Play GBA games (badly) on the Wii

by Kyle Orland { Jan 11th 2007 at 11:05AM }

While Nintendo is quick to tout the Wii's extensive backward-compatibility with all GameCube software, the sleek white system is a pretty bad fit for the Cube's Game Boy Player hardware add-on. Rather than leaving that clunky old Cube out in the entertainment center, Wii News recommends the Datel Advance Game Port, a sleek-looking accessory that plugs into the GameCube/Wii memory card slot and lets you play Game Boy Advance games on the big screen.

What Wii News doesn't tell you is that the Datel Advance Game Port is a buggy mess. In our reviews of the discontinued hardware, games ran with inconsistent slowdown, laggy controls and audio problems. What's more, the port only plays Game Boy Advance games, unlike the official Game Boy Player, which works with games dating all the way back to the black-and-white classic portable.

If you're really desperate for Game Boy games on your TV, spring for the Nintendo-approved solution and not this third-party knock-off. Or just sit around and wait for the oft-rumored addition of Game Boy support for the Virtual Console.

Tags: Advance Game Port, AdvanceGamePort, AGP, buggy, Datel, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, GameBoy, GameBoyAdvance, Gamecube, hardware, Wii

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Japple @ Jan 11th 2007 11:15AM

But... but.. but... I remember when games were yellow-ish because black and white technology wasn't around then :(

*feels old*

animagnum @ Jan 11th 2007 11:24AM

I'd like to see a USB connector to connect the old GBA player with the Wii. I don't know how well something like that would work (or if it could work at all) but it would be really neat.

crono141 @ Jan 11th 2007 11:46AM

Agreed animagnum.

As time goes by, I'm becoming more and more convinced that the 2 usb ports aren't for bigger HD or storage, but instead they replace the proprietary "expansion port" found on ever Nintendo hardware since NES.

What I'm REALLY hoping for is a GBA and NDS player for wii (as touch functionality can be replicated with the wiimote). VC GBA support would be nice, except I'd have to buy my whole library over again.

Nintendo should come out with a Rom dumper for the wii, so you could dump the roms from all your old library, have the wii encrypt it the same way the VC encrypts roms, so all of us oldshool gamers with vast library's wouldn't have to buy it all over again.

I think I'll send that one to nintendo, and see what happens :)

kris @ Jan 11th 2007 11:49AM

Nintendo official product works better than Datel's version. No...Really????
I don't think i will buy either because i have a sneaking suspicion that the original super mario land won't look too good on my 32" Lcd. Regardless of the manufacturer of the peripheral.

Ethoscapade @ Jan 11th 2007 1:06PM

makes sense that this wouldn't work as well as the GBP... that actually had the GBA hardware inside of it, whereas this, as far as i can tell, would have to be just a (probably not all that well coded) emulator on a disc.

which is too bad, because in principle i like the idea of packaging an emulator on a disc with a usb cartridge slot a whole lot.

Ken C @ Jan 11th 2007 2:30PM

I could have told you that one Never use any Datel Device or software its horrible and buggy as crap, almost everything they release has been horrible. I have bought many things from them before I decided not to anymore. Just seems like they really dont care about a good product.