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A controller for your thoughts - win a free controller!

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It's around that time of the year I try to be a more productive person, and with that comes the question of where that productivity should be directed. Courtesy of @AKNES I have a controller to give away, with the winner being able to pick from 8BitDo's Ultimate 2C (Bluetooth or Wireless), GuliKit's ES Pro, Elves 2, or Elves 2 Pro, or EasySMX's D05. On top of this, the administration have also decided to give three lucky runner ups a year of GBAtemp patronage, complete with ad-free perks! So what am I asking of you for a chance to win any of these lovely things?

The criteria is simple. You'll need to have been a member before this thread went live. If you're reading this as a lurker, I encourage you to sign up and join in with the larger community. You might not be able to join this giveaway, but there'll be more down the line. For those already here though, you'll just need to reply to this thread, and your reply will need the following information:
  • An upcoming game you're looking forward to
  • Your favourite ROM hack
  • A cool bit of gaming tech you own or are interested in
If you can manage that much, you'll have your shot at the prizes! It might all seem a bit random, but it's handy to check in every so often to see where interests currently lie. If we see there's big interest in a given game, we might go more out of our way to post smaller updates or trailers as they release. If a ROM hack has a bunch of recommendations, we might take a bit of time to feature or review it. It's all good to know.

You'll have a week to enter, with entries closing Friday the 27th of March at 8pm in the UK. I'll pop a threadmark down to make it clear where the cut-off is, and announce the winners on Sunday the 29th of March. All winners will be both tagged and DM'd, so feel free to turn off notifications for this post after putting your reply down.

A big thanks to @AKNES for supplying the choice of controller for giveaway. If you're interested in joining their Discord community where they run their own giveaways alongside providing customer support for the various things they sell, you can find a link below.

:arrow: AKNES Discord Server
 
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Hi,
I'm in.
Upcoming game I'm looking forward, Palworld 1.0 (Tides of Annihilation and Beasts of Reincarnation too)
Favorite Rom Hack, not really a rom hack, but I loved Pokemon Insurgence, Pokemon fan game on PC, based on RPG Maker
Gaming tech I own? I don't really have much. Let's say I did get a cool set of headphone with PS5 aesthetics
 
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Here we go:
  • An upcoming game you're looking forward to: Rhythm Heaven Groove
  • Your favourite ROM hack: Paper Mario: Dark Star Edition
  • A cool bit of gaming tech you own or are interested in: I'm interested in finding a used Anbernic Win600 and installing SteamOS on it. I like the Steam Deck, but it doesn't fit in my cargo pants side pockets! Probably doesn't qualify as "cool" lol
 
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Thanks for the opportunity, here's my entry:
  • An upcoming game you're looking forward to: Yoshi and the Mysterious Book on the Switch 2, Yoshi's one of my favorite Nintendo characters and so far Yoshi games were super fun. Other than that, not much really as I usually play older titles that I've missed a couple of years ago due to not having a decent gaming PC.
  • Your favorite ROM hack: Unfortunately, I can't really say whether I've played a ROM hack in my life so far other than those bootleg games on those dubious bootleg consoles.
  • A cool bit of gaming tech you own or are interested in: I'd love to get my hands on a new Steam controller as well as Virtual Boy addon for the Switch (2) as getting the real Virtual Boy is next to impossible for me these days for a decent price. As for the gaming tech that I own.. Maybe PSVR v2 for my PS4? I'd love to get PSVR2 for my PS5 or a proper 3D TV for my PS3. I do have a Panasonic TV with 3D features and some Samsung 3D glasses but I've never tried to see if it'll work. My new 3DS XL is certainly a cool thingy, I fell in love with the 3D gimmick it offers. Basically any unconventional way of playing games is what I'm usually looking to buy and add to my collection.
Good luck to everyone!
 
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Giving it a shot.

  • An upcoming game you're looking forward to - Grid Forge TD . I'm a sucker for both Tower Defences and Tetris, so a game that combines both is a win-win to me. And the demo finished catching me.
  • Your favourite ROM hack - I'll go with Pokémon. R.O.W.E being the clear winner, with Quetzal being a close second, both for their creative ideas and innovation on the main games.
  • A cool bit of gaming tech you own or are interested in - Got gifted an Anbernic RG35XX H in December 2025, for my birthday. Quickly dropped MuOS on it, and ended up replaying many classics, from Alex Kidd in Miracle World to Skies of Arcadia. It's currently resting a bit until next week and R.O.W.E.'s update, with 3DS' Bravely Second taking my current time.
 
