Game Boy Advance

Review: The Unofficial GBA Pixel Book

December 9, 2024 By ausretrogamer

It’s not too late to gift this awesome book to yourself for Christmas!

Bitmap Books has outdone itself with The Unofficial GBA Pixel Book, a lavish celebration of the Game Boy Advance that will delight retro gaming enthusiasts. This 300-page tome dives into an impressive lineup of 240 games, showcasing them with over 4,000 high-quality images that capture the vibrant pixel art and charm of this beloved handheld console.

Each page exudes passion and meticulous care, presenting not just the iconic games but also lesser-known gems. The book’s layout seamlessly blends visuals with insightful commentary, offering a deep dive into the GBA’s rich gaming library. Whether you’re revisiting childhood favourites or discovering new titles, this book is a treasure trove of nostalgia and discovery.

The hardcover edition features Bitmap’s trademark high production values, including premium paper and eye-catching design. It’s not just a book; it’s a work of art that stands proudly on any shelf. Perfect for collectors, gamers, and pixel art aficionados, The Unofficial GBA Pixel Book is a must-have addition to any gaming library.

Explore the details and grab your copy at PixelCrib. Don’t miss this vibrant homage to one of gaming’s most cherished platforms!

Publication Details:

Title: THE UNOFFICIAL GBA PIXEL BOOK
Authors: Robert Bannert, Thomas Nickel, Martin Nagel
Released: November 2024
Pages: 300 pages
Price / where to buy: AU$79.99 from PixelCrib

Disclaimer: The Unofficial GBA Pixel Book was kindly supplied by PixelCrib for this review

PSA: The Mario vs. Donkey Kong eShop Demo For Nintendo Switch Is Out Now

February 1, 2024 By ausretrogamer

When Donkey Kong raids Mario’s toy factory and makes off with the merchandise, Mario has to once again face his biggest rival

Starting today (Feb 1st), a demo featuring four levels from the first world of Mario vs. Donkey Kong, the enhanced version of the Game Boy Advance classic, is available for download on Nintendo eShop for Nintendo Switch. Check out the demo before the full game launches on Friday 16th February and take a closer look at the Mario vs. Donkey Kong – Overview Trailer below for additional details!

Solve puzzles, overcome challenges and find the keys to rescue the Mini-Marios and thwart Donkey Kong. The demo also gives players a first look at the new Two Player Co-Op mode, in which they can share a Joy-Con with a friend and team up as Mario and Toad. Players will also have access to the game’s new difficulty settings –Classic Style features the same difficulty level as the original Game Boy Advance version. Anyone who wishes to take things easier, can try Casual Style with no time limit and the ability to restart from checkpoints.

Analogue Pocket – Best Thing Since Sliced Bread

September 4, 2023 By ausretrogamer

Analogue Pocket – is the best thing since sliced bread!

It may have taken 11 months from ordering to receiving the Analogue Pocket, and let us tell you all, it has totally been worth the wait!

With multiple handhelds on the market that emulate classic systems from yesteryear, we honestly didn’t know what we were missing out on till the Analogue Pocket arrived! The FPGA (OpenFPGA) based system is like playing on the original hardware, and this is where the Pocket shines – rising well above the myriad of handhelds on the market which use software emulation to play our beloved old video games. Comparing FPGA to software emulation is like comparing a Formula 1 race car to a Totoya Camry racing at Monaco – both will get you to the finish line, but one will get you there far far quicker (and in style).

By now you would have worked out that we are fans of our new gadget from Analogue. Yeah, the wait was excruciating at times, but we are glad we hung in there, as this has now become our choice for handheld gaming. We were very impressed with the quality and premium feel of the Pocket (and it’s packaging), being on par with Apple Inc. – yep, it’s that good!

The Analogue Pocket looks and feels like a premium piece of electronics – which it is, but it’s components are what makes it impressive. The Pocket is designed around a 3.5”, 615 ppi, LCD, which is a first-in-class. With a 1600 x 1440 resolution, the Pocket has 10x the resolution of an original Game Boy. The display is even made from Gorilla® Glass, with pro level colour accuracy, dynamic range, and brightness. We’d argue that the Analogue Pocket is the best piece of handheld hardware to play video games, bar none.

But wait, there is more to this amazing piece of kit! Not only does this Analogue product play games, it’s for making music too! The Pocket has a digital audio workstation built in called Nanoloop. It’s a synthesizer and a sequencer. Designed for music creation and live performance. Shape, stretch and morph sounds. Capture music or play and sculpt live – you too can be a chiptune maestro! You can also connect the Pocket to your Mac, PC or other hardware with MIDI & Sync cables.

