Using Epilogue Retrace app with iPhone 13 Pro and Ubuntu

When Epilogue announced the Retrace app for iOS and Android I was over the moon excited. In theory this meant I could archive ROMs from the GB Operator directly to my iPhone where I play the games with the Delta emulator. This meant I wouldn't need to ferry ROMs between the GB Operator to my laptop to my phone. Unfortunately I ran into two hurdles with my plan, if you were able to get Retrace to work with a pre-USB-C iPhone let me know.

Upgrading the GB Operator firmware

First I saw that the Retrace app required a new firmware version for the GB Operator (v10.0.10), so I set out to update the GB Operator firmware. The documentation says to use Playback, so I went to update Playback. Previously Playback was distributed as an AppImage but newer versions use Flatpak. So... I had to figure out how to install a Flatpak on Ubuntu.

I did that, had the new Playback app on Ubuntu and... the firmware update notification never prompted in the app. I contacted support and learned that apparently the Linux versions of Playback don't support updating the firmware... So I needed a Windows computer. My wife's laptop is Windows, so I was able to update the firmware using her computer instead of my Ubuntu laptop.

Trying Retrace with an iPhone 13 Pro

GB Operator uses USB-C for power delivery and data transfer and comes with a high-quality USB-C cord. This is perfect for my laptop which only has USB-C ports.

Unfortunately, I would be using Retrace on an iPhone 13 Pro. The iPhone 13 Pro came before Apple was legally required to use USB-C on their phones in Europe, so the phone has a lightning port. I purchased a Lightning to USB-C adapter cord from the Apple Store.

But... that doesn't work with the GB Operator. It doesn't deliver power to the device. I was able to try with my wife's iPhone 15 Pro (which has USB-C) and power delivery worked like normal, the GB Operator turned on as usual. That's unfortunate.

In summary: if you want to use Epilogue Retrace you need a phone that supports USB-C and upgrading the GB Operator firmware requires either macOS or Windows... I guess I'll be using Playback on Ubuntu for the next five years now that I've just replaced my iPhone 13 Pro battery 😢

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