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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.
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").
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.
* 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.
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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Lets not forget XBoy
CIA mining your info
360 degrees of Karma
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?
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?
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
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.
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