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New Gameboy Announced
Xenex writes "From Planet GameCube: Nintendo today announced a US March 23rd release date for their Game Boy Advanced SP system. The GBA SP features a clamshell design that when folded is 3-inch square and an inch thick. The unit will also be also front lit, and totally backwards compatible with all previous Game Boy software." As any GBA owner can tell you, the screen in earlier models sucked pretty terrible. I'm looking forward to trying this one out.
Here's a link to a photo from the Japanese announcement.
I bought mine durring launch, if Nintendo keeps comming out with new systems every 2 years and still support backwards compatablity, I won't buy most anything new.
Now all someone needs to do is port Linux to it, and it'll make a nice little PDA.
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Bah, for years us gamers have been asking for a backlit system like the Gamegear.... It's taken Nintendo what, 6 years to answer this simple request? I have to support them on the price tag however, it's the same price as the GBA was when it was origionally released, and much better looking. I do wonder if this thing will accept the "backup" cartridges floating around, or if they've built in copy protection of some sort... any thoughts? Maybe I'll hold out just a little longer, the Gameboy Color just isn't cutting it these days :)
... as provided by Gamespot
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There is another press conference coming in NY between 9am-11am EST. It isn't know at this time what they are announcing. It is believed that the GBA SP will be announced for the US (since this conference is being held by NOA). Hopefully we hear more than just about GBASP (though I can't wait to buy one of um!)
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Due March 23rd? Of this year? That's less than a quarter away. I'm not some industry insider, but I try to keep up with the new gadgets like this and I've not heard a word about this device.
Could this be some cheap, quick alternative for those of use that have complained so loudly about the shortcommings of the GBA (like the lack of some kind of lighting)?
... is it identical hardware, or will we be seeing GBA SP only games?
The design is somewhat different to the previous two models, but looks pretty snazzy. I'd quite like a tiny computer/PDA that looks like that, just stick a keyboard on instead of the D-Pad and buttons :)
I Wonder if it will have an IP stack, bluetooth/3G/WiFi games anyone? that would be cool
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I'd like to see gameboy have more than two buttons, that way you could play better games like Street Fighter 2 =)
This is a better photo because it's a side by side comparison. One of the links claimed that the new screen size will be smaller, but this photo seems to show otherwise.
All I gotta say is, nice design!
I feel bad for that afterburner dude though. He definitely played in a big role in bringing this to market (not to mention the little blurb about the afterburner in Newsweek.)
I don't like these damn fancy ideas they've been getting lately. What with rotating it 90 degrees and now having this folding contraption...
I wonder how long till the GameBoy XP comes out?
It will run old games in GameBoy9x mode.
Seriously, have they not learned from M$ that staying compatible with older stuff limits you?
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It look to me that these are designed for adults. It looks a lot slimmer and inconspicuous. Could this mean Nintendo is moving toward a more adult audience?
Wonder how many kids will snap the clamshell hinge? I remember my first Motorola Startac phone and the problems I had with that...
Does look cute though. And thank God it has a lit screen.
Does it have the same specs as the GBA? (Wasn't clear to me).
-psy
This is great and all, but it is still frontlit. When will Nintendo realize that people want a backlit, colour LCD display. They're cheaper than ever nowadays, and Sega had such a beast in the early 90's (or was it even the late 80's?) with the GameGear.
Like woodworking? Build your own picture frames.
The GBA was a very nice size, it was comfortable to hold and all the buttons were easily accesible. Now, if I were 6, I wouldnt have a problem with a smaller design, but I am not 6, and my main reason for upgrading past the GBA is the backlight, but if I cant get to the shoulder buttons (judging from screenshots, no hard facts obviously) then its worthless. Smaller is not necessarily better if functionality is lost as a result.
Still, this IS nintendo we're talking about, and I've gotten used to all their controllers so far, so I guess we'll see. Of course, the controllers have kinda gotten bigger as I've gotten older, so that might be a reason why they are always comfy...
The backlit sure sounds nice, though. =)
This is my sig. Its pathetic.
You're right.
