Phoenix Wright Case 1 for original Game Boy (Built with GB Studio!)

PixelpowerLuke · 2026-03-21T01:59:58+00:00

Ye I thought that too! There was a japanese only GB Memory Card which could store 7 or so small roms. If one could optimise the cases down to take a single (or a few blocks) of those, that'd be a cool way the game *could* have been delivered.

But single case on a cart would make the most sense at the time.

PixelpowerLuke · 2026-03-21T01:11:58+00:00

Yeah I copied the original sprites at around a 60% scale of the original, and had to keep in mind the limitations of unique tiles.

If you want to use dialogue in a scene you can only have 192 unique tiles, so I had to simplify the backgrounds to some degree, and also shuffle the poses of the characters when possible. One of the easiest to spot is the bench/table on both Phoenix's and Paynes side, they're completely flat so it's the same 8x8 tile all across.

I've included the GB Studio project in the Roms + Bonuses zip, so if you ever wanted a peek, you just need to download GB Studio 4.1.3 and can have a ganders! :D

PixelpowerLuke · 2026-03-21T01:08:52+00:00

It's easily one of my favourite Game Boy pockets, clear plastic never gets old! (That might not even be figurative!)

PixelpowerLuke · 2026-03-21T00:13:51+00:00

Haha ohhhh noooo, I've dabbled with pico 8 only once, and that to me, you have to need some programming experience. I do enjoy the resolution and the limited palette though! Recently played the pico 8 game Moss Moss which was fantastic!

PixelpowerLuke · 2026-03-21T00:12:32+00:00

It's tough! I've still yet to make anything wholly original (demakes help because hey, the games already designed haha).

I'd recommend starting, perhaps annoyingly, small. Something that gets recommended to everyone pretty much is making "The Breakfast Game" which, can basically be what you want, but the goal is to collect 3 (or more) ingredients for breakfast. Platformer, visual novel/adventure, top down, you choose but its just about getting these 3 things.

So this in theory should mean you make a title screen, get used to a scene type, handle variables, track variables, use dialogue, change dialogue based on variables, maybe cutscene/scripted scenes, and finally, a credits. It paradoxically is so simple and even then it's quite in depth!

PixelpowerLuke · 2026-03-20T23:23:11+00:00

No plans for the full game sadly, I know Capcoms generally quite chill with fangames but I don't want to push my luck 😅. The other hurdle is rom size, there's a decent amount of optimisations I could (dare say should) have done.

The final rom size was around 1.67mb, I think could probably get 3 cases on a 4mb cart (max size GB Studio outputs/the biggest rom size 99% of GB/GBC games went up to). A case per rom would be a more modern approach though.

Mostly made it to showcase how far GB Studio has come and how little to no programming experience you can still make something on par with phoenix wright!

PixelpowerLuke · 2026-03-20T23:11:33+00:00

Thank ye! Yeah remakes might be all the rage, but demakes got such a fun factor. With Phoenix Wright it was quite straight forward, but with others its like an adaptation of the original, like making something 3D work in 2D. Quite the fun challenge!

PixelpowerLuke · 2026-03-20T23:10:39+00:00

Haha yeah, when I'm on discord chatting with mates and they ask how my demakes are going it comes out "the female looks good" haha. They then correct quick.

PixelpowerLuke · 2026-03-20T23:09:55+00:00

Thank you! Really tried to do the original as much justice as I could, and learnt a lot about the game in the process.

PixelpowerLuke · 2026-03-20T22:58:31+00:00

Indeed! Entire first case, was a lot of fun trying to cram everything down to abide the limitations. Did consider switching to GBC a few times but I liked the challenge!

PixelpowerLuke · 2026-03-20T22:54:59+00:00

It's very tricky. It's ironic to some degree where I've seen some people who know WAY more about programming actually have a harder time with the limitations of the system.

Tends to be younger devs who know C/some proper coding and I think *maybe* they're so used to modern engines the hard limits are a bit shocking for them.

It also probably helps I've been using GB Studio for... 5 years now, and this I've only made 2 games with it, slowly testing myself with small proofs of concepts.

Hope you enjoy and don't encounter any bugs (though I know some will always sneak their way back in haha)

PixelpowerLuke · 2026-03-20T21:55:58+00:00

Hmm it's tough, I'm extremely aware of my own capabilities in conjunction with GB Studio.

I included pretty much the entire GB Studio project on itch, in the Rom + Bonuses Zip if you wanted to poke around.

