Really, at this point there are a billion "best GBA games of all time" lists on the internet, and they'll all be pretty good suggestions. Most will have a few titles that may not be super mainstream either.
I'd just start looking at those and picking games that are in your wheelhouse.
I played the emulated version on XBOX game pass but was Metal Slug X ever a smooth experience in the arcade? It suffered massive frame rate drops when too many enemies were onscreen which is surprising because Metal Slug X was supposed to be an upgraded version of Metal Slug 2 which also suffered massive frame rate drops.
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augustwhere you come from is goneRegistered Userregular
I played the emulated version on XBOX game pass but was Metal Slug X ever a smooth experience in the arcade? It suffered massive frame rate drops when too many enemies were onscreen which is surprising because Metal Slug X was supposed to be an upgraded version of Metal Slug 2 which also suffered massive frame rate drops.
Here's some footage of the game running on mister: miser emulation isn't necessarily always perfect but usually the timing and speed are correct
I saw a video on YouTube talking about a way to play PS1 games on Xbox Series X through something you get from the game developer program, but I'm not sure if it's okay to talk about here?
I'm mostly interested if I can run my PS1 discs on it, but I haven't been able to find an answer anywhere.
Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!
The Saturn core works really well. Some games do not run, but the ones that do work really well.
For some reason, there is no sound on the firmware screen.
I was using the universal bios for it. I don't know if I should add the other regions or how to add them.
It seemed like it was running Japanese games fine.
Does it now? Any games you would recommend trying out for good performance? I tried Guardian Heroes but it was not giving me anywhere close to usable results.
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augustwhere you come from is goneRegistered Userregular
I saw a video on YouTube talking about a way to play PS1 games on Xbox Series X through something you get from the game developer program, but I'm not sure if it's okay to talk about here?
I'm mostly interested if I can run my PS1 discs on it, but I haven't been able to find an answer anywhere.
You could buy a disc drive for your computer and rip your own discs. I don't think modern consoles can read CDs because they would have to pay a licensing fee per console to whatever consortium still owns the patent to the CD format.
edit: for the record, it looks like you CAN play audio CDs on XBox via Groove music, but I can't find anything about XBox Retroarch being able to read discs of any kind. I know that Sony pulled CD support from PS4s and that might have been a licensing thing, or they may just have been trying to push people to pay for streaming services, or both.
@LBD_Nytetrayn ok just to clarify: there are two ways to play PSX games on XBox, Retroarch and Duckstation (you probably want to use Duckstation.) I think you can load discs directly using both of those on PC, but I can't find evidence of that working on XBox. But I'm not positive you can't do that on XBox either, so it might be worth trying it out and seeing what happens?
I played the emulated version on XBOX game pass but was Metal Slug X ever a smooth experience in the arcade? It suffered massive frame rate drops when too many enemies were onscreen which is surprising because Metal Slug X was supposed to be an upgraded version of Metal Slug 2 which also suffered massive frame rate drops.
Here's some footage of the game running on mister: miser emulation isn't necessarily always perfect but usually the timing and speed are correct
I saw a video on YouTube talking about a way to play PS1 games on Xbox Series X through something you get from the game developer program, but I'm not sure if it's okay to talk about here?
I'm mostly interested if I can run my PS1 discs on it, but I haven't been able to find an answer anywhere.
You could buy a disc drive for your computer and rip your own discs. I don't think modern consoles can read CDs because they would have to pay a licensing fee per console to whatever consortium still owns the patent to the CD format.
edit: for the record, it looks like you CAN play audio CDs on XBox via Groove music, but I can't find anything about XBox Retroarch being able to read discs of any kind. I know that Sony pulled CD support from PS4s and that might have been a licensing thing, or they may just have been trying to push people to pay for streaming services, or both.
