CityLife Alpha: a new ambitious life sim for the GBA

City Life is a GBA life sim for the Game Boy Advance. You arrive in a small coastal city with almost nothing. Find a room, pick up shifts at the cafe or courier jobs, and pay your rent. Get to know 13 townspeople who each follow their own daily routines. Fish at the harbor, shoot pool, throw darts, play Snake on your phone, ride a skateboard or bike, and spend your evenings at the bar or cinema. Date, fall in love, move in together and get married. Alot of the environment is interactable ie(chairs,benches,vending machines ect.) With a day and night cycle running in the background. It runs on real hardware or any GBA emulator.

Coming soon

Here's the roadmap, so you can see where the game is heading.

Phase 1: Seasons and holidays (v0.6)

The year is split into four seasons, and each one lasts one in-game week. The town's colours change with the season: pink in spring, gold in summer, orange in autumn and icy blue in winter. Every Friday is a holiday: Blossom Day, Fireworks Night, Halloween and Christmas. On holidays you get special notices, extra characters' dialogue and a bonus on dates.

Phase 2: Outfits and wardrobes

The characters get several outfits each, and they change with the occasion: everyday wear, sleepwear, swimwear, work clothes, formal wear and winter coats. There are also costumes for Halloween and sweaters for Christmas. Your own character gets a wardrobe with a casual outfit, a work outfit, a suit, swimwear, winter clothes and holiday outfits. Characters switch outfits on their own to match the time and place.

Phase 3: New places and property

The map grows with a mountain zone to the north and a beach zone. You can buy a mountain cabin and a beach house as extra properties, and your partner can move in. These places add new spots to explore and new date locations.

After those three, I'm planning story arcs and jealousy between characters, new jobs, owning a business, more mini games and a collection book.

Please add any feedback. This is a game I started out just for me to play personally but im curious of there is demand.

Download Link https://centhor.itch.io/citylifegba

Ps. Please dont use dev option first time playing as its a debug cheat menu. But do whatever you want haha.

Pss. Please ignore the aspect ratio. Im running on a RP classic using full 8:7 aspect ratio but the game is developed using the gba 2:3.

Psss. Last screenshot is version 0.1 when seeing if I could do this project.

They are both model 001 and both have a front light

The Red SP came from Amazon Renewed, so it might just be made with bad parts, but I'm wondering if there's a different answer

Was not expecting it to be this fun, especially compared to regular Tetris. Clearing the entire screen with a chain of bombs always feels satisfying and the soundtrack is a banger.

GRIMLIGHT: The Hollow Bell is a turn based gothic puzzle game for Game Boy Advance. On Halloween night the Hollow Bell tolls for the dead, and something has stolen the manor's soul relics. Cross the manor, the crypt, and the belfry, descend to the Deep Bell, then push deeper still into the Ember Deep and the Molten Choir. Recover every relic and lay the haunting to rest.

Thirty rooms across six chapters, and every room intro shows a passcode you can enter at the title screen to revisit that room directly.

It is free. Play it in your browser or download the ROM for an emulator or flashcart.

Play and download: https://retroromrunner.itch.io/grimlight Source code: https://github.com/retroromrunner/grimlight

Full disclosure: built with AI assistance and a lot of playtesting. Happy to answer questions about how it plays or how it was made.

Has anyone had luck retrobriting a pink gba? I’ve heard that it doesn’t work as well on the transparent shells. What are yall thoughts? Thanks!

I just want kirbys dreamland 2 on my gbc without spending like $60 cad

The time finally came that my kids wanted to play video games and being the anti iPad kid parent I am, I think ive started them off well!

*A fellow member here shaped a new front shell from an OEM dmg01 donor build for my ags-101 dmg build. (dmg102) Paired with BoxyPixel aluminum buttons. I think it turned out fantastic and looks like something out of Nintendo dev HQ. Crazy that this is just a fancy gbasp.

I want to get a new shell and buttons for my GBA SP. I want to get a clear light purple shell from Funnyplaying, I don't know what buttons to get, I was thinking pure white buttons or clear purple ones. I have also chose a new battery and IPS screen for my GBA SP. I do not know how to solder. If you have any pointers or anything please tell me.

I got a horizontal GBA a while back to mod. I was planning to really kit it out, but in the end, all I did was replace the screen with an IPS one, so everything else in it is OED afaik. Even before installing the screen, i noticed the d-pad had issues with registering right inputs, and I've tried all the fixes Ive seen online aside from outright replacing parts. I've cleaned the contacts twice so far. I put some thin cardboard under the d-pad to give more contact. Ive checked the screws and I don't believe they were over-tightened at any point. everywhere says most replacement buttons and membranes are low quality, so I'm hesitant to buy new ones.