Ooops, sorry.
Sega might have had one ages ago, but the thing also ate 6 penlite batteries, and from personal experience, lasted like 2 hours on it... i dont think anyone is waiting for THAT either right?
Not only should this lighting system be excellent, I always had problems with the size of the GBA... the Lynx or the Game Gear I thought were too big as well. I loved the original Game Boy, but haven't bought the others, well, because they weren't too handheld for me. they seemed a little more hands-held. I know, it's nit-picky, but I'm definitely waiting for this to come out. Nintendo is back, baby! (I went all anti-nintendo for a few years back. PS2 v. 64 conflict era)
OK, so it looks nice, but is this just a re-boxed Gameboy Advance?
It's backwards compatible with the old Gameboys, but none of the links mention anything about new capabilities.
I modded my daughters GBA.. and now it's amazing. and it gave her the edge in school as NOBODY else has a backlit GBA.
If nintendo would simply pull their heads out of their arse and just put the backlight mod on the existing product it would increase sales on it's own.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
FRONT LIT?!?!
Words fail me. I hope it works better than I think it might. It's ugly, probably going to cramp my hands up worst than the GBA does, and the fucking thing isn't even backlit?
From a business standpoint it makes no sense either. Cell phones are big in Japan. Why not make a combo cell-phone/gba (and make it backlit of course).
ARGH!!!! WHAT ARE THEY THINKING? IT'S UGLY!!!
No, wait, must recover... remember, Nintendo good, do no wrong....
*Remembers virtua-boy*
*explodes*
Robots are everywhere, and they eat old people's medicine for fuel.
Nintendo updates GBA ...
...
... conditions. Partly to offset the demands of the internal light, Nintendo ...
Much as sources including reputed UK gaming mag Edge have been speculating over
the last few months, the GBA SP boasts an updated clamshell design, improved
Nintendo announces Backlit GBA
Dubbed GBA SP, the new model comes in a redesigned clamshell case with
a screen that flips up (think cellphone) to reveal the control pad.
New Game Boy Advance revealed
has added rechargeable batteries to the GBA SP. And to
The Next Game Boy Is Here
Nintendo to sell premium model of Game Boy Advance
You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
i wonder how this thing 'feels' in your hand, meaning - it has a hinge, and a portion of the weight is hanging off at an angle - will it get too heavy, or at least awkward, after a while?
The Good:
"Backlit" screen - it's really more like the Afterburner, but probably of a higher/clearer quality (without the "blue tint" the Afterburner sometimes gives - not trying to knock the Afterburner, it's a great hack).
Long battery life - 10 hour with light on, 18 with light off.
Clamshell - as someone who games "on the go" and with a 9 month old son who likes to eat Daddy's GBA, this is a good thing.
The Bad:
Rechargeable batteries - would be nice if we could put AA as a "backup" or something. But Nintendo was against a rock and a hard place - if they allow any third party rechargeable batteries to be put in, there could be compatibility issues (really a non-issue except from a legal "we won't support it if it breaks" kind of thing - kind of like some MP3 players that have their own brand of AA rechargeables).
Form factor: Hm. I'm not sure on how comfortable this will be. Once nice thing about the GBA is while it's a little too small for my 1.5 octave spanning hands, the shape is more forgiving. Here, we have...a square shape. Looking at it, I'm not sold on "long hours with Metroid Fusion without finger cramping". We'll see.
Otherwise, for $90 ($100 after taxes, etc), it looks like a nice evolution for the GBA. Remember your history - Nintendo made several changes to the original GameBoy over it's 10 year life (colors, slimmer, one backlit system, color screen), and Nintendo still has around 50% of the software console market sales locked down (at least when you include that nice sized 35%-40% hold the Gameboy/Gameboy Advance has).
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
The buttons have two states, so it's 4*2^4
Pathman, Free (as in GPL) 3D Pac Man
I just got one! And they didn't say any mainstream word about it until a quarter before it comes out? I own a Nintendo everything (well, except a "Virtual Boy," that is if anyone remembers it). Still, the GBA is a little too small for my hands, and if you look at the new one, I don't think I could even hold it.
