About Brew Retro
Brew Retro is a small community library of original Game Boy Color homebrew made for the ModRetro Chromatic. Most of these games were built with OpenAI Codex and the ModRetro Chromatic plugin.
Every game here can be played in your browser, downloaded as a .gbc ROM, or sent to your Chromatic with a ready-made Codex prompt. There are no accounts, no tracking and no ads.
How to install a game on your Chromatic
You will need:
- A Chromatic with Developer Mode turned on. You switch it on in ModRetro’s updater app with the activation code that ships with the Codex Edition.
- The Codex desktop app with the ModRetro Chromatic plugin installed.
- A writable cartridge and a USB data cable (some cables only charge).
- Turn on Developer Mode on your Chromatic using ModRetro’s updater app and your Codex Edition activation code.
- Connect the Chromatic, with the writable cartridge inserted, to your computer using the USB data cable.
- Open a game in the library and press Install on Chromatic. The install prompt is copied to your clipboard.
- Paste the prompt into the Codex desktop app and send it. Codex downloads the ROM, checks its SHA-256 against the one on the game page, inspects it, then flashes it to the cartridge.
- Unplug, power on and play.
Installing erases the cartridge. The game on it is replaced, and the saves on it may be lost too. Back up anything you want to keep first.
Try on device
The Try on device prompt asks Codex to stream a two-minute live demo of the game to your connected Chromatic, so you can feel the controls, picture and sound on real hardware. Nothing is written to the cartridge.
Playing in the browser
Click the game screen first so it receives your key presses. On phones and tablets, on-screen buttons appear instead.
| Chromatic | Keyboard |
|---|---|
| D-pad | ← ↑ ↓ → |
| A | X |
| B | Z |
| Start | Enter |
| Select | Shift or Tab |
Battery saves are kept in your browser.
What’s allowed
Brew Retro is for original Game Boy Color homebrew, shared by the people who made it.
- Your own game. You made it, or you have the right to share it.
- Nothing that belongs to someone else. No commercial games, no ROM dumps, and no characters, music or art from other people’s games, films or shows.
- Nothing hateful or explicit. No hate, no harassment, no sexual content, in the game or on its label.
A person reviews every submission before it joins the library. Some wording is refused automatically when you send it.
Reporting a game
If a game doesn’t work, isn’t the uploader’s own work, or shouldn’t be here, press Report a problem with this game at the bottom of its page. You can leave an email if you’d like to hear back; it is never published. We read every report.
If a game here is your work and you want it taken down, email us with a link to the game page. We act quickly.
Share your game
Made an original game for the Chromatic? Upload it here. You drop in the .gbc file, capture a cover from the running game and add a few details. A person reviews every submission, usually within a few days, before it joins the library.
Questions about a submission? Email us.
Credits
- Browser play uses binjgb by Ben Smith, under the MIT license.
- The sample games are by Nirmal Utwani, under the MIT license (license text).