The description is so absurdly long because of references. I hit the character limit - here's some stuff that wouldn't fit! (like the spreadsheet) Timestamps: Intro - 0:00 2000 - 1:28 2001 - 2:53 2002 - 6:25 2003 - 13:25 2004 - 20:47 2005 - 24:25 2006 - 26:35 2007 - 27:17 The years afterwards - 27:50 Outro - 31:47 Corrections: - Backtrack could use raycasting rather than BSP, but most of the other shooters appear to use BSP. It's hard to really know. This was a big oversight on my behalf, apologies - I didn't explicitly call the voxel based engine what it's known as - a voxel-space engine - Nightfire could be BSP - I say Yoshi correctly don't @ me ;) - As confirmed by the games developer, Tiger Woods only gives the illusion of voxel space graphics. Read more twitter.com/RichDMay/status/1238979112963837952 And here's the spreadsheet: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IJfyhGSJZ0XGElUp68nYewAZInS5X7GbVjc-G0RJa4s/edit?usp=sharing Notes: - There's every chance I've missed some games, as there's no database of this stuff and it's not widely known. I'd basically have to look at/play all 1500ish GBA games to really know - It's a small data-set, so most 'trends' are pretty meaningless - It's a bit rough, originally I made it just for me but decided to share - There's an arbitrary element to what is good enough for the spreadsheet. I just made judgement calls on whether games were 3D enough, which I acknowledge is vague. I also didn't include mode7 style games, but did include voxel/BSP games which is again, in some sense, quite arbitrary
Robot Wars Extreme Destruction, not only is it an impressive example of 3d graphics on the GBA, but had an absolutely insane physics engine. Flipper bots would actually throw other bots into the air, with their height, trajectory, and rotation all reliant on the angle of impact. In fact, using your flipper would even shift the weight of your own robot!
WTF? I seen lot's of people using "your" instead of "you're" generally thinking they're too lazy to put the "e" in there... But the other way around?! You actively typed more to make a typo!
@@julianx2rl If I make the effort to be charitable, probably what happened is Gabriel is conscious of having made some your/you're mistakes in the past, but he still doesnt _quite_ understand exactly which word to use in every situation. So here, just to be safe, he used the one people keep telling him to use. It's a silly mistake, and it should be an easy language rule to learn, but it does show that he's conscious of the problem and, eh, _at least he's trying_ 😊🤷♂️
Low poly and yet pushing boundaries, where the devs can't rely on dedicated 3D engines or HD effects or high-poly realism, so it comes off as surreal and technological but in a soulful way.
“Oversaturated and aimed at kids” sounds like how the Wii’s game library ended up, with all its share of shovelware. Although the Wii probably had more bangers than the GBA did overall
3D games on the GBA have always an exciting topic for me. Even back then, I would find them fascinating and would end up actually owning a couple like the Super Monkey Ball, V-Rally, Star X, Ballistic and Payday. The novelty of having 3D on a handheld back in the early 00s was just so intriguing
I had just one game in 3D on the Gba. It was Bionicle and I liked the 3D effects but I hated the gameplay. It was very difficult to aim. Maybe I didn’t appreciate it because I was too young. Don’t know.
I still have some of these games, and remember having owned many of them and being very impressed by it all. I only had handhelds because we didn't have a tv, so 3D shooters were a rarity, and I had to try them all. Most aged terribly, but the good memories are there, for many of the games mentioned. I even finished MoH Underground...
Wow. This has to be the definitive video on this subject. It is borderline to a fantastic essay. I very much hope to see more work like this in the future. Thank you!
If you're interested, there's this "virtual console" or virtual machine called Pico-8 that's becoming quite popular recently as a sort of programming toy because the software has deliberately limited specs similar to an 8-bit console, but people have made some really impressive stuff with it including full 3D games which it wasn't really designed for. Someone made a port of Virtua Racing with it for example which re-implements the 3D tracks from the Genesis version. Also a demake of Alone in the Dark.
Not if you are a microcontroller programmer :) i‘m constantly pushing my programming skills and hardware. Doing complex things on a 20MHz RISC CPU with a mind blowing 2k of RAM and 32k of programming space. But yeah developing for computers lost its magic. But demos from underground cracking groups still exist to this day with amazing graphic demos in an application a few kb large.
5:16 small correction. you're getting BSP confused with 2D ray casting. The style you see there is 2D ray casting. where as Doom uses BSP along with 2D ray casting. Its a way of cutting up the play area into smaller chunks. also allowing for Verticality in the levels.
Interestingly, though, using a BSP tree raster engine is generally much more efficient than classic 2D ray-casting, and many originally ray-casted games were re-created with BSP trees when ported to lower-end systems just for the performance increase it provided. Wolfenstein 3D on the SNES, for example, used a BSP tree rather than ray-casting even though it had no need for verticality and even though the PC version was definitely ray-casted. There's also basically no visual cues to differentiate between the two, assuming BSP is done *right* (as in, with no visible pop-in or disappearing of the 'chunks'), so there's no telling which games use which rendering method. I mean, yes, BSP can handle much more geometric complexity, but it's also fully capable of mimicking ray-casted visuals if that's what the devs want it to do (as was the case with Wolf3D); for all we know, it's possible (though *very* unlikely) that there wasn't a single ray-casted game in the GBA's commercial library... :P
@@pilcrow182 Yes good comment. People use to see "maze like wolfenstein games with restricted walls and column rendering" and immediately assume raycasting, but you can't really see without looking at the engine code. Someone might have made a wolfenstein maze like game using modern GPUs and even faking it to look retro. And it's true SNES scrapped the raycasting approach and used BSP.