"Bad Nintendo! Bad, bad, bad, Nintendo!"
Looks like I'm going to have to have the tattoo of Princess Peach lasered off of my bum in disgust.
Very nice design (I love the square clamshell approach) but I still can't play it as easily as I could play the original Game Boy. I may be one of the only people on the planet that this affects, but there's no way I can use the shoulder buttons on the GBA -- and lo and behold, they've carried over to this new one, despite a generally boxy-flat design.
Shoulder triggers of any kind are very difficult to use for physically disabled gamers, such as LPs or other syndromes which deform the hands. Face buttons, no problem; you brace the controller against a flat surface like a table and you can mash away in Marvel vs. Capcom 2 to your heart's delight.
But when you have to wrap your fingers around to reach the 'ergonomic' buttons, well, then you have problems. Dreamcast controllers gave me all manners of trouble since the triggers were analog, underneath the thing, and in some games unmappable and mandatory. Nintendo 64 controllers were just a joke, with buttons all over the place including a trigger on the bottom of the thing -- even a joypad shaped controller a friend offered me had a trigger UNDER the joypad! Insane!
For portable systems, you have no choice of simply plugging in a new controller that meets your needs. It's an integrated unit. It's not economically feasible to make an alternative unit which has four face buttons instead of two face + two shoulder just to accommodate a small percentage of your gaming audience. Understandable, but it's a shame, really. I'd kill to have Advance Wars and Tony Hawk handy for long trips.
I thought this only happened with computer hardware. You go out and buy something, the next day it's either cheaper or a newer/faster/better product comes out. I just got my GBA for xmas. Damn.
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(Hello--long time slashdot reader, first post!) I was at the UK press conference--it's coming out on March 28th here. Had a quick go--it's very nice. The silver version (there are three colours) is reminiscent of a PDA. A bit like the swanky new Sony Clie with flip top, camera, and MP3 player, etc. The front light is a near-dramatic improvement, visibility wise.
Yahoo Picture
Here is a decent picture of the new unit next to the old unit
Blah Blah Blah.
Yikes the control area of the thing looks tiny! Someone mentioned if Nintendo is going after the adult market due to the more "sophisticated" design. I ask the opposite, is Nintendo potentially alienating their adult market by making the controls too small to use confortably by anyone over the age of 15.
Also, in the shot of it next to the "old" GBA, doesn't it look like it's actually a little bigger when it's opened up? It's probably a lot thinner, but I think it has a bit of a clunky/chunky prototypish look to it.
As any GBA owner can tell you, the screen in earlier models sucked pretty terrible.
Your English skills suck pretty terrible too...
I just got a Gamboy Advance for Christmas. Thanks Nintendo for fucking me in the ass so soon after I supported you. This unit should have been released before Christmas or at least six months after. How many people out there are going to feel they need this new GBA? How many kids are going to say "Mommy, I need this one, it's the same thing but better!" I have to drop another hundred bucks now! FUCKE!
Nintendo announces an upgraded GBA, and all you slashbots do is complain about the old ones (some of the most successful game appliances developed). Some people have 20/20 hindsight. Oh well, here are some more links:
N-Sider Forums Some more pics.
IGN Pocket
Now wouldnt it have been just a little sweeter if they would have added a touch screen for PDA like options as well as options for a some kind of text input. The only real reason that they're releasing this is only in response to the cell phones that are now game enabled. They have 98% of the portable gaming market, and they don't want to lose a single .001%.
If they want to compete then they're going to have to offer something more. LIKE A CELL PHONE ALREADY DOES!!! If they REALLY want to make a couple extra bucks, then licence an OS from Palm an make it a sweet little GBA/PDA that smooth and sexy. The cost would probably be a few extra bucks, but it could blow the head off of any other PDA with similar features when you look at the price. With a little ingenuity they could really stir up some competition. The light and size decisions are just a no-brainer.
Somehow the design sets me off, it reminds me of the first cellular handhelds, blocky, and unwieldy. But just my opinion...
