CanoFlash – Wi-Fi for your GBA (but not for gaming, sniff)

CanoFlash – Wi-Fi for your GBA (but not for gaming, sniff)

September 14, 2026 at 09:42
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KORBEN ✨/3 MIN READ/Related categories

A Spanish developer, Emilio Cano Pérez, has just released the SDK for his CanoFlash, a small box built on a XIAO ESP32-S3 that plugs into a Game Boy Advance’s Link port. This requires no modification to the console, and no soldering iron either (cool!), and once plugged in, it lets the console get the Wi-Fi connection it never had!

So how does it work? Well, the thing boots in Multiboot mode and pushes its own application into the console’s RAM. Then it’s the one that handles all the networking, while the GBA just exchanges fixed-size packets with it. In other words, a game doesn’t need to know Wi-Fi exists. It just talks to the box through the SDK available on GitHub, which provides it with public matchmaking, private rooms, and matches for up to eight players.

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Except before you dig your Game Boy out of the drawer, you need to read
the creator’s FAQ
because he writes there that online play will only work in games that integrate his SDK, and that it doesn’t automatically turn the Link multiplayer of existing games into internet multiplayer. Argh, that’s a shame really. So that means your sticky old Pokémon Ruby cartridge won’t work over Wi-Fi… To play, you’ll need homebrews compiled with the kit, plus one box and one console per player.

Now, if it’s really your old cartridges you want to play remotely, the device that does that is the
GB-Link USB I told you about back in June
. It disguises itself as a Link cable, connects via USB-C to a computer or an Android smartphone, and a different web client speaks each game’s protocol: Pokémon trades from the first three generations, Advance Wars matches. Along the same lines,
ChisLink
is a project you build yourself, whose relay carries the packets of games compatible with Nintendo’s wireless adapter.

This CanoFlash limitation isn’t a design quirk, by the way, because the wireless adapter released by Nintendo in 2004 was exactly the same. It only worked with 46 compatible games, all released between 2004 and 2006. It didn’t replace the Link cable either.

So really, the CanoFlash’s true purpose is mainly to let you browse your homebrews and personal saves over Wi-Fi, flash the game of your choice onto your rewritable cartridge, and sync saves, all without a PC.

However, that compatible rewritable cartridge I’m talking about, based on the S29GL256, is essential, and it’s neither included nor sold in the CanoFlash Kickstarter campaign. Same goes for the battery, even though the box can run on USB-C. So factor in the cost of the cartridge on top of everything before getting too excited, and also know that the Kickstarter campaign still hasn’t launched as I write these lines.

The
SDK, on the other hand, is already here
, and it compiles without having any hardware at all on hand. So there’s plenty to prep your game quietly while waiting for the hardware to actually exist…

• https://canoflash.com/en/
• https://www.xda-developers.com/someone-made-an-esp32-powered-device-that-links-up-gba-consoles-over-the-internet/

This article was originally written in French and automatically translated. Read the original.
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