I remember when you had around 8k subs and how you made me feel like I wasn’t the only person that was so interested and curious of the graphical capabilities of underpowered handheld consoles especially the game boy and ds. I loved any and every 3D game on the go because I’m of the generation where 3D games started only on home consoles and to see them grow now to where we have full blown high quality 3D games on the go it’s crazy, back in my day 3D was only on a PlayStation 1 or Nintendo 64 and look at us now
6:58 Looking at Star X, I am genuinely surprised Nintendo never put a SNES-style Star Fox on the GBA. They did it with F-Zero, so why not their other often-forgotten sci-fi franchise? They could have just touched up Star Fox 2, renamed it "Star Fox Advance" or whatever and slapped it on there (although am I right in thinking there was some licensing thing going on behind the scenes? I know 2 was cancelled for 64, but I'm sure I heard somewhere that it took so long to surface because of internal conflicts. Maybe I'm wrong, I'm not a Star Fox fan)
i don't know everything but I recall Miyamoto was holding off on Starfox games until Nintendo could do something cool and original with the franchise, like a gimmick showcase or something, which is also why we don't get new f-zero games. Starfox zero for the Wii-u is only the way it is because Nintendo didn't want to just push out more of the same thing over and over again. I personally think a Starfox for the new 3ds like we got in Kid Icarus Uprising would have been great! Just do like they did with the Zelda games, Starfox 64 but with modern graphics. I believe he thinks that since the games still exist and are still playable, if you enjoyed them, just play them. I Really Really Believe he said that.
@@lonergothonline when are they gonna realise they don't need a gimmick to sell a game? This is the same problem I have with pokémon sword and shield. Just streamline the existing mechanics and make a good game.
@@LadyBrightcynder It's infuriating. On one hand they say "It's all about gameplay and a great idea" but on the other hand they also have a weird tendency to try to force some strange gimmick that takes away from the experience. The gimmick with having to look at the controller screen in starfox for wiiu took what could genuinely have been a wonderful game and turned it into a frustrating one. Same with stylus controls for the zelda titles on the ds. Nintendo has a way of making me feel like those people who don't have arms and instead have to type using a stick that is tied to their heads :) It just feels so unnecessary and frustrating.
Your deep dive have so greatly inspired me! I even did a complete history of Waterworld video games just because I was so encouraged by your plunge into the obscure and forgotten!
scottthewaterwarrior Yes! I remember being given it as a gift as a young lad and, being well-versed in GBA games by then, expected some top-down sprite-based affair (which did exist but was the other of the two GBA Robot Wars games), so you can imagine my amazement at it being basically a graphically downgraded version of the PS2 game! Never left my memory after that.
@@Tedris4 Ah, the wonder of early 2000s and buying a game with the same title but on a portable console. 50/50 chances between it being a technically amazing downgraded port from a big console or an entirely different game. Thats the thrill I had the PSP for!
@@repeekyraidcero You can use C, C++, Nim, Rust, D and Lua to make games on the gba too. But you're probably not going to go far with high level languages if you want to make a 3d game on the gba.
Dude... I'm totally programming 3D on the GBA right now! I turned on youtube to take a break and saw your video. :) I'm working on Goldeneye on the GBA right now and also made Minecraft and Zelda. 3D on the GBA is not easy but man is it rewarding when it works.
@@3DSage yep I'm currently working on a new GBA project template (no devkitARM) that's designed with performance and modern C/C++ in mind (and easy GDB). You should join the GBDev/mGBA Discord channel
@@Xilefian Nice! Thank you I will join. I'm also trying to optimize my raycaster for the GBA. I'll be posting a raycaster tutorial soon. I like your raycaster. Floors are still giving me slowdowns but ill figure it out. I'm looking forward to seeing more of your work.
That "Quake" tech demo looked more like Quake's "Start" map remade inside of Ken Silverman's "Build" engine which was used by Duke Nukem 3D, particularly the faked camera pitch rendering, and the lack of any overhangs like the little structures that the torches on the sides of the bottom of the steps sat on in Quake.
Yo, this video is fantastic, but I gotta give you mad props for the Description. Holy shit - you linked _everything_ - that is unbelievably thorough. Appreciated, for sure though! You definitely gave us a bunch to chew on here, so I'm sure I'm not the only one who wants to dive into some of these other links. Props! Excellent work as always
I can't believe they went from an amazing 3D voxel environment to the fever dream nightmare that was Underground. That game straight up gave me nightmares as a kid
I had need for speed most wanted on GBA, and it surprised me how good it was. I didnt have a lot of games back when I was a kid, but I loved that game. I probably beat it at least 3 times.
One of the most impressive feats of programming happened in 1982 with the release of 1K ZX Chess for the ZX81 home computer. As its name suggests it's a full chess program running on just 1KB of RAM, which includes an AI opponent. In actuality it was even less at around 700 bytes. That's 700 bytes for rudimentary graphics, rule set and all the AI routines to play the game
A terrific overview. Amazing research -- I was able to fill in some gaps in my knowledge. Thank you! My nitpick: I would say you're doing a disservice to Street Racing Syndicate! The game itself seems really poor, but it's no fewer than THREE open-world cities. Two of those are kinda tiny, sure, but the third is bigger than the other two put together, and is a lot of fun to just hang out in and explore. By my count, there were five 3D open-world GBA racing games: - Driver 2 - Driver 3 ("Driv3r") - Street Racing Syndicate - Crazy Taxi - Starsky & Hutch I think you may have missed that last one in your analysis, though I'm not sure it's anything to write home about.
I really love these videos, I have a ton of nostalgia for the GBA... If you're still interested in unique pseudo 3D gba games, I would suggest you take a look at: Colin McRae Rally 2.0, TOCA World Touring Cars, and Starsky & Hutch
Great work on this video, man! You've given me a lot to check out later. The F-Zero, Tony Hawk, and Crash Bandicoot games were my favorites. They used some 3D polygons, but never did they feel like tech demos.
This is a really great video. I really like how much detail you went into, and how comprehensive this is. You’re one of my favorite youtubers at the moment.
There really is only one polygonal game that aged well. V-Rally. When it came out it was the first portable game that made me think I have a PS1 comparable game. And I still whip it out on an emulator every now and than. It’s super basic, but it’s just fun. Though it’s a bit Chunky, Duke Nukem Advance plays well too. The rest are just curious oddities. Doom was good for the time, but now it’s crap, as they still port it to current systems, that’s the best way to play it.
I revisited this video so many times and I just recalled my childhood. My first exposure with 3D on GBA was an obscure game that's only available in French, called "Taxi 3". It features rich linear story with 3D polygonal plus some texture mapping graphics and it was really enjoyable, on an emulator. Yeah, on real hardware it was quite troubling to control and the game is very fast, maybe even too fast. I never finished it cause I never figure out how to save the game, and as a kid I don't know much on how to use the emulator. Good old memories.