"This isn't a study in computer science, its a study in human behavior"
So the price won't be too bad at 129 - 139 Euro and a release date of March 28th. I wonder though if the retailers will actually have the thing in stock on March 28th. I for one will certainly be heading up to my local electronic store with my Credit Card burning a hole in a my pocket.
Patriotism is the opium of the masses
Those shots don't reveal an obvious hand position to me. Where would you hold it? You'd want your left thumb on the direction pad, your right on the buttons...that's quite some contortionist act if you also need to balance the device.
Hmm. Unsure. I think I would've preferred them just adding a decent screen to the current model.
Cheers,
Ian
And it isn't like they are sticking light bulbs in the thing for their front lit display... it looks like the Afterburner's transparent light-emitting polymer.
As for the size... I was concerned for a bit too, even before i saw the pictures. But then I was reminded that the old Gameboy and Gameboy Color models weren't that hard to hold, and this seems to be a return to that kind of form factor. But those L and R buttons do look hard to press...
Mirosoft announces its foray into the portables with the new X-boy gaming system, allowing users to have all the portability of playing such fast-paced and unconfusing Microsoft favorites like Age of Empires and Flight Simulator with all of the kiddies in the neighborhood.*
*Included in the system is its own rechargeable power supply, backlit screen, co-op cable, and pull cart.
As any GBA owner can tell you, the screen in earlier models sucked pretty terrible.
I think most gameboy owners would disagree with that statement at least partially.
The original Gameboy had bad smearing as the pixels moved, and let's face it, black and white is still black and white no matter how many shades of baby-shit-green you make it.
So here, yes, the Gameboy screen sucked.
But then the Gameboy Pocket moved on to an actual more "black and white" BW screen, with much faster pixel updates and screen visibility was never an issue unless you used the thing in the dark. At this point, the Gameboy screen didn't suck too bad for the time.
The Gameboy Color game along and I couldn't have been happier. It's pixels were big enough that they reflected just enough of the light from the environment that you were in that any well lit area provided plenty of light. Anybody who doesn't know this never had one. This screen didn't suck.
The Gameboy Advance comes along, and using the same type of screen, only larger with higher resolution pixes, and suddenly everyone things the Gameboy Screen is "notorious for shitty screen"? I don't get this. The majority of the Gameboy's life has been spent as the Pocket and Color, not the Classic and Advance. If you ask me, all things considered, the Gameboy has always been an EXCELLENT design, and still is.
If you don't like the Advance screen? Use a GB color. They still sell them. Definately want those ADVANCE games? Get a Afterburner modified Advance from YourHappyPlace. It's around $150 shipped to you with the lighting and the dimmer chip installed, but it's an excellent investment and the screen looks great.
I'm sorry, I just can't agree that the Gameboy screen has always sucked. I just think Nintendo made a pretty bad mistake not lighting the GBA themselves.
As for this new Clamshell design, I hope that's a prototype, because rumors have been talking for a while about 4 face buttons, and that one still only has two.
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
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Posting in slashdot to talk shit about slashdotters.....
The problem was the limited technology. Game Gear was so ridiculously blurry when the screen scrolled, it was all but unplayable. In addition, for those who didn't know, there is a little screw on the back of the GBA that you can turn to increase contrast. It's behind the sticker; feel for it. I'm not sure why Nintendo didn't make this public. Maybe just so colors were consistent.
As any GBA owner can tell you, the screen in earlier models sucked pretty terrible.
Well, as a GBA owner, I can tell you the screen only sucks for 13 year olds trying to play their GBA under the covers past their bed time. For everyone else able to use their GBA in proper lighting, the screen is just fine. I love my GBA and have no plans to buy a new one because of the screen.
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"Every artist is a cannibal, every poet is a thief."
I want to play text adventures on that thing!
/usr/games/fortune > ~/.signature
Yeah, it did. The Game Boy had infinitely better battery life and a much larger selection of games. While better in the A/V department, the Game Gears still sucked juice from batteries so fast it wasn't funny.
