This article was put by Fredrik Stolpe
-Bung XChanger/Flash Linker with LSDJ
The Bung XChanger (a.k.a. Flash Linker) is a flash cart reader/writer for GB/GBA. With it you can transfer ROMs (LSDJ/games) and SRAM (LSDJ songs/game saves) to and from a PC in a simple and convenient way.
The actual XChanger unit is a purple transparent plastic box that connects to the PC trough a certain parallel port cable. It is battery operated but it can be used with a power supply.
The XChanger can read and write Bung’s own “Mr Flash?Ecarts. The largest cart is 64 Mbit, which is enough to store four copies of LSDJ, allowing you to work on four songs simultaneously.
Q-Can XChanger read and write Gb Transferer flash cartridges?
In addition to the Bung carts the XChanger can read ROM and SRAM from standard GB/GBC carts. Unfortunately it is currently not possible to read SRAM from the original LSDJ cart using the XChanger and GBX Tool.
There are some choices of PC software to operate the XChanger, whereof the best and most well maintained is the “GBX Tool?E(currently version 1.8). GBX Tool is pretty straightforward and needs no further explanation here.
There are few distributors outside Asia that holds the XChanger, and those who do mostly charge too much for it, so the best and cheapest way to get hold of it is to order it from Asia.
The XChanger can be bough in a starter-kit (“Flash Linker 64M Set?E that includes a 64Mbit cart and the parallel cable needed. Currently the price for the starter-kit at lik-sang is USD $89, and the 64Mbit carts are USD $69.
Airmail shipping from Asia can take anything between 3 to 110 days. Expect 1–3 weeks, but keep in mind that it can take up to 110 days.
There is no power supply available for the XChanger, but you can buy one (battery eliminator) in your closest electronics store. It should be 7–12 V (150mA or greater) with negative center.
Pros:
- It is the ultimate transfer system. You can hardly ask for more in terms of functionality.
- It’s easy to use and hassle-free.
Cons:
- It’s expensive.
- Bung quit production (see below).
- It’s hard to get hold of.
Notes:
Officially Bung is no longer making the product because of a lawsuit from Nintendo. However, the plans for shutting down production don’t seem to have gone that far yet. But keep in mind that the product may become unavailable and unsupported any day.
GBX Tool currently has limited (if any) support for Windows XP, and there are issues with Windows 2000. There are workarounds for the Windows 2000 issues, and they may work for XP as well (Se the Give IO link below). Anyhow, you can always use an older transfer tool for DOS.
Links:
http://mfm.subport.org/ Home of among other things the GBX Tool
http://bung.heha.net/ Bung Enterprises homepage. Downloads, FAQ and a manual for the XChanger (seems to be not longer available)
http://defaced.co.uk/bung/ http://defaced.co.uk/bung/support/download.htm Copy of the old bung site. software can be downloaded here.
Lik Sang? Recommended Asian distributor
http://www.lan-kwei.com/ Another Asian distributor
http://www.ziegler.desaign.de/readplus.htm In depth coverage of different backup systems and techniques
http://home.t-online.de/home/marhal/gbxreview-old.htm An old review of the XChanger
Hebe GB is a tool that allows you to rename the internal name of GB/GBC ROMs. In order to store multiple copies of LSDJ in the same cart, each copy needs to have a unique internal name.
http://www.bottledlight.com/tools.html A place where you can find the Give IO driver, to make GBX Tool work under Win NT systems