We've covered the incredible work of Macho Nacho Productions before on this site, but the channel's latest project is one of its most ambitious yet. This new mod turns the Game Boy Advance SP into a Switch-style system complete with Joy-Con support, a 3D-printed dock and even the ability to play on your TV.
Using a pre-existing mod which allows the GBA to output to a television, Macho Nacho Productions' Tito and Kyle Brinkerhoff created a 3D-printed rear bodywork which includes rails for the Joy-Con, as well as a custom PCB (complete with Raspberry Pi Zero) that allows the Joy-Con to wirelessly control the on-screen action. Oh, and there's a 2,000 mAh battery inside, which is required to juice-up all of the extra tech that isn't native to the 18-year-old portable.
Of course, this new-look GBA SP is a lot less mobile that it was previously, and the process of pairing the Joy-Con is a little less elegant than it is with a Switch – you have to do it every time you want to play, too. Even so, it's amazing to see mods like this appear, and it makes you think of what could have been had Nintendo come up with the Switch concept two decades ago.
[source nintendowire.com]
Comments 18
Well ain't that something.
Switch 2 confirmed. 😉
Switch 2 b/c it's the Switch successor AND two screens. 👍
No thanks, while a cool idea my Game Boy Player works just fine. By docking this thing though you're basically blocking the link cable support thus preventing multiplayer or data transfer thus not a very good GBA experience. Also it makes changing cartridge a hassle. As a handheld it looks fugly and fat and less portable than the GBA SP it already was, to top it off you also now had to worry about joycon drift issues.
Ain’t it something useless. Unless you got binoculars on your eyes...
I love the watching the Macho Nacho YouTube channel's mod videos, but I think this would have made more sense as a mod for the original GBA (adding a backlight mod while they are at it). The SP, in my opinion, was already the best version of the Game Boy as is (short of the missing headphone jack), and this mod ruins the convenient form factor.
Then again, was it that much of an inconvenience to just put the game in the Gamecube's Game Boy Player if you want to continue your game on a TV?
@Specter_of-the_OLED Who on this God’s great Earth still uses the link cable on their GBA???
@flighty These days, it is an inconvenience to utilize the game boy player on the GC. Have you seen what those things cost?
It's a completely unnecessary bit of tech... but I love that they did it.
@BloodNinja Yours truly of course. That's like saying who still plays local multiplayer when there's online play, not everything caters to everyone ya know. A Game Boy is not really a Game Boy if it's missing the feature it is known for and that's connectivity. That's like playing an arcade with no stick or a PC with no mouse. Even you had lost what you're known for. Whatever happen to Ninja Approved? Why become a complainer now?
@Specter_of-the_OLED "Not everything caters to everyone, ya know." You just answered your own complaint.
NINJA APPROVED
Who wants to play Switch on a small, 4:3 screen?
@Specter_of-the_OLED but it sounds like you could play a gba game in your tv…with a witness controller. Not for me, but cool either way.
It's too bad this is inferior to the original GBA in that it makes you use joy-cons.
Please stop... probably.
To me this is pretty cool.
I got a lot of mileage out of my GameCube w/Game Boy Player back in the day (still own them), but seem to remember becoming somewhat dissatisfied with the GameCube controller as other consoles/controllers appeared.
Don't have Nintendo Switch Online yet, but may consider it if some cool GBA games are made available. Many of the current NSO games just don't interest me enough to subscribe.
@BloodNinja I would love to see this exchange play out in a real-world political debate, complete with a smoke bomb exit.
@Maximumbeans LOL
Man, I needed that laugh, thanks
@Specter_of-the_OLED haters gonna hate
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