I love my GBA, but I still completely fail to understand why Nintendo built this system, launched it with a number of SNES ports, continues to port SNES games to it, and still gave us fewer buttons than the SNES controller.
How hard would it have been to add the X and Y buttons? Front-lit or not, there's no way I'm buying another GBA until it comes with more buttons.
Lik Sang could sell the backup devices again. It's nice to have 10 games on one cart. Makes packing for a trip easy.
Be warned though, in the UK at least Nintendo have warned that adjusting the screw can reduce the lifespan of the LCD screen and invalidates your warrenty.
vrai.
A new GBA?
Does the new one still cut through a tomato and exorcise Daemons? Also, I need to be sure that the new one still won't cause leprosy and blindness.
The only thing I'm worried about is the size, I mean, maybe they took the problems people had with the GBA into consideration when they made this one and there's some nifty ergonomics that make it fit perfectly, but it's like they don't realize Americans have bigger hands. I know Nintendo makes a killing in Japan with every system, especially recently with consoles: N64 sales in Japan is what kept them afloat-- scratcth that, not entirely true, I'm pretty sure they have large enough cash reserves to weather a bad console launch, no link tho' cause I'm lazy, let's say it kept them profitable. Same with the GameCube, it may not be doing well in the States, but it sells very well in Japan.
Does the same hold true for GBA sales as well? Is the US that big a market for Nintendo or do not even need to please us to make a tidy profit? I supposed this is all a crazy rant until we get to play with it, it just looks kinda cramped. I can't wait until my local $elecStore has this out for people to play with,
So much unconfortable ugliness in such a little thingie, this is progress!:)
in which there is "proper" lighting on a bus, or plane, or in a car. It's a portable device; I shouldn't have to schedule my play time by the angle of the sun.
For everyone else able to use their GBA in proper lighting, the screen is just fine.
Glad that this was rumored for quite a while, so I didn't get a GBA yet. But I read something that kinda annoys me:
That is evil. Is the link port the one you use to connect to the GameCube, or the one you use to play against others?
Hank! White!
psxndc
The emacs religion: to be saved, control excess.
What's the casing made out of? Is it really magnesium or some other metal or just cheap metallic-looking plastic?
Anyway, good news. Just hope we'll be able to trade in our old GBAs and pay the difference for a new one...
Gameboy advance seems to be a super nintendo is a really small box. All the games are just games from SNES renamed "Advance". What's the big deal? Even in a smaller package with a flip top, they're still games I played a DECADE ago.
I gave one to my sister on Xmas. Now she will complain and think i gave her my junk...argh!
And the Display of the old GBA is really terrible...sad they didn't release this jit for xmas...
I feel with you...
cu,
Lispy
they definitely aren't RJs, in fact they're much much smaller. i could see someone mistaking them for usb perhaps..the smaller port is used for connecting up to 4 GBAs together for games that support multi-player mode. the bigger one looks the same, and i've never seen it before, but from the pictures, i assume its for the rechargeable battery connection.
Gameboy's screen was not fun, so I got a Game Gear when I was a kid. Now, I picked up a GameBoy Advanced (for my guilty pleasure of Dragonball Z). Damn, I had to play that game in full light and tilt the screen so I could see it.
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Free your mind.
Some of us are fanatical about games in general, and since we carry our Gameboys with us everywhere, toting around many cartridges is a chore...
Now, there are devices out there such as the Game Wallet and the Flash Advance, devices which essentially let you copy Gameboy Advance games. But more importantly, they let you consolodate your games onto a single cartridge, and yes it works really well.
What I've been wondering is does this new Gameboy detect such carts and prevent them from working? I was giving it some thought and one of my basic problems with the Flash Advance is the fact that it will mostly be used for piracy. That's something of a shame too because Gameboy cartridges are dirt cheap at most used game shops. I picked up a handful of great games not long ago for about $25 total. Still, Nintendo needs to protect their system and the 3rd party developers so I'm wondering, do the Flash Advance cards WORK with the Gameboy Advance SP? (GASP hah hah)
Hmmm.
