We love Raspberry Pi projects and the boundaries makers push with them. However, everyone once in a while, a maker creates a whole new boundary to address. Today we’re sharing a clever creation by maker Rodrigo Alfonso who has managed to stream games to a Game Boy Advance with the help of RetroPie on a Raspberry Pi.
This is one of the best Raspberry Pi projects we’ve seen that incorporates old hardware with the Raspberry Pi and it’s totally playable! According to Alfonso, both video and audio are transmitted to the Game Boy Advance and processed in real-time. It also accepts button input from the GBA to transfer to the Pi.
Alfonso indicates that anything you can play with RetroPie will run on this setup. There are a few display modes to tinker with, which may be necessary for certain titles—for example, the default mode operates at 60fps. There are also features that change the pixel density and even add scan lines to get that retro TV feel.
A multiboot protocol is used to transmit ROMs to the GBA over the Link Cable, which is soldered to pins on the Raspberry Pi—we highly recommend you check out the project GitHub for more details about the hardware configuration.
Does this mean you can play PlayStation games on the Game Boy Advance? Yes, it does! Anything you can emulate on RetroPie can be configured to output to a GBA using this setup. To see this project in action, visit the GBA Remote Play project page and maybe whip out a soldering iron to remake it yourself.
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Ash Hill is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware with a wealth of experience in the hobby electronics, 3D printing and PCs. She manages the Pi projects of the month and much of our daily Raspberry Pi reporting while also finding the best coupons and deals on all tech.
