Just a typical Nin-nerd stuck at home during the holidays messing with old consoles... then I found this interesting video.
!!!
Oh... this looks sick. Using a Game Boy Advance as a controller on Switch 2? How? (Insert some complicated English text here)
Hmm... GameCube with a Game Boy Player... Link Cable... Controller Mode... Okay, I totally get it!
Alright, first up is today's main character: the original GBA model. It's got the best grip, easy to handle... personally, I love using this as a controller when playing GBA games on a TV. (I'll show you how to do that in a bit)
And here is the Switch 2. You can play GBA games on this too, but there aren't many controllers that feel right. The SNES pad is close, but it just doesn't capture that original vibe. Playing Switch 2's crisp GBA games with an actual GBA as the controller? That sounds pretty fun.
Supplies for today's dumb project: GameCube console, Game Boy Player, Game Boy Player start-up disc, GameCube-to-GBA link cable... all of these are absolute must-haves.
Anyway, let's get some power into this GameCube real quick~
Pop the high-speed port cover off the bottom and connect the Game Boy Player.
Now the GameCube gets one floor taller and becomes a perfect cube. For those who don't know, that thing under the GameCube is called the 'Game Boy Player.' Despite how it looks, it's basically just a GBA. If you connect it to the GameCube like this and pop in a GB/GBC/GBA game, you can play on the big screen. It's a fun piece of hardware that only old-school Nintendo would've released.
Power on the GameCube~
Insert the Game Boy Player start-up disc. You need this to actually run Game Boy games. It's a precious item where the disc itself is more expensive than the console.
And boom, the Game Boy Advance screen is being output to the TV!
Grab a copy of Kirby~
Pop it into the Game Boy Player
Ta-da! Now you can enjoy GBA games on your TV.
And here comes the core of this post. The Game Boy Player has a hidden feature. If you connect a Game Boy Advance, you can use it as a controller to play the Game Boy games. The GameCube controller is so weirdly shaped that it's often not great for Game Boy games, so they added this weird feature as a last resort.
Connect the two with the link cable~
And when you turn on the Game Boy?
The Game Boy Player logo pops up on the screen and the GBA switches to 'Controller Mode.' In this state, the GBA is essentially just acting as a GameCube controller. TMI: in games like 'The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords +', you can connect a GBA like this to use it as a controller with a sub-monitor, basically like a proto-Wii U. Nintendo really does do some weird shit.
Works perfectly.
Now for the fun part. In this state, even if you pull the link cable out, it stays in Controller Mode. According to that Reddit post I saw, since the GBA is technically a GameCube controller now, you can plug it into a Switch 2 using the GameCube controller adapter and use it as a controller! Whoever thought of this is a certified madman. I bet even Nintendo didn't see this coming.
Quickly grab the official GameCube adapter~
Plug it into the Switch dock
And connect it...!!
Heart's racing....
Wait, it doesn't work. What the fuck? You said it would work, you piece of shit.
"Oh, it doesn't work officially? My bad lol. It works fine with unofficial methods though." *The 'unofficial method' they're talking about is GBI (Game Boy Interface). It's a homebrew app that fixes the flaws of the original Game Boy Player. It's high performance and doesn't need the disc, so a lot of people use it.
Sigh... fuck... I just wasted my time. No wonder that guy's GBA in the video had a black screen instead of the Game Boy Player logo.
Whatever, I'm just gonna play Pokemon Gold instead. -The End-
"OP went through an entire hardware odyssey based on a Reddit post, only to realize it's a bait that requires homebrew. The community is laughing at the 'primitive Wii U' vibes and the classic 'white boy homebrew bait.'"
#FunContinue Browsing