@LBD_Nytetrayn ok just to clarify: there are two ways to play PSX games on XBox, Retroarch and Duckstation (you probably want to use Duckstation.) I think you can load discs directly using both of those on PC, but I can't find evidence of that working on XBox. But I'm not positive you can't do that on XBox either, so it might be worth trying it out and seeing what happens?
Something to look into, I guess.
Retroarch was the one in the video, but I'm also wondering: do you have to keep paying into the Xbox dev program to keep using it? Or can you just pay long enough to grab it, cancel, and still be good to go?
Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!
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augustwhere you come from is goneRegistered Userregular
I saw a video on YouTube talking about a way to play PS1 games on Xbox Series X through something you get from the game developer program, but I'm not sure if it's okay to talk about here?
I'm mostly interested if I can run my PS1 discs on it, but I haven't been able to find an answer anywhere.
You could buy a disc drive for your computer and rip your own discs. I don't think modern consoles can read CDs because they would have to pay a licensing fee per console to whatever consortium still owns the patent to the CD format.
edit: for the record, it looks like you CAN play audio CDs on XBox via Groove music, but I can't find anything about XBox Retroarch being able to read discs of any kind. I know that Sony pulled CD support from PS4s and that might have been a licensing thing, or they may just have been trying to push people to pay for streaming services, or both.
@LBD_Nytetrayn ok just to clarify: there are two ways to play PSX games on XBox, Retroarch and Duckstation (you probably want to use Duckstation.) I think you can load discs directly using both of those on PC, but I can't find evidence of that working on XBox. But I'm not positive you can't do that on XBox either, so it might be worth trying it out and seeing what happens?
Something to look into, I guess.
Retroarch was the one in the video, but I'm also wondering: do you have to keep paying into the Xbox dev program to keep using it? Or can you just pay long enough to grab it, cancel, and still be good to go?
I'm under the impression that it's a one-time fee of 20 bucks and that's it.
I came across an engine replacement for Star Wars: Dark Forces called TheForceEngine (TFE). I had never used darkXL but seems to have ceased development and this is by the author of that.
This is the fastest I've ever been able to boot up this game outside of Dosbox! I'm tempted to dig out my old save and pick up in this engine.
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augustwhere you come from is goneRegistered Userregular
I came across an engine replacement for Star Wars: Dark Forces called TheForceEngine (TFE). I had never used darkXL but seems to have ceased development and this is by the author of that.
This is the fastest I've ever been able to boot up this game outside of Dosbox! I'm tempted to dig out my old save and pick up in this engine.
Yeah even though darkXL has been around for like 10-15 years a lot of people don't realize it's never been feature complete or playable from start to finish. This new version under a new name is the first time it's been actually usable as a full replacement for playing it in dosbox.
Once I knew where to look, it was extremely simple to bring my old save file over.
And I don't know if I had heard of Outlaws before, but it was the other game made with the Jedi engine (Dark Forces II used the Sith engine). Now that version 1.0 of TFE came out in December it sounds like the author is going to focus on getting that game playable for version 2.0. Nifty!
This thing is kind of the best. I wish more old PC games had this.
In Dark Forces, you get the Death Star plans. Don't believe Rogue One.
It's the first level, too! If you know what you're doing you can easily blast through it in under 2 minutes. The plans look like a circuit board, it's so cute.
Then you steal the Death Star II plans in Shadows of the Empire (where the supercomputer looks a little like an N64). Bothams, my butt.
This Double Switch includes the soundtrack on a cassette tape. I don't have a player.
Oddly I have two tape players in my house. Not sure if they still work since one was my Dad's old Sony Walkman and another is mine from High School.
I found a player that makes mp3s off of cassettes for $21. I may get it. I don't know if it records.
If I found a bunch of rare tapes, it would be handy.
In Dark Forces, you get the Death Star plans. Don't believe Rogue One.
It's the first level, too! If you know what you're doing you can easily blast through it in under 2 minutes. The plans look like a circuit board, it's so cute.
Then you steal the Death Star II plans in Shadows of the Empire (where the supercomputer looks a little like an N64). Bothams, my butt.