Karnaaj Rally is also a very decent top down racer. It doesn't use 3D heavily which is probably why it's a really fun game ;) It uses 3D for scenery and really looks quite nice I think. Thanks for this video Minimme, I really enjoyed it!
dude I love your "5 graphically impressive games..." series... I must confess I bought a lot of GBC/GBA/even DS games based on your videos... I also love how GBA was actually very well explored in the graphics area, for the time it sure was an impressive handheld console
It's kinda weird seeing this video. When I was a kid I had this strange obsession with 3D games on the gba, because I thought it was just super cool and made the gba feel incredibly powerful. Glad I'm not the only one lol
Wow, amazing video. Ever since I got my GBA I was fascinated by these kind of games. Asterix, VRally blew me away. I also was quite fond of Colin McRae 2.0, it had 3D car models, quite simplistic, but really smooth, impressive framerate and with great physics. Great video, thanks so much! Gonna watch the rest!
Thanks for the journey. I had (still have actually) a flash cart and sought out as many 3D games as I could to experience what was possible on the GBA through clever programming. I will note that there's a minor issue with your list. The Hot Wheels game is not 3D, but from what I can tell, a variation of the 'compressed video footage' found in the intro to the game Red Zone for Megadrive/Genesis. Here, if you notice, the path is very much handled like it is in Iridion 1 and 2, the angle is more of a video playback than anything rendered. I believe the cars are real time, but not the environment, which is why it's much smoother than the other flat shaded games in general. I could be wrong, but I noticed that it is SEVERELY locked to camera angle even more than the V3 game to the point that you can't even turn around.
12:27 oh man, Wacky Races, that takes me back. I actually had that one when I was a kid, but I've never known anyone who played it and I never thought I'd see it featured in a video. Another fun kart racer I had was Konami Krazy Racers.
As a kid I played games on GB, GBC, DS Lite and DSi but never on GBA, not even GBA games on the DS Lite. Even though I distinctly remember I always wanted Pokemon Emerald since you could catch my 3 favourite Pokemon in it.
I know it’s 4 years old, but this is still a fascinating video. Maybe one day if you ever decide to revisit the topic of graphic-pushing games on consoles, the DS could be a fun system to look into. I always loved the 3D shown on that system.
My fascination with 3D on the GBA first started with Driv3r when I saw it on a gaming magazine. This channel is a godsend for showcasing everything the GBA had.
From what I've seen of both versions of Backtrack, it does NOT use BSP for its graphics. It instead uses the older technique known as ray-casting, which was used in Doom's predecessors (Wolfenstein 3D and Catacomb 3D for examples) and other titles. I can tell due to two things about the map: • Rooms of equal elevation and ceiling height. • Only 90° angles are seen.
Fascinating! 007 Nightfire was actually my first game for the GBA, when I was 6 or 7. I never really thought of it as anything special, to me it was just the cheep version of the console release, but it's interesting to know it was so significant! Perhaps I should revisit it.
Don't forget Sonic Battle. Originally coming out in Japan in 4 December 2003, this game uses mode 2, but in such a way that you probably won't notice, as it uses sprites to add depth to the landscape, distorting them in ways to make them look like actual walls. On top of that, the whole game seems to run in a smooth 60fps, so it's probably smoother than all of the games in this video. Overall, Sonic Battle has a pretty creative use of GBA's mode 2, and I wish there were more GBA games that utilised this kind of technique.
I just realized that minimme put his face over the face of characters on the cover art in the thumbnail 👀 Minimme's Thumbnails are the gift that keeps on giving 🙌
Tony hawk 2 is the best port event for gba. It is the exact version from ps1. When I got that game as kid I was hooked because it felt like I had portable PlayStation because it was a full 3-d game.
VD could have made an actual 3rd person port of Max Payne instead of isometric. Can you imagine what those 2 guys could have done with budget and licenses for huge games? Half-Life GBA. Star Wars racer or Jedi Knight games. Metroid Prime GBA. A 3d Kingdom Hearts GBA without cards?!
@@Loundsify Many years ago I found a half life mod for doom. doomwiki.org/w/images/thumb/9/92/Doom-Half_ife.gif/250px-Doom-Half_ife.gif Since it used the real textures it really game a good impression of it being Half Life. The GBA runs doom. Or it could have been made using the Duke Nukem Advance engine. It wouldn't be a straight port of course but a portable version of HL.
Wow, great video. I especially like how you talked about the progress and development of different studios, and what they ended up doing after the gba. Seeing some of their stories made it feel like a full story, almost like a teen docu/ movie that tells you how the main characters' lives ended up at the end. This vid helped me a lot to contextually the gba era. It's a shame development got abandoned. The psp was good but no one knows how to make a fun portable and create memorable experiences like Nintendo. I owned both, but I never got any great games on the psp and it was a worry to carry around because of the fragile screen that scratched easily. Still, glad we got it. Wish I owned ridge racer lol. Maybe I'll look it up
GREAT channel! I watched every single video. I would like to see much more impressive games lists for N64, PS1, PSP, 3DS, Dreamcast, Gamecube, Xbox (original) and ESPECIALLY PS2! (This system has SO many technical marvels). Love from Germany
I was completely surprised that such a machine can produce FMV cutscenes like in Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories. It goes to show that a small device like that could showcase more than we could have imagined. GBA to me is a powerful mini SNES, but that device is impressive nevertheless.
Funnily enough, Driver 2 for the GBA was better than the Playstation release of Driver 2. Which says a lot about the engine and passion that these teams had with such limited memory budgets. My hat goes off to the development teams and programmers that developed these engines. They really managed to pull out an absurd amount of performance from the GBA and systems that were limited at the time by little to no 3D, like the NovaLogic team's DOS Comanche: Maximum Overkill and Armored Fist. As a kid when I saw voxels for the first time it blew my mind. And remember Comanche: Maximum Overkill came out in 1992! and Armored Fist was in 1994 for DOS! Crazy cakes!
