Goodboy Galaxy (for GBA)
A downloadable GBA ROM
Please note: This is the Game Boy Advance version of Goodboy Galaxy! It should work on all compatible devices and emulators, but a native PC port is available on Steam with some additional enhancements. Steam page here
About Goodboy Galaxy
Help Maxwell explore unfamiliar worlds, make strange new friends and contend with mysterious forces.
Maxwell's homeworld is nearing collapse. In a last-ditch effort to find help, he hyperjumps where no dog has gone before. Stranded, he finds himself at the edge of a hostile system - if there's any hope of return and rescue he'll need every friend (and every weapon) he can find. Like all underdogs, the odds are stacked against him, but you can't keep a good dog down.
- Explore jam-packed levels with multiple routes
- Make 50+ friends & collect their friendship cards
- Upgrade your blaster with special abilities
- Find hidden areas and take on a variety of boss battles
- Supported languages: English, Français, Español, Deutsch, Português do Brasil, 日本語, 中文, العربية
Demo available
You can try the DEMO here: https://goodboygalaxy.itch.io/goodboy-galaxy-demo - it's a prequel to the full game, so there won't be any spoilers.
Controls
- L button: aim without walking
- R button: charge weapon (after upgrading)
- D-pad: walk, aim up/down, hold up to interact or enter doors/ship
- A button: jump / confirm
- B button: fire weapon
- Start: Open pawsOS (map, inventory and other screens)
- Select: Switch between weapon modes (after upgrading)
- Top secret: Hold Select for 2 seconds to warp back to your ship at any time.
Purchase
In order to download this GBA ROM you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $20 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Development log
- V1.3 Released + Steam/PC launch!Oct 25, 2024
Comments
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The updated version of this game HERE
What editor did you use to make this? It'd be really funny if I made a gba version of one of my own projects at some point lol.
Hey. I recently bought this game and am trying to play on my GBA SP using an EZ Flash Air cart. The game tends to freeze unexpectedly in certain parts of the game. Are there any patches that can be applied? I might just play on PC, as I wanted to get some footage for a video, but love the form factor of my SP and the rumble
We haven't tried the game on the EZ Flash Air, but maybe you could try the following things and see if any of them fix it:
Thanks!1. Make sure there are no ADDONs (reset/cheat) enabled in the EZ Flash menu, as these will attempt to patch the game, and could break it (such patches are generally intended for games made with the Nintendo SDK, which Goodboy isn't - I do believe the EZ Flash team added support for our game at some point, but not sure how stable it is!)
2. Make sure you're on the latest firmware (Firmware 3/Kernel 1.04). https://www.ezflash.cn/download/
3. Don't unzip the ROM directly onto the SD card - this has caused issues on our own EZ Flash devices. Instead unzip the rom to your PC first and then copy it across.
If you're still having issues, please also try holding A + B + Down + Left while the game boots up, to view the ROM checksum. It should show '159FF629' - if it shows anything else then this means the ROM might have been corrupted or had patches applied.
Hi there. Thanks for the suggestions. Maybe it is the SD card acting funky. other games are being strange as well. I am trying a higher capacity 64gb card formatted as exFat. I reflashed the latest firmware and am restoring my files. Hopefully this helps
Well worth every cent and super fun. Playing the game on my Pokémon Center New York GBA with an EZ Flash Omega DE and with rumble turned on.
Hi, I backed the game on Kickstarter up to the physical tier on Switch but I guess this ship is sailed, right? Do you plan to at least give out the rom to those who backed the game? Thanks!
is there any reason to not communicate with your backers on Kickstarter? 🤔 Did you take any steps to make the FPG to fulfill the orders or return our money? If there’s a lawsuite, what’s its status? If there isn’t, then why?
I came here to ask this.
Also curious about this
they filed a lawsuit against FPG back in 2024 but since its a very new lawsuit i imagine its hard for them to speak on it legally. they put out a statement which you can read here. its really unfortunate, FPG is recognized as a scam site by a lot of people since they seem to have a history of taking forever to delivery anything (if at all).
FPG is now trying to sell physical copies without the dev's permission. If you want a dedicated physical copy, buy a flashable repro cart with an RTC and a rumble motor as well as a cartridge flasher and make it yourself. Either that, or just use a flashcart. I use an EZ Flash Omega DE.
i finished the game a while ago but i just wanted to come here and give it its deserved praises. my god is this game so good. the art style is adorable, the colours are vibrant, i LOVED the characters and the gameplay is simple but can get challenging at times. cant wait to replay it on steam :))
I just got the game and have been playing it all day. What a charming and fun game! This is exactly what Ive been wanting to play. The amount of work that has been put into this game to make run so smooth on a gba is incredible. And it’s just fun.
