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Incube8 Games is one of the leading publishers of homebrew Game Boy games, but it's recently faced criticism online for the handling of one of its Kickstarter projects.
Infinity is a Game Boy Color title I've personally covered on Time Extension before. Originally starting development in the late '90s, it is a love letter to classic Japanese RPGs that was initially being created at Affinix Software, a small Californian company, but was cancelled in 2002 after the team was unable to find a publisher.
Over the years, remnants of what the team created surfaced online in the form of a playable ROM and a soundtrack release, eventually culminating in a 2021 Kickstarter from Incube8 Games that promised to finally finish the game with new blood. This Kickstarter raised CA$370,823 from 3,458 backers and set a tentative shipping date of September 2022. Since then, however, the game has taken much longer than anyone anticipated, with physical rewards only beginning to ship to customers last month.
Even then, it appears not all physical rewards were shipped when orders started going out, and that those who did receive the game reported issues with what they described as "incorrectly spec'd components in their cartridges". This led a concerned backer to get in touch with Time Extension to see if we could find out what exactly was going on.
First off, we reached out to Incube8 Games about an update on the physical rewards. In response, it shared with us a draft of its next Kickstarter update, stating that "40% of all physical rewards have now shipped" but "the second wave has taken longer than expected."
"Our fulfilment partner recently migrated from their previous shipping software to a new proprietary platform," the update reads. "Our rewards had already been entered into the old system, but about two weeks ago, we discovered that some had not been imported into the new one. Identifying the missing entries, coordinating with their team, and completing the import took longer than anticipated while their new platform was still being refined. That issue has now been resolved, and all rewards have been imported into the new fulfilment system."
"Second, some add-ons required additional preparation, including posters, certain collector cards, and cartridge protectors. These items were available for assembling collector’s editions, but preparing them as individual add-ons involved a few extra steps. Our fulfilment partner requires every individual item to have a scannable barcode. Something that sounds as simple as placing a poster in a shipping box therefore requires additional preparation: we can’t attach a barcode directly to the poster, so it first needs protective packaging, such as a sleeve or envelope, with a barcode label applied manually to the outside."
In this update, Incube8 Games provided an updated timeline on when the next wave of orders will ship. Wave 2 is currently being prepared, while international versions and other physical rewards (including the vinyl record) are expected to ship in Q1 2027 and Q2 2027, respectively.
Concerns, meanwhile, about the components used in the cartridge were not addressed. To give an explanation, many of the older Incube8 Games' releases used cartridges specifically designed with parts made for the GBC's 5V system, but with Infinity, the components used in cartridges (specifically the flash and the FRAM) have a voltage limit of 3.3v, which has sparked some fears that it may potentially damage the game or even consoles (something we're currently inquiring about). This is despite the original campaign promising "quality Gameboy Color PCBs from Inside Gadget", a company that Game Boy modder Bucket Mouse says "would never use 3.3V parts without proper level translation."
In response to this, Incube8 Games responded to this Reddit thread, stating, "Please be aware that all our games have a warranty, and we replace all cartridges at no cost if anything happens.
The company's chief marketing officer, Gary Doireau, meanwhile, added in the same thread, "The concern about the FRAM is valid: it is supplied with 5v even though it is specified for 3.3v operation. If your cartridge stops working, we will replace it free of charge. Replacements currently use the same PCB design. We do not currently have a revised design ready that operates the FRAM within its specified voltage range, and we cannot provide a timeline for one."
We messaged InsideGadgets to confirm their lack of involvement in the project and to get their thoughts on the situation. They replied with the following:
"That's right. We didn’t have anything to do with the Infinity carts and haven’t supplied cartridges to Incube8 Games for a few years now. Around the time that Incube8 Games acquired Greenboy Games in 2023, they stopped ordering cartridges from us. The potential risk of damage is to the cart and also the hardware running the game, over time there could be some degradation.
The cart’s flash chip and FRAM save chip are running at 5v when they have only been made to handle 3.3v. A lot of bootleg carts have done similar things, as it saves on cost, but it can be mitigated if they use level shifters to shift the 5v into 3.3v and vice versa. Over the past years, with some 3.3v bootleg carts, the highest chance of damage happens when you try to re-flash the game; the flash chip starts failing, and data is no longer written properly. For the hardware running the cart, the risk of damage is to its output drivers when it’s outputting 5v to the 3.3v part. The 3.3v part will be dragging down the 5v output as it’s trying to pull as much current as possible due to the voltage mismatch, and we don’t know the maximum current that the output driver is rated for."
We messaged Incube8 Games to ask why this switchover occurred. It replied:
"When the Kickstarter ran, our cartridges used InsideGadgets boards, as mentioned in the campaign. Since then, rising component prices, new US tariffs, changes to EU import rules and higher shipping rates have added significant costs to every unit we ship. Boards and assembly make up most of what it costs us to manufacture a game, so that's where we had to save. We moved assembly overseas and switched to a manufacturer whose boards cost about a third as much, which let us absorb those new costs instead of passing them on to backers. This supplier's boards initially used 5V-rated flash and mapper chips, but as 5V-rated parts became more expensive and harder to source, their designs progressively moved to 3.3V, starting with the save memory and then the flash.
On the board used for Infinity: The flash and save memory are 3.3V components, powered at 3.3V (the Game Boy's 5V is converted to 3.3V by a dedicated regulator on the cartridge).
The mapper runs natively at 5V. There is no level shifting on the signal lines to the flash and save memory, so those 3.3V chips receive the Game Boy's 5V signals, which is above their rated input.
Once this was raised, we asked our manufacturer for a revised design that fixes it."
Asked if the publisher was planning to switch back, it replied:
"5V components are being phased out, so rather than going back, we're moving to a better board. Our manufacturer has built a revised design with level shifters (SN74LVC16T245) between the console and the 3.3V components, so every component runs within its rating, for both power and signals. The first samples are on their way to us now, and an electrical engineer outside the company will review and test them before they go into production. Once they do: The international editions of Infinity, including the Kickstarter international version, will launch on the new board. Future production runs will use it. The current English editions will stay on the existing board until that stock runs out."
As for whether there's any risk with the current cartridges, Incube8 replied,
"In theory, running chips above their rated input voltage can shorten their life. The parts under that stress are the memory chips on the cartridge, not the console. In practice, we haven't had any reports of damaged consoles, and the defect rate on these cartridges is equal to or lower than on our previous, more expensive boards.
We're also extending the warranty on all Incube8 cartridges to two years from delivery. Any cartridge that stops working within that period will be repaired or replaced. For Infinity, replacements will use the new level-shifted board once it's in production."
Did you back the project? We'd love to know your thoughts on these changes and the updated timeline.