Game Boy Advance is heading to the cloud
I came across a very interesting project online called CanoFlash.
It is a small Wi-Fi adapter that plugs into the Game Boy Advance Link Cable port. Here is how it is supposed to work.
You insert a special rewritable cartridge into the console, then turn on the GBA while holding Start + Select. CanoFlash then uses Multiboot to load its own menu into the console's RAM.
You can then choose a game from your library. The adapter downloads the ROM over Wi-Fi and writes it directly to the cartridge. No computer is required.
Not every flash cartridge will work, though. CanoFlash supports modern 32 MB repro cartridges based on the AMD/Spansion S29GL256 chip. These are essentially ordinary rewritable cartridges that normally have to be flashed one game at a time with a dedicated programmer.
The developers also promise cloud save syncing, automatic updates, and support for the GBA, GBA SP, and Game Boy Micro. The adapter itself contains a battery, a small OLED display, and an optional microSD slot.
It all sounds very interesting, especially the ability to download games straight to a GBA without a computer or programmer.
There is one small catch.
For now, CanoFlash mostly exists as a nice-looking website. Where the working demo should be, there is only a notice saying Demo video coming soon, the GitHub and social-media links effectively lead nowhere, and I could not find any independent reviews or even photos of the device in buyers' hands.
Even the testimonials come from people identified only as Carlos, Lucia, and David from Discord. That is hardly enough to judge their reliability.
So at the moment this is less a finished product than a very interesting promise. But if CanoFlash really works as advertised, it could be one of the most unusual kinds of GBA flash cartridge out there.
We'll keep an eye on it.