25th anniversary of GameBoy Advance. What are your best memories?

Flame · Mar 22, 2026

What are your best memories of the console? What are your favourite games? unique games you recommend?

In the early years of GBA, I didn't get one because I was too cool. around 2006? 2005? maybe i would play the gen 3 of pokemon on VBA emulator. later on i would get loads of GBA consoles, games and flashcarts. i even have GBA micro now. but at the time, i was a teenager and the graphics just wasnt cool. the games wasnt 3D and games wasnt dark. how wrong was i?

GBA was weird. it was released in 2001, but 3 years later the DS was released. But somehow the GBA managed to do amazing in sales. still has a amazing catalogue of games. imo pokemon Gen 3 are one of the most played games of all time. not becuase everybody has the cartridges itself. just how easy it was to play with an emulator. the amount of ROM hacks the games has. the graphics are the sweet spot.

M7L7NK7 · Mar 22, 2026

Never owned one, but I bought a DS Lite when it released just for LeafGreen so I guess that

Josh4u · Mar 22, 2026

When I was in middle school the bus driver had a gameboy she'd let me play on. It was how I beat an entire rayman game. I ended up giving her my copy of super mario world as thanks.

DaFixer · Mar 22, 2026

First I got the first model (because I like the form factor), a year later a Dutch guy made The Afterburner frontlit light mod kit.
Got it and installed it, later I got a XGflash 256mbit flashcard. Then I discover this website, because I was looking for sram patches for GBA games. I realy like Advance Wars, M & L: Super Star Saga and Astroboy.

FrankieT19 · Mar 22, 2026

I had a silver GBA sp 001 growing up. But I prefer the original GBA now thanks to the screen mods available. I rarely see the Frogger games mentioned, those are actually really well made with tight gameplay and great graphics. The Pac-Man collection is also a favourite of mine, specifically the ‘arrangement’ game.

SylverReZ · Mar 22, 2026

I've owned the original GBA in white since 2007, right when the console was being discontinued. Now I rock a GBA SP because of it including a backlight, and I never liked the fact that I had to point the system in sunlight to get it to show anything; these days, you have IPS backlit mods available. It was gifted to me by my dad and came with two games: Tetris Worlds and Pac-Man Collection. Pac-Man Collection is probably my favorite because it came with 'Arrangement' and Pac-Mania, which were exclusive to the arcade and had better graphics than playing the originals, where they crushed the size of the maze to the tiny screen.

Later on, I bought one of those SuperCard SD flashcarts (circa 2013), which was hit and miss with the games, as they required patching; you used the SuperCard software to patch the ROMs, and the compatibility was that you got either noticeable slowdown or crashing.

zerofalcon · Mar 22, 2026

Bought the original GBA platinum around December 2002 with Zelda ALTTP Four swords, but regretted after hearing about the GBA SP coming soon! Nonetheless I enjoyed the console and upgraded it two times, firstly with the GBA SP frontlit and finally in 2005 got the best Gameboy/Gameboy Color/Gameboy Advance (backlit) that I'm still possess.

MTSoph14 · Mar 22, 2026

The GBA SP was the very first console that was entirely mine. So many hours of the Mario Advance 4 and Link to the Past were played on that thing. My childhood one didn't last long as I got a DS Lite maybe 2 years later.

The GBA to this day is my favorite platform and I have several modded systems and will be catching up on most of the RPG library for a long time.

hippy dave · Mar 23, 2026

The game I remember enjoying most back in the day was Yoshi's Island, was my first time playing it and it lived up to the hype.

MakiRoll · Mar 24, 2026

I loved it when I received mine as a birthday gift. And I was devestated when less than a year after I got mine, the SP came out. I really wanted the light up screen but obviously I would not get another GBA.

ChronoCrossfangirl2002 · Mar 28, 2026

I have the most stoned stories with this console

at one point i owned every single mainline pokemon game (except fire red) for it but most of them
were obtained by pure coincidence

- sapphire i got as a hand me down

- ruby was my cousins and he gave it to another family member, said individual asked to trade me my sapphire for their ruby
i accepted but before we left he couldn't find sapphire i tried helping him look until eventually i had to go, so when i got back
home a few days later i was over my sibling friends house and my brother helped their dad move a recliner to our house, that night me and my brother
were hanging out and i heard a *clack* noise while sitting in the recliner, i looked under there and somehow sapphire version was there i still dunno how it
got there, and we never told my family member over a decade later (mind you we lived an entire state away)

- emerald, i lowkey just traded a friend at school my pearl version for it because he really wanted it lol

- leaf green, in elementary school we used to battle and if someone lost they had to give up their game, one kid had leaf green
i used sapphire and i won, i don't remember the entire team him and me had all i know is he had a zapdos and blastoise
and i had a swampert, a few people crowded around to watch so everyone saw him give up his copy when he lost

that's not all the stories i have with my experience with this console as i have too many

namename11 · Mar 28, 2026

One time I wanted to play Pokemon so I looked for a copy of Emerald I think and saw it was like $400 for a loose copy. The GBA I bought for $20.

That's where my GBA journey began and ended. It's the only memory I have of the GBA so it's my best by default.

Lijer · Mar 28, 2026

Refreshing gbatemp waiting for the new roms to arrive

emigre · Mar 28, 2026

Was 11 at the time and really wanted one but my family were broke so never got one :cry:

VinsCool · Mar 28, 2026

Got the GBA SP for Christmas in 2002 I believe.

I cherished it until 2009 when I sold it with my entire Gameboy collection to buy a Nintendo DS, the rest is history.

r05sco · Mar 31, 2026

I ended up in a Casino after a night out. GBA had just come out. Won a bit and next day went to GameStation and bought a Glacier with I think one of the Mario Advance games. Games I still play, that I played originally : WarioWare Inc. , Both Metroids (Zero Mission is my favourite Metroid), Mario Kart Super Circuit, Minish Cap was fun.
Games I have only recently played for the first time : Drill Dozer (on AP with Rumble Pak).and Ninja 5-O. Both fantastic games.
Also of note that brought me back here is the utterly incredible port of Tetris The Grand Master for GBA. Apologies to the dev, can't recall their name. Edit * "Yakkers"

pivix · Mar 31, 2026

My first game that I played on rent GBA was super mario advance. My first game that I played on my own GBA was castlevania advance, and my best game and memories with GBA is connected to the Golden Sun

.

DinohScene · Mar 31, 2026

Sheep GBA.
Many many fond memories...

zxr750j · Mar 31, 2026

Bought a white one and ordered an ez-flash2 256mb from I think winsunx. Paid with western union which felt kinda sketchy. Off-course for pokemon but denki blocks was also perfect.

Skelletonike · Mar 31, 2026

The GBA just came out the other day, what do you mean?

25th anniversary of GameBoy Advance. What are your best memories?

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