format is new here and has been tested in emulators only, so a real Advance is untried ground — it should work, but nobody has proved it yet.
MP4, MOV, WebM and MKV are taken apart directly, which is the quick path: half a minute of film converts in a few seconds. Anything else the browser can open still works, by watching it play, and that takes roughly as long as the video runs. The app names the path it is taking before you commit to it.
No. Reading the video, choosing the colours and packing the cartridge all happen in this tab. Once the page has loaded you can turn the network off and it still works, because no video, frame or file is ever sent anywhere.
Yes, with a flash cartridge: put the .gbc on a Game Boy Color flash cart or the .gba on a Game Boy Advance one. The Color side is a port of a converter whose output has run on real hardware for years. The Advance format is this project's own and has been tested in emulators but not yet on a real console.
A Game Boy Color or a Game Boy Advance. The original 1989 Game Boy cannot play these: the format needs the colour palettes and the double-speed processor that the Color introduced.
On a Game Boy Color, about seven and a half minutes, and no more than 8 MB. On a Game Boy Advance it is whatever your flash cart holds: at the default quality a 512 MB cart takes a couple of hours. The app tells you what your video costs before you start, and the trim control is there to cut it down.
MP4, MOV, WebM and MKV are read directly and convert quickly. Anything else the browser can play still works, by watching it play, which takes roughly as long as the video runs.
That is dithering, and it is the console rather than the encoder. A Game Boy Color screen is 160 by 144 with a few colours available at a time, so shades are mixed from dots. Standing back, or watching it on the real hardware, is what it was tuned for.
Nothing. There is no account, no upload and no limit on how many cartridges you make.
Getting ready…
Takes a couple of minutes. You can change anything and make it again.