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Cygnus Announces Game Boy Devel Environment
GB Fan writes "Cygnus announced today their new development environment for Nintendo's Game Boy Advance that is expected this fall. You can read more about it at GB Station. "
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To be blunt, we are currently the target of a major denial of service attack which was started at 3pm CST this afternoon.
The perpetrators of this denial of service are saturating two full DS3's coming into Dallas, and are affecting all Savvis, UUNet, and Sprint connections locally.
To combat this attack, Savvis, UUNet, and Sprint have implemented access filters blocking certain traffic to our entire class C, and are blocking our DNS server entirely.
Savvis will be monitoring the situation throughout the evening, and I'm expecting a wakeup call at 8am from the morning tech crew at Savvis for an update. I will be calling the FBI in the morning to proceed legally on this attack.
I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this is causing you. Believe me, we are as frustrated as you are.
Any serious video game player has several consoles - just because a new platform's released, you don't can all your old games.
The majority of people owning gameboys are not serious gamers. I am a serious gamer, I have owned all consoles since the NES besides genesis and saturn. I'll buy the gba, but the masses won't buy into it for a while. Japanese reaction determines what we get here, so if it does good there, it'll come here.
And keeping in mind that it's the least advanced of the current crop of handhelds (it was introduced 11 years ago!)...
What we need is an open portable gaming platform. OpenBoy, anyone?
If you live in North America, you can pretty much forget about getting into the amateur GB scene. Nintendo recently won a permanent injunction against Bung preventing them from selling any of their console dev hardware here. You can read all about it at www.consoledev.com. I don't quite understand how a US court can grant an injunction against sale of a product in Canada and Mexico, though...
Gah! Pokemon may be extremely popular but there's definitely a whole lot more to Game Boy than Pokemon. There are THREE Legend of Zelda games coming out for Game Boy Color this year. Dragon Warriors Monsters, Azure Dreams, and Lufia: Ruin Chasers are three more RPGs due this year for the GBC.
What else? Resident Evil for GBC is pretty steenkin' impressive. The demo at E3 '99 was amazing. Metal Gear: Ghost Babel, Driver, Crystalis (remember the NES RPG?), and much, much more...
i find this funny.
everytime i see one i chuckle.
Sheesh buddy ever heard of piracy? I always wanted Splatterhouse for my TurboGrafx but I never got it, though I did get Final Lap Twin which is a pretty cool, it's a racing RPG.. And $100 for a Vectrex is what they go for now because lots of them their screens are broken and they had such weird and neat games..
Except in the case of N64 (presently, not during launch), the reason why it is still around in Japan is because the N64 business has more sales in North America than in Japan.
> The game industry's been there, done that. Letting anyone code games without editorial review results in a lot of crap games: see what brought about Atari's demise.
:) BTW, open source (at least based-on OSI definition) does include the ability to do peer reviews.
Well, unlike Atari, PC and Playstation game industries seems to be thriving even with loads of bad games. While PC enjoys higher adaptive freedom than anything else, marketing seems to be the only thing that made PS worthwhile...
>(For instance, why do you think there are no pr0n games for the GB?)
Because watching porn in B/W (at lease before GBC) sucks compared to something like SNES.
> End result: while there are still a fair amount of not-so-excellent games out there, the average quality of GB games goes up, the GB gets a reputation for having good games, more GBs are sold, resulting in a larger audience that draws more developers...
It's true only because GB and all the related hardware and software development are so strongly tied to one manufacturer. In more open hardware platforms, blames are more likely towards the faults of software rather than hardware.
are you sure that's the url?
Here's the ARM press release from Sept:
Nintendo uses ARM® processor in next generation Game Boy
some guys in http://www.v2.nl/v2_os stonecold saying about game os with 3d-GUI if you meet him, see the forum/community
Nintendo is delivering Cygnus GNUPro C/C++ tools for the Game Boy Advance platform through Nintendo, Co., Ltd. Approved developers for Game Boy Advance can acquire GNUPro by contacting Nintendo at tools@noa.nintendo.com.
http://www.nintendo.com/gb/smb/index.html
The gameboy is so stupid. Do you remember the turbografx16 and it's cousin the Turbo Duo (and the Japanese PC ENGINE)? It had decent games which were almost to genesis standards but beat all the 8 bits systems (Sega Master System and NES). NEC released the Turbo Express at the same time which allowed you play all the normal TurboGrafx games on this handheld device like the gameboy except the colours were brite and not washed out. THIS was OLD. The gameboy has had little improvements here and there but generally it's pretty poor (SNES gameboy and gameboy color). Gameboy still isn't upto the Turbo Express. LONG LIVE VECTREX...
Number one, I LOVE your tagline... pay you for code... what a novel idea, eh? ;)
Second, the reason the Atari Lynx (which is STILL more technologically advanced than any handheld-only system (excepting the NOMAD)) sucked in sales is because of marketing, period. You know who invented the Lynx? Same guys that made the Amiga. Same guys that later did the 3DO... they got triple-screwed by handing their ideas to the wrong companies....
E.