Remember how we said to wait as there is more? Well, there is more to this device, that’s what makes it impressive. If you like to tinker in game development, then you’d be pleased to know that you can bring your gaming ideas to reality with zero programming knowledge with GB Studio! GB Studio is an easy-to-use drag and drop retro game creator, allowing you to generate proprietary .pocket files and then run them off your SD card.

The Dock is a must-get accessory for the Analogue Pocket!

The pièce de résistance of the Pocket is that it’s designed for FPGA development. Analogue added a second dedicated FPGA just for developers to develop and port their own cores. With access to Analogue’s proprietary hardware and scalers, it opens up the platform for developers to create amazing feats on the system.

At the time of writing, there have been quite a few cores created specifically for the Pocket, from classic gaming consoles like the Atari 2600/7800 and the Odyssey 2, to the Master System, NES, SNES, Mega Drive and everything in between. Getting these cores and setting them up has never been easier – we used RetroDriven’s Pocket Updater to do all the fiddly stuff like finding the right cores, downloading and configuring them. If you are a masochist, you can go and find the individual cores and set them up, or you could make things easier for yourself by bookmarking the OpenFPGA Cores Inventory site.

Welcome to the family

Setting up the cores on the Pocket is a cinch with RetroDriven’s Pocket Updater tool

The flexibility, power and premium componentry is what sets the Analogue Pocket apart from other handheld systems. The fact that it is FPGA based is a total game changer – pun fully intended. With a thriving development community, we are starting to see what this machine is capable of. The future does look quite bright for the Pocket, and that’s us saying that while we await our PC-Engine, Neo Geo Pocket and Atari Lynx adapters to arrive! Coupled with the Dock, the Analogue Pocket is truly the best thing since sliced bread in the video gaming world.

Tech Specs – Pocket:

Compatible with Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance game cartridges (and Game Gear, PC-Engine, Atari Lynx and Neo Geo Pocket via separate adapters)
3.5″ LCD. 1600×1440 resolution. 615ppi
360° display rotation (tate mode)
Variable refresh display
Rechargeable lithium ion 4300mAh battery (6-10 hour gameplay time & 10+ hour sleep time)
All buttons mappable/reconfigurable
Stereo speakers
micro SD card slot
USB-C charging
Original-style link port (woohoo, link action!)
3.5mm headphone output

Tech Specs – Dock:

1080p HDMI output
Bluetooth and 2.4g support for wireless controllers
2 USB inputs for wired controllers
Up to 4 player support (4p Bluetooth, 2p 2.4g, 2p wired USB)
DAC compatibility (coming soon)
Power Dock on from controller

Watching Tenet on the Game Boy Advance at 4fps

March 22, 2021 By ausretrogamer

Sometimes you have to ask why – why would someone jam a movie into a Game Boy Advance cart to watch it on an ill-fitting screen (for movie viewing)?

The answer is, because they can and are clever enough to achieve this feat! Our eyes are already in panic mode just at the thought of watching a movie on the Game Boy Advance screen at 4 frames per second, but we are so glad that Wulff Den took the initiative and time to create these darn cool and unique GBA movie cartridges.

source: Wulff Den

The Mystery of the Lego Game Boy Advance SP

January 11, 2021 By ausretrogamer

image source: Sleepy Ursaring

When our Twitter friend, Brad, informed us of a mysterious find in our hometown of Melbourne, we thought we’d let you all know!

The mysterious find by YouTuber, Sleepy Ursaring, is a huge 10 kilogram Lego Game Boy Advance SP replica that looks absolutely awesome with a level of detail that is simply amazing. Could it be a retail store display or was it made for a Lego Ideas project? Who knows? All we know is that the inscription on the back of the replica states that it was ‘Made in Windsor’ by ‘KT+IW ’04’.

We wish we had the answer, but we don’t! We had a chat with Sleep Ursaring on Twitter, and were advised that this find was part of a retro gaming haul, with all contents at the property up for the taking – now that is darn awesome! If anyone knows more about this Lego Game Boy Advance SP creation, please hit us up via Twitter or Facebook (or email, if you are that way inclined).

source: Sleep Ursaring

Analogue News: Could It Be The Release of the Analogue Pocket?

July 23, 2020 By ausretrogamer

We told you all about the Analogue Pocket last October, however, with the current world health situation, it seems that their scheduled release plans in 2020 were impacted, till now?!

Analogue tweeted last night (Australian time) with a simple message, “Jul. 27, 2020 8am PST”. Could this date be the release of the Analogue Pocket? Chances are that it is, but we’ll know more in a few days.

Unfortunately for those of us in Australia, we’ll have to stay up late (1am AEST, Jul. 28, 2020) to check out what the news/announcement is. Make sure you all set your alarms.