I remember being on, I think the GBASP.NET forums when the first BlueRoses demos were released. In an age before the PSP was on the horizon and the DS wasn't even a rumor yet, there was a moment where it really seemed like near PS1 level 3D games were going to be the hot new future of the GBA. I loved the GBA and got it the week it came out and could appreciate its obvious major visual and sound upgrade over the GBC, but even when GBA's first magazine screenshots were revealed, I was a bit let down for what was being described as a 32 bit system, as my impression of a 32 bit system at that time was based on the Sega Saturn and PS1. I didn't expect CD quality sound of course, but was at first hoping for visuals more akin to some of the titles seen here. All that being said, man I so intensely enjoyed my black Gameboy Advance SP, it was sleek and "mature" looking, at the time I was really trying to advocate for the "prestige" of handheld gaming as it were, and remember picking up Crazy Taxi: Catch a Ride and Monkey Ball Ju, both were genuinely good games and in a pre DS/PSP era were amazing to see on a handheld. At the same time, I was kind of savoring the GBA as the "last 2D system", once PSP and DS were revealed, especially DS which at its first reveal was being positioned as akin to N64 in the same way GBA was positioned as akin to GBA, I really thought once GBA was gone, that 2D gaming was going to become virtually extinct. In 2020's today's market of indie games and routine releases of new 2D Mario games, its a laughable thought, but back in 2003, people talked about 2D Mario in the past tense, in the way we talk about horse drawn streetcars and black and white TV.
BSP (Binary Space Partitioning) is the method of partitioning the level geometry. It was used by games like Doom, Wolfenstein etc. but also by Quake, Half-Life etc. What you are referring to is called Raycasting (rendering only what's visible in the view cone of the player) which was used by the id tech 1 engine (Doom) but not id tech 2 and onwards.
The description is so absurdly long because of references. I hit the character limit - here's some stuff that wouldn't fit! (like the spreadsheet)
Timestamps:
Intro - 0:00
2000 - 1:28
2001 - 2:53
2002 - 6:25
2003 - 13:25
2004 - 20:47
2005 - 24:25
2006 - 26:35
2007 - 27:17
The years afterwards - 27:50
Outro - 31:47
Corrections:
- Backtrack could use raycasting rather than BSP, but most of the other shooters appear to use BSP. It's hard to really know. This was a big oversight on my behalf, apologies
- I didn't explicitly call the voxel based engine what it's known as - a voxel-space engine
- Nightfire could be BSP
- I say Yoshi correctly don't @ me ;)
- As confirmed by the games developer, Tiger Woods only gives the illusion of voxel space graphics. Read more twitter.com/RichDMay/status/1238979112963837952
And here's the spreadsheet: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IJfyhGSJZ0XGElUp68nYewAZInS5X7GbVjc-G0RJa4s/edit?usp=sharing
Notes:
- There's every chance I've missed some games, as there's no database of this stuff and it's not widely known. I'd basically have to look at/play all 1500ish GBA games to really know
- It's a small data-set, so most 'trends' are pretty meaningless
- It's a bit rough, originally I made it just for me but decided to share
- There's an arbitrary element to what is good enough for the spreadsheet. I just made judgement calls on whether games were 3D enough, which I acknowledge is vague. I also didn't include mode7 style games, but did include voxel/BSP games which is again, in some sense, quite arbitrary
yay SEO
Pin your comment, my man.
Why is Spiderman 2 on the thumbnail?
Talk about the Doom Java phone games.
Can you talk about graphically impressive games on 16 bit consoles?
VD-Dev: *slams full line of coke*
"Let's create 3D open world games for the GBA"
@Drillmusics forkidsonly 4: how do I convince everyone I’m not high on coke.
And then they repeated it on ds haha
**breaks can with head** YEAAAAAAA
There are two types of 3d games on gba. Interesting attempts, and Asterix & Obelix XXL.
and duke nukem..:)
Robot Wars Extreme Destruction, not only is it an impressive example of 3d graphics on the GBA, but had an absolutely insane physics engine. Flipper bots would actually throw other bots into the air, with their height, trajectory, and rotation all reliant on the angle of impact. In fact, using your flipper would even shift the weight of your own robot!
ua-cam.com/video/vTc44W9OB2U/v-deo.html
Did you say "Payback" or "Smashing Drive"
And Max Payne too
You're addiction to 3d gaming on non 3d systems has lead you to this moment....this is true nerdvana.
WTF? I seen lot's of people using "your" instead of "you're" generally thinking they're too lazy to put the "e" in there...
But the other way around?! You actively typed more to make a typo!
@@julianx2rl If I make the effort to be charitable, probably what happened is Gabriel is conscious of having made some your/you're mistakes in the past, but he still doesnt _quite_ understand exactly which word to use in every situation. So here, just to be safe, he used the one people keep telling him to use.
It's a silly mistake, and it should be an easy language rule to learn, but it does show that he's conscious of the problem and, eh, _at least he's trying_ 😊🤷♂️
@@Jesse__H - (Sniff) That made me tear up a little bit.
@@julianx2rl lol
We're all like _one,_ y'know?
@PlushMarioBros! -Grammar is not a joke compadre.
This is the culmination of everything Minimme has done. I'm proud of you, Peter!
3d snes/genesis/GBA games hit a special aesthetic, same with ps1 vs n64 vs dreamcast, all have their own vibes but they are all good vibes
Low poly and yet pushing boundaries, where the devs can't rely on dedicated 3D engines or HD effects or high-poly realism, so it comes off as surreal and technological but in a soulful way.
That Driv3r port being featured alongside all these other 3d GBA games really highlights how impressive of a feat it was, graphically speaking.
3d games for the gba is an aesthetic I absolutely adore .
Yeah they have that lovely early 2000’s vibe
I absolute agree.
Which aesthetic? There's not just a single aesthetic here.
@@NovaPrima Surely he means the pixelated polygon look.
Bano-pilot
31:46 "Go Australia"
*cuts to game footage of a raging fire*
I see what you did, minionme.
@Don Duke and now we have corona
ua-cam.com/video/vTc44W9OB2U/v-deo.html
This is a long video! Did wonder why you'd not posted in a while. Good job.
🙏
“Oversaturated and aimed at kids” sounds like how the Wii’s game library ended up, with all its share of shovelware.
Although the Wii probably had more bangers than the GBA did overall
You mean to say you think that in terms of quantity (but *not percentage*) the Wii's library wound up w/more 'shovelware' ?
@@APDS-Akin Yeh.
Hahaha. no.
GBA beats most devices libraries, hands down.
@@repeekyraidcero woa. whuh.
who is this.
this 2 year old comment from the future, that I forgot.
I used to work at a pawn shop and it was incredible how much absolute garbage was on the wii. It had good first party games though.
