Game Boy Advance Emulator Upgrade Gives It Split-Screen Multiplayer

A well-known developer in the emulation scene has crafted a version of the Game Boy Advance software that can run a link cable multiplayer game as a split-screen experience on a single display. For many older consoles like the GBA, third-party emulators are the only way to experience their full history without spending an arm and a leg. Emulation of almost every console up to the Xbox 360 era has been solved pretty consistently by modern developers, with the emulation scene now hard at work on getting the most out of older hardware with powerful machines.

This can lead to some amazing experiences depending on the platform. The 8-bit era was long before the advent of widescreen displays in the living room, but someone upgraded the NES to support widescreen anyway. Others take those same games and turn them into fully 3D VR experiences. Whether it be for preservation’s sake or simply to test the limits of modern technology, there are lots of projects online for every conceivable console. While online play has come to many consoles via emulation, split-screen emulation is a whole new twist on what’s possible for recreating the magic of portable systems.

As spotted by Ars Technica, the splitscreen Game Boy Advance emulator comes as part of the MiSTer project and Robert Peip. He prepared a video sampling the technology with the GBA launch title Mario Kart: Super Circuit. The MiSTer generates two separate Game Boy Advance setups that sit on top of one another on the screen, each running the same game and in control by a different player. Players can then race with their friends on the couch with the proper setup, although sound only comes through for the first of the two cores.

Peip expands in the video that this technology should extend to any Game Boy Advance game with link cable support. Furthermore, it will also extend to original Game Boy games thanks to the GBA’s system-level backward compatibility. So, from Alleyway to the first generation of Pokémon, that’s a whole other console’s worth of games not playable in this configuration. Those who want to try to play these games via couch multiplayer for the first time will need to sign up for the developer’s official Patreon. Beyond the sound issues, it’s worth noting that regular emulator features like savestates, fast forward, and other minor options won’t work with this special split-screen build of the GBA tech.

While some may shy away from emulation due to its unofficial nature, it’s a vital part of the gaming ecosystem that keeps the legacy of systems like the Game Boy Advance alive. Just like an older PC title that won’t run on modern hardware, developers are fixing and adding to these retro experiences in ways that the official developers and publishers just never will. Trying to get a link cable game going in 2021 is nearly as impossible as ever seeing an official remake of the Home Improvement video game, so someone putting the work in to preserve that experience is vital to letting those interesting learn from gaming’s past.

Source: Ars Technica, FPGAzumSpass/YouTube

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