Im playing it on an ez flash DE and wondering if there’s a .bmp image file for it. I tried using one of the wallpapers that was provided but couldn’t figure it out.
Is this a genuine copy of your game on a gba cart are you getting paid for this https://firstpressgames.com/products/goodboy-galaxy-gba-na-regular-edition
They did have an agreement to sell it, but it was revoked over 6 months ago. They have not shipped a single copy. We have never been paid by them.
thanks for the heads up. I'll keep my cash elsewhere. Much love
Anyone knows how to get the yellow keycard at Echelon?
Echelon Central (Trainstation) in exchange for a lot of shards
Thanks!!!!!
Hi,
I'm Jorne from RetroGear.nl, a webshop dedicated to emulation handhelds and retro consoles.
We're launching a new initiative to introduce our community to legal ROM distribution and are looking to feature great games as part of this effort.
Would you be open to bundling your game with us as part of this project?
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Best regards,
Jorne
info@retrogear.nl
🥰
🤩
Your game is very fun and cute, would I be able to help translate it into Vietnamese?
I preordered the EU Regular Edition through 1st Press Games back in March 2024. Does that come with a ROM file? Been waiting forever for the physical cart to ship and just want to play the game.
Same here. I ordered in April 2024 the same edition and nothing happened since.
I sent an email asking for the current state and got the reply (4 Feb 2025) that they are assembling collector editions right now in the announced order not only for Goodboy Galaxy, and that they can't provide a detailed timeframe. I'm fine with that because I was afraid that they forgot us.
I unfortunately don't know if that's true - 1st Press has been doing some very shady business and I don't think there is any progress on them printing this game. I really hope it comes to fruition but it feels stuck in purgatory.
Same here; I'm so annoyed. I've sent 1st Press Games multiple emails asking for a refund and they won't provide me one. I just want to play this game on my GBA after spending that kind of money.
Little late, but you could consider getting an ez flash and playing the rom.
Yeah; not really in a financial spot to drop an additional $120 for a game I've already spent $70 on for a 'premium' product that was never received
:( https://x.com/hot_pengu/status/1858457074167886252
Question: Is the Starbi Cassetdisk OST also included in the 3DS CIA? Wanna make sure before considering purchase.
Hey, the CIA file is just for the game, but you can run the Starbi ROM on 3DS using open_agb_firm, or make your own CIA with Ultimate GBA VC Injector. Hope that helps! :)
Wanna buy this brilliant for GBA, but I'm from Russia. What can I do?
Hello, I am Korean, and I heard in a translation community that someone is working on a Korean translation of this game. Will Korean language support be available in version 1.4?
That is the plan, yes
Wow Thanksss! Sooo Exciting!!!
Will the GBA ROM works on iPadOS RetroArch? Other GBA ROMs are recognized by the RetroArch but not the Goodboy Galaxy.
yes should do, runs in all retroarch versions I've seen (but I don't have an ipad).
Are you using the .gba file? Maybe you need to extract the compressed file.
This game has a very excellent gameplay, I really liked the puzzles. But at the moment all I can see are gameplays, I would love to play this complete incredible game but I can't afford it 🥹
hey man! is there any way for me to download the 1.2 version of this game? I just bought it and it looks really good but I also wanted to play it with retroachievements. congratulations on the steam release!
Thanks a bunch! I'll ask if there's a chance of the RetroAchievements set being updated. In the meantime, here's a patch to downgrade your ROM from 1.3 to 1.2.
:O wasn't expecting a response so soon. Played the demo today and you did something beautiful with this game! Thank you so much for taking the time to answer.
v1.3 is now linked to the RA set
https://retroachievements.org/game/27584
Just bought and downloaded v1.3 of ROM for use with mGBA and the rumble patch is saying, "Error: This patch is not intended for this ROM." Tried the rom both zipped and unzipped. Will the patch be updated to support v1.3?
Hey! Thanks for the reminder, an updated rumble patch is now available, you can grab it from the new community-run wiki :)
https://goodboygalaxy.miraheze.org/wiki/Rumble
Thank you so much for the fast update. Confirmed working with mGBA on MM+ and MM
I love this game, it's simply worth every single pennie! I wanted to revive my love for the GBA SP and this did the job perfectly. Thank you so much!
graphics are from another dimension where dogs program stuff.
Hey is this still getting a physical GBA cart release? Thought I saw it on this page a while ago, but don't now. Are you already sold out for pre orders?
Just found this site for preordering the cartridge:
https://firstpressgames.com/products/goodboy-galaxy-gba-na-regular-edition
As the devs, can you tell me if the site is reputable?