I was wondering if the gnupro stuff is GPL'd. the article says they're gnu compliant tools but it doesn't say if they're based on the GNU tools.
My only beef with the GB goes back to its initial release. Because of the GB, we did not get a very great handheld system. The HandyBoy. What is the HandyBoy you ask? Well, Nintendo developed (or perhaps a company other than them did it, I can't recall, I was 11 when I read it in Video Games and Computer Entertainment) this handheld that played... NES games. Full color. This handheld was my wet dream at 11, and they nixed it because they said it would steal Gameboys market share.... hell, it would have multiplied the sales of their games but I guess they didn't care that much... but, I like the Gameboy and hey, I even like the Pokemon gameboy game which wasn't even aimed at kids and is a challenging RPG.
E.
Absolutely nothing would happen to someone putting out a non-Nintendo licensed Gameboy game.... Color Dreams was a company that put out unlicensed Nintendo games.... you just can't put the official Nintendo Seal of Approval on it and you don't get the benefits of some marketing Nintendo would do for you... And no I don't think you'd be in trouble for distributing the games to be used in gameboy emulators, but to distribute them in cart form you'd have to get a ROM burner and they are illegal (or at least under a restraint order of some kind, customs will rip you a new one if you import one and they catch you)... plus, any real gameboy game isn't just a simple ROM chip, it is multiple chips with more memory and all kinds of stuff on it... so your games would have to be seriously limited... E.
IANAL, but I'm 99% sure that it is legal to sell them, unless you have an agreement with Nintendo not to (breach of contract). However, Nintendo is not stupid, and attempts to use types of hardware/firmware lockout to attempt to indirectly back their business model with force of law. Here's how it (according to numerous docs) works with Gameboy/Pocket/Color; I assume a similar (in principle) system will be used for GBA:
1) On boot, the Z80-wannabe jumps to a tiny (I've heard it said that it's 256 bytes) program in an internal ROM.
2) This program looks for a specific string of bytes at a certain location in the initial cartridge ROM bank (though with GBA I doubt banking will be as much of an issue...). If it finds the exact string of bytes, it jumps to the cartridge program. If not, it halts execution.
3) The string of bytes being scanned for is the "Nintendo" logo that scrolls down the screen (or is displayed at the bottom on GBC). In other words, your cartridge must contain the Nintendo logo (a registered trademark, and likely also subject to copyright) in order to work on a Gameboy. Nintendo would have your ass in court in a microsecond for copyright/trademark infringement if they feel like it.
(Side notes on the logo program: This is why a solid black (grey/green) block scrolls down instead of the Nintendo logo if you turn the system on without a cartridge, since the logo data is taken from the cartridge. Also, a couple clever unlicensed manufacturers supposedly were able (on the original/pocket GB, the program was changed on the GBC to stop this) to use bank switching tricks to display their own logo instead of the Nintendo logo. However, the cartridge still had to contain the Nintendo logo data.)
It should also be noted that Sega did something similar with the "Genesis 2" (Megadrive 2 for just about all the people not in this "great" country), and cartridges had to contain the ASCII text "SEGA" at a particular location. According to the things I've read, Accolade, an unlicensed Genesis developer/publisher, put this in their games and was promptly taken to court by Sega. After Sega's initial win and an appeal, the judgment was made that Accolade was innocent (IIRC of trademark infringement), and was not required to become a Sega licensee (though they later did anyway), and the judge noted that Sega's program was in fact misleading consumers by stating that the game was made by a Sega licensee when, in fact, it was not.
This, IMHO, sets something of a significant precedent for this subject, though I don't believe copyright infringement was involved (which may change things). Also, this precedent is probably only valid in the U.S...
As I recall, the 65,000 figure was due to either a bad source or a mistranslation. The real figure (last I checked) was 511 (not a typo; one of the sprite palette colors is probably transparent) on-screen colors, with one of 65,000 colors possible for each of those color slots.
More may be possible, at the sacrifice of CPU time, if the palettes can be changed during the H-blank period (as was possible on GBC; an independent group has produced demos showing *extremely* colorful pictures, far past the supposed 56 color limit), thus allowing a new set of colors for each line of the display.
I hate to piss on your parade here, but:
GPL means that you can't be prevented from distributing the software in the software license. It doesn't mean you have to give it to anybody who asks you for it. Nobody is obligated to give you the tools, even if you yourself wrote part of them. The "official developers" don't have to let you have a copy, and neither does Cygnus.
Or maybe they give it to you, so what? The package the developers actually use might contain, for example, proprietary libraries from Nintendo. They don't have to give you them either! Nor must they give or sell you any sort of interface hardware to actually upload your creation into a ROM for testing, they don't have to give you an emulator or any hardware specs even.....
......and they can still fight like hell to keep "unauthorized parties" from developing software for their precious new platform.
And knowing Nintendo - they will.
Not one of you people out there will get a chance to write so much as "hello world" on the GBA, unless you work for Activision or something.
So congratulations, all you gcc developers out there, you just got screwed! How do you like it?
Actually, the gamegear is capable of 32 colors.
Gameboy color can do 56, from a palette of 32,000.
