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GBA Gets Unofficial Sierra Adventure Game Emulator

Posted by simoniker on from the questin-on-your-gba dept.

Thanks to ShackNews for pointing out the Game Boy Advance Adventure Game Interpreter (GBAGI) webpage, which features an "interpreter/emulator/software that runs... Sierra's original animated adventure games on the Nintendo Game Boy Advance." The software's maker flew down to meet with Sierra owner Vivendi regarding official GBA releases, but mentions: "VUG(Vivendi Universal Games), who are affiliated with Blizzard Entertainment, had just released two classic ports to the Game Boy Advance, The Lost Vikings and Blackthorne, which both did not do too well. This is why they were now a bit standoff-ish about [official GBA carts]." Therefore, the downloads page includes "GBAGI ROMs packed in with demos that are freely available", as well as instructions on how to "to build GBA ROMs with AGI games [that you own]."

5 of 29 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Holy crap, that's awesome! by ru-486 · · Score: 4, Informative

    I just got through playing with the demos on the site and it works pretty good. Give it a try on the excellent emulator Visual Boy Advance. Seems like the official emulator site is down, but you can get the latest visualboy emu here

  2. Official site by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Not down, just moved. It's here now.

  3. saving problems by hiroshi912681 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of a Sierra AGI interpreter for GBA... but I think it's too early to dive into a game of Space Quest on your GBA. The save game feature does not work properly... the whole screen is glitched. Some games it just freezes outright when you try to restore. Also, in SQ, it seems to be missing the "you think you hear footsteps" warning... and it becomes much more frustrating when you have to start over from the beginning. I also couldn't pick up the "gadget" in the left closet.

    It certainly does bring back memories, though. I haven't really played this since I was a young child. I really missed all of the subtle humour that was in the games. I first experienced the Space Quest series on my Tandy 1000 in its 16 glorious colours.

    Personally, I think these Sierra games would have never sold in their current state. However, I believe that the VGA remakes of these games would probably sell much better (as they had a point and click interface and much better graphics)... and would fill a gap in the adventure game genre that we have today.

    I believe a point and click adventure game came out early on for GBA or possibly GBC, does anyone remember the name of it?

    1. Re:saving problems by SealTit · · Score: 2, Informative

      I believe that the game you're thinking of is Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templar. It had a very well designed point and click interface which would popup an intuitive menu when an item was selected. It was also a fun and interesting adventure game well suited to the GBA.

      It was refreshing to see a new adventure game such as this after I thought the genre to be long dead.

    2. Re:saving problems by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      The saving issue was fixed right after GBAGI got slashdotted. Download the latest version!