Game Boy Advance RGB LCD Project

JohnHegarty writes: "Ever wanted a large backlit screen for the GBA, or even watching it on a 28" TV? Here is a project to use a GBA on a PlayStation screen." Another example of the lengths people will go to to mock the term "pocket sized."

Comments

Very interesting

[fabiolrs]

GBA = $100
TV = $75
Adapter = $200
Total = $375

PS2 = $200
TV = $75
Total = $275

i really dont get it! :)) isnt a GBA meant to be portable? My 29" screen isnt exactly what I call portable device... :))

(prices not exactly the same on real life)

You're all missing the point

[Anonymous Coward]

As usual, no one on slashdot reads the article - just the buzzline

He gave up on the 20 in screen, the resolution looks terrible on that size.

What amazed me was the brightness of the interact lcd compared to the GBA screen. Nintendo must have spent 20 cents on that screen, its truely worthless. I'm betting people will go this route to improve their display - I've seen a mod someone is selling that installs a very bright light in their GBA. I still think the first pre-order hasn't been completed yet, tells you something about demand for a better screen. Nintendo really screwed up on the screen.

Re:You're all missing the point

[Midnight Thunder]

There is something known as battery life. A brighter screen would have meant a shorter battery life. I for one would rather play for an 1 hour plus ( not sure how long it is really ) with average brightness, than 10min at full brightness, especially if the room is lit. Of course nintendo could have added a brightness control and that would probably have pleased a whole bunch of people.

Good games, baaad platform.

[Bonker]

The GBA games I've seen are about on par with SNES and Sega-genesis era system requirements. These include platform games like Sonic the Hedgehog, Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past, and Super Mario World, IMHO some of the best video games ever produced.

In fact, since the days of 16bit processing, games have not expanded in playability as fast as they have expanded in terms of special effects, graphic capabilities and system usage.

Despite the fact that you can now play Sonic in a glorious 3d world on the Nintendo Game Cube, the playability and enjoyment factor just isn't the same as the old side-scrolling platform Sonic games. Sonic 2 and 3 on Genesis are incredible, infinitely playable games. I fire up a Genesis emulator about once a month and play them through again just for kicks. I occasionally find something new when I play.

Since this is the kind of game best suited for the GBA and the people at Nintendo and Sega *do* understand the difference between 'playable' and 'dazzling', it's not surprising that they've chosen this platform to 'ressurect' some of these older sprite-based game engines.

That said, it's a shame that they didn't include RGB or composit out on the GBA, because the size of the GBA's display just doesn't do these kinds of games justice. It's true that they don't have particle and polygon-based graphics. It's also true that the games are playable on a small screen albeit with lots of lighting. What Ninentdo seems to have missed is that the first time we played these games, we did so on larger displays. The games are just more enjoyable if you don't have to squint against the glare of a halogen spotlight to see them.

I, for one, would like to see every handheld in the future ship with either a RBG or Composite video out plug so that you can play the game on a TV or a 'portable' LCD screen. The fact that people feel the need to mod the game to make it more enjoyable means that Nintendo hasn't don their job.

Re: Use intelligence before posting DUMB answer.

[AtariDatacenter]

Well, I brought up two points. First was wondering if the PSOne would work well in handling the RGB signals from an arcade monitor. The second was a reference to a portable JAMMA design.

Your response was "Something like that already exists dude." Kinda, yes, no, not really at all.

I don't believe anyone is packaging an LCD display, using RGB input, for arcade PCBs. Yes, you could use "a box which has RCA out's to the TV" (otherwise known as an RGB->NTSC converter which you'd find as part of the wiring in a supergun) to do an svideo or composite video out. But that wasn't the point. The point was using the RGB signal and not having to go through the circuity (such as JROK's RGB to NTSC converter) to do the trick.

You'd be direct driving a display with RGB inputs, and not messing the video signal with conversions. And the PSOne appears to have the correct horizontal scan rate in order to work with arcade PCBs.

To address the subject line, use your wisdom and intellect before applying google to get DUMB answers.

Back to the issue of portability, that'd be one less mess of circuits to deal with (rgb->ntsc converter) and you could integrate a display into a supergun quite easier than arcade pcb -> converter -> LCD NTSC display (which would probably end up with a really bad picture because of all the conversion).