A Look at Input Lag on the Game Boy Player

In this video I'm taking a look at the input lag on the Game Boy Player, especially in comparing the official software to Game Boy Interface.
I may investigate this further in the future, comparing the lag when using an OSSC. I'd also like to test with a Sony PVM/BVM that supports 480p at 59.73Hz, but that's too prohibitively expensive for most people.
I would like to compare the input lag of different official GBA consoles in the future though, and I may include the GBA Consolizer.
*Credits for sourced materials*
AGS-101 ghosting snippets:
"AGS 101 ghosting" by Joe's Draws - • AGS 101 ghosting
"Game Boy Advance AGS-101 Blur/Ghosting" by Ruben MV - • Game Boy Advance AGS-1...
*Music Used*
Haters Gonna Hate by AdhesiveWombat
/ adhesivewombat-haters-...

[@Dark_Jaguar]

Based on the Gameboy Advance injector homebrew for the DSi, I think that extra frame of lag comes from processing in a black border to make the image fit the DS screen. The DSi homebrew I mentioned has an option to remove this frame processing, but as a consequence the image is now shoved to the upper left with noticeable extra stuff showed way outside the border that was never intended to be seen, varying depending on game. It's like seeing that overscan area just outside the intended view area of NES and Genesis games.

[@bigbadbrando]

I am indeed one of the few people that would like for you to investigate GBA input lag further please! Crazy to see there’s actual lag on NDS considering that it has supposed backwards compatibility.

[@2NDFLB-CLERK]

▪ Yeaa, and here I was thinking that ordering a ds would fix the lag issue. This lag thing is disappointing af. I got all this gb player sh.t to play games I missed out on way back, and to play them on the TV... Dammmm 🟥

[@2NDFLB-CLERK]

▪ Well, i didn't notice any significant lag on my gb player setup.. I didn't use the start up disc, thou. I used that wind waker memory card method.. . Maybe that's why I didn't see lag. Not sure. 🟥

[@neetrain]

your testing is detailed and editing is great. deserves more attention

[@Rulumi]

Nice look at the GBI, and about the AGS-101 screen, more than it being oversaturated, most GBA games have oversaturated colirs to counter the original models dim screens.

[@SirSethery]

Oh that's a good point, nearly forgot about that. And it was probably unfair to say that it wasn't a "good" screen (colors are _massively_ better than the originals), but after growing up with the original crappy screens, the blur was instantly annoying.

[@ultraspinalki11]

@@SirSethery there are some hacked roms that fix the colors, making them less bright.

[@Valientlink]

It's kinda dumb because there are games released post 2004 that still have washed out, bright colors. FF6 advance came out in 2007 and it's way brighter than SNES, it doesn't look great

[@MegaFinalRound]

@@Valientlink That’s somewhat dumb. Most people still were playing on the washed-out screen game boys.

[@MatthiasTheMouseWarrior]

Amazing video. I think you did a great job with the testing. It was interesting to see how the different control methods stacked up. I hope that I can see more videos from you in the future.

[@watsonwrote]

This was really helpful for me! Especially that bit of info about softmodding the gamecube with a memory card prepared on a softmodded wii. I didn't think I had the tools at hand to use my Gameboy Player anymore, but I'm happy that I do!

[@streamsg7925]

jeez, the production quality of this video was really good, I thought you were a big time youtuber about this sort of thing.. keep it up man!

[@Playstation1]

Your Nintendo stuff you're showing on camera is in really good condition! Thanks for showing the GBA SP working with the Gamecube link cable as well, had no idea a GBA SP would work on it!

[@Rellite]

Very informative, I never knew there were other options for the gbplayer disc

[@tylerbeans7096]

The algorithm blessed me with this video. I hope that you make more, your video quality is really, really strong for your channel being so obscure. I had to double take at your views and subscriber count. lol

[@ItzSilentFox]

This was a awesome video! I love the GBA line up and the gameboys in general. This was honestly a top quality vid and very entertaining and in-depth. Keep these vid up dude! I see you as similar as Scott the woz. I also subbed 😁

[@FoxBlocksHere]

These videos are so well made! Great job! I know you said you didn't want to be the input-lag guy, so I'm not going to ask for more. Do them only if you want to.

[@bschinzel]

Excellent video. I'd love to see you do a latency analysis of the GBA MiSTer core.

[@Wallguy]

Great analysis! I haven't seen this anywhere before. I didn't know the GBP had extra input lag since I never used mine much. All the more reason to get GBI setup and run the speedrun version.

[@AVUM47]

This video was super helpful. Thank you!

[@bigbadbrando]

Awesome video! Thank you for the research!

[@tylerh5435]

Well done! Very informative

[@helloomottoo1390]

I enjoyed this content. Thank u ❤

[@yarayar1]

Great information! I wonder if the the game you used to test lag has a frame or two of lag already baked in. I was surprised at how much there was even on the AGS-001. I think the 144p/160p test suite has a lag testing function that could be used to address this.

[@Kage5868]

impressive comparisons very helpfull

[@JohnnyJohnJon83]

Really underrated video

[@sardouche9112]

Amazing video, you should have 400k on this one

[@VinnytotheK]

Fantastic video man, I'll be installing the Gameboy Interface soon, and it's awesome to know that it does in fact help with input lag. Now... gotta find out if a Japanese Gameboy Player works with my US Gamecube, since I don't yet have a Japanese copy of Wind Waker.