In the pre-Disney expanded SW universe, the Death Star plans were canonically stolen by like a dozen different groups, each one rushing them to the rebellion and then losing them somewhere so the next group can steal them.
Specifically the Many Bothans die in the Shadows of the Empire book, and also in X-Wing Alliance where an invincible missile does the job. So Many = Six, but Mon Mothma presumably thought "Six Bothans died to bring us this information" didn't sound motivational enough, which is fair.
There's a lot of news about Xenia coming to Xbox via the UWP (universal Windows platform, itself a legacy app system that's still in use as a way to easily develop for Xbox One and Xbox Series), but I don't exactly think that's, well, retro.
I did try out the previous build of Dolphin on Series S, and while it's nice, the shader compiling or whatever it does when you launch a game is pretty brutal in terms of the load time. Also, I think even with the newer build, you can't modify controls without exporting your settings to PC, modifying controls, and exporting back to Xbox. Huge pain in the ass. I do wonder how some Wii games will work with this method.
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augustwhere you come from is goneRegistered Userregular
I did try out the previous build of Dolphin on Series S, and while it's nice, the shader compiling or whatever it does when you launch a game is pretty brutal in terms of the load time. Also, I think even with the newer build, you can't modify controls without exporting your settings to PC, modifying controls, and exporting back to Xbox. Huge pain in the ass. I do wonder how some Wii games will work with this method.
Watch the video, you no longer have to import control settings.
I watched another video talking about the same update. They did fix it so the default controls are mapped to the Xbox controller, but editing the controls beyond the default they set up still requires using your PC.
I did try out the previous build of Dolphin on Series S, and while it's nice, the shader compiling or whatever it does when you launch a game is pretty brutal in terms of the load time. Also, I think even with the newer build, you can't modify controls without exporting your settings to PC, modifying controls, and exporting back to Xbox. Huge pain in the ass. I do wonder how some Wii games will work with this method.
Watch the video, you no longer have to import control settings.
I distinctly remember an interface UI being a new, overdue addition, but it's still quite rough even by Dolphin emulation standards.
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Handsome CostanzaAsk me about 8bitdoRIP Iwata-sanRegistered Userregular
I want to use my Analogue Pocket some more. I got quite a bit of GB and GBA games but does anyone have any specific games they recommend I should try to get?
What kinds of games do you enjoy?
I'm all over when it comes to consoles. Old school FFs, castlevania , metroid, platformers, TBS like FF Tactics Advance or advance wars.
For GB:
007
Final Fantasy Adventure
Final Fantasy Legends 1-3
Battletoads
Kirby's Dreamland
GBC:
Metal Gear Solid
Shantae
Oracle of seasons/ages
Pokemon pinball
Links Awakening DX
Harvest Moon
GBA:
The TMNT Konami games
Ninja 5-0
House of the Dead Pinball
Minish Cap
Edit: I tried to stick to obscure stuff and keep away from the pricier games but there's still a few in there.
If you just get one game on the list though, get 007. You'll thank me later.
Not all of em are great and it probably misses some stuff worth checking out, but pretty much everything on there has some sort of good thing about it that makes it worth taking a look.
Astro Boy: Omega Factor, for example, is probably not something I would've heard about if not for that list.
Sword of Mana is a GBA staple, the Mega Man Battle Network games are kind of a cult classic, and WarioWare the original is on there and is still an absolute classic.
I want to use my Analogue Pocket some more. I got quite a bit of GB and GBA games but does anyone have any specific games they recommend I should try to get?
What kinds of games do you enjoy?
I'm all over when it comes to consoles. Old school FFs, castlevania , metroid, platformers, TBS like FF Tactics Advance or advance wars.