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Upcoming game, does next uknown zelda game count?
I'm eager to know what Nintendo will bring next to he NSW2 for the Zelda series.

Favorite romhack, I used to enjoy translation for rpg games (which would be considered a romhack according to me) so it would be an forgotten-name translation for Terranigma.
Other than that, I'll have to say Chrono Trigger hacks (+, Crimson Echoes / Flames of Eternity, Schala Edition), don't really know if I could pick one since I haven't beaten them yet.

Interested tech: I like VR.
I would love to see Zelda franchise in here.
 
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Upcoming game would have to Dragon Quest XII whenever we finally get it.

Rom hack hmm that's a tricky one but for me I would go with the English language patch for Dragon Quest X offline.

Cool tech I would have to go with my Dragon Quest Slime controller for the Switch.
 
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Scarlet said:
An upcoming game you're looking forward to
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I won't name GTA6 lol. Instead I'm looking forward to MOUSE: P.I. For Hire as it combines the artstyle of Cuphead with something like Doom or Postal:


(honorable mention since I'm a die hard Invincible fan but I'm not getting this for full price on release)

Scarlet said:
Your favourite ROM hack
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Damn, that's a tough one. Maybe one of the toughest questions I've ever been asked. :D
While I'd love to hand the medal to many fantastic Gen 1 PKMN hacks I love like Brown, PureRGB or Shin, I think it goes back and forth between
TMNT: Shredder's Re-Revenge (especially with the Zeldix forums MegaCD audio enhancements)


and
Super Mario Land 2 DX


with the latter ultimately winning this for me as it's done justice to a title that should have been released like that by Nintendo themselves in the 90's. I played this for months when I was young and always imagined how those levels would look like in color. This hack is something that could NOT have been executed in any better way. It's just perfect and clearly a "I can never go back to the original again, even not for nostalgia" experience.

Honorable mention: Tetris - Rosy Retrospection, next to Apotris the best version of this game!
Scarlet said:
A cool bit of gaming tech you own or are interested in
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I'm just totally down the rabbit hole for the MiSTer FPGA project and everything you can do with it. Countless hardware addons and amazing software gimmicks like Zaparoo turned this into the perfect retro gaming experience that (in combination with my childhood CRT) put big piles of dust on my other devices like the Switch.
That being said, I also love my modded iPod Classic Gen 7 with Rockbox and "FreshOS" theme that is still my favorite way to listen to music. And just recently I got myself a Zelda Game & Watch after watching Nacho's video on how to hack it so this is an upcoming project I'm looking forward to (soldering and tinkering) as soon as I receive the needed parts.
 
Last edited by lordelan,
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1. Palworld Palfarm is currently my only big name game I'm looking forward to.
2. Pokemon Crystal Clear was fun, felt very polished.
3.1. For upcoming tech I am mostly hyped about the Steam Frame, that thing should cover basically every VR game or experience ever made, with the only exceptions being PS5 related.
3.2 For gaming tech I own that rocks, the combo of RedMagic Astra + Gamesir X5s fully exceeded any and all expectations I had about gaming on android now. A 9" OLED screen, no perceivable input latency from the bluetooth controller, and now also GameNative running more and more PC games perfectly on android makes it ever easier to just play my small games on the couch. It's a great way to go through my Steam backlog of small indie titles, older console titles, or even stream bigger ones from my PC.
 
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RAHelllord said:
1. Palworld Palfarm is currently my only big name game I'm looking forward to.
2. Pokemon Crystal Clear was fun, felt very polished.
3.1. For upcoming tech I am mostly hyped about the Steam Frame, that thing should cover basically every VR game or experience ever made, with the only exceptions being PS5 related.
3.2 For gaming tech I own that rocks, the combo of RedMagic Astra + Gamesir X5s fully exceeded any and all expectations I had about gaming on android now. A 9" OLED screen, no perceivable input latency from the bluetooth controller, and now also GameNative running more and more PC games perfectly on android makes it ever easier to just play my small games on the couch. It's a great way to go through my Steam backlog of small indie titles, older console titles, or even stream bigger ones from my PC.
Click to expand...
Thanks for mentioning GameNative, just spurred me to check their GitHub releases and notice they added achievement support last week! I'll get a news post up for that later.
 
