Guide
Everything from first install to a shelf’s worth of backups on one card. New here? Start at the top. Otherwise, jump straight to the bit you need.
Install ChroMagic
One USB cable, four steps. ChroMagician does the flashing and checks its own work.
Install the USB drivers through ModRetro’s MRUpdater, then close it.
Download and install ChroMagician on your PC.
Open ChroMagician, plug your Chromatic into your PC over USB, then turn it on.
Open Firmware, choose ChroMagic, and click Install ChroMagic. Leave your Chromatic on and plugged in until the app says it’s done.
Restore stock firmware
Choose Stock in ChroMagician’s Firmware tab and click Restore stock. Leave your Chromatic on and plugged in until it finishes.
ModRetro’s MRUpdater can put stock firmware back too.
Back up and restore with ChroMagician
Open ChroMagician, plug your Chromatic in over USB, then turn it on. On the handheld, switch on SYSTEM → C. MAGICIAN. Whatever cartridge is in the slot shows up in the app.
From here, ChroMagician backs up games and saves to your PC or to the SD card inside your Chromatic, writes saves back onto their cartridges, and manages the files on the SD card.
ChroMagician can also write homebrew onto any Chromatic game cartridge: choose Write Homebrew, pick your .gb or .gbc file, and the app flashes it and checks the result. This replaces whatever game is on the cartridge, so back it up first.
Back up on your Chromatic
Insert the cartridge, open SYSTEM → CART BACKUP, and press A. The game and its save are written to the microSD card and named for you. Leave your Chromatic on until the backup finishes.
Play your backups
Open the BACKUPS tab, pick a game, and press A. It loads with its save, exactly as if the cartridge were in the slot.
SD playback is experimental and not perfect yet. Anything odd, from a crash to a game that won’t load, is worth a bug report with the game and what happened.
Compatibility
Backups and SD playback cover nearly the whole Game Boy and Game Boy Color library, including the Chromatic’s own cartridges. A few games rely on hardware inside the cartridge itself, like a tilt sensor or a camera, and those aren’t supported.
Games that won’t work:
- Kirby Tilt ’n’ Tumble / Koro Koro Kirby
- Command Master (Japan)
- Game Boy Camera / Pocket Camera, including the gold edition
- Game de Hakken!! Tamagotchi: Osutchi to Mesutchi (Japan)
- Net de Get: Minigame @ 100 (Japan)
- Pocket Family GB and GB2 (Japan)
- Robopon: Sun Version (USA) and every Robot Poncots version (Japan)
- Momotarou Collection 2 (Japan)
- Taito Variety Pack (Japan)
- Mani 4-in-1, DMG-601 through DMG-605 (China)
Densha de Go! 2 (Japan) is the one exception in the other direction: it backs up, but it’s too large to play from the card. Compatibility with unlicensed and bootleg cartridges isn’t guaranteed.
SD card setup
Backups on the handheld live on a microSD card, and the Chromatic keeps its socket on the inside. Every Chromatic from the 2025 model onward has the socket fitted; most first editions don’t, see below. Getting a card in is a ten-minute job with the right screwdriver.
Use a microSD card formatted as FAT32. Cards up to 128 GB have been tested.
First-edition Chromatic
First-edition Chromatics say 1st Edition under the Chromatic logo on the front. Most have the solder pads for a microSD socket but no socket fitted, though first editions sold through GameStop reportedly do have one, so check the board before buying parts. If the socket is missing, either of these fits the pads:
Fitting the card
Turn off your Chromatic, unplug USB, remove any cartridge, and disconnect the batteries or battery pack.
With a Y1 tri-wing screwdriver, follow steps 1–5 of ModRetro’s disassembly guide for the 2025 model or first edition to remove the main board.
The socket is on the screen side of the board. Slide the microSD card in with its gold contacts facing the board, then put everything back together in reverse order.
No SD card? You still get most of the magic. ChroMagician backs up games and saves to your PC, restores saves to cartridges, and installs firmware, all over USB.
Connection help
ChroMagician not seeing your Chromatic, or stuck on Loading? First try the order that works best: open ChroMagician, plug in your Chromatic, then turn it on. If that doesn’t help, the usual suspect is the cable. Plenty of USB cables only carry power, so try one you know transfers data. Then make sure MRUpdater is closed, and unplug and reconnect your Chromatic.
Still stuck? Open an issue with the error the app shows and your operating system, and we’ll dig in.