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Gameboy Advance US Launch Details
GB Fanatic was one of many people to send this: "I've seen Game Boy Advance news here before so I thought perhaps some of you would be interested in this. Nintendo has announced the full line-up and price range for the launch of Game Boy Advance. GBStation.com has the details. Oh, GBStation.com also has a list of classic SNES and N64 titles that will be released for Game Boy Advance, including Super Mario Bros. 3." There's also a CNN article which has a bit more information. I don't know, I think I've outgrown the Gameboy, but judging from the number of people I've seen playing the snake game on their cellphones, handheld games are still pretty popular.
Seen a top 10 videogames list lately?
And ever heard the figure "one hundred million"? That's how many game boys have been sold in the last 12 years. Do you know any other console that's sold that well?
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Yeah, people who still care about gameplay.
Some of my favorite games are for the Gameboy. I'm suprised to see how well some of my cartridges (particularly the RPGs with battery saves) have held up over the years. I mean, my "Final Fantasy Legend" cart is still kicking after 10+ years!
I even bought a Game Boy Pocket last year when I temporarily succumbed to the Pokemon demons. Geez, talk about video game crack! I don't think I've logged more hours (100+) in a single session of any game before. That game is designed to prey upon the weaknesses of obsessive-compulsives.
Polys are not everything. Gameplay is what brings people back.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
First, the Xbox, a consumer console.
The the Xboy, the portable game machine.
The the Xboz, the arcade cart!
Or something like that.
Geek dating!
GPL Deconstructed
I just hope Nintendo realizes that a large portion of gamers today are adults, and leaves the Pokemon crap off of this system.
Sorta off-topic, but maybe this will get some attention since it's fairly high up in the comments. It turns out that maybe Nintendo has heard games pleas and has alllowed a very "adult" game to be released for the N64.
A few days ago a very anticipated videogame by Rare, a second party to Nintendo, was released: Conker's Bad Fur Day. From the same company that brought you Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong 64, comes one of the most hilarious and "mature" games ever released. And on the Nintendo 64 platform too, which is known for its image of being "kiddie". Could it be, a very adult game on the "kiddie" system? Nintendo was still Nintendo however, as the official Conker BFD website attests, with it's multiple "MATURE" warning signs, and Nintendo only marketing the game so as to make sure it is pretty much only seen by people who are over 17; ie putting ads in Playboy and Maxim but not their own Nintendo Power, who won't even review it since it's read mainly be the 12-17 crowd. But the fact that Nintendo is letting this game be released on their system by one of their favorite developers shows that Nintendo isn't as tight-assed as everyone makes them out to be.
Anyways, it got a 9.9 from IGN and mainly I just wanted to point out that Nintendo (or at least one of hteir developers) can make games for adults too. Besides, have you ever played Pokemon? It's a damn good game, even if you are an adult.
Still, I'd rather play Tetris.
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Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
Not just cell games though. My collection of TI-85 games was the only thing that kept me from stabbing myself in the eye with a pencil during high school math class.
Hmm. You gotta admit it's a cute little devil, even with the awkward name of Game Boy Advance, but let's think about the real competition.
...) it only needs two or three killer addictive games that encourage player to player action and it will do well.
...).
First, does it make the xBox look like a MSFT kludge? Yup. But that wasn't hard.
Second, does it have primo addictive games and interactivity? Yup. But no killer carts yet.
Third, is it priced well? Hmmm. I'm not so sure of that.
When all is said and done, Nintendo has a good track record of actually making money on the box, as well as the games, so even if it has a few lame titles (ever played MIB on the Color Game Boy? yuck
Of course, I'm biased, since I own NTDOY ADRs and both my son and I have color game boys (but I don't use the cheats
--- Will in Seattle - What are you doing to fight the War?
* The original, with the screen of spinach green.
* The "Pocket", with a gray screen and much improved size (smaller) and battery life (longer).
* The "Color", with which the main change was the addition of color.
In addition to these, I own a Sega Nomad--this is a portable Genesis with a backlit screen and horrible battery consumption--and a Neo Geo Pocket Color.
Out of all of these systems, I like the NGPC the best. The Nomad's 2-hour battery life condemned it from the start, even if you can play Toejam & Earl on vacation. The Game Boy, Game Boy Pocket, and Game Boy Color were nice when they were all I had, but I honestly haven't played any of them since I got my NGPC. The main advantages it had was it's better screen (both in size and colors available IIRC... I also seem to remember it having a little bit more in the CPU department, but I'm not sure). That, combined with one of the overall highest-quality software lineups around made it my favorite from the first time I picked it up.
