Play Pokémon on a Game Boy Advance rebuilt in Minecraft
A Minecraft player has begun rebuilding a playable version of Pokémon – inside Mojang’s sandbox world
You can create a lot of things in Minecraft – including, it seems, other games. One canny crafter has gone above and beyond though, using the sandbox title to build a working Game Boy Advance, and a version of Pokémon Fire Red to play in it.
Unlike Nintendo’s official partnership with Minecraft that sees Mario and friends joining the Wii U edition of the game, this is an entirely fan-made project. Minecrafter ‘Reqaug’ created the ambitious project over the course of three weeks, using the third-party tool Spritecraft to translate Pokémon’s pixel art into Minecraft’s signature blocks.
While the game looks like a regular 2D game viewed front-on, Reqaug’s video shows it is actually an incredibly complex series of 3D arrangements. The construction explains why each move the player makes requires the entire game to be ‘redrawn’ with each frame.
The virtual GBA is very much a work-in-progress, as is the version of Pokémon Fire Red. At present, it’s mainly the overworld players typically explore, and a Pokémart store that can be entered. There are no battles or, crucially, any actual Pokémon to be seen yet.
However, there is a level editor, allowing other Minecraft builders to experiment with the tool, and Reqaug said: “This project will always be in progress as it can always get better.” It’s also unclear whether the GBA can be used to ‘play’ other games – certainly a labour of love for other creators to take on.
Anyone wanting to test Reqaug’s build out for themselves only needs to be running Minecraft version 1.10 or above, and download the save file – no modding required. It may barely be playable in real terms, but it’s a phenomenal achievement just as a feat of digital engineering. There is, of course, a very real chance Nintendo or The Pokémon Company International may crack down on the build as it’s totally unofficial.