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The $50 Epilogue GB player has a whole new trick up its sleeve. In addition to backing up your Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance cartridges and saving them to your computer, they can now be connected to your phone using The new Retrace app for Android and iOS. The idea: Check if the cartridges are legitimate, and what their value is, before you buy or sell them.
Can it be relied upon? I’ve connected about 50 cartridges to the app, and…it could use some work. While most of my English and Japanese libraries were detected without a hitch, they also described some of the counterfeit cartridges as “genuine,” a number of the original cartridges as “counterfeit” or “possible counterfeit,” and about a tenth of my cartridges required multiple scans to detect anything at all. Not a single legitimate cartridge was able to scan.
You don’t have to take my word for it, because I took some photos along the way! Here is a gallery with captions:
But I really like the idea of knowing what a game is and what it’s worth, simply by communicating it. The price will certainly save me a search, and the definition might be useful for games with titles I can’t read – either because they’re written in a language I don’t speak, or because they’re currently missing a rating. Maybe Analogue could add links to reviews or videos so people can discover titles they want to play?
Right now, it seems like the only foolproof way to really identify a legitimate Nintendo Game Boy is to use a screwdriver (GameBit 3.8mm for GB/GBC, Tri-Wing Y0 for GBA) and a sharp eye, and look for the alphanumeric code on the ROM chip. But the next best thing is to look for a two-digit number printed on the cart sticker. See examples of both in my portfolio.
BTW, I’m looking forward to trying SN operatora Super Nintendo/Super Famicom reader from the same company, will be released next month. It will also be compatible with this application.