However, the almost complete and utter lack of 3rd party support drove it (And SNK as a company) out of the picture.
All of this brings me to my point, which is incidentally the only thing so far that will address the article at hand.
The GBA is going to be like having these three general platforms I've described rolled into one. It will have:
* The Gameboy's userbase and marketing power/brand recognition, plus a lot of software, much of it decent.
* The Nomad's whole "play your console games on the go" thing. GBA will be able to have many SNES games ported to it, with F-Zero and Super Mario Kart already done/being worked on.
* What the GBC looked like next to the NGPC, the NGPC will next to the GBA. It's sort of the next level of handheld graphics.[1] So it's similar in that respect to the NGPC. Plus, I expect much quality software from Nintendo for this (like SNK and the NGPC.... ever played SNK vs Capcom: MotM? Best handheld fighter, ever.)
The current version of GB, Game Boy Color, is really just a Game Boy done up with color as the name implies. Sure, it has a little more horsepower etc, but it's not that much of an improvement.
Nintendo has essentially stuck with the same handheld for around a decade or more (assuming that my memory serves me right and the GB was a mid- to late-eighties release). The GBA brings a long overdue update to Nintendo's handheld juggernaut.[2]
--Psi
[1] No, the Virtual Boy didn't count. I still own mine, though. Dropped it a while back, and now it gives you [more of] a headache [than before].
[2] Just so you know, kids, the Game Boy was big even before Pokemon!
Max, in America, it's customary to drive on the right.
Some differences are... GBA has a 32 bit processor, and it's turned sideways so you hold it much like a PS/DC/N64 controller.
A few refinements. Plus backwards compatibility with an ever-growing library of games makes it a winner for me.
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Effectively, it is the first new one in a long time. Sure, there were others. The fact that they did not topple the gameboy, despite being technically better, if anything backs up her point.
The colour gameboy is pretyty much identical to the original gameboy, and very few games were released supporting the miserable advance in features. This also backs her point up.
In addition, people can post whatever they like here. If you want high standards of evidence and so on, /. is not the place to look. It is a discussion site, and people can damn well give family anecdotes if they like.
Your type of elitism disgusts me.
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Yes, the screenshots look crappy. Gimme a break, the thing includes a display with it, but costs much less than consoles that don't have displays. The display is powered batteries, yet needs to run 10-15 hours per charge. Thus, the display is going to be very contrained. You can't really compare it to tethered consoles.
Don't buy a handheld for its cool looks, but it because its games are fun to play.
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Yeah, I was thinking about that a bit after my first post - that is going to be really cool for kids, which is why Pokemon is such a deal - it encourages trades and fights and mail being sent from one player to another.
And, get this, only one of the four players needs a cartridge. So, if Ian and Maria and Sasha and Jon are all into the same game, and only Ian's parents shelled out for the new Purple version, the whole gang can play.
This is super nifty - addictive on a social level. It also means you can get a Powerpuff Girls group, with one player for each Powerpuff Girl ("I'm Bubbles! No, I'm Bubbles; you're MoJo JoJo this time!") and one can be the bad guy.
Gonna rock!
--- Will in Seattle - What are you doing to fight the War?
My friend and I spent time programming games on the TI-85. The coolest game my friend wrote (who now works on Madden 2001) was Arkanoid. But this wasn't just any arkanoid game... It had 3 different kinds of blocks, a level editor, and it even stored the levels in a compressed vector so you didn't run out of memory. I spent much time on that... Very cool. There was also a pretty solid poker program that either he or I wrote (I can't remember who). We never uploaded them to the net, but we gave them to everyone at our Highschool, so who knows where the games have ended up. :)
-Ted
Well, we all laughed at the "fruity" name of the Dreamcast, and assumed they'd have a different name for America and Europe. But that was about the time that the home office in Japan was really putting their foot down, and they thought it was a great name to have worldwide, so Dreamcast it was. But after you hear/see it a couple hundred times, you really don't notice any more.
What, you didn't like the Game Boy Color one?
