GoBoy

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border=1>GoBoy is a Gameboy and Gameboy Colour emulator for the Nokia Series 60 mobile phones, including the N-Gage. It theoretically gives you access to a huge library of portable gaming titles.

As my perspective is uncommon, I’d better just devote a quick paragraph to it. I own a “GB Xchanger” by Bung. It’s a parallel port device that allows you to copy Gameboy and Gameboy Colour cartridges. It comes with a flash cart onto which you can load a single colour game or a batch of original GB games. I have no idea where the flash cart is because ever since I bought the Liberty Gameboy emulator for my PalmOS TRGpro, I’ve used the Xchanger almost exclusively for ripping Gameboy carts that I’ve bought either from bargain bins or pawnbrokers. I therefore have not only experience with previous portable Gameboy emulation projects, but a decent collection of emulator friendly titles (strategy and puzzle rather than action requiring split-second timing) and a way of adding any newly purchased carts to my ROM collection.

When I found out that there was a GB/GBC emulator compatible with my new N-Gage, I was very happy. After a bit of testing to make sure that it was stable and at least as good as the old Liberty emulator, I bought it. It was the first, and as of this moment the only, piece of software I’ve bought for my N-Gage.

First, frame rate. GB games run full speed without sound and close to full speed with sound, though the sound is hard to stand even in the latest version. GBC games run anywhere from just under to way under full speed without sound and anywhere from way under to a complete joke with sound. Again, sound is nothing to write home about. Some frame skipping is evident, particularly in time sensitive titles like Pokemon Pinball.

Second, compatibility. The first homebrew title I tried didn’t work. Worms Armageddon works but the graphics are totally screwed. Other than that, it’s run pretty much everything I’ve thrown at it, including: Hexcite (which never worked under Liberty), Gauntlet, Bust-a-Move, Joust/Defender, Metroid 2, Pacman, Pokemon Yellow, Pokemon Puzzle Challenge, Prince of Persia, Rampage World Tour and the original Worms.

Third, features. Savegame support doesn’t appear present, though a save state feature exists as a replacement (I’d prefer normal save game support personally). More importantly though, ROMS will not only run direct from a memory card, but direct from a zipped file on a memory card. This is a major bonus for a device with limited storage. I have to share my 64MByte card between my MP3 ringtones, movies, C64 disk images and Gameboy ROMs. Two-player link support, using Bluetooth between two phones I assume, is mentioned as on the todo list. That would be impressive.

Ultimately a GBC game doesn’t play as well on my N-Gage as either a GBC game on a GBC or an N-Gage game on the N-Gage. Sound is the major let down. But it is very nice to have titles like Hexcite with me all the time. Original GB games, aside from sound (which is fairly antisocial anyway), play as good as if they were on a real GB. In the couple of weeks I’ve had GoBoy, I’ve purchased two secondhand GBC titles (Prince of Persia and Rampage World Tour), I’ve dug up the old Xchanger and I’ve got an old Win95c PC up and running to use with the Xchanger (XP doesn’t like direct access to the parallel port).

For people arguing over who’s 3D is better, the N-Gage or the GBA, this product is not for you. For people who still enjoy many of the GB/GBC titles or have a collection like myself and an N-Gage, 7650 or 3650, GoBoy is a real gem. The Liberty team may get in on the act soon, but if you want a Gameboy on your Nokia now, this is your best bet. And at US$10, you can’t go far wrong.