Turn Your Game Boy Advance SP Into a Raspberry Pi Emulation Station

The Nintendo Game Boy Advance SP is a favorite among retrogamers, but it can still only play Game Boy games. Wouldn't it be cool if it could play games from other handhelds like the Sega Game Gear — or even consoles like the Atari Jaguar? Thanks to the work of John Maddison of Zarcade/Zega Mame Gear, that is now possible. Maddison designed a PCB that lets you replace the original Game Boy Advance SP motherboard with a Raspberry Pi so that you can emulate whatever you want.

This works with the Raspberry Pi Zero or Zero W and, presumably, the newer Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W. Those are all capable of running Linux distros designed for emulation, such as RetroPie. They can also run standard distros with emulators installed. Those emulators will let you play games from a huge selection of different consoles. Generally speaking, you can run games up to the fourth generation of consoles. Just load up your SD card with ROMs and you can have a catalog of thousands of different video games at your fingertips wherever you go.

The Zega Mame Boy Advance SP Kit includes the motherboard, LCD, PCB and cable for the LCD, shoulder buttons, headphone jack, volume wheel, and low-profile button contacts. The user must supply their own Raspberry Pi, a Game Boy Advance SP shell, buttons, and speaker. The user will also need to solder the various components and trimming may be required.

If you want to get your hands on this kit, it is currently available on the Zega Mame Gear website for £35.84 (about $45.68). Add £10 (about $12.75) if you want the motherboard to come pre-soldered.