Nintendo’s Game Boy Advanced (GBA) SP is a well-beloved console, even 18 years after its release. Throughout the years, fans have modded the GBA countless times, adding better screens and batteries, but Tito from Macho Nacho Productions on YouTube took it a step further and turned the GBA SP into a Switch-like console.
With the help of fellow maker Kyle Brinkerhoff, Tito made it so that you can play the GBA SP with official Nintendo Joy-Cons both on and off the console. The modded device is also dockable, meaning you can enjoy all the GBA-era games right on your TV.
How they made a Game Boy Advance Switch
Those in the console modding community might already know about kits that turn the GBA’s link port into a video-out connection. This allows you to display the GBA output on your TV. The problem is that you can only play while being tethered to the TV. Tito and Brinkerhoff took that mod and got to work on adding Joy-Con support, allowing you to play wirelessly as well.
The process included 3D printing a custom housing and a dock that would fit the console. Then, they had to finely solder a custom PCB and a Raspberry Pi Zero together with the GBA. Due to the sheer number of additional electronic components, they also upgraded the battery to 2,000mAh.
It resulted in a console with decent graphics that provided negligible latency. Unfortunately, there were some cons for this build.
The most unenjoyable thing about this mod is the Joy-Con pairing. With the Switch, it’s just a simple wireless button press, but this one requires you to connect the Raspberry Pi to a computer and pair up the controllers on there. What’s more, you need to go through this cumbersome step every single time you boot up the console.
Another con would simply be the difficulty of this build. It requires many components, hours of fine soldering, and lots of patience. Still, it’s one of the coolest GBA mods out there and would definitely be worth the effort for hardcore fans.
If you want to try it out for yourself, they provided all the files that you would need on a GitHub repository, as well as a link to buy the custom PCB.
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