For GB:
007
Final Fantasy Adventure
Final Fantasy Legends 1-3
Battletoads
Kirby's Dreamland
GBC:
Metal Gear Solid
Shantae
Oracle of seasons/ages
Pokemon pinball
Links Awakening DX
Harvest Moon
GBA:
The TMNT Konami games
Ninja 5-0
House of the Dead Pinball
Minish Cap
Edit: I tried to stick to obscure stuff and keep away from the pricier games but there's still a few in there.
If you just get one game on the list though, get 007. You'll thank me later.
Worth noting: Final Fantasy Legends has a collection playable on modern systems as do the TMNT OG Game Boy games (they're included in Cowabunga Collection). The TMNT GBA games aren't included in that, though. You can also grab Shantae from various places, like on the 3DS or the Switch. Bringing this up in case any of those are outrageously overpriced for the original versions.
Sword of Mana is a GBA staple, the Mega Man Battle Network games are kind of a cult classic, and WarioWare the original is on there and is still an absolute classic.
I won't stand in your way if its cheap but it is so not good. I'm playing FF Adventure *right now* for the first time and it is leagues more fun. Sure it's short and has a laughable story, but at least it isn't thoroughly tedious. The combat is weirdly intelligent with how limited the gameboy is, and they had the discretion to burden you with just a few lines of badly written text instead of walls of it.
Sword of Mana is a GBA staple, the Mega Man Battle Network games are kind of a cult classic, and WarioWare the original is on there and is still an absolute classic.
I won't stand in your way if its cheap but it is so not good. I'm playing FF Adventure *right now* for the first time and it is leagues more fun. Sure it's short and has a laughable story, but at least it isn't thoroughly tedious. The combat is weirdly intelligent with how limited the gameboy is, and they had the discretion to burden you with just a few lines of badly written text instead of walls of it.
Maybe it's just childhood nostalgia for me. I really enjoyed it back in the day, though.
I mean, it's probably not garbage because I played through it still in my middle age. But it feels pretty far from something I could recommend as highly as a "staple."
Not all of em are great and it probably misses some stuff worth checking out, but pretty much everything on there has some sort of good thing about it that makes it worth taking a look.
Astro Boy: Omega Factor, for example, is probably not something I would've heard about if not for that list.
Sword of Mana is a GBA staple, the Mega Man Battle Network games are kind of a cult classic, and WarioWare the original is on there and is still an absolute classic.
The lack of Max Payne on that list makes me sad. Genuinely remarkable on the GBA.
Posts
I'd just start looking at those and picking games that are in your wheelhouse.
Here's some footage of the game running on mister: miser emulation isn't necessarily always perfect but usually the timing and speed are correct
I'm mostly interested if I can run my PS1 discs on it, but I haven't been able to find an answer anywhere.
Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!
Does it now? Any games you would recommend trying out for good performance? I tried Guardian Heroes but it was not giving me anywhere close to usable results.
You could buy a disc drive for your computer and rip your own discs. I don't think modern consoles can read CDs because they would have to pay a licensing fee per console to whatever consortium still owns the patent to the CD format.
edit: for the record, it looks like you CAN play audio CDs on XBox via Groove music, but I can't find anything about XBox Retroarch being able to read discs of any kind. I know that Sony pulled CD support from PS4s and that might have been a licensing thing, or they may just have been trying to push people to pay for streaming services, or both.
@LBD_Nytetrayn ok just to clarify: there are two ways to play PSX games on XBox, Retroarch and Duckstation (you probably want to use Duckstation.) I think you can load discs directly using both of those on PC, but I can't find evidence of that working on XBox. But I'm not positive you can't do that on XBox either, so it might be worth trying it out and seeing what happens?
That doesn't seem too bad. Playable.
Something to look into, I guess.
Retroarch was the one in the video, but I'm also wondering: do you have to keep paying into the Xbox dev program to keep using it? Or can you just pay long enough to grab it, cancel, and still be good to go?
Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!
I'm under the impression that it's a one-time fee of 20 bucks and that's it.