3D games on the GBA have always an exciting topic for me. Even back then, I would find them fascinating and would end up actually owning a couple like the Super Monkey Ball, V-Rally, Star X, Ballistic and Payday.
The novelty of having 3D on a handheld back in the early 00s was just so intriguing
I had just one game in 3D on the Gba. It was Bionicle and I liked the 3D effects but I hated the gameplay. It was very difficult to aim. Maybe I didn’t appreciate it because I was too young. Don’t know.
I still have some of these games, and remember having owned many of them and being very impressed by it all. I only had handhelds because we didn't have a tv, so 3D shooters were a rarity, and I had to try them all.
Most aged terribly, but the good memories are there, for many of the games mentioned. I even finished MoH Underground...
Wow that’s crazy
I'm actually unironically playing MoH Underground GBA
Wow. This has to be the definitive video on this subject. It is borderline to a fantastic essay. I very much hope to see more work like this in the future. Thank you!
Watashi wa Mekishiko desu bruh you have no content
@John Perez such a dumb joke hahaha
But I rate it
WE'RE BACK TO OUR ROOTS, BOYS
Kadu Penuela bruh :))
ua-cam.com/video/vTc44W9OB2U/v-deo.html
This kind of programming wizardry will be a lost art outside of demoscene. Everything is too powerful.
Programmers are lazy nowadays because RAM and CPU resources are much more abundant in a lot of systems.
If you're interested, there's this "virtual console" or virtual machine called Pico-8 that's becoming quite popular recently as a sort of programming toy because the software has deliberately limited specs similar to an 8-bit console, but people have made some really impressive stuff with it including full 3D games which it wasn't really designed for. Someone made a port of Virtua Racing with it for example which re-implements the 3D tracks from the Genesis version. Also a demake of Alone in the Dark.
The switch will hepllp keep this alive, for now.
Not if you are a microcontroller programmer :) i‘m constantly pushing my programming skills and hardware. Doing complex things on a 20MHz RISC CPU with a mind blowing 2k of RAM and 32k of programming space. But yeah developing for computers lost its magic. But demos from underground cracking groups still exist to this day with amazing graphic demos in an application a few kb large.
@@AtmelKiller can it run Skyrim?
5:16 small correction. you're getting BSP confused with 2D ray casting. The style you see there is 2D ray casting. where as Doom uses BSP along with 2D ray casting. Its a way of cutting up the play area into smaller chunks. also allowing for Verticality in the levels.
Interestingly, though, using a BSP tree raster engine is generally much more efficient than classic 2D ray-casting, and many originally ray-casted games were re-created with BSP trees when ported to lower-end systems just for the performance increase it provided. Wolfenstein 3D on the SNES, for example, used a BSP tree rather than ray-casting even though it had no need for verticality and even though the PC version was definitely ray-casted.
There's also basically no visual cues to differentiate between the two, assuming BSP is done *right* (as in, with no visible pop-in or disappearing of the 'chunks'), so there's no telling which games use which rendering method. I mean, yes, BSP can handle much more geometric complexity, but it's also fully capable of mimicking ray-casted visuals if that's what the devs want it to do (as was the case with Wolf3D); for all we know, it's possible (though *very* unlikely) that there wasn't a single ray-casted game in the GBA's commercial library... :P
@@pilcrow182 Yes good comment. People use to see "maze like wolfenstein games with restricted walls and column rendering" and immediately assume raycasting, but you can't really see without looking at the engine code. Someone might have made a wolfenstein maze like game using modern GPUs and even faking it to look retro. And it's true SNES scrapped the raycasting approach and used BSP.
I remember when you had around 8k subs and how you made me feel like I wasn’t the only person that was so interested and curious of the graphical capabilities of underpowered handheld consoles especially the game boy and ds. I loved any and every 3D game on the go because I’m of the generation where 3D games started only on home consoles and to see them grow now to where we have full blown high quality 3D games on the go it’s crazy, back in my day 3D was only on a PlayStation 1 or Nintendo 64 and look at us now
Started at the bottom now we're here!
GBA 3D stays pretty.
I still rewatch the GBA graphic-state gta demo and dream...
6:58 Looking at Star X, I am genuinely surprised Nintendo never put a SNES-style Star Fox on the GBA. They did it with F-Zero, so why not their other often-forgotten sci-fi franchise? They could have just touched up Star Fox 2, renamed it "Star Fox Advance" or whatever and slapped it on there
(although am I right in thinking there was some licensing thing going on behind the scenes? I know 2 was cancelled for 64, but I'm sure I heard somewhere that it took so long to surface because of internal conflicts. Maybe I'm wrong, I'm not a Star Fox fan)
That would have been cool, I have a huge soft spot for the graphical style of the first two Star Foxes.
i don't know everything but I recall Miyamoto was holding off on Starfox games until Nintendo could do something cool and original with the franchise, like a gimmick showcase or something, which is also why we don't get new f-zero games. Starfox zero for the Wii-u is only the way it is because Nintendo didn't want to just push out more of the same thing over and over again. I personally think a Starfox for the new 3ds like we got in Kid Icarus Uprising would have been great! Just do like they did with the Zelda games, Starfox 64 but with modern graphics.
I believe he thinks that since the games still exist and are still playable, if you enjoyed them, just play them. I Really Really Believe he said that.
@@lonergothonline when are they gonna realise they don't need a gimmick to sell a game? This is the same problem I have with pokémon sword and shield. Just streamline the existing mechanics and make a good game.
@@LadyBrightcynder It's infuriating. On one hand they say "It's all about gameplay and a great idea" but on the other hand they also have a weird tendency to try to force some strange gimmick that takes away from the experience. The gimmick with having to look at the controller screen in starfox for wiiu took what could genuinely have been a wonderful game and turned it into a frustrating one. Same with stylus controls for the zelda titles on the ds. Nintendo has a way of making me feel like those people who don't have arms and instead have to type using a stick that is tied to their heads :) It just feels so unnecessary and frustrating.
What if there was Halo Advance
Your deep dive have so greatly inspired me! I even did a complete history of Waterworld video games just because I was so encouraged by your plunge into the obscure and forgotten!
I never thought there would be a waterworld youtube channel. I guess theres a youtuber for everything haha
@@mammutbrot9230 haha! Yep there is a fandom for everything thanks to the internet, but also that's also super cool at the same time!