What SNK missed when doing NGPC is the 4-button layout that allows all the favourite arcade NG fighting titles to be ported with all the moves intact, something that is impossible with 2-button controls (besides reduced visual detail, and assuming unlimited cart size). Not so sure if the same can be said with SNK vs. Capcom...
Ha Ha HA...your fart smells like dog sperm!!!!
The Rock says you can take that Linux distribution, polish it up real shiny, turn it sideways and shove it up your candy ass!!
I imagine Nintendo is pretty happy about it, since it's the official development kit and all.
Nintendo had a bit of a monopoly going with the NES in the 80s. They locked competitors out of the market by forcing 3rd party game developers to make games exculsively for their system, and they had some questionable licensing tactics which they were later sued for by a company called Galoob. (NES rocked, though, hehe)
Just because a certain console has better specs and hardware does not mean it is a better system. Atari, Sega and NES got their collective asses whooped because their portables were expensive, had shitty games and ate up batteries too quickly. It amazes me how many people say "well, it has better graphics and sound, so it's a better console." No. The best system is the one with the best games.
Since the GBA will be backwards compatible (or so Nintendo is claiming) I don't see how your statement is valid. Sure, it'll have to be done with emulation (I'm guessing, but how else do ya run games designed for a Z80 on a 32-bit ARM CPU) but nonetheless, the old games will run just fine on the GBA.
Yeah, Mozilla... To a gameboy... hehe
Why's that funny? Does your computer monitor have more than 16-odd million pixels?
Forget it -- it would have been like the Sega GameGear (based on the Sega Master System) -- crappy battery life.
Windows is so popular because it runs people's old crap. Incidentially, this is also why Linux is popular, just that Unix old crap is a different set of programs than Windows old crap.
Yeah, but you can't really expect GB to improve over the years like Windows should. Windows is a piece of software and (theoretically) anyone should be able to easily upgrade their copy when it changes. When game boy changes, everyone has to throw out their old one and buy it again to get the improvements. So, it's fair to expect Windows to change often and well, but not so for GB.
Actually, its not an "entirely" different system since it will be backwards-compatible with the GB/GBC.
Licenses aren't really their main source of income. They make a lot more on first-party games than licenses for third-party games. BTW, would the games hobbyists make with these kits be "second-party games"?
Nintendo did things like refusing to take back defective products. Retailers wouldn't get their orders for the good games unless they also ordered copies of the shitty games. Nintendo was the ONLY publisher for Nintendo games, because of their lockout chip. The NES itself was a far far far inferior system to the competing Sega Master System, however rather than sell it cheaper, they sold it at the same price. And they kept that price the same for years. They refused to let retailers set their own prices for games. Oh man, the list goes on and on... Search for video game history and you'll find some web pages about it.
because in our last 'domination session' in your dungeon leather basement you cut out my tongue and made me eat it.. boy that was hot!
100$ for a fucking vectrex... get a fucking life! Wake up its 2000! fuck star trek, fuck that lame ass robotron clone, fuck vector graphics, an fuck you, and vectrex, and that little joystick, and your 100$, and your turbo grafx 16, and splatterhouse, and neo geo, and Don Bluths Arcade games... and nintendo , and the game boy, and those kids in school who wouldnt let me play with theirs.. and fuck borland turboBasic, and bbs games, and 'the bard"s tale', and fuck you fuck gw-basic too
I'm not sure I got this right. Does this mean I will be able to download a free C compiler for developing for the Gameboy Advance, or will I have to pay for it? What about an assembler?
http://www.shugashack.com/
read it.
http://www.shugashack.com/
read it.
http://www.shugashack.com/
read it.
http://www.shugashack.com/
read it.
If this story would be true, then the this would be announced on the cygnus press release page..
I also think Cygnus tends to concentrate on developing software tools for more modern 32bit and 64bit processors, instead wasteing its resources to develop tools for the outdated 8bit Z80 CPU found in the gameboy. Have a look at the above link to get a better idea.
Linux on gameboy would be almost impossible too. There might be enough memory for the kernal to load in, but loading X or any other decent apps would be impossible.
I think this is good that GB is doing. I agree that GB is kidda out dated but this is just a step. A step that I think all compaines should take. This even might get new people into programing. Which would be really cool.
MY GameBoy is a POS, but that's because it's been beaten to rat-crap. What I meant was that just like Windows, there's been no significant improvements in it over the years.
And I sure as hell hope nobody thought I seriously thought Nintendo should be sued for Antitrust. If they did, they should go ask someone what a smiley is.
And screw you, whichever moderator slapped down my last post just because I insulted the GB. Take a lesson from Foogle about how to disagree with someone without being an asshole.
Moderators, feel free to bite me.
why has it captured 99% of the desktop market?
Here's the ARM press release from Sept 99:
Nintendo uses ARM® processor in next generation Game Boy
Is it legal to sell GBA games made by Cygnus tools? I mean, will Nintendo even allow developers to sell any games developed by third party tools without facing serious lawsuits? After all, a major part of the (insert any console company here)'s revenues comes from selling proprietary, overpriced console SDKs, and there is no sign that any console hardware company (especially Nintendo) will give up such a profitable position soon without a fight.