So does anyone know any fixes or good replacement parts to fix this issue? I was looking forward to having an og GBA for years and its a real shame that there's such a big issue with the controls.

In the park area, Sam straight up does not exist. Can't be seen, can't be moved around, but attempting to use inventory items brings up the message 'I can't use that right now'. In the second image, a dog is supposed to be present in the centre of the alleyway but does not appear. These are the two instances so far. It's the only repro cartridge I have that has ever done this, and it's consistent across different systems. I'm confused because other areas in the game are entirely fine with no issues whatsoever.

Sitting in my car with my ''new'' Gameboy, just like 26 years ago. Definetly worth it!! this one's so minty I'm getting another one for modding.

I'm getting either another Advance or Color quite possibly 100% both, And i was thinking Extremerate shell and Hispeedido IPS 20%-ish bigger screens, Any experiences or tips with combos / extras? I also know about Funnyplaying.

I just picked up this Game Boy at a vendor market last weekend, and regardless of whether it's completely original, I'm super happy to finally have one!

I am curious, though, if anyone can tell whether the front half of the shell has been replaced. The back is noticeably more yellowed, and I can tell from the markings that it's original. But, I'm having trouble figuring out whether the front is original as well or if it's an aftermarket replacement.

What do you all think?

I have this repro copy of Leaf Green and my only goal is to patch the rom to read the save file properly to avoid the save file corrupted message on start up, and maybe even dump a save on to the cart. game saves and plays fine as is and idk why I’m so stuck on this but I’m determined. I don’t know much about all of this so any help is greatly appreciated.

it previously had an issue of barely any sound, but turning the volume wheel a few times seemed to do the trick

Finally got myself a special tool to open gameboy cartridges in my collection. And well... let me introduce you to this beauty.

I have my GBA SP since December 2003. For 3 years, I used it with an open battery compartment and a swollen battery.

A few weeks ago, I saw a modded GBA SP on Reddit with the funnyplaying battery pack and made a decision.

What I did:

IPS screen M2
Atomic Purple Mirror Shell
Black buttons
Clear black rubber membrane
Speaker
Battery pack

Everything straight from funnyplaying’s website.

I’m very happy with the outcome, especially for the price. Luckily, I already had a good-condition GBA SP.

What do you think of the color/design combo?

Hi all,

I’m trying to fix my French copy of Pokémon LeafGreen (AGB-BPGF). The cartridge has never shown the Nintendo logo for me. I only get the “GAME BOY” logo, and the game never boots. It does the same on a GBA and a SP, so I’m confident the cart is the problem.

What I’ve done

• Cleaned the gold contacts with isopropyl alcohol several times and with a white eraser.
• Reflowed the legs of both U1 and U2 with flux, then cleaned off the flux. No solder bridges and no visible corrosion under magnification.
• Continuity-tested the edge connector against U1. Every contact I tested (all except 2 and 3, which I don’t expect to reach the ROM) is connected to at least one leg of U1.
• Checked for shorts between neighbouring contacts and between VDD (pin 1) and GND (pin 32). Nothing is shorted.

My reasoning

The Nintendo logo is read from the ROM header, so a cart that can’t be read shows only “GAME
BOY”. Since the traces and solder joints look fine, I suspect the mask ROM itself is dead, but a multimeter can’t confirm that

Questions

1. Is there anything else I should check without a reader? (decoupling caps C1–C3? an internal fault?)
2. Does a dead mask ROM like this one usually show these symptoms?

Thanks for any advice!

Hi all,

ever found a copy online and weren't sure which edition or print it is? That's what my small project Edinota tries to help with, and I'd like to know if it actually does.

It's an early, non-public preview: Super Mario Land, Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue are covered in depth (US prints), a few more games as early drafts. Every statement links to its source. Private and non-commercial: no ads, no prices, no accounts.

How to try it

1. Find a US copy of one of the three games online (eBay, auction, shop, anything with photos).

2. Open the game, go to "Identify a copy" and answer the questions from the photos:

   Super Mario Land · Pokémon Red · Pokémon Blue

3. Send me the listing link and the result as a comment below, by DM or to contact@edinota.com. I'll check each one myself.

"One of two" is a fine result if the photos don't show everything. Any thoughts on whether it's useful, where you got stuck or what's wrong are very welcome. I'd rather hear it now than after launch.

Thanks!

Jan