Hardware review: GB Operator lets you switch between Game Boy and PC with ease


GB operator
Image: Nintendo Life

Casual readers would be forgiven for seeing the manufacturer’s name on the box of the GB Operator, a sleek little device that lets you play your Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance cars on your PC, and confuse the company with Analogue, the producer of quality retro gaming consoles like the Analogue NT (SNES) and the upcoming Analogue Pocket (Game Boy).

The cheeky Epilogue name is obviously hoping to align itself with the same uncompromising quality brand that Analogue is known for, and has embraced the ‘No Compromise’ tagline for its Operator series. The Romanian company’s first effort is a strong entry into the field of retro games, although it is a very different product to anything Analogue has produced, and one that may have limited appeal.

the GB Operator will not work without being connected to a PC … it requires a downloadable .exe running on your computer to function

First of all, get rid of any idea that this is a mini Game Boy emulation system that connects to your TV like the Retron SQ; The GB Operator won’t work without being connected to a PC to begin with. It requires the use of a downloadable .exe that runs on your computer to function either way.

The device works as an intermediary; an interface between your cart collection and tried and true GB emulation served in a custom emulation wrapper on your PC. To reiterate, without the accompanying desktop app and modest processing power from your PC, the GB Operator is simply an eye-catching-looking cart stand. Connect it to your TV via USB and nothing will happen.

That may be disappointing for some retro enthusiasts, but Epilogue arguably makes up for the limitations with a convenient and comfortable user experience, not to mention a couple of features that could do it. indispensable to a select group of Game Boy fans.

When you open the box, you will find the unit itself, an attractive little piece of clear plastic housing mounted on a quality non-slip rubber strip. It’s a simple and elegant pedestal to insert your chariots into and remove as you would a mighty one-stone sword, and we enjoy the reverence it instills in that action. These cars deserve respect, and the GB operator provides it.

The included instruction booklet instructs you to download the ‘Operator Software’ from Epilogue website, with Windows, Mac, or Linux options available. Once removed and installed, the software automatically searches for and detects the GB Operator connected to your PC via the supplied USB-C to USB-A cable (we used our Switch Pro Controller cable). A bright, distracting LED on the drive indicates it’s on (Epilogue plans to address this minor irritation via an update) and it’s time to insert a cartridge of your choice. Almost instantly, the software recognized our Metroid: Zero Mission as a legitimate European cart and displayed the appropriate box art and blurb, which it appears to be pulling from a server.

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When loading a cartridge, the app offers ‘Play’ and ‘Data’ options, along with a third ‘Photo’ tab reserved for the Game Boy camera, which we’ll get to later. The Play page, unsurprisingly, is where you start the game. Re-link the Gamepad and Keyboard controls here and we would have liked the option to duplicate inputs on multiple buttons, but it worked flawlessly with our 8bitdo FC30 Pro. The app also has greyed-out options for emulator and device settings to be used. will be unlocked in future updates. Press Start, the ROM is downloaded into the emulator and the game starts.

Emulation is handled through open source mGBA by default, although apparently you will be able to use whatever emulator you want in the future. Enhanced Super Game Boy games are marked and played with more color, and everything worked flawlessly in the games we tested. However, it quickly became apparent that basic features are missing in this beta version of the software. Expanded functionality is coming, but at the time of writing (we use v0.7 and v.0.7.1) you are limited to playing in windowed mode, for example. Currently there are no options to save states, pause, rewind or fast forward. There are also no alternative color palettes to choose from or visual filters to go through.

everything worked flawlessly in the games we tested, although it quickly became apparent that extremely basic features were missing from this beta version of the software. Expanded functionality is coming …

It is worth remembering that Epilogue continues to work on the software and has committed to a roadmap that addresses several of the problems mentioned above. This includes full screen and shading support, plus in-app volume control and game restart, along with other changes triggered by user feedback, with several of these features planned for. a September / October update. The beta base here could be generously described as ‘barebones’, but it’s a solid start.

Pressing ESC closes the game (removing a cart while playing will send you back to the start menu immediately and you will lose unsaved progress) and you have the opportunity to save your progress to the cart or discard it. This is where the device comes into play: not only can you save your progress to the cart you are playing (and retrieve it on real GB hardware), but you can copy your cart save data, back it up to the PC, write it down and pick up where you left off.