More info?
I've never heard of the Neo Geo Pocket.
All I know about Neo Geo is that the main system bombed because it was way too expensive at the time.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
torpor wrote:
If you ask me, the Gameboy platform is a hackers delight... I know I love mine, and the tools I've gotten from the Asian GB Hacker contingency definitely make life more interesting.
Is there a demoscene for the Gameboy?
Unfortunately, Tetris is no longer bundled w/ Gameboy Color. So over time, it will lose the lead.
No mention of RAM, but I'd take a look at what is available from ARM and assume it is about the same (I'd do it but I'm already late for something.).
Bleh!
Ok, so who's gonna be the first to port Linux to the GameBoy? Could this be used as competition for the PalmPilot, maybe a simpler version, or entertainment only, or is it too limited a platform?
ELKS might be an option, but even if only gtk and/or Mozilla were ported, then we'd have something.
JET Program: see Japan, meet intere
TETRIS
Replace your venerable QUAKE programming aid with TETRIS today!
Not to mention that you can play in direct sunlight. Backlit LCD's become invisible in sunlight.
Note that low battery consumption is also a feature of Gameboy Color, since the color LCD screen isn't backlit. This is IMHO a wise design choice, since people usually have other light sources around them, plus reflected light is easier on the eyes than directly emitted light (or so I've heard). If you need to play when there is no light (out in the woods at night, to take your mind off the wolves), there are accessories that provide light.
That's the irony: The GBC has only 32 kibytes of RAM, but the memory on the cartridges is up to 32 Mibytes (megabytes for you old-fashioned geeks) IIRC.
The Atari VCS/2600 cartridges also had more memory, to compensate for the 6 kibytes present... :-)
OK. This sounds nice but where do you get the specs for GB programming and what are you using. Z80 assembler or some sort of compiler ?
all it is a bit of tweaking to GCC which does ARM anyway
thats whats in the gameboys ARM's threy last a long time on very little batterys alowing the screen to eat alll the batterys
regards
john
a poor student @ bournemouth uni in the UK (a deltic so please dont moan about spelling but the content)
So who volunteers to port MAME to Gameboy!
Mmmm, 1,800 arcade games in one...
New generation, new Gameboy - it's got a nice ring to it
Wouldn't work here in the UK at all - it sounds far too close to "New Labour, New Britain", the Labour Party's slogan :-)
-Stephen (politics and gaming really don't go well together)
The Dev studio will not be upgraded to GBA most likely, due to lack of infomation on the propriety console. The current version is based on information that has been published ( such as the fact that it uses a Z80 CPU),leaked(like the 2-Player .pdf), or reverse engineered. And it is very unlikely that the Cygnus kit will be released to anyone other than liscenced developers. Getting liscenced isnt easy, according to some open letter from the big N. Basically, they usually want people with experience in game development, have the proper office space, are willing to buy their expensive hardware emulaters. Fortunately for gameboy enthusiasts, there are alternatives to the $10k nintendo hardware. One such is at http://www.bung.com.hk (not bunk.com.hk as someone else mentioned)
I'm not sure if that was stupid or magnificent. A little of both, I think. Paragraph breaks could only improve it, though.
As it happens, I have moderator access right now, but until they have a +i for Meshugga, I don't think I'd presume to moderate that post.
For many reasons.
First of all, the game boy had the best games. The original Super Mario Land, the classic Tetris, and many other games was far better than any of the games for the other systems.
Especially Zelda: Links Awakening rocked when it was released in 1995 and is still one of my favourite games (not only on the GB).
Another reason could be the price. I remember the Atari Lynx as a very expensive system. And compared to todays Game Boy Color it only had 16 (ugly) colors. And then it lagged good games.
Sega also released a handheld color system as far as I remember, but it ate the batteries quite fast and was also expensive. Beside of that, I think it was/did better than the Lynx. Some of the original Master System games was converted to it, as the two systems was nearly identical.
In other words, the game boy has always been the cheapest handheld system with the best games. Only the last four years has been a bit dull in my opinion. I miss the old Final Fantasy RPGs. And Nintendo should really do a sequel to Zelda =)
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
Why not have both? I too am eargly awaiting the Dolphin, but I relieze that a new handheld would be quite nice too, and should the Dolphin not come out on time (which is probable, but I really hope it's not late) then they have the GBA to fall back on. Not to mention the really cool stuff that is rumored between the Dolphin and GBA, like hooking them together, and doing stuff like a Dreamcast VMU.
BTW, the console is gettign developed, and a lot of companies already have dev kits. ANd some of the really big companies (Rare) have had them for quite a while now. So don't fret too much : )
Use a game boy pocket unit to control your lego mindstorms systems. Make a fully decked-out R2D2
i'd say initial popularity was cause it came with tetris (face it, tetris is adictive)
and then they made other good games for it, and the marketing for it has always been pretty good
Need a Catering Connection
I've checked both cygnus.com and cygnussolutions.com (not knowing which to check), and found absolutely nothing about this. Anyone know the correct link, if any? :)
-- www.bteg.com | bleh.n3.net | hac47.dhs.org
"It's a tool for piracy!"
