ESP32 board
Joins the Switch's wireless room. ESP32-S3, C6, C3 or the original ESP32.
The Switch encrypts its local wireless with keys from the console, so the board needs four of them from your own Switch. The file is read here in your browser and only those four values go to the board, over USB. Nothing is uploaded.
Details
- Chip
- –
- Firmware
- –
- Console
- –
- Signal from the Switch
- –
More options
Installing again keeps the stored keys. Erasing everything does not.
GB-Link adapter
Plugs into the Game Boy Advance in place of a Wireless Adapter.
- Put the adapter in update mode
- Let the browser use it: click the button and pick RP2 Boot
- Write the firmware
- Reconnect
Details
- Firmware
- –
- Wireless adapter mode
- –
- Connected over
- –
More options
Install a .uf2 of your own:
By hand: hold BOOTSEL while plugging the adapter in, then copy the firmware file onto the RPI-RP2 drive that appears.
Play
The two boards talk either over a few wires, with no computer involved, or through this page.
–
Standalone
Join the boards with three wires and power them from anything. This page is not needed while you play.
Connect the board in step 1 to see which of its pins go to the adapter's GP8 and GP9.
| ESP32 board | GB-Link adapter |
|---|---|
| GP8 | |
| GP9 | |
| GND | GND |
Through this computer
Leave both boards plugged into USB and let this page carry the link. Keep the tab open and in view while you play.
Connect both boards first.
- To the adapter
- 0 frames
- From the adapter
- 0 KB
- Board restarts followed
- 0
On the consoles
- On the Switch, go upstairs in a Pokémon Center to the Direct Corner, choose Trade Center or Colosseum, and become the group leader.
- On the Game Boy Advance, with the adapter plugged in, choose the same activity and join a group. The Switch player is listed after a few seconds.
- When you leave the room, the ESP32 board restarts and is ready for the next one about ten seconds later.
Trades and single battles work. To trade without a Game Boy Advance at all, choose Just the Switch at the top of this page.
Trade
This page plays the second game, so the board from step 1 is all it takes.
Wonder Trade to a trade pool: the pool picks the Pokémon you get, and what the Switch gives for it goes into the pool for whoever comes next. See what is in the pool at pokemon.gblink.io/pool.
A party of your own, loaded and saved as .pk3 files and kept in this browser. What the Switch sends takes the place of what you gave.
The Switch
The pool
Click a Pokémon to offer it, once both of you are at the trade table. Nothing is offered until you do, so the Switch can leave the menu with a single cancel. ↓ saves one as a .pk3 file and ↑ puts a different one in its place; a file dropped on a slot does the same.
The pool's Pokémon shows up here together with the Switch's team, once both of you are at the trade table. Accept trade puts it on offer, before or after choosing yours on the Switch; Cancel trade answers with a cancel instead. Until you press one, a single CANCEL on the Switch leaves the menu, and sitting down again brings a different Pokémon.
Kept here
The trade pool did not confirm these swaps, so what the Switch gave was kept in this browser instead. ↓ saves one as a .pk3 file.
On the Switch
- Go upstairs in a Pokémon Center to the Direct Corner, choose Trade Center, and become the group leader.
- Press Connect here. This page asks to join a few seconds later: accept it on the Switch.
- Sit down at the trade table. The trade menu opens with both sides' Pokémon.
- CANCEL in the trade menu brings you back to the room, where sitting down again opens a new menu. Leaving the room ends the visit.
More options
The board finds the room and does the wireless, as it does for a real Game Boy Advance; this page only plays the game. Keep the tab in view while you trade, because a browser slows a tab it is not showing and a game that stops answering is dropped.
Your party is kept in this browser. A Pokémon that arrives takes the place of the one that went, so choosing it again trades it straight back.