This Nintendo GameCube accessory plays Game Boy software on your TV.
- JP release: 21th March 2003
- EU release: 20th June 2003
- NA release: 24th June 2003
- Developer: Nintendo
- Publisher: Nintendo
- NGC Magazine Score: N/A
- Mods Used: None
The Game Boy Player was an accessory released for the GameCube that allowed it to play Game Boy, Game Boy Colour and Game Boy Advance games. The device actually contained Game Boy hardware, so there’s no emulation involved, either. This was (and still is) the most accurate way to play Game Boy Advance games on a TV, and has the added bonus of making the GameCube an actual Cube, but there’s also something lacking about it.
In terms of features, there are a small amount of frames to pick from, a couple of controller layouts, a very subtle sharp/soft option and a very pointless timer. The Super Game Boy for the SNES had a ton of features, such as modifying colours for original Game Boy games and nothing like this is here (there’s also no support for custom Super Game Boy frames and colour data). There’s no fun, it’s just a no-nonsense package that simply does what it claims: it plays Game Boy games. And for the price some GameCube + Game Boy Player bundles were sold for, it was an amazing offer.
Fine
Basically, it does everything a real GBA does, except fit in your pocket. Playing Mario Kart Super Circuit using a GC controller is a real treat, but even games like that, which look crisp on the small screen, come out looking a bit chunky when blown up and plastered across a massive TV.
NGC Magazine #81
The Game Boy Player was an excellent accessory, and a brilliant way to play GBA games on your telly back in the day. It was not the first way to play GBA games on your TV however, as there was a rather popular aftermarket mod-kit that was commercially available about 1.5 years prior called the Televi De Advance…
Of course, this was rather flaky and unreliable (and also gave you a rather low quality composite video output), but it did work! And this was a popular product amongst fan websites and enthusiast media (especially for media outlets that couldn’t get their hands on the official Wideboy 64 capture devices that Nintendo made for developers/major media outlets).
There was also another unofficial solution for playing GBA games on your TV via the Gamecube… the Intec Advance Game Port…
This came out a few months before the official Game Boy Player was announced and completely stole its lunch. Unlike the Game Boy Player though, this was a pure emulation device; and it’s not very good.
The Game Boy Player was great for its time, though (as @Cube pointed out), it lacked the whimsy of the previously released Super Game Boy; being more of a utilitarian device. These days however? There are better options for playing GBA games on your TV, even involving original GBA hardware. Modkits such as the GBA Consolizer offer pure digital 720p video output and offer vastly improved image quality over the Game Boy Player, and even the original Game Boy Player disc has been superceeded by homebrew GCN software (Chiefly Game Boy Interface) that better utilises the actual Game Boy Player hardware to offer superior video output quality; over the rather blurry filters that the default Game Boy Player software slathers all over those GBA pixels.
Nintendo also commissioned Hori to produce the rather nice Game Boy Player controller to go along with the accessory in Japan…
… as a fun aside, this controller actually has a bit of historical precedent; because it is not the first officially licensed Hori controller to accomodate a Game Boy playing device… because Nintendo and Hori actually released a specific Super Game Boy Commander controller for the SNES back in the day as well; which even unlocked some hidden speed-up/slow-down functionality!
Still. The Game Boy Player was an essential Gamecube accessory back in the day, and remains essential today… purely because it makes the console an actual cube.