Even if it doesn't send OUT data, they would probably still say that. Nintendo is too old and out of touch with good things like this. Perhaps some day they'll think with their minds, instead of their lawyers.
-- www.bteg.com | bleh.n3.net | hac47.dhs.org
I don't know which Atari Lynx system you are talking about, because a friend of mine has one of these and it's graphics are probably the best of any handheld i'd seen even up to last year... The screen was bright and the colors were vivid and it was fast... things even the GB Color doesn't have... as for the sega hand held, I never even like the Master System. There were like two games that were fun to play, but nothing spectacular... I think I'll stick w/ my Intellivision...
Any serious video game player has several consoles - just because a new platform's released, you don't can all your old games. For the majority of people, the software's the issue, not the perceived "purity" of the platform... The "toy" end of the market ain't a problem because (as P.T. Barnum said, in an entirely unrelated context) there's one born every minute. Since the original GB was released in (IIRC) 1988, a generation has grown up. New generation, new Gameboy - it's got a nice ring to it, don't you think <g>
Most importantly Nintendo, like Sony and Sega are in this for the long haul. If it takes them 10 years to sell 100m GBAs then that's fine with them - the revenue stream is in the software so the longer you can keep the platform active in the marketplace, the better.
--
Cheers
Cheers
Jon
There are a couple of other cool features... 2AA batteries and the same battery life as the GBC, plus it also has an internal clock, calendar, alarm, and horoscope
Anyway... I like my NGPC better than a GBC.
-- Your IP is showing
I looked at the game briefly before she snagged it, and it really reminds me of the old dungeon and dragons type of games, with a touch of zork thrown in.
Needless to say as soon as she gets done, i've got dibs on it.
Unrelated to GB, but C:\DOS C:\DOS\RUN \RUN\DOS\RUN was on the Comic Book Guy's shirt in the episode of The Simpsons when Lisa jojns MENSA... not saying thats where it's from, but you might want to know :)
* Is slated for release in Christmas (big surprise) 2000.
Actully the article says August 2000...
Anyway... the Gameboy has, and will be for a long time to come, the best ever hand-held. Hell, Nintendo still make the best consoles and games.
The PSX is for the pop culture, the N64 is for the console gamer with taste...
Nintendo will be back in 2001 with the Dolphin.... you all just wait [Insert Evil Laugh]
Miyamoto is the REAL god, Linux just writes kernels, not kick ass masterpieces....
That'll do, enough Nintendo related ramblings....
Disclaimer: the above is my understanding of Nintendo's position. Just because I understand something does not mean I support it, neither does it mean I am against it.
Personally, I wouldn't touch a Palm V. The Handspring Visor is way less than 1/2 the price, and it's a comparable PalmOS device.
Anyway, the point I was making was that "developer types" are less likely to use the Gameboy, since, as you stated, it's only got "a couple mediocre games." I agree that it's great for just smacking in a cartridge and playing (unless it's that annoying Pokemon game. Sheesh!), but it's not quite advanced enough for older, Linux-using, Perl-programming Geeks. My 8 year old brother loves his, though. Why wouldn't he? He gets to play his games, but by the time he's old enough to program Perl scripts with his eyes tied behind his back, he'll want more. I guarantee it.
[disclaimer]
I wasn't flaming. I agree with your point, and was just trying to clarify the one I was trying to make.
[/disclaimer]
Mike
Sure, I have a thankless job. That's okay. I have a lot of (non
It would be nice to see someone release a distro of linux on these new portable devices now that there's a GPL'd version of the dev kit for it.
and should be given the appropriate respect!
Drag n' Drop DVD Recommendations
Was not awawre of that. I found it on a website of computer quotes, an it said "author unkown".
metatr0n.net - the digital divine
I find all of this Game Boy Advance "schtuff" very interesting, the only issue I have with the big N is their continuing lack to produce a new console. Granted, the GB is the biggest sell ever, but with the currenty tech. at hand they need to toss out a new console, one that can compete with the PlayStation 2 which will dominate if it's emergence goes unchallenged. Nintendo is notoriously a late comer, but I'm not to sure that even a nice development package like this can save Nintendo.
WE NEED THE DOLPHIN!
metatr0n.net - the digital divine
gameboy was cheaper, had the nintendo name, and didn't use nearly as much power as the atari lynx, sega gamegear, or portable tb16 which were all color and far better.
Amazing magic tricks
IIRC, when the GB OS "boots", it checks the ROM for license verification, and will not load the ROM unless it finds the info...I'm sure that a hack for this exists out there somewhere...
ti_dave
What is the RAM available for GB Advance? RAM shortage is already an issue with 8-bit GB/Color. With 32-bit processor, instruction and data size can somewhat quadruple (given the same code base).
What is the footprint C standard lib on Cygnus's dev suite? I understand GB/Color has to be mostly programmed assembly because RAM is such a scarse resource.
Thank you for information on this from coders who work with GB.
Corrinne Yu
3D Game Engine Programmer
Is Dev Studio upgrading to GB Advance (32-bit)?