Just fyi: According to their kickstarter, they even had to talk to a lawyer regarding this company. FirstPressGames is very shady and takes a lot of time to release things if they release them at all. So, we probably won't see a physical release.
Wow ok, thanks for the heads up. I will steer clear. Lots of red flags on reddit about this company.
It sucks I really want to play Goodboy Galaxy on my GBA SP. Oh well!
The weird part: You can buy counterfeits on aliexpress. However, you never know what version they are burning and the cards may fail spontaneously because they usually lack quality control. But if you don't have an Everdrive or an Analogue Pocket or some emulation device, then this might be the only way to play the game on a good handheld.
One cool thing you can do is buy a quality GBA Rumble cartridge from InsideGadgets and burn the ROM to it. Comes with FRAM for saving, and a rumble motor. Just patch the rumble in, and you're off to the races. Matthewmods on Etsy can set you up with a fresh, high quality label for the cartridge too.
I won't able to rate this wonderful one how do I do that?
Lovely game.
Is there a way to respawn at the ship? The select button held for 2 seconds isn't working.
A couple of softlocks:
- Totummy Temple: Red Bell path. You can shrink yourself along the way to the red bell, drop down into the mazey path that guides the blaster projectile, and you can get stuck between two slanted mirror pieces.
- Resonarion: For the puzzle where you direct a Toot directly underneath a music block, so it stays in place on a pressure pad. By backtracking a little bit, you can hit the music blocks above the room, guiding the Toot to unintended places. You can direct the Toot to stand above the openable floor, then open it yourself using the pressure pad, causing the Toot to remain trapped underneath.
Both of these softlocks occurred naturally while playing, so I thought I'd mention them :)
Thanks! Yes the warp-back-to-ship feature works, and is intended to be used if you ever manage to get trapped. However, I've heard that "hold select" is a hotkey on some systems (RetroArch on SteamDeck?) which could interfere with the game's control scheme. Maybe you could try mapping some other button to Select and see if that helps?
Trying to Parchuse but keeps giving errors. To bad can't try it out
It is so awesome to see this on actual hardware!
Has v1.3 been released yet? I want to buy the game but I am waiting until the release.
.
My friend's development team is interested in porting the game to Xbox Series. They sent an email to you at this address: hello@goodboygalaxy.com, and they are awaiting your response, regarding their proposal.
Holy shit...I never thought we'd see a modern fan-made GBA game like this. It's actually insane. It's like an official GBA game of the highest quality, easily deserving a 100% on Metacritic. I really hope people realize how special this is. Like...how?? A successful kickstarter campaign made this happen? I still can't believe it.
If the devs ever made a GBA rom similar to Binding of Isaac, I'd be in heaven. I'm a sucker for games with randomized item pools that create a unique experience in each playthrough. That, or a Stardew Valley clone, but I think I'll just have to keep dreaming 😂.
I'm VERY happy with this game, and there is limited info about it online, so owning a copy kinda makes me feel like I'm a member of some sort of unofficial club, lol. Cool!
Algum dia eu Vou Comprar a Versão completa desse jogo
he is such good boyo doe uwu
very nice-a game
I have introduced your game in my homebrew article serie (german). :-) https://www.dasklapptsonicht.de/homebrew-ecke-mischief-castle-soko-banana-goodbo...
Wow I love the designs, I should get my GBA back...
I'm having so much trouble finding the last chest?
I found the big secret through my friend list (awesome by the way) but the last chest seems so elusive to me.
I've 100% every maps. Is it something so obvious I'm missing it or is one of them super well hidden?
Thaaaaanks
I’m hoping someone can help me here! I’m having a ton of issues trying to play this on genuine hardware. I successfully loaded the rom and played it a bit on my Analogue Pocket, I have successfully flashed the demo to a repro cart using the FunnyPlaying burnmaster but when I try to do ANYTHING with the actual full game I have zero luck anywhere. It straight up won’t show up on anywhere on my EZ Flash Omega and I cannot get past “writing 50%” while flashing it to a cart. I really want to experience this game on genuine Nintendo hardware, I am using an authentic / paid for rom! Also is the physical release ever happening? I’ve been holding off due to the pre order being frozen at winter 2023 forever and the company who is hosting it does not respond to emails.
Hello! That sounds familiar with the EZ Flash Omega, if I recall correctly it can happen if you drag the ROM directly from the .zip file rather than extracting and then copying. Please let me know if that helps! For the flashing to the repro cart, you will need a 32MB SRAM or FRAM cart (the demo only needed 16MB I think). Unfortunately we don't have an update on the pre-orders, we are waiting for some emails as well.
Any update on when the physical release is happening?