Let the excitement (and speculation) begin!

pic.twitter.com/AEPkvLTRlm

— Analogue (@analogue) July 22, 2020

How Much Storage Would It Take To Store Every Nintendo Video Game That Can Be Emulated?

January 23, 2020 By ausretrogamer

So how much storage space would it take to store every Nintendo video game (from the stable of their major consoles) that can be emulated?

Don’t worry about trying to work out the answer, as Reddit user, RHYTHM_GMZ, has already done all the hard work for us.

You’ll need roughly 7.53TB (yep, that’s TERABYTES!) of space to be able to emulate every darn Nintendo video game! With the Wii making up 6.56TB of the 7.53TB total, you may want to know the breakdown of the rest of the Nintendo game libraries, so here you go:

NES – 237 MB
SNES – 1.7GB
N64 – 5.5GB
GB/GBC – 568MB
GBA – 8.4GB
NDS – 83.2GB
GameCube – 867GB
Wii – 6.56TB

For those of you that prefer to visualise these figures, we have you covered – see below!

NOTE: Games libraries based on the uncompressed NTSC versions

[story source: RHYTHM_GMZ via Reddit]

Meet Analogue Pocket: The Game Boy, Atari Lynx, Game Gear and Neo Geo Pocket Color Killer

October 17, 2019 By ausretrogamer

Oh wow, we hope you are sitting down for this! Let us introduce you to Analogue Pocket™

If you know about or have any of Analogue’s consoles, like the Mega Sg, Nt Mini or Super Nt, you know that their Pocket handheld will be one special and amazing gaming unit.

First and foremost, the Analogue Pocket is not another handheld that will just play ROMs! No sirree, this multi-video-game-system portable handheld will be able to play over 2,700 Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance game cartridges. So don’t throw out or sell those carts, because the Pocket will be able to play them all! Oh yeah, the Analogue Pocket will also have a digital audio workstation (called Nanoloop) with a built-in synthesizer and sequencer – a tribute to portable gaming!

But wait, there is more! As if this thing wasn’t already mouthwatering enough, the Pocket will also have cartridge adaptors in the future for you to play other handheld systems’ carts, like the Sega Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket Color, Atari Lynx and others! There will also be a special dock (future release) allowing you to output your games to a TV and charge the console at the same time – you’ll also be able to use Bluetooth or wired controllers when the Pocket is docked.

Engineered with two Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), the Analogue Pocket will allow developers to create and port their own work to the handheld. Basically, once the Analogue Pocket is in the hands of users, it’s going to get even better! Wow, when we hear FPGA (no emulation!), we know this thing is going to blow everything away in the handheld market!

The Analogue Pocket is slated for a 2020 release at a cost of US$199.00. To say we want one would be the biggest understatement ever!

Analogue Pocket Tech Specs:

FPGA-based system (two FPGAs inside)
Compatible with Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance game cartridges (Using special adaptors, you’ll also be able to play Atari Lynx, Sega Game Gear and SNK Neo Geo Pocket Color titles on the machine in the future)
3.5″ LTPS LCD. 1600×1440 resolution. 615ppi
Rechargeable lithium ion battery
All buttons mappable
Stereo Speakers
microSD
USB-C charging
3.5mm headphone output
Original Game Boy-style link plug

image source: Analogue

LEGOformers: Retro Consoles And Handhelds In Disguise

March 29, 2015 By Ms. ausretrogamer

NYC-based LEGO master craftsman and graphic designer Baron Julius von Brunk (pictured above) has crammed so much awesome into these LEGO retrogaming transformers, they will blow your mind! But don’t just look at the pictures, make sure you click the links and read about how Julius designed and built each of these fantastic creations.

Game Boy Advance Transformer – ‘Vantage’

Nintendo 64 Transformers‘Ultra Hexacon’ and ‘Tetragon’ the transforming Nintendo 64 and controller, and their transforming game pak minions ‘Hot-Shot’, and ‘Mecha Kong’

NES Zapper Pistol – ‘Plasmashock’

Evil Segacon LEGOformers ‘Gearhead’, ‘Supersonic’ & ‘Knucklepunch’

Nintendo Game Boy & Tetris Transformers ‘Domaster’ & ‘Tetrawing’

And be sure to check out Julius’ other amazing work including this Giant fully-operational NES controller and Nintendo world mosaic.

Source: Julius von Brunk via Bit Rebels

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Ms. ausretrogamer
Editor and Researcher at ausretrogamer – The Australian Retro Gamer E-Zine. Lover of science fiction, fashion, books, movies and TV. Player of games, old and new.