Corrinne Yu
3D Game Engine Programmer
It was nearing (maybe even reached) the end of it's cycle....but what caused the resurrection? One word: P O K E M O N Which ignited the Gameboy again, and companies can sell games years old like they were new (literally), or translate old NES titles and still make money off them...
Ok, so who's gonna be the first to port Linux to the GameBoy? Could this be used as competition for the PalmPilot, maybe a simpler version, or entertainment only, or is it too limited a platform?
GameBoyOS?
This is my
--An Oldie, but a Goodie!
As for I can see from the specifications, this GB is looking alot alike the old Lynx portable (still remember). And I still think that Lynx did rock.
The question remains: why did the gameboy got onto the public market and not Lynx:
1. Size. The Lynx was large, the gameboy was much more portable.
2. Battery life. Since the color display in the Lynx uses alot of amperes, the battery life is quite short.
3. Better games.
4. There is no spoon
Maybe the price also made a role (I can imagine a GB mono being less expensive than a Lynx), but I can't remember any price compares.
This is a replacement signature.
Hmm.. Sounds like a cute thing indeed. Anyone know where I can get some more info on the hardware of the platform? Like, memory/speed and such. Would be fun to know exactly what one can do with it.
I didn't do this, now did I?
Someone, quick, sue Nintendo for antitrust! :)
Moderators, feel free to bite me.
Who else thinks it would be cool to have a Game Boy cartridge with a flash ROM, a couple A/D inputs, a serial port, etc.? Kinda like a bargain Handyboard, since you already have the display and CPU. Dunno if it's really practical, but I'd buy one...
-F
MAN SHOOTS ROVER!
"Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
From the Yeah-But-Can-It-Cook? dept. :)
"Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
TO LARGE CORPORATIONS THE 2 MOST DISTASTEFUL OBJECTS ARE (1) PAYING TAXES AND (2) PAYING A LIVING WAGE.
Yeah, Game Boy Color is pretty sweet. I'm gonna get it just for Super Mario Brothers.
A decent Network is finally here.
It lacks a backlight because backlights suck down the juice so quickly. Also, the GBA will be out in Japan a few months earlier. There have been rumors that the GBA will be released as early as June of 2000 in Japan. I'm sure more details will be released at E3 2000.
http://www.bunk.com.hk has a ROM Burner kit, and ROM's that can be purchased... if you want to transfer the code written with the aforementioned IDE's to your Gameboy, it can be done.
Note however that these ROM Burners aren't supposed to be sold in the US because of some lawsuit - apparently they were being used to pirate Gameboy ROM's. Lame, but oh well.
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
DOH!
Sorry, that URL should be:
http://www.bung.com.hk/
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
I've never even heard of this thing. I still can't believe that the Gameboy/Color Gameboy is the best selling piece of gaming hardware ever. I never thought that thing would last even when I used to play Tetris on my old one for hours at a time.
Any ideas why the Gameboy did so much better than the technically better Atari Lynx (which had color like 8 years ago) and all the other handheld machines? It doesn't seem like any handheld has done that well besides the Gameboy.
That way, if you were working a long shift on New Years Eve :), and you got bored with the games you have you could connect a modem to your palm pilot, download new freeware GB games, and then power up your GB and away you go ...
Okay, I'm getting carried away this idea ... back to work.
A friend of mine who does GBC development told me that Nintendo (like most console/handheld makers) makes money by selling their stations/handhelds at a loss, and making up for it by the licensing fees they charge developers. Consequently, they have a pattern of working hard to crush the "hobbyist" development community, since hobbyists don't generally pay licensing fees. As if Nintendo really needed the additional money...
DNA just wants to be free...
You've obviously taken LSD today and are having a bad trip. I can assure you the visions you're having of dead animals are NOT REAL. I hope you manage to find medical assistance before you hurt yourself. Try dialling 911.
Consciousness is not what it thinks it is
Thought exists only as an abstraction
This isn't for the current Game Boy, or GBC.. it's for the next portable that Nintendo has in the works, scheduled to be released later this year.
Sure there are better geek toys out there. But for about $70, nothing touches a Gameboy Color. If you're just speculating that it sucks without actually spending some time with one, I'd suggest you go check one out.
The Palms and other PDA's are great for what they do, but for games they just don't compare. Do you really think a kid's gonna save up ~$400 for a Palm V just to get a couple mediocre games?
Actualy the gameboy screen size has never changed, The case just hot smaller.
"Suble Mind control? why do html buttons say submit?",
ReadThe ReflectionEngine, a cyberpunk style n
Well, a game-gear lasted about about 30 minutes on a set of 6 new generic brand batteries, whereas the the gameboy lasted about a week.
The GB also weighed a fraction of the GG, and it was a lot smaller.
The GG/lynx might have had pretter graphics, but they were pretty much usless for what they were intended for. There's more to technical superiority then CPU speed
"Suble Mind control? why do html buttons say submit?",
ReadThe ReflectionEngine, a cyberpunk style n
I've never heard of the Neo Geo Pocket.
