Bringing the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo 64 Together: A Fan’s Frankensteined Console

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One of the best portable consoles…

If you grew up in the 1990s or early 2000s, you most likely spent a large part of your childhood on the Game Boy Advance or on its foldable version the Game Boy Advance SP. Released in 2001, this small portable console had the difficult task of taking over from the Gameboy (and the Gameboy Color) which had nevertheless revolutionized the industry and introduced the Pokémon license to the world. More efficient than its big sister, this console has largely found its place on the market and has become one of the most iconic platforms in the history of video games.

Among the games released on Game Boy Advance, we note for example some behemoths like Advance Wars, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Minish Cap, Yoshi's Island, Super Mario 3, Metroid: Fusion, a few episodes of F-Zero and of course Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald, to name only a very small selection of games. Suffice it to say that this console brings its share of nostalgia to anyone who has ever had one in their hands, a bit like all of Nintendo's machines ultimately. But rather than just pulling it out of its closet, one Nintendo fan decided to double down on nostalgia by combining his Game Boy Advance with a Nintendo 64.

…in one of the worst controllers in the universe

Long before the Wii U fiasco, Nintendo had already proven that they were capable of both the best and the worst, sometimes even within a console generation. In 1996, for example, the Japanese manufacturer launched the famous Nintendo 64. A true sacred monster in the history of video games, this console sits very high in the list of the most memorable machines ever designed… all despite (thanks to?) a controller with more than questionable ergonomics. Yet, it is inside the latter that a very handy player decided to house an authentic Game Boy Advance.

As you can see in these photos, Reddit user MaSaKee recently posted the fruits of his labor, and suffice to say that it is as impressive as it is strange. By dismantling an N64 controller and its Game Boy Advance console, the latter managed to transpose all the innards of the portable console into the controller to transform the latter into a console. From now on, he can use his Nintendo 64 controller like an authentic Game Boy Advance, all including of course the cartridges (GBA or Gameboy), a speaker, a screen and even an LED to indicate the charge level of the device. We imagine that the comfort must not be very optimal given the ergonomics of this horror that is the Nintendo 64 controller, but the feat still remains absolutely impressive.

In the comments, MaSaKee explains that he had to cut some parts of the Game Boy Advance motherboard to fit it into the shell of the Nintendo 64 controller, but that everything remains perfectly functional. Some Reddit users are so impressed they wonder if he'll sell any, but given how much work it takes, there is no doubt that this object will remain unique.