Great film as well.
@@TheAtoll I'm gonna check it out ! , Out of interest how many waterworld games are there and on what platforms ?
@@15-Peter-20 including all the released and unreleased games, across all the different platforms, around a dozen!
Surprised you didn't mention Robot Wars: Extreme Destruction from 2002, featuring fully 3D robots with a great custom robot creator.
Not to mention probably the most advanced physics engine on the system! I imported that from the UK a few years ago, was not disappointed!
scottthewaterwarrior Yes! I remember being given it as a gift as a young lad and, being well-versed in GBA games by then, expected some top-down sprite-based affair (which did exist but was the other of the two GBA Robot Wars games), so you can imagine my amazement at it being basically a graphically downgraded version of the PS2 game! Never left my memory after that.
@@Tedris4 Ah, the wonder of early 2000s and buying a game with the same title but on a portable console. 50/50 chances between it being a technically amazing downgraded port from a big console or an entirely different game. Thats the thrill I had the PSP for!
There's a guy who makes really impressive GBA 3d homebrew. I don't know your stance on homebrew and hacking but a video about it would be really cool.
Who is it
@@gostigoo6706 3DSage is the one I'm referring to.
True.
But aside the minecraft one, all unreleased.
Shame GBA is so ASM heavy
@@repeekyraidcero You can use C, C++, Nim, Rust, D and Lua to make games on the gba too. But you're probably not going to go far with high level languages if you want to make a 3d game on the gba.
@@doigt6590 Probably best solution is some of the C equivalent languages + only few critical bits in assembly.
Dude... I'm totally programming 3D on the GBA right now! I turned on youtube to take a break and saw your video. :) I'm working on Goldeneye on the GBA right now and also made Minecraft and Zelda. 3D on the GBA is not easy but man is it rewarding when it works.
Hey dude.
@@Xilefian Hi there! I remember you. How have you been? Are you still working on GBA programming like me? :) Stay in touch.
@PlushMarioBros! Not a weird question at all, I want to do that! I think a simplified 3D version of mario 64 would be very difficult but possible :)
@@3DSage yep I'm currently working on a new GBA project template (no devkitARM) that's designed with performance and modern C/C++ in mind (and easy GDB). You should join the GBDev/mGBA Discord channel
@@Xilefian Nice! Thank you I will join. I'm also trying to optimize my raycaster for the GBA. I'll be posting a raycaster tutorial soon. I like your raycaster. Floors are still giving me slowdowns but ill figure it out. I'm looking forward to seeing more of your work.
Damn, given me some cozy LGR vibes with this relaxing and interesting video
Phil Collins from Vice City Stories was thinking the exact thing. Chill hip hop/jazz is the best for these long form explain videos.
That "Quake" tech demo looked more like Quake's "Start" map remade inside of Ken Silverman's "Build" engine which was used by Duke Nukem 3D, particularly the faked camera pitch rendering, and the lack of any overhangs like the little structures that the torches on the sides of the bottom of the steps sat on in Quake.
Yo, this video is fantastic, but I gotta give you mad props for the Description. Holy shit - you linked _everything_ - that is unbelievably thorough. Appreciated, for sure though! You definitely gave us a bunch to chew on here, so I'm sure I'm not the only one who wants to dive into some of these other links. Props! Excellent work as always
3:42 that music has a Pavlovian effect on me and makes me think that many Sims are about to be murdered
I just think of IHE.
I can't believe they went from an amazing 3D voxel environment to the fever dream nightmare that was Underground. That game straight up gave me nightmares as a kid
I had need for speed most wanted on GBA, and it surprised me how good it was. I didnt have a lot of games back when I was a kid, but I loved that game. I probably beat it at least 3 times.
yesssss, new minimme vid. Always a cause to celebrate!
You don’t even understand how long I’ve been waiting for a new video. So happy a new one is out!
I saw 6 ads and was about to lose it but then realised it was a 30 min video, Fair enough. I'll watch them 😂 Love the content, Keep it up!
Awesome video. There's something fascinating about squeezing 3d graphics out of a hardware that can barely do it.
One of the most impressive feats of programming happened in 1982 with the release of 1K ZX Chess for the ZX81 home computer. As its name suggests it's a full chess program running on just 1KB of RAM, which includes an AI opponent. In actuality it was even less at around 700 bytes. That's 700 bytes for rudimentary graphics, rule set and all the AI routines to play the game
"Yeah, these games are really really impressive. Onwards with the-"
Ad - *LET'S GO*
lol I just got that ad haha it was pokemon
24:02 "many of which can be bumped into, and they will react appropriately"
*shows a taxicab punting a bus to the moon head-on*
A terrific overview. Amazing research -- I was able to fill in some gaps in my knowledge. Thank you!
My nitpick: I would say you're doing a disservice to Street Racing Syndicate! The game itself seems really poor, but it's no fewer than THREE open-world cities. Two of those are kinda tiny, sure, but the third is bigger than the other two put together, and is a lot of fun to just hang out in and explore.
By my count, there were five 3D open-world GBA racing games:
- Driver 2
- Driver 3 ("Driv3r")
- Street Racing Syndicate
- Crazy Taxi
- Starsky & Hutch
I think you may have missed that last one in your analysis, though I'm not sure it's anything to write home about.
Easily one of my favorite videos from you. 20/10 will watch again
I really love these videos, I have a ton of nostalgia for the GBA...
If you're still interested in unique pseudo 3D gba games, I would suggest you take a look at: Colin McRae Rally 2.0, TOCA World Touring Cars, and Starsky & Hutch
Great work on this video, man! You've given me a lot to check out later. The F-Zero, Tony Hawk, and Crash Bandicoot games were my favorites. They used some 3D polygons, but never did they feel like tech demos.
I can't believe I've watched a 34 minute video about 3D Gameboy Advance games!! What a nice video, my guy!
I can't believe you've watched a 34 minute video about 3D Gameboy Advance games either!!
That was a great watch, and a nice callback to the videos I first discovered your channel through. Good job!
This is a really great video. I really like how much detail you went into, and how comprehensive this is. You’re one of my favorite youtubers at the moment.
Comprehensive AF. Very nice video. And I appreciate the edits and call-outs you did when you made mistakes. Good stuff.