If not, it sure looks like it. The levels in the screen shots certainly look familiar, and there are one or two places that definitely came from Super Mario 2 (which wasn't a Mario game in Japan the first time around...)
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
Yes, the Game Boy Advance console is compatible with almost all official titles that run on Game Boy Pocket and Game Boy Color. There is one title (Workboy) that does not function because it requires a special keyboard that can connect only to the original Game Boy's serial port.
It accomplishes this the same way the Sega Genesis plays Master System games and the PlayStation 2 plays PlayStation games: it includes a miniaturized version of the previous system, used in native games for I/O processing. It's as if you had a 386 on an ISA bus and an Alpha or PowerPC on a PCI bus on the same machine.
I'd really like to see a "graphing calculator" attachment for GBC or GBA. That baby would sell because "now you can take your Game Boy console to school and your teacher won't care!"
All your hallucinogen are belong to us.
Will I retire or break 10K?
The snake game sucks
While we're on the topic of Nintendo consoles, you can get a version of the snake game for NES here.
Still, I'd rather play Tetris.
Do you want generic falling tetraminoes, or do you want to pay through your no$e for the Tetris brand?
All your hallucinogen are belong to us.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Possible slogan: "It's like 1991 again... in your pants!"
Well, I'd play it if it ran my NES games. Even if they had to re-release them. I guess that'll be the first real hacking project for the GBA: run NES games. :)
:)
I thought the screenshot looked pretty good, actually. But I don't remember saying anything as to the quality of the video display. I was objecting to the fact that they chose to remake "Mario 2", the worst Mario game for the NES. If they actually remade Mario 3, as the story submitter implied, that would be awesome.
And yes, I buy systems because its games are fun to play. That's why I owned a C64, an Atari 7800, and an NES. Sadly, I have owned no other good gaming systems besides a PC. I think an SNES or a Playstation might have been worthwhile, but that's about it. Oh, and my g/f has a Vectrex, and that's really fun too.
Will the real Bruce Perens Please Stand Up
I just hope Nintendo realizes that a large portion of gamers today are adults, and leaves the Pokemon crap off of this system.
Slashdot: Open Source, Closed Minds.
Lets not forget XBoy
CIA mining your info
360 degrees of Karma
I stand corrected by myself. There are actually many Gamboy Advance emulators already out there, in different levels of development, for different platforms, some as hobbies, some by companies, but all I would guess are being used for development right now. This Gamboy Advance Development webpage should definitly be mentioned at this point. I saw someone mention doom and quake, and a reply mention wolfenstein. A Wolfenstein clone already exists actually along with many demos, engines, and development tools. The extra emphasis on multiplayer gaming and the immediate independant developement is making me feel tingly.
This Wiki Feeds You TV and Anime - vidwiki.org
Using the link cable four players can play Mario Kart Advance, FZero Advance, or Mario Advance in 2, 3, or 4 player modes with just one cartridge. This is a great feature (although its not new; the Atari Lynx supported this feature long ago!)
full length albums complete with print resolution artwork -- earth2willi.com
or does the name "game boy advance" just scream bad translation? I mean come on, nintendo... couldn't you have come out with a better name?
I think a lot of people are going to dismiss Game Boy Advance.
I think that will be a huge mistake, though. People forget that Nintendo's own software designers are extremely top-notch, and you do have to remember the Game Boy Advance has way more computing power than the the original Nintendo system of the 1980's. In addition, GBA can play current Game Boy games, and can function as a controller for Nintendo's upcoming Gamecube system. In Japan, GBA can also play games over the NTT DoCoMo cellular phone system.
If Nintendo prices it right, they will sell a LOT of Game Boy Advance units here in the USA.
Raymond in Mountain View, CA
The 15 hour battery life means it won't be another GameGear or Lynx, where the only way to play it was plugged into the wall. Yeah, very portable. Also making the device backwards compatible with the old gamboy series is a master move, as it means that your investment in portable games will not be wasted ("Take two handhelds into the train?" aka shampoo ads).
God, I am rambling. Nintendo have always said that they will only release better machines when the market is ready for it, and it can be delivered cheaply. Under $100 is cheap. Look at the cost of a colour Palm IIIc - this has more buttons, 1.5x the screen area, and an expansion port. This has multimedia capabilities (such as MPEG video decoding, great audio, etc). If it had a touchscreen and more RAM it would be the PDA that everyone would want :-).
