Console Setups

Aside from pointing a camera at your Gameboy, it is pretty trick to record footage of your GBA Speedruns. This article will try to sum up common solutions to record your runs, but due to the ever-evolving state of GBA recording methods (new products and methods), it should only be viewed as a starting point for you to do further research.

Gameboy Player for Nintendo Gamecube

The most common solution is to use the Gameboy Player attachment on a Gamecube. It allows you to play GBA, GBC and GB games on your Gamecube, so you can play on your TV or monitor. It also allows you to hook up a GBA as a controller, which is the closest to the original playing experience.

There are two main ways to use the Gameboy Player:

1. You purchase the official Gameboy Player Disc and use it to run the official software made by Nintendo. 

Pro:

• Easy to use, it just works without any issues.

Cons:

• Bad video quality
• Official Software has noticable lag.
• The official disc also has become rather expensive, which is why option 2 might be very interesting for you, too.

2. You can use "Gameboy Interface" (GBI). This is a Homebrew Application that allows you to use your Gameboy Player without the original Gameboy Player Disc, which means you need to software or hardware mod your Gamecube to run Homebrew applications. There is a variety of ways to get Homebrew applications running on your Gamecube, such as the "SD Media Launcher" by Datel with the "Action Replay" Disc or the "Save Game Exploit". 

The most common way is to use the application "Swiss", which will act as a menu to boot all your Homebrew applications from and allows you to change parameters of your Homebrew applications before you launch them, including Gameboy Interface.

Pro:

• good video quality
• very minimal lag, if even noticable
• undoubtedly the better playing experience

Cons:

• hard to set up, it will take some fiddeling to figure out your preferred settings.

Generally speaking for Homebrewing your Gamecube, the Action Replay method is easier to use, but you will have to figure out if it is cheaper for you to instead go with the Save Game Exploit method, which will require you either an already homebrewed Gamecube console or a RVL-001 Wii console (it should have gamecube controller and memory ports) + the right game. After all, both of those options will allow you to run Gameboy Interface.

More information about Gamecube Homebrewing and how to get it running for cheap: https://www.gc-forever.com/wiki/index.php?title=Booting_homebrew https://gchomebrew.com/ultimate/

More information about Gameboy Interface and Swiss: https://www.gc-forever.com/wiki/index.php?title=Game_Boy_Interface https://www.gc-forever.com/wiki/index.php?title=Swiss https://www.speedrun.com/fusion/guides/wf5aa