I’ll also speak up in support of modding a GBA over purchasing something like the analogue pocket. Its cheaper and its original hardware. You can buy the screens off websites like retromodding. Its like ~$60CAD and i promise it is incredibly easy. If you have solder experience you can solder one wire for brightness settings, but if u dont want to solder, u can just plug and play and it stays on the default brightness.
As someone who had zero previous modding experience, i purchased a screen and shell and pulled up a youtube video to follow along. It took me under an hour and its a very rewarding experience!
If you still dont want to, you can buy already modded GBA off eBay, or could buy an AGS-101 GBA SP. they come with backlit screens (later model) if u dont mind paying a bit more and losing the og GBA form factor
These are the two ive modded over the past while !
Might also be relevant to the discussion here, but you can also play ROMs on original/modded hardware with flash carts (though I think modded hardware can run into some problems with some flash carts).
You might have to do a bit of research on available flash carts though. I had an EZ Flash Jr that I was using for Gameboy Color gaming, and it just recently bricked on me (while on vacation ). Now, it’s just basically a paperweight because I’m not good with electrical things and the support for it is nonexistent.
Don’t know if other members here have more experience in this area or have any opinions.
I have an Everdrive Mini that’s been working without issues for GBA. It’s more expensive than the EZ-Flash cartridges and doesn’t have stuff like rumble pack, but I’ve really enjoyed it. And it did feel nice to support a team of people who had to flee Ukraine too.
I can’t say if it’s actually better than the EZ-Flash since I haven’t used that myself to be able to compare. The main selling point I’ve seen between the 2 is that the Everdrive leads to much better battery life.
This thread makes me wonder if anyone has modded a D-pad on a Micro. It’s my favorite Game Boy in every other way but the D-pad really is awful, flimsy and loose feeling. The polar opposite of the SP which was amazing, almost too stiff, really like that one.
Analogue is releasing a glow in the dark edition pocket edition that drops on September 1st. I’ve kicked around the idea of buying one the past few months. Everything that I’ve heard and read about them says they are the superior handheld retro gaming option, bar none.
I haven’t personally, but on any of the Game Boys it’s pretty easy to replace the d-pad. Once you take the motherboard out, it’s just a rubber pad laying on the motherboard with the d-pad then laying on top of that. I’m sure there are third party ones that would fit it.
They did. And there are ways around that. But that’s not a story the Jedi would tell you.
Honestly, best decision of my life was just buying a a cartridge dumper so I could dump every cart I owned. Now I can play NES → Gameboy all on my gameboy, or my psp, or PC. Doing that lets you figure out what console really fits your needs best. Or if playing on pc is what you want too.
Again echoing what others have said. (I love Game Boys though, so I’m posting!) Modded original GBA is the way to go. If you don’t want a modded one, get a GBA SP (the kind that flip open), but get the version GBA SP that has a brighter screen, called “AGS-101”. (It sounds a little complicated, but they’ll mention that in the title of the listing, because it is the more popular of the GBA SP models.)
If you are a newbie, an Analogue Pocket is overkill. I have an AP and they are amazing, but I honestly prefer to play a modded GBA most of the time.
Yes, funnily enough Nintendo tested EVERY (licensed) gameboy and gameboy color game to make sure it was compatible with the gameboy advance. The ONLY thing you need to take note of is:
OG GBA does not have any back or front light
GBA SP 001 is frontlit
GBA SP 101 is backlit (best option imo)
GBA micro does NOT play gameboy or gameboy color games
If you have a gamecube, and enough money, you could get a GameBoy Player and the disc and play (nearly) all your gameboy, gameboy color, and gameboy advance games (yes even the ones that require motion, see attached video at the bottom) on your TV.
And as pointed out by others earlier, you can play GBA games on the Nintendo DS but not gameboy and gameboy color games. I don’t know if you can’t play them because of some physical restriction (think like US SNES with a tab stopping you from playing JP SNES games) or because the system just refuses to launch the game.
The Analogue Pocket is a fantastic system thats more in line with modern wants in a game system but waiting minimum 14 months or paying a scalper is honestly not worth it. You would be better off getting a 101 or a modded OG GBA. Also, a note, if you get your GBA modded PLEASE keep in mind that a backlit screen uses more energy and therefore uses batteries up faster and you should get a rechargeable mod but those can also cause problems and are expensive, rechargeable AA batteries are also a choice. A 101 is honestly the best option just because it’s rechargeable and backlit (and more portable due to it being able to fold).
Gba/gba sp can run color games because it has both the hardwares and processors, it’s almost 2 consoles in one. When you put an old gb cartridge you will trigger a switch and the system will boot in the old 5volt mode and effortlessly runs these games.
They removed this feature with the gba micro, and so, unfortunately, the DS lite totally lack the gameboy color circuitry and processor.
So it will always be unable to run these games natively, and can only boot up in 3.3v mode (ds and gba voltage). Thankfully its cpu is powerful enough to emulate though!
Ah so the same situation as the Wii Mini and it being unable to play gamecube games (not even mentioning the fact that the ports are removed anyways). Tjanks for the info though I wasnt aware that the games didn’t work because the micro/ds were literally missing the components.
). Now, it’s just basically a paperweight because I’m not good with electrical things and the support for it is nonexistent.