The graphics are awesome for a portable device that uses This device will not be playing Quake anytime soon, but Doom is a possibility - albeit with some caveats I am sure. The cartridges can hold either 256Mbits or 512Mbits (32MB or 64MB), which is enough for a portable Doom with all of the WAD files and the like, reduced textures, simplified maps, etc. And with 4 player deathmatch!
What I want to see is Bomberman - that game was great. ALso that Japanese RPG (SunThingy) looks absolutely awesome, what with those thatched rooves and the like. I don't sound like a 23 year old at the moment do I? I really want to program this device - the VGBA is onlny at version 0.2 though, the dev kits are expensive etc. ARM assembly is the computer equivalent of a long drawn out orgasm, whereas x86 is like a quick wank into a manky tissue and then you get stuff all over the carpet and duvet and stuff.
I would also like to see a lot of the Amiga classics ported. Alien Breed for one, maybe even Alien Breed 3D - that could run on a bog standard A1200, albeit like Quake III on a S3Virge. This handheld has much more CPU power than the original A1200, nevermind the A500. Other games include New Zealand Story, Addams Family, Sim City, Lionheart, Speedball 2 ... the list goes on and on.
I think I have talked myself into getting one when they are released over here in dark and distant England. Mario Kart Advance looks like a sure fire buy from here.
Anyone know where you can find some detailed hardware information about the GBA - not the high level stuff that is on every website, but things like graphics modes, CPU speed, audio functionality, etc?
Did anyone else notice the amusing inaccuracy in the CNN story?
"But the monitor can now show 32,000 vivid colors, far more than the 256 of the original Game Boy -- a spectacular hit selling more than 100 million worldwide since going on sale 11 years ago."
I don't know about you, but 11 years ago, my original Game Boy couldn't display any colors.
(but I'm assuming heterosexuality)
[pink beam of light]
My neice, back in Scotland, has many games for her gameboy, and she plays it more often than she ever plays on playstations and computers and so on. I think it shows how it doesn't matter what the game looks like on a handheld, as long as it is well designed.
I think the big thing with this will be that it is colour. How can you advance a handheld gaming system any further? I think that the gameboy advance will be around for a long time now.
My ex boyfriend used to play handheld games a lot when he commuted to work, so I suppose he would have been interested, so it is not just for children. I don't think I would want one though. The only games I ever play are solitaire and minesweeper.
--Anticipation of a New Lover's Arrival, The
I just thought that not only does this have potential to emulate games from nintendo because of it's architecture ( as I understand it) but this could be the first new system to actually be emulated right out of the box. People have been saying that it is weak (not a problem for me, give me metroid and I don't care) but that means sweet emulation time. If everyone was on the ball, an emulator could be realese before the actual release of the consol. It would be madness!! try before you buy, oh hell yeah!
This Wiki Feeds You TV and Anime - vidwiki.org
Compared to the latest offering from rival Sony Corp., PlayStation2, which delivers dazzling three-dimensional images with a powerful 128-bit processor, the 32-bit Game Boy Advance offers just the basics.
You know what else I heard? Bicycles really can't compare to the power of a Ferrari. And the tase of apples is much better than the tast of dog crap.
Is Sony paying a bounty for every time Playstation2 is mentioned on a major media outlet? Geez, the two products aren't even in the same class.
Color Gameboy was the handheld NES.
With as much competition as there is between video game systems and companies constantly expanding new tech and new hardware, the gameboy must be the longest lasting console!
:)
The gameboy is over 10 years old, and with only minor updates, it is still going strong. I would LOVE to see one of the newer systems be able to boast of that.
I don't really play that many games, so I won't buy one, but I must admit that the industry and its evolution is very interesting. I just like that a portable mini-system can outlast the heavyweights of the industry. But to be fair, software support always makes or breaks a system too, which is why the handheld brethren of the Game Boy (Lynx, Virtual Boy, GameGear, and TurboExpress) are all in their respective coffins now.
Maybe I'll get one as a gift to my teenage sister so she'll stop wasting her TI-89 with those cruddy little calculator games
Shouldn't someone tell them that Super Mario Bros. 3 has been out for years already, and was a classic NES title? I also see no reference to it in the article.
Also, Super Mario Advance looks more like a Mario 2 remake, at least by judging from the screenshots.
Now, a handheld NES... THAT would be worthwhile.
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.