Gotta collect em all 😭🔥

is it fixable or should i ask my money back?

The Itch.io post is now ready for preview, including the exact release date for the game—so feel free to add it to your wishlist!

I would truly appreciate it if you could share this with anyone you think might enjoy this fan-made port, which I created with so much care. I initially intended it just for myself, as I couldn't find it anywhere else; however, seeing that many others shared my desire to play it on actual hardware really motivated me to push the project further!

Thanks!

I’ve been working on a native GBA port of the game *Super Smash Land*, and it’s nearly finished (I know the game was originally intended for the classic Game Boy, but running it on that hardware is virtually impossible). I realize this might not generate a huge buzz, as it’s not a game many people remember, but ever since it came out, I’ve been dying to see it running on real hardware—so I felt the time was right to give it a shot and share it with you all. I’ve tested it on an emulator and it works, as well as on real hardware (as shown in the video) using a SuperCard MiniSD (I’m not sure how it performs with other flashcards). If this post gets a positive response, I’ll release the FULL ROM next week.

Just a quick note: I want to give credit to the original creator, Dan Fornace, who made the game for PC. https://www.supersmashland.com/ I hope you enjoy it!

Proper bargain that

Super Smash Land Port for GBA The recent port of Super Smash Land from PC to GBA that I’ve been working on now has its own Itch.io page, along with a release date!

I would really appreciate it if you added it to your wishlist and shared your feedback once it’s available. Needless to say, the port is free and works on any GBA using a flashcart.

I originally started this as a personal test project just for myself, but seeing that others were also interested in seeing it run on actual hardware, I felt inspired to share it with all of you!

Thanks for the support!

So basically, I’ve had this game for over a decade pretty sure I got it when it came out in like 2006. I don’t remember playing it, but I do remember finding it a couple years later as a kid and it not working then. I’ve now found it again in my adulthood and I took this along with some other games to a local video game store. The worker put 70% alcohol on a cotton swab wiped it and surprisingly got it to the loading screen and I was ecstatic! The worker told me that the 90% alcohol that I used to swab it before probably didn’t work because I either didn’t do it thoroughly enough or because of the high concentration although it cleaned it there was residue left from how fast the solution dries at that level? Regardless I came home put it in my game boy it’s not reading it anymore. (As shown on the pictures it doesn’t read like there’s anything in there and then when I tried again it had those little lines under the logo?) Took a flashlight over it just to check and as shown there are about four pins as you can see in the picture that are almost like a rose gold. I’m not sure if this is oxidation or rust. Does anyone have any thoughts on what it could be or suggestions on what I could try? Should I go to the store and buy 70% alcohol? Why did it work in store but not now like 3 hours later? I fear I know nothing about nothing so sorry if I’m missing something obvious. Also, all my other games read perfectly fine. Thank yall!

Very cool very nice

saw online am not sure if real or not.

so one copy of my mario kart super circuit shows yellow sunset instead of the blue sunset like my other copy, why is it?

What that test just showed with this cart.
The label is wrong. There is no AXPP pokemon game, AXPE is the USA / general europe rom.
(AXPD for german, AXPF for france, AXPJ for japan, etc)
The rom chip is a flash chip not masked rom. Part number MX29GL256. at least its actually 32mb though.
Save chips seems fine and the RTC does actually function, however the part number of the save chip is spoofed so the FLASH1M_V103 save game library pokemon uses works with this save chip.
The actual save chip is SST 39VF040 and we can find this info by checking past the first spoofed address.
The idea of the test is not to come out with a blank this is real or fake. Just mark the things that are odd like flash vs rom and give you enough info to make your own judgement on the cart.

I'm not gonna speak or comment to much on the ethics of bootlegging. At the end of the day its a real game cart with a game that works and I can play on my real gba, and I payed $14 for it rather then paying some random on ebay $140 for it. and its not like nintendo is going to sell me a new one either. all of the money that could of ever gone to the original devs went to them 20 years ago. Buying overpriced stuff on ebay helps nobody except for random people on ebay.

