Gaming GBA Virtual Console

[sjones900]

So let me give some background on this.. Back in 2011 I bought a 3DS at the original $249.99 price. It was great and wonderful and they just launched the 3DS ambassador program. I'd only begun to download the very first set of titles available at the time available to 3DS ambassadors, when one day.... a former friend of mine dropped the 3DS in the sink... Fast forward to 2013. I now have a 3DS XL I never got the old 3DS fixed. I had been doing some reading and found that Nintendo might be able to transfer those titles for me.. I wasn't too hopeful on that since I've had similar dealings with them on the Wii and they wouldn't budge on the matter. But to my surprise they actually approved it and transferred my ambassador titles to my XL!

So my question is, do they really have no intention of ever releasing more GBA VC for 3DS? It seems kinda stupid not to. If they had not transferred them and they were available for purchase I would have gladly bought all of them.

 

[Giratina3]

So let me give some background on this.. Back in 2011 I bought a 3DS at the original $249.99 price. It was great and wonderful and they just launched the 3DS ambassador program. I'd only begun to download the very first set of titles available at the time available to 3DS ambassadors, when one day.... a former friend of mine dropped the 3DS in the sink... Fast forward to 2013. I now have a 3DS XL I never got the old 3DS fixed. I had been doing some reading and found that Nintendo might be able to transfer those titles for me.. I wasn't too hopeful on that since I've had similar dealings with them on the Wii and they wouldn't budge on the matter. But to my surprise they actually approved it and transferred my ambassador titles to my XL!

So my question is, do they really have no intention of ever releasing more GBA VC for 3DS? It seems kinda stupid not to. If they had not transferred them and they were available for purchase I would have gladly bought all of them.

Short answer: No.

Long answer: No, because they specified that only the NES games were gonna be not exclusive to Ambassadors, but the Ambassadors have got the GBA ones exclusively until known otherwise. There is some rumors of some games like Mario and Luigi Super Star Saga and a few others hitting the Nintendo eShop, but the dates, are another story entirely, We don't know. Only time will tell.

 

[DinohScene]

They'll eventually will release it to the general public in a year or so.
Seeing that nothing is exclusive really (other then some power ups/weapon skins/outfits/whatever minor things in other games)
Or, Ninty could hold it's promise on keeping it for the early adopters only.

No one really knows.

 

[Snailface]

Around the time the gba ambassador games were released, Nintendo said they had "no plans" on future VC support. That doesn't mean it will never happen, but it isn't a good sign.

 

[McHaggis]

I think the only reason they haven't released the GBA games to the general public is that they are a little unpolished. Unlike the NES and GB/GBC games, the GBA games do not seem to run in an emulator written in 3DS mode, but more likely take advantage of the backwards-compatible nature of the hardware. The GBA games took much longer to be released than the NES games, which could indicate they ran into issues that were time consuming to address.

It's possible that they've abandoned the idea of emulating GBA games on the 3DS since they announced their arrival on the Wii U Virtual Console instead. Of course, this is all just speculation, but it doesn't make much sense to blow up 240x160 pixels to 720p or 1080p resolutions when they wouldn't look nearly as bad on the 3DS screen.

 

[spinal_cord]

[offtopic]I wan't SNES games dammit![/offtopic]

 

[sjones900]

I think the only reason they haven't released the GBA games to the general public is that they are a little unpolished. Unlike the NES and GB/GBC games, the GBA games do not seem to run in an emulator written in 3DS mode, but more likely take advantage of the backwards-compatible nature of the hardware. The GBA games took much longer to be released than the NES games, which could indicate they ran into issues that were time consuming to address.

It's possible that they've abandoned the idea of emulating GBA games on the 3DS since they announced their arrival on the Wii U Virtual Console instead. Of course, this is all just speculation, but it doesn't make much sense to blow up 240x160 pixels to 720p or 1080p resolutions when they wouldn't look nearly as bad on the 3DS screen.

I agree.. I just recently read about the GBA VC on Wii U. It just seems kinda backwards, plus it shouldn't be that difficult for the 3DS to emulate GBA games. Maybe they're having a hard time integrating the save state features. There's also rumor that these games were supposed to have local play support just like the Game Gear VC titles. Who knows... in any case I hope it happens eventually.