[@SirSethery]

Glad you liked it! Actually, the Gameboy Player is region free, and you can attach any region GBP to any region GameCube, and it’ll play any region GBA game. The GBP I used in the video was actually from Japan (they only released a black version in the US). Now the game you use to launch the disc (like Wind Waker) just has to match the region of the GameCube itself as well as the modified save file on the memory card. Also, there’s a list of games that you should be able to use (assuming you also have a hacked Wii to put the modified save on a memory card). Some of them should be a lot cheaper than Wind Waker, the full list should be here: www.gc-forever.com/wiki/index.php?title=Booting_Homebrew

[@VinnytotheK]

@@SirSethery Thanks so much for the extra info! I realized that I could use it with my American Gamecube after commenting, since I do have Wind Waker. The Gameboy player I have is Orange Spice to go with my Japanese Gamecube. I recently paid to import a bundle of games through Buyee to get a certain Gamecube game I wanted, and it happens to include Wind Waker, but I might still do it with my American Gamecube until that comes in!

[@VinnytotheK]

@@SirSethery Oh, after reading that list of games I realized that Melee is on there, and I have Japanese Melee, so I might try that! (Oh, and I do have a hacked Wi too of course!)

[@michaelwalsh3474]

For what it's worth, a company called Old Skool makes a controller based off the Hori game pad and it retails for $25 USD from them.

[@hndfhngtool-assistedspeedr2128]

Thanks I'll look into GBI

[@daaa2858]

this is so in depth

[@Tbug20]

I have GBI, and personally I’m willing to give up that extra little bit of input speed from the SR edition for the dynamic zoom of the standard edition.

[@pieta9097]

please do more!

[@LouisZezeran]

More gba lag testing videos please!

[@danielguevara2446]

Late to the party, but what I wanna know is that does the wii controller raphnet adapter have the same amount of input delay as you described in your video, or does it have more frames of lag since the cord was made similar to the snes adapter.

[@notpistach484]

Nice video ¿could you please do another video of how to instale the Game Boy Player Speedrun version for anyone to understand ?

[@andrewgerber413]

Yes please do

[@dbnpoldermans4120]

Was that from hokuto no ken?

[@rottengalaxy]

You forgot about the version of the regular GBA that had a backlit screen as well.

[@ciscomedina9347]

How about testing the lag on the new 3ds xl/2ds xl with the virtual gba games, and nice video

[@SirSethery]

I actually have that in the works now!

[@ciscomedina9347]

@@SirSethery sweet

[@TheBlueArcher]

yes. please go all in on input lag.

[@Hchris101]

I can’t believe you’ve done this to me

[@brandonnichols7999]

Subbing

[@michaeldemers2716]

I really recommend the Everdrive GB X7.

[@DvourZz]

Wait can you actually not use the analog stick on GC controller?

[@symphony137]

Can you please compare the input lag of original Game Boy games on GBI vs the Super Game Boy 2 (SNES)?

[@SirSethery]

I’m actually planning to test that. Not in my next video, but possibly in the one following that. I don’t have a SGB2 to test on hand yet.

[@zabdisk8]

What’s the sonic game you’re playing in the video? Looks super fun! Tia

[@SirSethery]

Sonic Battle, it was one of my favorite GBA games as a kid. One of the Sonic X arcs is (very, very loosely) based off it.

[@usb6000]

The game boy micro is perfect and it is horrible at the same time. It's too small but is perfect to put in your pocket and not be noticeable. It is a paradox.

[@lordshulker]

There are av out hadware mods for the gba

[@asad9414]

Would be nice to see GBA games tested on the 3ds since it has built in GBA hardware and runs them completely natively The official Nintendo VC "wrapper" for GBA games has some input lag but there's a homebrew utility called open_agb_firm that launches GBA roms directly and gives no perceptible lag for me

[@SirSethery]

I actually tested ROM injection on the 3DS in my latest video! I had no idea about open_agb_firm though, might do a quick test on that.

[@Martin.chapman]

I still can't tell the lag even now

[@monsterkajiu1912]

How tried oldskool's digital controller, it's a hella a out cheaper than the real one and just as good.

[@DE23]

Are generic GBA to GameCube Link cables on Amazon fine to buy?

[@PurpleRupees]

I used an off brand one as a kid and had no problems, they are completely functional. Can't confirm any input lag numbers though.

[@michealfunickrr3717]

@@PurpleRupees i've seen wireless link adapters on eBay. now that i think about it let's get esp32 to link to gameboy via blutooth.

[@HeroTubeHD]

Old Skool released the Digital Controller for GameCube just like Hori made it. Plus it's a lot cheaper for 25 dollars.

[@leviathan4579]

The Gameboy player lag makes it really frustrating to play platformers like Warioworld

[@Hope_Upstairs]

AHHH so it wasnt the tv's fault...

[@FLX1646]

3:22 what game is?

[@SirSethery]

Sonic Battle, one of my favorites on the GBA.

[@FLX1646]

@@SirSethery thanks, look like a amazing game

[@DoctorHazy]

I am one of the three people.

[@patrickhawthorneLS]

New to gamecube,pile of shit,I always said I wouldn't buy one then did mostly for the gba player Realised within 10 seconds of sonic advance 2 that it's garbage Now,unlike other people,I have not noticed input lag (I'm on a crt),and under sharp or normal setting it looks totally fine for me but a constant stutter every couple of seconds and that to me is a total killer making it useless to me .. went back to my snes gba adapter

[@rzee4999]

Yeah I rather also just stick with the gb advance gameplay rather than that weird LOW DEGENERATE ADVANCE SP use 😡 😀

[@robdyrdek730]

So what can I use with my GBP that will give me less input lag?