game boy advance · leg 1: italy · v1.1.0
Rally Atlas
An isometric arcade rally game for the Game Boy Advance. Not a game in the style of the GBA: a real cartridge image that runs on the hardware, on a flashcart and on any emulator. Eight stages.
A rally game for the Game Boy Advance
Giro del Tricolore, 1986. Nando Ferri, 24 (or whatever name you type in), drives the Lupa 1300, red with a white stripe and number 13, prepared by his uncle Gino Rapetti in the workshop of San Lupo, his village in the Apennines. Eight stages, from the sea to the Stelvio pass.
Eight stages across Italy, from the Riviera to the Stelvio
- Riviera di Ponente tarmac by the sea: the harbour with the boats, two bridges, the lighthouse
- San Lupo cobbles and gravel through the home village, the square in festa, a banner for Nando
- Langhe the vineyards, the castle of Barolo, the wine cellar of Count Brambilla
- Maremma the cypress avenue, the watchtower, the cowboys of the farm
- Campo Imperatore the high plateau, the shepherds' huts, the castle up on the ridge
- Rocce Rosse red rocks, a nuraghe and the sea of Sardinia
- Lago di Resia the bell tower sticking out of the lake, Austrian fans at the start
- Stelvio up the gorge, then twenty-four numbered hairpins to the snow at the top of the pass
The demo is free: the first stage as a ROM
The first stage, Riviera di Ponente: the same cartridge code, with all three cars and all three levels. If you like it, the full game has all eight stages and the full rally.
Driving: power slides, gravel and snow
The tyres have a limit. Go into a corner too fast and the car slides wide, so you brake before the bend, not in it. On gravel and snow you can hold a power slide with throttle and steering: get it right and it is the fastest way through; overdo it and you spin. The handbrake turns the car on the spot in the hairpins. Tarmac, cobbles, gravel, snow, puddles that throw up water, crests that throw the car in the air.
Three cars, three levels
Lupa 1300
Good everywhere.
Saetta GT
Very fast, but twitchy and fragile.
Bisonte 4x4
Slow, sure-footed on gravel, built tough.
Easy, Normal and Hard change the time limits, how fast the rivals are and how much damage the car takes.
The rally: six rivals and Uncle Gino
Eight stages back to back against six rivals with a name, a car and a time of their own. Checkpoints add time to the clock; run out and the stage is over. Damage carries over from stage to stage and pulls the steering to one side: at the service park you spend the credits you earned on repairs. Slow cars on the road to overtake.
Uncle Gino rides along as co-driver and mechanic: pace notes with the grade of every corner, and plenty to say about your driving. Crowds line the roadside and cheer as you pass; come too close and they run for cover, and a few brave ones dive into the ditch. Finish a stage in time to unlock the next two; records and high scores are saved for every level and every car.
English or Italian, chosen in the menu. Chiptune soundtrack: a theme for the menus and four racing tracks that change from stage to stage.
Controls
- throttle A
- brake and reverse B
- handbrake R
- steer D-pad
- back on the road SELECT
- pause START: resume, restart the stage, music, quit
How it is made: plain C, no engine
Written in C, no engine. The stages are pre-rendered isometric landscapes streamed into a ring of 32x32 tiles as you drive. The cars are 3D models rendered in 64 rotations and turned into sprites. Skid marks are drawn pixel by pixel into a third background and blended by the hardware. The spectators' shadows are the same sprites drawn again by the affine hardware: flipped, squashed and sheared the way the sun casts them. The intro uses the bitmap mode, with the sky painted line by line by DMA.
- machine Game Boy Advance, flashcart or emulator
- code C, no engine
- cartridge 25 MB, saves to SRAM
- languages English and Italian
Updates
The crowds, Uncle Gino and the demo
Redrawn and reanimated crowds, a new portrait for Uncle Gino, and the free demo. Leg 2 is set in Scotland.
Credits
Music: action chiptunes by Juhani Junkala (CC0). Sound effects: CC0 samples by Kenney, rubberduck, TinyWorlds (OpenGameArt) and Freesound; engine sound synthesised. Rival cars: KayKit City Builder Bits by Kay Lousberg (CC0), with new liveries. Intro fonts: Poppins, Inter and Lora (SIL Open Font License). Everything else is original.
The game was made with the help of an AI model: the code, the 3D models of the cars and scenery, and the tools that turn them into pixel art were written together with it.
Questions
What does it run on?
On a real Game Boy Advance with a flashcart such as EZ-Flash or EverDrive GBA (the save type is SRAM). On a computer with any GBA emulator: mGBA for Windows, macOS and Linux, VisualBoyAdvance-M or the cores in RetroArch. On a phone with any GBA emulator app.
Do I need a BIOS?
No BIOS file is needed.
What is in the free demo?
The first stage, Riviera di Ponente, with all three cars and all three levels.
When does the full game come out?
On 5 November 2026 on itch.io.
Is it in English?
Yes: English or Italian, chosen in the menu.
Does it save?
Yes, to SRAM: records and high scores for every level and every car.
Download the demo or buy the game
More games: VECTOR, also for the Game Boy Advance, and Ruote Fumanti, driving on the Commodore 64.