The whole idea behind the Nintendo Switch is that the system isn’t just a handheld, but can be converted into a more traditional home game console when placed into its dock. The wireless controllers even pop off the sides so you can kick back on the couch and enjoy your big-screen gaming from a distance. Judging by how many units Nintendo has sold of their latest system, it’s clearly a winning combination.
Which is probably why [Tito] of Macho Nacho and his friend [Kyle Brinkerhoff] decided to recreate some of the Switch’s core features using one of Nintendo’s older handhelds, the Game Boy Advance SP. There was already a video-out mod kit on the market for the GBA SP that would let them play games on the TV, but the team still had to figure out how to make a dock for the 18 year old handheld, plus get it working with the official Switch Joy-Cons.
Lucky, this crew is no stranger to developing impressive GBA SP add-ons. Last month they took the wraps off of an expanded 3D printed rear panel for the system that housed a number of upgrades, such as an expanded battery pack and support for Bluetooth audio.
This mod uses a similarly expanded “trunk” for the GBA, but this time it’s to hold the rails the Joy-Cons mount to, as well as the electronics required to get the modern controllers talking to the Game Boy. Namely, a Raspberry Pi Zero and a custom PCB designed by [Kyle] that uses a dozen transistors to pull the system’s control inputs low when the Pi’s GPIO pins go high.
[Tito] doesn’t seem to mention it in the video below, but we’re assuming the dock component of this project is just a 3D printed box with a connector sticking up for the GBA SP’s link cable port, since that’s where the TV-out modification outputs its video. Incidentally that means you don’t really need the dock itself, but it certainly looks cool.
At the end of the video [Tito] goes over a few of the rough edges of the current build, including the rather lengthy pairing process to get the Joy-Cons talking to the Raspberry Pi. But ultimately, he says that not only does the system feel good in his hands, but playing those classic games on the big screen has been a nice change of pace.
Would be awesome to just replace the gba pcb with the pi zero 2 at this point. Psp, nds emulation should be smooth
That’s a nice mod. Console modding is where I started, and it’ll always have a place in my heart.
Unfortunately I don’t buy consoles anymore. PC gaming is too far ahead to take such a step back. I have some PSPs I picked up for a song. Maybe I’ll take a stab at those sometime.
You don’t buy gaming hardware for the hardware’s sake. You buy it to enjoy the games.
You can enjoy the games on PC with emulators, often in vastly improved quality. Nothing like playing Pikmin 2 in 1080p 60fps with a 4K texture pack.
That said, the original hardware can be a lot of fun and there’s a different experience with the original hardware. GBA and DS emulation are easy but playing on a phone or with a controller loses something. For me, the best middle-ground has been a soft-modded Nintendo DSi. It runs DS and GBA ROMs natively, and then I have emulators for everything else and Gameboy games emulated on a DS feel right, more so than on a PC.