OK then. A while ago, I forget when, SNK decided to get into the pocket console business by releasing the Neo Geo Pocket. I don't know much about that; It was 16-bit, but grayscale, though I'm not sure how many shades of it there were. (I think, at least. The existence of monochrome games for the NGPC somewhat supports the existence of this, though I'm not sure and can be wrong)
A few months ago (probably a little longer), they released a better system that had color, the Neo Geo Pocket Color (heh, inventive name, eh?). Anyway, you can buy it at SNK America or most stores that sell video games; I know I've seen it at Software Etc, Electronics Botique, K*B Toys, and Wal-Mart.
One of my favorite things about the system is the joystick; it's got a good amount of resistance, not too much and not too little. It's almost like a hatswitch, there's a sort of dimple on top of it that your thumb fits comfortably into. It also clicks when you press any direction, so you can accurately time moves in fighting games.
The LCD is 160x152, and is capable of displaying 146 colors out of a possible pallate of 4096. In the hardware itself, the screen can be extended to deal with 256x256 at once. It has a Toshiba TLCS-900H cpu, 16-bit, and a separate Z80 for sound (which comes out sounding like the GB does). Memory isn't stored in the game cartridges, but on the system itself (which makes me wonder how much memory is on there), which is backed up by a (included) CR2032 battery. It runs for "up to" 40 hours on 2 AA batteries, and my experiences confirm this... as long as the sound is off. Which you might want anyway. The LCD is very clear in light, even dim light; it uses the same reflective LCD technology used in the GBC screen.
One of the more interesting things for it is the link cable to hook up certain games to a Sega Dreamcast. These are King of Fighters R-1, and SNK vs Capcom CFC and MOTM. They unlock secrets in KOF:DM 1999 and the upcoming SNK Vs Capcom for the Dreamcast.
There's not that many titles available for the NGPC; they're all very good though, coming from SNK, Capcom, and Sega. A partial listing:
All of this makes the NGPC my favorite portable, and the best on the market. Sales have been decent, though as might be expected the GBC is selling more hardware and software.
-- Your IP is showing
The Gambeboy Advance could be deemed as yet another non-stateside hardware release. The chances that this portable will make it to the states is slim to nil.
The reason of this is basically because there is something like 30 million gameboys [? correct me if I'm wrong] and converting this many people over would take years and years. Most console upgrades only concern a few million users, and that is done fairly easily.
Upgrading to gameboy advance could be viewed as changing from cd to dvd-audio. It would take years, and people would fight it.
I'm not opposed to a great piece of new hardware, this would be really great if it got released stateside, but the 64dd was also a good idea, and look what happened.
The development tools for linux are pretty cool, but coding for smaller hardware is usually done in assembly due to the ram limitations. Anyone owning a ti-calc will testify that asm is quicker than ti-basic.
Basically all that is going to happen here is either:
a. delays [n64 anyone?]
b. no stateside release [64dd]
c. massive success [gameboy]
I'm rooting for #3, but i'm not getting my hopes up.
'Mullethead. A hairstyle that's a way of life'
With the writeable GB cart still under contest, and the lawsuit still pending (as far as I know) the functionalities of this program may be fairly limited for now, or at least a little more costly. But, with the dawn of gameboy programming accessories, does this mean that people have free reign to distribute these games, in a nonfree form? or does it require some sort of liscence from Nintendo? And what would be the consequences if some person or company produced and sold a game and didn't have the required liscencing? Also, do free things have to be liscenced by Nintendo? -"What're you eating?" "nut n' bitch" -Saturday Night Live
I know you are trolling but there is a factual technical answer to your question.
There is a GB force feedback/audio speaker amplier/rechargeable battery add-on pack, that provides force feedback directly proportional to audio volume.
Get a Bung Gameboy development system. Code a short simple app that plays audio at high volume. Hook up your gameboy to this peripheral. There you have it.