I played so much payback back in the days. I was like 12 when I played it and didn't expect to see this game again after such a long time!
Saaame.
And then I introduced a friend to it and we had a blast playing multiplayer for weeks.
I miss Payback
There really is only one polygonal game that aged well. V-Rally. When it came out it was the first portable game that made me think I have a PS1 comparable game. And I still whip it out on an emulator every now and than. It’s super basic, but it’s just fun.
Though it’s a bit Chunky, Duke Nukem Advance plays well too.
The rest are just curious oddities. Doom was good for the time, but now it’s crap, as they still port it to current systems, that’s the best way to play it.
They all aged well.
GBA 3D has its own style.
I revisited this video so many times and I just recalled my childhood. My first exposure with 3D on GBA was an obscure game that's only available in French, called "Taxi 3". It features rich linear story with 3D polygonal plus some texture mapping graphics and it was really enjoyable, on an emulator. Yeah, on real hardware it was quite troubling to control and the game is very fast, maybe even too fast. I never finished it cause I never figure out how to save the game, and as a kid I don't know much on how to use the emulator. Good old memories.
i find it weird that the Model's resource dont have any gba models on there website
it does actually! though its a singular model from the monkey ball game and thats it www.models-resource.com/game_boy_advance/
Probably because they're super hard to rip
@@moth.monster rip
For some reason Star Fox (SNES)models were under sprites. Unless they’re prerendered, I’m sure they are not.
@@creampop8553 I know. And it's missing alot of animations, too.
Sonic Battle on GBA had fully 3d background with 2d sprites on top.of them. You could even rotate and move the camera.
This is perfect timing.
I've watched almost all the other GBA videos as I do the dishes and the sink was, once again, full. Fantastic 👍
Karnaaj Rally is also a very decent top down racer. It doesn't use 3D heavily which is probably why it's a really fun game ;) It uses 3D for scenery and really looks quite nice I think.
Thanks for this video Minimme, I really enjoyed it!
These retro tech history videos are scratching a very specific itch I didn’t realize that I had.
10:28 I love that the game's logo is at the bottom of the screen, reminding you what the fuck you're playing.
dude I love your "5 graphically impressive games..." series... I must confess I bought a lot of GBC/GBA/even DS games based on your videos... I also love how GBA was actually very well explored in the graphics area, for the time it sure was an impressive handheld console
And the only one at that.
It snagged so many quality releases cuz there was no competition till 2005
This is my favorite of your videos so far. The least favorite is probably none of them. But this one is my most favorite.
I've been fascinated with 3D GBA games for *YEARS* and by far this is the most comprehensive overview of the lot of them I've seen!
Playing em with friends is fun.
Smashing Drive
Payback
Duke
Ice Nine
So good
It's kinda weird seeing this video. When I was a kid I had this strange obsession with 3D games on the gba, because I thought it was just super cool and made the gba feel incredibly powerful. Glad I'm not the only one lol
Haha same.
It was such a novelty
Wow, amazing video. Ever since I got my GBA I was fascinated by these kind of games. Asterix, VRally blew me away. I also was quite fond of Colin McRae 2.0, it had 3D car models, quite simplistic, but really smooth, impressive framerate and with great physics. Great video, thanks so much! Gonna watch the rest!
Great video. Really shows that the GBA was much more powerful than the SNES.
Stop Skeletons from fighting has a good video on the talented VD Dev and even interviewed them. One of the founders recently passed away.
I’m pretty sure he plugged it in one video.
Nintendo: This device mainly focuses on 2D only.
Developers: _release 3D games on GBA anyway_
Nintendo: _surprised Pikachu face_
Thanks for the journey. I had (still have actually) a flash cart and sought out as many 3D games as I could to experience what was possible on the GBA through clever programming. I will note that there's a minor issue with your list. The Hot Wheels game is not 3D, but from what I can tell, a variation of the 'compressed video footage' found in the intro to the game Red Zone for Megadrive/Genesis. Here, if you notice, the path is very much handled like it is in Iridion 1 and 2, the angle is more of a video playback than anything rendered. I believe the cars are real time, but not the environment, which is why it's much smoother than the other flat shaded games in general. I could be wrong, but I noticed that it is SEVERELY locked to camera angle even more than the V3 game to the point that you can't even turn around.
12:27 oh man, Wacky Races, that takes me back. I actually had that one when I was a kid, but I've never known anyone who played it and I never thought I'd see it featured in a video. Another fun kart racer I had was Konami Krazy Racers.
All these years we called it a portable SNES. Turns out it was a portable 3DO. 😉
As a kid I played games on GB, GBC, DS Lite and DSi but never on GBA, not even GBA games on the DS Lite. Even though I distinctly remember I always wanted Pokemon Emerald since you could catch my 3 favourite Pokemon in it.
Archival of interesting GBA/J2ME stuff gives me peace of mind thank you :)
Driv3r & V-Rally 3 are unbelievable. They are the closest to home console grade PS1 style graphics the GBA ever saw, an amazing technical achievement.
My go-to is still Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever. It was so cool to see 3D on GBA back then. I was so surprised about this one.
WOW!!! It’s like a documentary! You’d be so good at writing documentaries...
I know it’s 4 years old, but this is still a fascinating video. Maybe one day if you ever decide to revisit the topic of graphic-pushing games on consoles, the DS could be a fun system to look into. I always loved the 3D shown on that system.
My fascination with 3D on the GBA first started with Driv3r when I saw it on a gaming magazine. This channel is a godsend for showcasing everything the GBA had.
From what I've seen of both versions of Backtrack, it does NOT use BSP for its graphics. It instead uses the older technique known as ray-casting, which was used in Doom's predecessors (Wolfenstein 3D and Catacomb 3D for examples) and other titles. I can tell due to two things about the map:
• Rooms of equal elevation and ceiling height.
• Only 90° angles are seen.
Top Gear Rally on the n64 was one of my first video game memories, maybe one of my earliest memories period, and I had no idea it had a GBA port.
Fascinating!
007 Nightfire was actually my first game for the GBA, when I was 6 or 7.
I never really thought of it as anything special, to me it was just the cheep version of the console release, but it's interesting to know it was so significant!
Perhaps I should revisit it.
