Slashdot Mirror
Turn Your GBA Into A Game Console
Kon writes "Here's a site that has photos and describes some very nice mods for the GameBoy Advance
(original model), which make it function more like a video game console, yet still
remaining portable. These mods include a Neo Geo joystick attachment, power management
mod, and an RGB LCD monitor attachment. If you're not too squeamish you can try
them as well, using the instructions which are provided."
Less trouble that way.
This is my sig. There are many others like it, but this one is mine.
I already killed one GBA when I tried installing an afterburner. Never ever ever ever ever again! (I think I moved the canned air too close to the LCD and the extreme cold killed it)
Slashdotter are stupid and biased.
Styx rocks! Come on everyone, You know the words:
Too much time on my hands...
Too much time on my hands...
evil adrian
Buy the gameboy advance player for 40 bucks and hook it to your gamecube.
GBA player + (used) gamecube ~= 120 bucks.
There is, however, a TV tuner with composite inputs for GBA available. Anyone have a link to the thing? It'd sure come in handy next time the power goes out.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
I haven't heard the name "prodigy" in ages... not since they still had their horsey graphics driven client and I was using Compuserve's CIS Manager in DOS :)
Coming next: how to buy a Sony Walkman and nail it to your wall!!
Is it just me ir is this completely missing the point!
I never apologise, I'm sorry but that's just the way I am - Homer
...well. From a technical achievement, that's very good. Impressive, lots of good stuff going on. From an 'improving the GBA' perspective, that's really kinda dumb. If you're going to do all that, just get a PS1 for the same price and not all the work, and you've got just about the same amount of portability.
The idea behind the GBA is the portability. Seriously. Tacking on all that extra stuff does not make the GBA better.
=Brian
There is nothing so good that someone, somewhere, will not hate it.
Don't forget about the PocketNES emulator for the GBA that allows you to play over 8000 NES games on the GBA in full speed. One 256Mb flash cart can hold over 1000 NES games.
he's didn't make a webserver mod for his GBA, cause with the roughly 3 megs of images, the slashdot effect will be like dropping a 600 tonne boulder on an ant.
Canadian Cynic, canadian politics is less boring than you
PA said it well in their Addendum To The Manual
(Warning : contains a bad word or two)
I would have imagined hooking up the dead GBA to an external LCD screen would have been on the top of your list of priorities. Or are you one of the people who has that "common sense" thing everyone's talking about, and threw out/had professionally repaired/exchanged that GBA.
Karma: Excellent^(-t/Tau), Tau=Wittiness/Trollishness
perhaps one could use units like this to demonstrate gba games..
a bit polishing though.. but at least it would be an eyecatcher for sure.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
This kinda voids my LCD joystick project.
Here's a level 1 mirror loaded onto my server: http://www.howtocode.net/mirrors/slashdot_9_29_200 3_gameboy_mod/index.php
Large-images are still linked to his server, but this should help the load a bit.
Here are some very cool modules.. not mods but i doubt anyone could make one of these themself
Game Boy Advance goes wireless
Gameboy Video Phone Module
I'd be even more impressed if they could make a portable Gamecube. That would even be useful aswell as cool!
NOW!!!!!!
The GBA is a game console, albeit a portable one. I can turn a functioning GBA into something not a game console, but turning one into a game console when it's already one is -1 Redundant.
But this one *does* feel pointless, even if it's marginally cheaper than the alternative.
Gamecube + Game Boy Player + Battery pack + LCD screen.
That's maybe 3-5 hours of game time on a single charge, but you can then play any GBA/GB games as well as the full GameCube library.
Granted, it suffers of a horribly reduced hack value, but for some reason, I'm OK with that.
Raptor
"Procrastination is great. It gives me a lot more time to do things that I'm never going to do."
This has to be like the dumbest "mod" I have ever seen. If the regular GBA isn't big enough or have a full featured gamepad, get a gameboy player, see you can get a screen for the gamecube and a battery pack. That would cost about the same and not void any warranties. This mod is moot.
I hate sigs.
