Skyrim's map ported to the GBA in a bizarre tech demo showcase

HideoKojima · 2026-09-21T03:08:03+0100

A bizarre incident occurred in the outskirts of an American suburb called Raccoon City

bonkmaykr · 2026-09-21T06:04:37+0100

YuseiFD said:
Tech demo for what?
Like?

Ligeia said:
What is the point, honestly ?

Jayro said:
They should just port openMW to the DS instead.

x65943 said:
It's sorta neat

But looks really bad - I think DS would have been a better fit for retro plus 3d models

You guys are gonna be SHOCKED when you learn that the demoscene exists

Kirby6417 said:
I thought the comments here would be a similar praise, but they are not. Is it because GBATemp responds very poorly to devs who release footage but no code or product? Well yes I can understand that, it seems pretty trivial to just upload the compiled code so any dev should just do that instead of tease us with a video.

GBATemp responds poorly to almost anything that doesn't let you replay an old game, verbatim or "remastered".

I agree not uploading the sources or build artifacts to begin with is shortsighted, but it isn't unheard of and I would not be suspicious of it. Especially when the developer offered in advance to release it. Nobody here can read I guess.

skawo · 2026-09-21T06:15:15+0100

Todd Howard MUST be stopped. He cannot keep getting away with rereleasing Skyrim on everything.

Ligeia · 2026-09-21T07:48:15+0100

ChibiMofo said:
In fairness, that can be said about any developement for long-dead platforms. They still make games for the Atari 2600, FFS!

But either you get these efforts, or you don't.
You don't.

I know but there's a whole world of difference between making a fully functional gama and... this. It just looks like a waste of time and effort to me, so you're right I don't get it but if people are into this, good for them.

bonkmaykr said:
You guys are gonna be SHOCKED when you learn that the demoscene exists

You got me here, I did have no idea.

Darth Meteos · 2026-09-21T07:56:39+0100

Scarlet said:
Did you ever feel that Skyrim wasn't on enough consoles at this point? Well here's one more, and you probably didn't see this one coming. Uploaded earlier today, developer Atreus showed off the game's iconic map on the Game Boy Advance. Achieved using a custom 3D engine that makes use of Mode 4, you can find new appreciation for the game's landscape in all its pixilated glory. Though there is no real gameplay outside of wandering through the world, it does remain something of an impressive feat. Note the footage shown in the video was captured using the mGBA core of RetroArch.

The tech demo isn't currently available to download, but the creator did state they'd be happy to upload it if there were interest.

Source

this is insanely cool
i just don't know why though

Veho · 2026-09-21T08:55:29+0100

This looks... not very good. Even if it were real, it's just looks bad. There's a guy that made a fully playable Minecraft for the GBA so it's quite possible to make a playable, interactive open world on the GBA that looks way way better than this. You can't just render the Skyrim map at 120x80 resolution and drop the color depth and call it a day.

frecklebars · 2026-09-21T10:10:09+0100

Veho said:
There's a guy that made a fully playable Minecraft for the GBA so it's quite possible to make a playable, interactive open world on the GBA that looks way way better than this.

you realize comparing minecraft and skyrim in terms what there is to render and how is like comparing apples to an airplane, right?

Veho · 2026-09-21T10:49:58+0100

frecklebars said:
you realize comparing minecraft and skyrim in terms what there is to render and how is like comparing apples to an airplane, right?

Hence the rest of my reply.
So far all we've seen is a low-res animated gif that looks like ass, with no proof it's interactive or even running on a GBA in the first place. We can go into further details once someone actually gets this to run.

MarkDarkness · 2026-09-21T15:55:52+0100

Love the jank here.

Citizen_404 · 2026-09-21T16:18:40+0100

shaunj66 said:
Looks more like Tetris to me

Heathen! I'll have you know that this is pretty much *exactly* what Daggerfall looked like on a top end PC back in 1998, and I'm only exaggerating slightly...

raxadian · 2026-09-21T17:39:50+0100

Useless 3D Demos for GBA continued.

Simply put the GBA limit side for cardridges makes it impossible to fully port most 3D games although you could probably fully port a short early 3D game.

That's because the way they render these things, like the Tom Raider GBA demo takes way too much storage space.

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