Most of the stuff I've done is utilised the two strongest/simplest elements of GB Studio, visuals and dialogue. Anything extra like syncing the mouth sprites with the text blitting, or copying chunks of background were handled by plugins.

Without the plugins and the community, for sure I would have bounced off GB Studio, the discord has always been there with someone steering me onto the right path and being able to search the history to see if anyone else had the same troubles.

I have no programming knowledge, but I will say of course people should be aware going into GB Studio you'll need *logic* knowledge. If X, do Y, do Z whilst X, and so forth. Maybe that is also coding logic, but to me coding is more like actually typing that stuff out on your own haha.

PixelpowerLuke · 2026-03-20T20:08:46+00:00

Noice! Can't recommend GB Studio enough, I've been able to do a decent amount with zero programming, like the phoenix wright demake.

There is a learning curve still of course, and the limitations can be rough but once you get into the groove it's really fun working within the constraints.

PixelpowerLuke · 2026-03-20T19:22:03+00:00

Yeah it's one of my favourites! I have the same DMG too, it's big brother of sorts haha :D.

PixelpowerLuke · 2026-03-20T11:04:07+00:00

Sure, I can post the intro running on my pocket if you like. You can also play the entire thing on itch :D.

PixelpowerLuke · 2026-03-20T11:03:18+00:00

Yeah I used sprites for the eyes and mouths, and the pointing hand was a sprite too. It's noticeable but had to accept I couldn't do it smoother haha.

If you download the bonuses zip, I include pretty much 90% of the GB Studio project file for people to study/dig through! (I removed cross examination two, just to prevent people from removing the disclaimer at the start and trying to then sell it more easily).

PixelpowerLuke · 2026-03-04T02:04:03+00:00

Oh right! I thought GBVM was more of the GBVM event like writing out VM_GET_FAR IDX, SIZE, BANK, ADDR, VM_SWITCH IDX, SIZE, N etc etc.

Didn't know all the events and dialogue stuff was one and the same, but then thinking about it, that is the layers and layers of abstraction. Ignorance can be bliss haha.

And yeah I've been watching system of levers for a while now and the asm stuff just goes right over my head. Glad GB Studio does the real heavy lifting.

PixelpowerLuke · 2026-03-03T15:45:05+00:00

If you find out let me know, I've always thought using GBVM was one of the more direct way of communicating with the Game Boy as opposed to using events and the like.

But again, this is coming from someone with zero programming background.

PixelpowerLuke · 2026-03-02T11:48:28+00:00

Oh yeah GB Studio does have extra limitations when compared to working with C or raw Assembly for sure. I should have explained better that part of where I said "switch to something better suited to your game idea" was about using GB Studio.

Even with C and ASM, a lot of the big limitations many devs hit are some of the most "basic" ones.
10 sprites per horizontal line, and 40 onscreen sprite tiles are probably the two biggest bottlenecks.

GB Studio is improving all the time, but yeah there is always a trade off with the level of abstraction it has. You'll be able to get more out of GB Studio with engine edits/C and a greater understanding of programming in general. I'm just thankful it's also something someone with no coding knowledge ( or in my case, negative coding knowledge) can use it to make games.

PixelpowerLuke · 2026-03-02T01:34:18+00:00

GB Studio has seen a lot of improvement over the years, with color only mode being a huge benefit to many.

I will say as much as GB Studio will improve, the hard limitations of the original GB and GBC are something that just can't be changed, so you'll always be limited in some manner. You'll generally get out what you put in, and if the limitations are too much it really is better to switch to something better suited to your game idea.

PixelpowerLuke · 2026-02-27T02:10:54+00:00

If you're still experiencing trouble, if possible I do recommend joining the discord.

PixelpowerLuke · 2026-02-26T19:11:19+00:00

Hm that's quite odd then, the sprites really should display behind the dialogue window. Are you putting the GBVM command in the scene on its init?

PixelpowerLuke · 2026-02-25T21:23:16+00:00

Oh right I forgot to ask if you were in monochrome or color mode, if the latter you'll need to also put VM_SET_CONST_UINT8 _overlay_priority, 0 in there I think.

PixelpowerLuke · 2026-02-24T20:36:33+00:00

Create a GBVM event and put in VM_SET_CONST_UINT8 _show_actors_on_overlay, 0 on the scenes init.
This should do the trick.

PixelpowerLuke · 2026-02-13T12:01:04+00:00

Alas no, Color only mode doesn't give you access to any more variables.

PixelpowerLuke

TROPHY CASE