With the GameCube now priced the same as the GBA, one might as well just skip the "turn your GBA into a console" bit and go straight to owning a console! =)
"Yeah, well, Dracula called and he's coming over tonight for you and I said okay."
Its a bit too expensive and impractical to do. I like the idea of it and I give props to the people who took the time to do a bit of reverse engineering. Ill probably end up doing the controller part of it in my spare time for fun, but the screen is just not worth it.
I was hoping somebody figured out how to get a neogeo pocket D pad on there cuz that would be amazing. I have yet to come across a better hand held controller.
-after all, the gameboy advance was essentially designed as a scaled down SNES
It's been done before, too.
Be very afraid
Fuck Beta. Fuck Dice
I'm serious, that guy is a genius.
I've actually been working on a similar project - turning a notebook into a computer. I don't have any pictures at the moment, but in a nutshell, it pretty much involves tying a ball and chain onto my PowerBook G4. How do you like MY apples?
Is it possible to make your GBA do some useful none-game task, like IR remote control or mini-PDA or something? Any open source projects? What language do you code the stuff in anyway? Damn, this got me interested...
1) A good oven mit insulator.
2) A retarded frisby.
3) Think brass knuckles...
4) Think brick...
5) A shovel.
6) A cause of eye problems.
7) A mirror.
8) The brunt of slashdot jokes ("In soviet russia. GBA's convert you", "Imagine what a beowolf cluster of them...", "What about gamegirls, you insentive clod!")
There's a growing sense that even if The Future comes,
most of us won't be able to afford it.
-- Lemmy
I want to install my GBA into a PC server case.
Gameboy? Nothing still beats the The GAMEMAN!!! 3-foot, 100+lbs full-scale working version of the Gameboy!
i would have found a sega game running on a nintendo platform using a sony ps1 monitor odd.
amazing how the competitive markets change.
Or he likes keeping interesting madifications as a secret.
why is this a troll?
Here's the instructions written with the help of a really bad webcam and MS Paint. I really need to get a digital camera one day.
Why would someone do such a thing? This way, you don't have to import a Famicom to play your favorit famicom carts, which is a good thing if you decide to spend a ton of money on importing the best darn Famicom game ever.... (Sure, some people would call me insane, but I consider it to be more valuable and far more rare than several of today's newest top games, such as Tron 2, Jedi Academy, and HomeWorld 2.)
Anyways, if you don't own a cart of Nekketsu Kakutou Densetsu or Nekketsu Street Basket, try a game genie code that will let you play a 4 player game of Four Player Super Dodge Ball, or if you want to hack it, you could get a 3 player game of Stinger going.
Pure fun. Honest.
i actually modded my old version GBA with a tv adapter... works great.
i also have the GBC rom copier "game jack" with a 128M cartridge.
a game boy color and 15-20 game boy games comes with it... everything included.
email mike at@at kristopeit dot.dot com if you are interrested.
MARIJUANA, SHROOMS, X: ONLINE?! - E
why is this a troll?
because the parent is a 12-year-old AOLer?
There's a Penny Arcade for every situation. God (or lack thereof) knows I'm not going to try a mod where chances are decent I'm just going to break my GBA. The mod gets point for geekness, but is definitely on the impractical side.
as I would title it:
"Turn lots of time, money, resources, into a less useful GBA with a marginally larger screen."
It's short for cartridge.
I mean, what the hell. Make it 4x as large and 10x as clumbsey. Must be a second cousin to this guy - the Civic mod .
No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
U'r lame.
They have WAY too much time on their hands.
Because we are purposely bitchslapping tekiegreg's excellent karma.
How many times do nned to have people posting "DUH, whats the point, it has been done before, its not very pratical, etc" to each article like this?
I sware we need a section about this in the slashfaq to address these redundent and uninsightful posts.
rofl, careful, or you'll make him run home and cry to his mommie :-)
Liberal and exotic usage of the words "nice" and "portable!"
Get a far better effect by hooking a GBA TV-out convertor to either an Olympus Eye-Trek or Sony Glasstron head mounted display.
