The Game Boy Advance was never known for its ability to handle polygonal 3D. Yet Gustavo Valiente has taken on the seemingly impossible challenge with his “RR Project”: porting Ridge Racer, Namco’s 1993 arcade classic, to Nintendo’s handheld. And against all odds, the result is impressive.

As reported by Time Extension, the GBA did receive a few unlikely ports back in the day — including Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio — but this homebrew project might well surpass all of them in terms of technical achievement.

A 3D engine developed from scratch

Gustavo Valiente spent months recreating Ridge Racer from the ground up for the GBA, using his own Butano engine (written in modern C++) specifically designed to make Game Boy Advance development easier. The developer coded the 3D rendering engine himself, allowing the GBA to achieve what many thought was impossible.

To run the 1993 arcade game on much more modest hardware, compromises had to be made. Car models and roadside objects are extremely simple, using flat-shaded polygons, and the draw distance is significantly reduced. But these sacrifices pay off: the game runs at a steady 30 fps, and Valiente even managed to keep the announcer’s voice for that authentic Ridge Racer touch.

Enthusiastic reactions

According to NotebookCheck, despite the GBA’s relatively weak hardware, the port stays surprisingly faithful to the original and preserves Ridge Racer’s frantic, energetic atmosphere, with its 3D polygon tracks and cars. The draw distance is sufficient to allow good anticipation of corners.

Early online reactions have been overwhelmingly positive, with a perfect five-star rating on the project’s itch.io page. One commenter sums up the general sentiment: “It’s unbelievably good, I never thought this would be possible.”

A project in active development

No playable demo is available yet, but the project appears to be under active development. Valiente promises future updates with additional tracks and tweaks, taking inspiration from the expanded courses of the PlayStation port.

This project demonstrates what the homebrew scene can accomplish with pure determination. Ridge Racer, released in arcades in 1993, set new standards for real-time 3D visuals before becoming a true PlayStation system seller in 1994. Seeing this classic come to life on a handheld that was never designed for such a technical challenge is simply remarkable.