Don't forget Sonic Battle. Originally coming out in Japan in 4 December 2003, this game uses mode 2, but in such a way that you probably won't notice, as it uses sprites to add depth to the landscape, distorting them in ways to make them look like actual walls. On top of that, the whole game seems to run in a smooth 60fps, so it's probably smoother than all of the games in this video.
Overall, Sonic Battle has a pretty creative use of GBA's mode 2, and I wish there were more GBA games that utilised this kind of technique.
these are pretty *graphically impressive*
I just realized that minimme put his face over the face of characters on the cover art in the thumbnail 👀 Minimme's Thumbnails are the gift that keeps on giving 🙌
Is a lil creepy, but I always know it's his video that way haha
Tony hawk 2 is the best port event for gba. It is the exact version from ps1. When I got that game as kid I was hooked because it felt like I had portable PlayStation because it was a full 3-d game.
VD could have made an actual 3rd person port of Max Payne instead of isometric. Can you imagine what those 2 guys could have done with budget and licenses for huge games? Half-Life GBA. Star Wars racer or Jedi Knight games. Metroid Prime GBA. A 3d Kingdom Hearts GBA without cards?!
Now you made me dream
Half-Life on the GBA? Can you imagine lol.
@@Loundsify Many years ago I found a half life mod for doom. doomwiki.org/w/images/thumb/9/92/Doom-Half_ife.gif/250px-Doom-Half_ife.gif Since it used the real textures it really game a good impression of it being Half Life. The GBA runs doom. Or it could have been made using the Duke Nukem Advance engine. It wouldn't be a straight port of course but a portable version of HL.
I'm so glad that people appreciate 3D GBA as much as I do. Thanks so much for making this video :)
Minimminions, assemble!
mimimimimimi
Wow, great video. I especially like how you talked about the progress and development of different studios, and what they ended up doing after the gba. Seeing some of their stories made it feel like a full story, almost like a teen docu/ movie that tells you how the main characters' lives ended up at the end. This vid helped me a lot to contextually the gba era. It's a shame development got abandoned. The psp was good but no one knows how to make a fun portable and create memorable experiences like Nintendo. I owned both, but I never got any great games on the psp and it was a worry to carry around because of the fragile screen that scratched easily. Still, glad we got it. Wish I owned ridge racer lol. Maybe I'll look it up
Props to all the credits you left In the description!
I'm getting in on this video before it blows u-...crap, too late
GREAT channel! I watched every single video. I would like to see much more impressive games lists for N64, PS1, PSP, 3DS, Dreamcast, Gamecube, Xbox (original) and ESPECIALLY PS2! (This system has SO many technical marvels). Love from Germany
I currently program for the GBA! I'm going to make a custom GBA raycaster game for you! :)
I was completely surprised that such a machine can produce FMV cutscenes like in Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories. It goes to show that a small device like that could showcase more than we could have imagined. GBA to me is a powerful mini SNES, but that device is impressive nevertheless.
Back when SE still tried...
Thanks You very much to share this original documentary and i hope some day update the list of Google Drive 💯
That moment when you realize you've already watched a minimme video years ago, but you keep watching it anyway...
Wow. I New the gba could do semi-3d games like Mariocart, F-Zero and Iridion 2 but I had no clue there was actual full 3d games like this.
A few people have directed me to your channel after I did my GBA homebrew games episode and really enjoying your videos so far! :D
Good video! Starsky and hutch on the gba was something I was always amazed by! Could be one to look at in the future?
YESSSSS!!!! Don't get me wrong, your licensed game videos are good but I've missed your videos on cutting edge graphics on older consoles!
Funnily enough, Driver 2 for the GBA was better than the Playstation release of Driver 2. Which says a lot about the engine and passion that these teams had with such limited memory budgets. My hat goes off to the development teams and programmers that developed these engines. They really managed to pull out an absurd amount of performance from the GBA and systems that were limited at the time by little to no 3D, like the NovaLogic team's DOS Comanche: Maximum Overkill and Armored Fist. As a kid when I saw voxels for the first time it blew my mind. And remember Comanche: Maximum Overkill came out in 1992! and Armored Fist was in 1994 for DOS! Crazy cakes!
I remember being on, I think the GBASP.NET forums when the first BlueRoses demos were released. In an age before the PSP was on the horizon and the DS wasn't even a rumor yet, there was a moment where it really seemed like near PS1 level 3D games were going to be the hot new future of the GBA.
I loved the GBA and got it the week it came out and could appreciate its obvious major visual and sound upgrade over the GBC, but even when GBA's first magazine screenshots were revealed, I was a bit let down for what was being described as a 32 bit system, as my impression of a 32 bit system at that time was based on the Sega Saturn and PS1. I didn't expect CD quality sound of course, but was at first hoping for visuals more akin to some of the titles seen here.
All that being said, man I so intensely enjoyed my black Gameboy Advance SP, it was sleek and "mature" looking, at the time I was really trying to advocate for the "prestige" of handheld gaming as it were, and remember picking up Crazy Taxi: Catch a Ride and Monkey Ball Ju, both were genuinely good games and in a pre DS/PSP era were amazing to see on a handheld.
At the same time, I was kind of savoring the GBA as the "last 2D system", once PSP and DS were revealed, especially DS which at its first reveal was being positioned as akin to N64 in the same way GBA was positioned as akin to GBA, I really thought once GBA was gone, that 2D gaming was going to become virtually extinct.
In 2020's today's market of indie games and routine releases of new 2D Mario games, its a laughable thought, but back in 2003, people talked about 2D Mario in the past tense, in the way we talk about horse drawn streetcars and black and white TV.
tbf. the resident evil demo they made is straight up psx gfx.
Shame Capcom said no.
14:49 Look at those dual shoulder rolls! Enemies making moves.
I really appreciate the depth of your research here. Speaking of ambitious projects - this is an impressive retrospective!
One of my favorite channels, great job bro. You are deserve millions of views!
BSP (Binary Space Partitioning) is the method of partitioning the level geometry. It was used by games like Doom, Wolfenstein etc. but also by Quake, Half-Life etc. What you are referring to is called Raycasting (rendering only what's visible in the view cone of the player) which was used by the id tech 1 engine (Doom) but not id tech 2 and onwards.
Spider-Man 2 the GBA tie in game had sections of 3d cities where you would web swing around as spidey to get to the next missio
Beat me to it