Honestly, the things can be had for right around $200 on Ebay. This person probably spent about that much on his little setup.
Happiness is relative, Based upon the way we live.
Hasn't Nintendo already basicly covered this area with the whole Game Boy Player thing? I mean it outputs to the TV with whatever video connection your GameCube has, and it allows you to use any GC controller while you're at it. I don't really see the point...
"When all else fails, there's always delusion." -Conan O'Brien
yet still remaining portable
yeah right!
I saw this Portable Playstation on TechTV the other day. It has the polish the GBA mod lacks.
mr.
I was all set to get a Dremel tool when I saw that. And I didn't know where I was going to store the Leprechaun.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
I'm always disappointed when I see these 'mods' where all they do is rip out the internal components and solder a few wires to the controller. How much engineering skill does that really require? Just a drill, a soldering iron, and some basic electronics. I mean really, you can't do very much considering all of the GBA is integrated into mostly one chip. I think a more interesting mod would be where you actually interface with the GBA directly through it's game card slot or it's input ports. Sure it would take a lot of research studying protocols, but you could do so much more than just put a bunch of console systems together.
I guess it's impressive though for what it is but I wouldn't consider it a complete solution for making the gameboy into a game console. It looks too bulky.
- forgot to mention that you can just use a Television adapter, instead of buying a PS1 LCD screen. So it isn't necessarily too expensive.
You'll also need a PlayStation Dual Shock controller and a nYko Play Cube adapter. Nintendo unwisely chose to put the GameCube controller's digital cross pad in a hard-to-reach corner. Using a PlayStation controller instead swaps the cross pad and the left stick to place precise digital control right where you need it. (Compatibility warning: The Play Cube adapter works with PS1 Dual Shock controllers and PS2 Dual Shock 2 controllers but does not work with dance pads or other PS1 digital controllers.)
I recommend the PS1 analog controller + Play Cube adapter combination because 1. many gamers already have a PS1 analog controller, and 2. unlike the Hori Digital Controller (a Super NES lookalike game pad for the GameCube), I could actually find the PS1 controller and Play Cube adapter at a local store. Neither Wal-Mart nor EBGames nor Best Buy carried the Hori Digital Controller last time I checked.
Will I retire or break 10K?
That would work for a few titles but not all titles. The set of titles available for the Game Boy Advance does not equal the set of titles available for the Super NES, and neither is a subset of the other. GBA Game Paks hold more data than Super NES Game Paks held, and frame rates in 3D games using the GBA's ARM7TDMI processor are better than frame rates in 3D games using the Super NES's Super FX processor.
Just get a GameCube ($100), a Game Boy Player ($50), and a nYko Play Cube adapter ($10), and use your existing PS1 or PS2 Dual Shock controller. (PS1 digital controllers do not work with the Play Cube adapter.)
Will I retire or break 10K?
no, it's Frisby. But you're right to a point: the name had to be changed to "Brisby" in the film adaptation.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Ten years ago, I would have found "Sony" and "game console" in the same sentence to be a bit odd. The PS1 didn't come out in the States until September 9, 1995.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Welcome our new Modding overlords..
oh wait..
Now, if the guy had produced a cartridge with a real, full-sized slot for, say, Atari 2600 (insert your favourite old console here) carts which were than played with an emulater, that would be a "console hack".
Just how overrated and unfunny that "comic" is.
...aside from all of the griping about what can and can't fit on a cart and even sillier gripes about scaling/cropping, I think the program is amazing. It's just another emulator and that's what people don't seem to realize. For what is available, I think it does a wonderful job.
Too bad about the slashdotting.
try doing a little research before you post what's on your mind.
The largest GBA carts now are at 1Gb, which sadly still is only half the 256MB size, but then I'm only pointing out that you deserve to be modded down if you obviously don't know all the facts in the first place.
Im gonna try that, woot!!! I just hope my gba doesnt screw up like my last harddrive did acidently.. yes, it dropped from a window ledge into the toilet when i acidently knocked it. >. ~ChickenOut (Y)
"Fear teh chickens.. do not use teh window, use teh curtain." ~ChickenKillr