Nintendo Switch Game Boy Advanced Link Cable lives

what i wonder is if pokemon fire red and leaf green on switch are capable of recognizing a plugged in link cable as if it were a gba

It could work if Nintendo wanted it to.

ah but on the software side neither the switch or the emulator are programmed to recognize an external signal of this nature, got it l.

it would be so cool. maybe on a hacked switch it could be made to happen. 😅

compatibility with a real gba system officially supported would be the coolest thing for gba and gamecube games on switch/switch2 especially for pokemon stuff would be incredible, sadly i don’t see them thinking it worth doing when the gba isn’t a currently sold Nintendo product

@NintendoAmerica can we have full GBA controllers for Switch?

@NintendoAmerica @NintendoEurope please?

Should turn this into a product. I'd buy it. This is the far superior GBA controller for NSO and frlg

honestly I was surprised how responsive it is. I need to upgrade my nintendo subscription so i can try with NSO

It's a really cool project you made

So are you just using the gba as a controller or is there more going on?

Yea as far as the console knows it’s a generic Switch controller. But I do have two way communication with the GBA on the pico adapter in the middle. More is possible if software for Switch were to be written. The way it works is the GBA link cable is able to sideload a small multiboot rom into memory and run it. Then it can be crafted to send and receive messages over the link cable to trigger actions. In this case the adapter just signals that it is in Switch USB mode when the Switch powers it.

Wow that’s awesome

I remember using this with the NGC back in the day for Four Swords Adventure. Was cool. I sold it all now, but the memory remains.

Same! I’m slowly getting things back one accessory and game a t a time. 😅

YOOO NIGGA WHAT'S THAT? an rp2040 hosting a small bootrom for the gba and traslating everything for the switch? do you have any github link? can't wait to do this shit, i have too many gamecube-gba cables in my house

yup! custom multiboot rom with bi-directional commands for passing buttons and signaling which USB output mode the adapter is in. all built on my open source project..

Are you the man behind joypad-os? You're the legend, thank you for your precious work, I'll keep an eye on the repo.

indeed I am. Any controller anywhere!!

Always love the backward compatibility freedom, Makes everything worth keeping.

Esa GBA blanca está hermosa 🤩

Not my original GBA but I really love how this custom build a did a few years back turned out. Makes me want to just build GBAs all day.

Wow lo hiciste tú? Eso si que es genial 😎 pero hacer que funcione como un control para la switch jaja eso es otro nivel

I turned it into a universal controller with Switch being one of its USB output modes. Should be able to make it work anywhere now.

@MagnusSmith12 Useful.......

In 5 years the average modded switch will learn to do the Hokey Pokey

i hope to make it happen sooner

アドバンスちっさｗ こんなんもうゲームボーイミクロやんｗｗｗ

Is it just for using it as a controller, or could one revive the Tingle Tuner with it in Windwaker HD? 👀

2-way communication is possible but Nintendo would have to add support. If they want to partner with me then we can for sure make a USB-C Switch compatible GBA Link Cable. 😅 Really comes down to the software supporting it. Which I doubt the ported version would. It would be super cool to discover Nintendo had been planning this though.

Would it work for pokemon trading?

Nintendo would likely never implement it. But this may open up an easier way to transfer through emulators.

why is he👀

My GBA has a mind of his own. 👀

might sound like the stupid idea, but anyway one could get such things working with a pc? some checking around noted the signals in the gc adapters doesn't work with the link cables timings

Not stupid at all. I actually just spent a week trying to get it to work with Dolphin emulator. I was able to get it to work but the emulator would slow to a crawl on some games like FFCC. I tried building a USB, WiFi, and ultimately gigabit Ethernet bridge. All gave me the same results with Dolphin. I even started to implement support directly into the Dolphin emulator code but I think the issue goes deeper than my bridge so will have to revisit another time. I did manage to get pretty good communication working over USB to a PC with my python test script. Can quickly sideload a custom multiboot rom that I can then pass messages back and forth with. So there are some real possibilities here.

Glad to hear that at least someones tried it! Maybe the future of proper support will be real one day. Would make a more authentic playthru of Four Swords Adventures with friends a possibility!

A controller peripheral 👀 hmm could you do something for the Analogue Pocket so we can get all four face buttons?

ohh actually that could work. if roms can access the four buttons uniquely then we can do it easily.

I could see the vision 👀

Imagine if you made it so the switch displayed on the GBA as well

dont give me crazy ideas! 😁 i considered it but the bandwidth over the link cable is very limited. to stream a video at the resolution of the gba, we might get 0.5fps. the way nintendo pulled off most stuff back in the day on it, was to pre-load assets when you first connect. then the game just sends tiny packets telling it to trigger specific events. its fast for small button data packets. but just too slow for even compressed video from the switch.

Please tell me I can buy this in the future

Following your journey of hooking up the gba link to every input possible till i finally see hooking the link cable to a minuteman ICBM 🫡

Nintendo right now

Holy shit this is cool. Could it work on switch 2 via the top slot?

Should work anywhere Switch 1 Pro controller would

Awesome, very cool

fucking awesome.

Think I’m going to try Dreamcast next and make the screen display VMU output

Crazy

Where should I take the GBA next?

i gotta ask the obvious question if it has been asked yet, compatible with GB/GBA switch emulator?

As a controller only unfortunately. If there was a way to hack it to load the game onto the device from Switch then I’d make it happen. But really comes down to support on switch side that’s locked off. But I can load small roms that fit in ram over the link cable from the adapter in the middle.

ahh, i see. honestly makes sense with how nintendo can be; either way this is very impressive man 🔥🙏🏾

Does it work on PC?

Has a ton of USB output modes. PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Switch and more to come.

That’s epic, where do I buy/get schematics and gurbers to make?

i still need to fully document this side of the house but im building an open source universal controller stack at

Oh that’s really cool! I’m gonna check this out

ゼルダの伝説風のタクトのチンクルシーバーできるのかな？

I tried! 😭😭 For now it’s just a controller. But imagine the possibilities if Nintendo allowed it.

何このコントローラー

Now we just need the ability to trade in Pokemon!

What the fuck

Just shows. Nintendo could sell a addon cable. That allows the physical copies of Pokemon. To work with Home and the digital games.

If Nintendo ever wants to talk, then my DMs are open. We can easily make this happen. Open source firmware is done. The hardware is a few bucks. Switch games just need a small software patch to bridge the gap.

Useless

ooo, could u send that gba so i can try, lost mine ages ago

What’s the point of this

To use GBA as a controller anywhere

What’s the benefits of using the GBA controller over the ones that are on the switch

@RobertDaleSmith Don't be bitter, this is just cool

@RackoJacko36939 😆 its a legit question. I do think one place it fits well as a controller for playing GBA NSO games.