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Moving to the Data tab, you can copy a full copy of the data stored in the cart to your PC as a .gb or .gba file, and also write data to rewritable cartridges, opening up the world of fan patches and homebrew. . / translations. You could, for example, take your legitimate copy of Mother 3, download and patch the ROM with the English fan translation, and load it into a rewritable cartridge of adequate size to play through the GB Operator or your own Game Boy Advance.

You can also download / upload only saved data (.sav) and backup to your heart’s content. We immediately backed up our original Golfer Mario and Yellow Pokémon collection and can finally rest easy knowing that our stalwart Generation I pokeymans: Metapoo, ‘Lecky Mouse, Stinky, et al – are now preserved for posterity. This feature is particularly useful if you are looking to replace a battery in a prized cartridge without risking losing your valuable save data. Just transfer it to your PC, change the battery as you like, and transfer it back once you’re done. Tidy.

Fake car makers have started using more sophisticated techniques over the years and it can be difficult to spot unauthorized repro in their collection, but the GB operator marks unofficial games as such – the app performs a “ integrity check ” and asks if you would like to progress if this check fails.

Connect a Game Boy camera, click ‘Save All’ and voila, your precious photos of yesteryear are saved in a tiny 128×112 pixel .png format

One headline feature that made this writer pre-order on the first play, however, is the ability to quickly and painlessly transfer Game Boy camera photos from the device. Connect a Game Boy camera and the third ‘Photos’ tab will be available (oddly, you can’t ‘play’ with the camera on your PC). Head there, click ‘Save All’ and choose a folder and voila, your precious photos of yesteryear, or the best Blue Steels and Magnums you could gather for a photo to accompany a hardware review, are saved in a tiny format. png 128×112 pixels.

Or they would be if the Game Boy camera’s battery hadn’t been drained. Unfortunately, the thirty blanks in this writer’s chamber were filled with static. Yes, serve one for those forever lost high school era photos of random selfies with schoolmates and family members, and that slender cat we saw walking home from school that time.

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So yes, it turns out that the main reason we bought the thing, transferring photos from GB camera to PC in a quick and easy way, was not possible in our case, although it was not the fault of the GB operator. Otherwise, we’ve been incredibly lucky with our cart batteries, and we’ve managed to save everything else from digital oblivion. Sometimes you win, you lose something.

Overall GB Operator is a great kit with great potential, but it is a device for a very specific type of user: people with an existing GB (A) library running their PC through their TV, for example, or whatever person with a comfortable gaming monitor setup. The option to grab your prized GB carts, play them on a big screen, save your progress, and pick up where you left off on the official hardware gives the device an almost Switch-like appeal to the right person, and this writer fits that perfectly. niche category.

GB Operator is a quality product: a small, elegant and relatively inexpensive addition to a gaming environment that allows you to comfortably play your carts and saves on a large screen.

If you come to this expecting a ‘mini console’ experience with the added functionality to reproduce your physical catalog, you are likely to be disappointed by the restrictions and current lack of features. GB Operator is a quality product, a small, elegant and relatively inexpensive addition to a gaming environment that allows you to comfortably play your carts and saves on a large screen. However, you are in danger of falling between two positions; Too reliant on an existing physical library for its plug-and-play accessibility to appeal to casual gamers, but too restrictive for die-hard retro enthusiasts looking for the best way to play GB games on a big screen.

Enhancements are coming that should address our biggest complaints with the GB carrier as the app progresses to version 1.0, and the easy-to-use way to save backups makes it a very useful device for any Game Boy lover. with intense affection for the genuine article. (or anyone who needs to replace the cart batteries). Even if GB games do end up coming to Nintendo Switch Online, there will inevitably be a host of titles that will never see the light of day on Switch, so there is still room for devices like this, even if the appeal is somewhat limited.

We are intrigued to see what Epilogue has in store for the Operator series in the future. In the meantime, we will be eagerly awaiting those feature updates.

GB Operator is available for $ 49.99 plus shipping from Epilogue website.


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