Oddly I have two tape players in my house. Not sure if they still work since one was my Dad's old Sony Walkman and another is mine from High School.
Steam: betsuni7
This is the fastest I've ever been able to boot up this game outside of Dosbox! I'm tempted to dig out my old save and pick up in this engine.
Yeah even though darkXL has been around for like 10-15 years a lot of people don't realize it's never been feature complete or playable from start to finish. This new version under a new name is the first time it's been actually usable as a full replacement for playing it in dosbox.
And I don't know if I had heard of Outlaws before, but it was the other game made with the Jedi engine (Dark Forces II used the Sith engine). Now that version 1.0 of TFE came out in December it sounds like the author is going to focus on getting that game playable for version 2.0. Nifty!
This thing is kind of the best. I wish more old PC games had this.
It's the first level, too! If you know what you're doing you can easily blast through it in under 2 minutes. The plans look like a circuit board, it's so cute.
Then you steal the Death Star II plans in Shadows of the Empire (where the supercomputer looks a little like an N64). Bothams, my butt.
Steam | XBL
I found a player that makes mp3s off of cassettes for $21. I may get it. I don't know if it records.
If I found a bunch of rare tapes, it would be handy.
In the pre-Disney expanded SW universe, the Death Star plans were canonically stolen by like a dozen different groups, each one rushing them to the rebellion and then losing them somewhere so the next group can steal them.
Specifically the Many Bothans die in the Shadows of the Empire book, and also in X-Wing Alliance where an invincible missile does the job. So Many = Six, but Mon Mothma presumably thought "Six Bothans died to bring us this information" didn't sound motivational enough, which is fair.
Also, I hope that "trufans" spelling made it clear that was a joke.
Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!
Dolphin, on the other hand? Fair game.
Watch the video, you no longer have to import control settings.
I distinctly remember an interface UI being a new, overdue addition, but it's still quite rough even by Dolphin emulation standards.
For GB:
007
Final Fantasy Adventure
Final Fantasy Legends 1-3
Battletoads
Kirby's Dreamland
GBC:
Metal Gear Solid
Shantae
Oracle of seasons/ages
Pokemon pinball
Links Awakening DX
Harvest Moon
GBA:
The TMNT Konami games
Ninja 5-0
House of the Dead Pinball
Minish Cap
Edit: I tried to stick to obscure stuff and keep away from the pricier games but there's still a few in there.
If you just get one game on the list though, get 007. You'll thank me later.
Resident 8bitdo expert.
Resident hybrid/flap cover expert.
This site is generally pretty good for browsing games for a console that might be worth checking out.
https://vsrecommendedgames.fandom.com/wiki/Game_Boy_Advance
Not all of em are great and it probably misses some stuff worth checking out, but pretty much everything on there has some sort of good thing about it that makes it worth taking a look.
Astro Boy: Omega Factor, for example, is probably not something I would've heard about if not for that list.
Sword of Mana is a GBA staple, the Mega Man Battle Network games are kind of a cult classic, and WarioWare the original is on there and is still an absolute classic.
Yep!
Worth noting: Final Fantasy Legends has a collection playable on modern systems as do the TMNT OG Game Boy games (they're included in Cowabunga Collection). The TMNT GBA games aren't included in that, though. You can also grab Shantae from various places, like on the 3DS or the Switch. Bringing this up in case any of those are outrageously overpriced for the original versions.
I won't stand in your way if its cheap but it is so not good. I'm playing FF Adventure *right now* for the first time and it is leagues more fun. Sure it's short and has a laughable story, but at least it isn't thoroughly tedious. The combat is weirdly intelligent with how limited the gameboy is, and they had the discretion to burden you with just a few lines of badly written text instead of walls of it.
Maybe it's just childhood nostalgia for me. I really enjoyed it back in the day, though.
The lack of Max Payne on that list makes me sad. Genuinely remarkable on the GBA.
Steam | XBL
Getcha Gradius II on!
Steam | XBL