Classic GBA Game Ports We'll Never See?

Thanks to LoonyBlog for its entry discussing classic games that could be converted to the Game Boy Advance, but are unfortunately not likely to appear, since "the Game Boy Advance is an almost exclusively franchise driven platform." The writer points out: "I think the GBA could have some amazing classic games ported to it, although the failure (apparently a spectacular failure at that) of the Blizzard Classic Arcade line pretty much means we'll never see many of them", and singles out commercial releases of Sam N' Max Hit The Road ("has a point n' click interface that would translate well to the GBA"), Heroes Of Might & Magic III ("its bright and colorful style would make for a beautiful GBA game"), and Ys Book I & II ("really an 8-bit game at its core") as top of his wishlist. What would you like to see officially available on GBA?

Emulators

[bludstone]

The GBA isnt _that_ difficult to code for, is it?

Why couldnt scummVM be ported to gba?

According to zophar's gameboy page [zophar.net] there are lots of nifty emulators for gba already.

Sierra's AGI, NES, SMS, SNES (!), tg16, and even spectrum.

While I would like to see more oldschool PC games ported to gba, I certainly wouldnt put this in a crisis situation. There are some pretty good alternatives.

Biggest disappointment from Blizzard

[Vaevictis666]

was that they just did a simple rehash of stuff for their "Classic Arcade" line. Honestly, if they'd included in the Lost Vikings cart both Lost Vikings games, and added a 3 player link mode, it would have rocked some serious ass.

I mean, all 3 vikings on the move at once, trying to coordinate verbally in synch... as well, adding a few missions that required realtime coordination between the vikings would have been a lot more stimulating than what we got...

Instant money for Square

[ike6116]

If they port Chrono Trigger to GBA, but why hasn't this happened yet? Anybody?

games I wish could be done on a GBA but won't work

[FriedTurkey]

it has a point n' click interface that would translate well to the GBA It sound like he has never actually played a GBA. All of those games would be horrible on a GBA. A point & click on a tiny GBA screen would be absolute torture. I have about 50 GBA games (I do a lot of travelling). With the exception Advance Wars all the good games are really simple finger twitching games. If those games were ported to GBA they would be dumbed down horrible version like all of the other horrible dumbed down ports to GBA. Have you tried Sim City for GBA?? It is so dumbed down its boring after 10 minutes.

PC ports

[0x0d0a]

singles out commercial releases of Sam N' Max Hit The Road ("has a point n' click interface that would translate well to the GBA"),

Umm...we *are* talking about the device w/o a touchscreen or mouse, right?

Heroes Of Might & Magic III ("its bright and colorful style would make for a beautiful GBA game")

Not quite enough pixels on that little screen, bucko. That'd make for some nasty porting problems. Hard to see what you're doing.

I agree that there's a place for classic games on the GBA (though whoever the idiot was who decided that the GBA shouldn't be as vertically high in pixels as the NES/SNES should have his kneecaps removed), but for old console and arcade games, not so much for old PC games.

easy choice

[MORTAR_COMBAT!]

For classic games, how about Ultima II, III, and IV (Apple IIe). Lakers vs. Celtics (Apple II). Dr. J vs. Larry Bird 1-on-1 (Apple II). Thexder (Apple IIgs).

But my number-1 wanted port for the GBA must be... the original RBI Baseball (NES) and add linked play for head-to-head action.

How about: Contra (NES) (2-player link), X-Men (Genesis) (4-player link on this one!).

And how about a -real- port of Mike Tyson's Punch-Out (NES).

Re:games I wish could be done on a GBA but won't w

[Vaevictis666]

With the exception Advance Wars all the good games are really simple finger twitching games

And that explains the rave reviews on Wario Ware

A fact of life!

[momoMonkey]

The fact is nostalgia alone does not sell games, unless you were from Nintendo's first party line-up.

The legal hassle that takes to coordinate an old property to a new platform is pretty much hell.

Move on kids, it's time to let go, those were great games, but we live in an age of Yu-Gi-Ohs and Lizzie Maguaires (oh I hope for a misspell). Licenses sell, so I propose to do an art swap on all those old school games we all crave, stick a license and let the games begin.

So let's talk about Contra-Hamtaro (contra, guns and lovable hamsters).

Re:I've sold my GBA SP...

[NanoGator]

"Why buy an inferior product at a higher price?"

Higher price? The GBA SP is $70 right now. The *cheapest* GP32 there is 90 pounds, which is considerably more than $70.

Why buy an 'inferior' product? Because I like the games on that inferior product.

Re:The Chaos Engine!

[phaze3000]

I'm definitely in agreement with you on this one.

In a similar vein Alien Breed would make an excellent GBA conversion.

Also, how about Sensible's classic 'Mega-lo-Mania'? One of the original 'god' games, and to be honest probably my favourite of all time...