GB Operator

The GB Operator is a device which allows you to read and write GameBoy/GameBoy Color/GameBoy Advance cartridges.

ChimeraOS offers a plug and play integration with the GB Operator device.

Setup

Simply plug in the GB Operator while your ChimeraOS device is turned off. Turn on your device and ChimeraOS will detect the GB Operator and automatically add a Steam shortcut called "Cart Loader".

Launching carts

You can launch game carts simply by plugging them in to the GB Operator device, or by manually running the "Cart Loader" shortcut. It can take 5-10 seconds for the game to launch, because the game must first be read from the cartridge in its entirety.

Game saves are supported, but to avoid possible corruption, game saves are not read from nor written to the cartridge itself. Instead they are stored separately on the ChimeraOS system.

Limitations

Currently, only GameBoy and GameBoy Color carts are supported. GameBoy Advance carts are not supported.

MIG Flash Dumper

The MIG Flash Dumper allows you to play Switch games directly from the cartridge.

You must first setup the emulator according to these instructions.

Once the emulator is set up, just plug in your MIG Flash Dumper, insert your game cartridge and the game will launch automatically.

Make sure to plug in your MIG Flash Dumper BEFORE starting your ChimeraOS system.

NFC

ChimeraOS allows you to launch any game via NFC tags. This allows some fun use cases, such as creating NFC cards to physically represent your digital games, or applying NFC stickers to your physical retro games or boxes.

Enable remote launch

Follow the instructions here to enable remote launch. This will show a "Launch" button in the Chimera app for each installed game. This special link will launch the game if you open it.

Creating tags

You can use your phone to write tag data. You must download an NFC app such as "NFC Tools" (Android). Open the Chimera app on your phone and find the game you want to create an NFC tag for. Copy the "Launch" link and write that using your NFC app, make sure to set the data format as a URL.

Launch with phone

To launch a game by scanning an NFC tag with your phone, make sure your ChimeraOS device is on and connected to the same network as your phone. Then while on your phone's home screen, tap the NFC tag to the back of your phone. A browser window should open and the game should launch on your ChimeraOS machine. Once the game is launched, close the browser.

Launch with USB device

You can also directly connect a USB NFC reader to your ChimeraOS machine and launch games by tapping your NFC tags. You will have to first create tags using your phone. Writing tag data to NFC cards using the USB NFC reader/writer is not currently supported.

The following NFC readers are supported:

• ACR122U

Make sure the NFC reader is connected BEFORE starting your ChimeraOS system.