Corrinne Yu
3D Game Engine Programmer
SOC/RO Update: Well in my opinion the GameBoy is good for only one thing: Poke/Mon. Let's face it, Poke/Mon is the #1 recreational activity among foreign computer science graduate students in the US. So what should we assume will be written with this new GameBoy development environment: Open/Source Poke/Mon. There will be more Open/Source Poke/Mon projects than you can shake a dead cat named Belfry at! Is this a good thing for the Open/Source movement? Like everything else, no. Let me give you an example: suppose I give you a box, and a dead cat named Belfry, and some salt and a molecule. Now if you translated the vertices on the box and subdivided the surfaces, you could have a ball that you could keep the dead cat named Belfry in. Then whenever anyone tried to give you shit, you'd be all like, "Dead cat named Belfry, I choose you!" and throw the rotten, diseased and broken body of Belfry the dead cat at them. But watch out! They may also have a dead diseased animal they can throw back at you. Then they have to fight. Whichever one wins gains experience and becomes a much better dead diseased animal. When you and your adversary decide that the fight is over, make sure you pick up the correct dead animal, because they can be kind of hard to tell apart after about 2 months of proving Bohr's sillyness. It is quite embarrasing to get home and discover that you have taken the wrong diseased cat carcass, let me tell you! "What is your point?" Well I think I am pretty clear here, but in case you didn't catch it, my point is that there can only be one true champion of Poke/Mon dead cat fighting. Now I will give you a little treat, since you have been such patient readers so far. Here is a tip from one championship Poke/Mon dead cat figher to the next: only with proper care and maintenance will your Poke/Mon dead animal carcass last the grueling two years until IPO and the Poke/Mon championship (held in Tampa, Florida in the Tampa Bay convention center, July 3-7 2001, get your tickets early). "How do I properly care for my diseased animal carcass?" Well I am a man of first impressions, myself. I think the first impression is what someone always remembers of you, so it is important that you impress upon them a sense of style and class about your diseased animal carcass. Now, everyone knows that the smile is the first thing that someone sees of you, so I think proper dental hygiene is absolutely imperative in a diseased carcass if one is going to make the proper impression on the proper people. It is important that you always get the proper kind of toothpaste. No, not that cheap shit that you use for your model airplanes, the $4.67 high-roller brand. "But my diseased carcass's teeth have all fallen out," you are saying. Well then put them back in, silly! "But I lost them!" Did you check the trunk of your car? "Yes, they weren't there." Hmm well, what about your chinese torture chamber? "No not there." Well anyways, if you can't find the teeth, you can just squirt out all $4.67 worth of toothpaste and rub it in real good all over the carcass, just make sure that no critical parts come off. If they do, you may be able to find Open/Source parts on the internet. Check your local dealer too, or your local WB. Then you can print out the pages on your local University's color laser printer, free of charge (assuming you are a foreign graduate student).
See this page for more details:
http://www.bung.com.hk/html/2nd_results.htm
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
http://www.bunk.com.hk/
:)
Note that they also have a pretty nifty voice recorder accessory for the Gameboy too, which has just recently been hacked to be able to play back movies on the GB Color.
If you ask me, the Gameboy platform is a hackers delight... I know I love mine, and the tools I've gotten from the Asian GB Hacker contingency definitely make life more interesting.
Nothing like having a high-availabilty, cheap portable computing platform that can be fully hacked on. $50 at most Toy stores here in the US, full development kits available online, and life is sweet once you've gotten a ROM burner for it.
My GameBoy hacking facilities have become a veritable sonic screwdriver...
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Imagine the type of games that would be released if people who could write their own GB games ... I'm sure people could come up with better games that what is currently on the market for GB.
There is already a C compiler for gameboy, and gbc. There is also a IDE called Game Boy Dev Studio, that inculdes an IDE for the above compiler, intergrates with any emulator you have, so you can test code without writing to a cart.
u dio.htm for the gameboy dev studio
The above SDK also comes with an gameboy Z80(gameboy's Z80 is a little different) assembler, and the debugger that's included in no$gmb is very good.
Not putting Cygnus down at all, I'm sure their tools will be great. But if anyone wants to do gb dev now, there are plenty of free tools avalible now. Including things like map and tile editors.
links:
http://freespace.virgin.net/stephen.blanksby/gbst
http://gbdev.com hosts the GBDK site (down as of this post)
But I am impressed. Gameboy came out before the Super NES, and it has lived through four generations of platforms. Perhaps all the other handhelds were too fancy, too expensive, or too unsupported. Who knows. The death of the GB is nowhere in sight, even as systems like Playstation and N64 are getting replaced by successors. Who would have thought that this little Tetris-plaiying machine would last so long?
"You ever have that feeling where you're not sure if you're dreaming or awake?"
"You spoony bard!" -Tellah
If you ask me, there's a bit too much hubub going on about this...
Personally, I would much rather have a Palm V, or even better, the decidedly cheaper Handspring Visor, oh hell, I'd even take a CE device, before I had a Gameboy.
I'm not knocking the Gameboy in any sense, but shouldn't development and programming be geared towards a device that's a little more advanced?
Just my 2 cents. Moderate as you please.
Mike
Sure, I have a thankless job. That's okay. I have a lot of (non
Is slated for release in Christmas (big surprise) 2000. For those that are interested/care, it will have a 32bit RISC cpu and full internet connectivity through a cellular phone (cool muliplayer internet games on a Game Boy). But it still lacks a backlit screen. Here are some specs:
* CPU: Memory embedded 32-bit RISC CPU
* LCD: Reflective TFT Color LCD
* Display Size: 40.8mm x 61.2mm
* Resolution: 240 x 160 pixels
* Size: Approximately Height 80mm / Width 135mm
* Weight: Approximately 140g
* Power Supply: 2 AA Alkaline batteries
* Battery life: 20 hours continuous play
* Maximum colors to be displayed simultaneously: 65,000
I see many posters posting about how the Game Boy is aging hardware, and about how it's nice that they're finally releasing a development kit...
Please stop making this mistake.
At the risk of being marked redundant, I'm going to tell you all that THIS IS NOT ABOUT THE GAME BOY. This is about the Game Boy Advance, the new 32-bit advanced portable that Nintendo is bringing out late this year. This is an entirely different system; Nintendo is just using their name recognition with the GB to sell it. Please don't get confused. Especially since develpoment kits for the GB have been out for a very long time now.
Thanks for your time (and not moderating me down).
-- Your IP is showing