Rany Battikh

GBADVI by Gamebox Systems

Gamebox Systems, creators of the DMG-Consolizer and the GBHD Color, have just announced yet another Gameboy related consolization project that they’ve been working on for a while now, they’re naming it the GBADVI.

The GBADVI is a Spartan-6 FPGA-based pcb that interfaces with the 40-pin revision of the Game Boy Advance AGB-001, via a quick-solder flex cable, and outputs a pure DVI digital video signal through the on-board HDMI port. The  GBADVI also boasts a SNES controller port that should be fully compatible with 1st and 3rd party SNES controllers, and a USB-C port that supplies power for the GBA itself.

All of the 3 aforementioned functions (video, control signals and power) are provided by the flex cable, that was originally designed by developer Helder. The cable must be soldered directly onto the legs of the GBA’s CPU. It goes without saying that this process involves some very fine soldering and and is generally not recommended for beginners.

The only supported video mode at the moment is 720p. The 3.5mm analog audio port on the GBA is still the only way to get audio out of the system.

The GBADVI project is completely open source and there is no plan for a commercial release of the board at the moment but Gamebox Systems are in the process of implementing a whole bunch of improvements to it in preparation for the release of its successor.

All the design files, firmware code and BOM are available on the GBADVI‘s github page.

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