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  • An upcoming game you're looking forward to :

  • Legacy of Kain: Ascendance​

  • Your favourite ROM hack :

  • Super Metroid: Ascent​

  • A cool bit of gaming tech you own or are interested in :
  • 8BitDo's Ultimate 2C
 
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These are always fun, even just for creating a conversation devoid of any drama

Honestly, I can't think of a lot of games that have been confirmed to be coming out and I'm excited for. Kingdom Hearts 4 comes to mind. Who knows when it will come out though lol. I grew up on this site and I've found that in the time I've entered true adulthood, I'm a lot happier to dip into the backlog and try something new than anxiously await the next thing. The cool part about living in 2026 is there are practically endless games that already exist and are readily available. There are also so many fan efforts from fan games to rom hacks to decomps that are just delightful.

The romhack I've been playing recently that's really stuck with me is BAZR. It was created for a competition, but it is a really phenomenal Mario 64 rogue like where your moves (jump, long jump, punch, etc) are cards from a deck that get drawn to one of four buttons (B, A, Z, R). There are a ton of different starter decks that keep gameplay going for a while. The one thing I feel like it's missing is a 70 or 120 star mode. The game always ends after 16 stars which is a bit short after you get used to what stars are easy with what cards on which stages.

As for tech, I just sold my original rog Ally for an Ayn Thor Max. I've been wanting to do a whole write up on it because it's such an excellent experience. I've always been looking for a device that can be a DS replacement and the Thor does that very well. Solid build quality and plenty of power to emulate practically anything, it's been a great way to play old favorites and find new ones. The form factor makes it so easy to pick up and play which was definitely not the case with the Ally, which was just way too big. I'm so excited for what's happening with FEX.
 
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Might be worth a shot

An upcoming game you're looking forward to

- MH Wilds on the Switch 2


Your favourite ROM hack

- Crystal Legacy


A cool bit of gaming tech you own or are interested in

- Bemani Pocket and Barcode Battler II.
 
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A game I'm looking forward to is the new Yoshi, I know haters love to complain that Yoshi games are too easy and are never as good as the original Island, but Yoshi is cute as hecc, I have fun with his games, and the new one looks pretty and should be interesting with new mechanics for each thingy you discover.

For ROM hacks, I didn't immediately think of translations, though there are many English translations I have enjoyed and appreciated. A more creative hack that I play quite a bit now and then, and still have yet to get my first completion, is The Legend of Zelda: Ancient Dungeon. A deep hack of the original NES game that turns it into a roguelike dungeon crawler - no overworld, only one dungeon that is randomly generated each time you play, and takes you through 256 rooms (if you don't die first), gradually increasing in difficulty, featuring random selections from all the enemies in the game, items to collect, all the bosses in order, until you finally take on Gan(n)on to win the game. It's really well done and fun to play, though pretty tough if you're not a seasoned pro at the original game.

Cool gaming tech I own: a handheld NES/Famicom clone that uses the real CPU & PPU for the most authentic non-emulated experience. Bit gratuitous when emulation is so ubiquitous, but sometimes you've gotta treat your nerdy cravings.
 
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I don't really have many games I'm looking forward to, so I'd just stick with Pokémon Champions, Pokémon Wind and Pokémon Wave.

One of my favorite ROM Hacks are either Super Mario Land 2 DX which fully colors SML2, but if I have to go deeper I'd say either Pokémon Naranja, Pokémon Shiny Gold but I've been enjoying Pokémon ROWE a really lot lately.

I'd say the Gold Finger 2 in 1 is pretty particular since it lets me play GB games on my PS1. Which is strange and at the same time fancy.
The SD Media Launcher is also cool.
 
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1. Next 3d Mario

2. Amped Up (MK64) Tetris - Rosy Retrospection

3. Virtual Pinball Cab

Edit: Oh, sorry - I just realized that I do a Rosy duell every day, so Amped Up will have to settle for second place, whether I like it or not.
 
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