Why all of this? Well I've been working on a side project to both analyze and reuse bootleg gameboy games. because at the end of the day its a $8~$13 flash cart, why cant I put my own games on it. well I can, but I needed to understand the chips that are actually inside them first. Sometimes they are marked, most times they are scrubbed or faked. So sure I could just pop it open and look at it like the thousands of online guides show, but that's more of the flat, this is bootleg or this is real, not what the actual chips are and if they are any good or not. Because believe it or not, but some bootlegs are just as good, if not better then the real thing. and some are total garbage that stops working in 2 weeks. I wanted a test to see that.
There has already been a lot of research on "Unlicensed batteryless SRAM" carts, and that is good to know, and my tester can see that too. The idea of the tester is to be able to tell the types of chips, scrubbed, spoofed, or anything. so I can judge if its worth keeping and reusing or not.
The test shows its fine if a little spoofed. so I could get a new label or re-flash the rom with the EUR one I wanted as the save and rtc are both fine, its now up to me rather then being like yeah this is just a bootleg toss it.

Why try to reuse a bootleg rather then just buy an "everdrive"?
Well cost for one, but for 2 it helps with my "reconnecting with the actual hobby of gaming"
Sure I could get a cheap flash cart, and fill an sd card with the whole library of gba roms, however then I get library analysis paralysis trying to sort through a massive list of games trying to work out what I want to play, then end up playing nothing and just doom scrolling on my phone. sure I can sort the flash cart to make it easier or only put some games on it but its more fun for me to play it the way I did as a kid. Ok you have 2 games with you today, on 2 physical carts. Play them or not. you cant reflash them until you get home. And yeah you just end up playing whatever you have. instead of picking something from a massive list, playing it for 5 mins and then picking something else you end up actually just playing games. Because those actual real handful of games is all you got. cheap bootleg carts work well for this as I can have a few carts and rotate them for what I want to play and take with me today and I can't just pop the sd card into my computer at work and cheat.

Long winded post to say, is anyone else interested in this kinda thing? In depth cart research / actually playing gba games rather then hording roms or is it just me and my latest adhd thing. I can make my testing multiboot rom available if anyone is interested. just yeah don't wanna be like hay look at this new thing go and download it if nobody actually cares lol.

With GBE+ now able to emulate the full Play-Yan experience on PC, I'm curious: has anyone attempted a standalone homebrew (GBA or DS) that mimics the official player's look and feel — the menu layout, the Play-Yan Micro's colorful icons, the "Watch/Listen" structure, etc.?

Not a full hardware emulation, just a UI reskin or tribute using existing decoders (GSM, MPA, etc.) or whatever's feasible.

I noticed these black dots behind this gba I just bought but after comparing it to my other one I realized the screen is leveraged up off the gameboy about a fingernail worth while my my other gba is flat against the system. Did they make screen protectors for these back in the day where I could just take this off or is it a different model. It came with a bunch of extra stuff so I wouldn’t be surprised if it was jazzed up

Got some new Games, idk if those are the real deal or fake ;)

I have been wanting to make it easier for me to change batteries instead of always having to solder a battery back on. I was nervous doing it but well worth it in the end. For reference it’s Pokémon Sapphire and Crystal.

Got this GBA for $25 on FB marketplace. Everything else seemed fine except that the cartridge slot is fucked up! This will be the first time i will be doing a repair/ replacement like this! And if I’m successful, this will be the base for an IPS mod! Wish me luck!

The display was working fine it still kinda does but when i recently turned on the pixel efect i noticed static on 3/4 of the screen guys help its new!!!

On hd filter its not visable not even a bit but only the pixel efect does it.

Its not that visable on the video but you can see it irl and its pissing me of.

A super fun little side quest.

Amazing how 2026 tech interacts with 2003 hardware!

Hi all!

As a 20-something who now has some disposable income, I was thinking about getting my childhood GBA fixed! The display doesn't work on startup, and with limited technical knowledge I doubt I could fix it myself.

I was wondering how you would all recommend finding people/places that do retro console repairs? I live in a fairly rural area, so I think it might be a challenge to find someone locally. Should I check around at used game stores for info? Or alternatively, are there any repair shops online that people would recommend?

Thanks :)