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
hip to be square.
I know you are psychotic, but please make an effort.
Anyone else pissed off that they got a GBA for Xmas and Nintendo releases this news the week after?
Pretty slimy tactic if you ask me.
The only time you should have to replace a console is when it breaks. It should have been designed properly the first time. What do we do with our *old* GBAs now?
I owned a GBA for over a year and I was very happy with the system performance and the games. Backward compatability was a big plus too; hundreds of old, cheap, used games that brought back great memories. My only complaint was the screen, making the system NOT truly portable for me. I wanted to play it wherever the mood struck, at whenever hour. In the bathroom at work (a good 30 minutes to burn), at my in-laws, the lighting source was never adequate for the screen and I found myself craning my neck, arms, and the system just to see the screen. Backlit or frontlit, who cares... any alternate lighting source is a big PLUS to an already great portable system! It's nice when a company addresses the complaints of its customers and makes an effort to improve its products. I will definitely buy this system!
The GBA is a nice system, it's at least as powerfull as the old SuperNintendo therefore all the good old games are being ported. Where Nintendo screwed up isn't the physical look/size of the GBA, but the fact that they left out the X and Y buttons. This is only a problem due to the number of ports being made, such as the port of SuperMario world. The ability to bail off of Yoshi's back easily mid jump was one of the best tactics Mario had, the GBA kinda lacks that. I don't see why the new version couldn't have included them for furture ports. The older GBAs would still be able to play the games but like the old Sega Genesis when it went to six button controls from three they wouldn't have quite the same functionality. Nintendo are you listening? Not to late to stop the manufacture.
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Is it just me, or does this not appear to support the e-Reader? Since the e-Reader plugs directly into the cardtridge slot and the game-link port, they need to be close to each other. I just got an e-Reader for Christmas, and if I get one of these new GBAs and can't use my e-Reader, I won't be a happy camper.
For those of you who don't follow the gaming industry, Nintendo will be launching (in May, I believe) an adapter that will let you plug GBA cartridges into the Gamecube. Wide-screen GBA, using either the Gamecube controller or a GBA controller.
It's quite smart of Nintendo - design and market a new design of the GBA without the shortcomings of the predecessor. Build the new GBA and support that as your primary handheld. Use the old GBA boards that you're stuck with in the new hardware that also enhances the GBA games.
The cross pad has a pin in the middle such that you can have at most two contacts closed at one time
I put it on my gameboyadvance with the dirtiest flux job that can be seen on earth (power loss more important) and with regular batteries I don't see more than 1/4th loss of autonomie... it last 3 weeks instead of a month...
Given the choice between 12 hours of play time on a screen that requires an external light source and 2 hours of play time on a screen that has an internal light source, I'd choose 12 hours.
The screen is highly reflective compaired to the original gameboy. Game Boy Color has a similar screen and play time, and it works on only two AAA! Both of them are big improvements. And you can always add an external light source to all of the models.
A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
to spend so much time writing to defend your views concerning the screen quality of a small electronic device? When it comes time to create the balance sheet of your life, will you look back and be pleased about it?
Just to clarify, this is NOT the megaton rumor. The megaton news was to move GAMECUBE hardware, not GBA hardware.
Regardless, I think i'll stick with my current GBA, as I only use mine at home with my gamecube and the new model GB dosnt look like it would make a good controller for the GC (But i could be wrong, i'll wait till my brother buys one and I'll take that for a test drive/play)
---- Anyone can act smart, but it takes a smart person to act stupid. ----
Pretty good hands on review of the GBA SP at GameSpot, includes reports on the backlight (looks good from almost any angle), the comfort-level of it (more comfortable than they were expecting, including the shoulder buttons).
Just figure this is interesting since I think some people are jumping too quickly to conclusions just based on photos, and it helps to consider the difference between how something looks and how it actually feels.
-Tom
Would it have been so hard to make the case like the origonal GBA?
:P
And can we poor sightless bastards who squinted at the origonal GBA screen get credit for a trade-in?
3" square is the same footprint as a pad of regular-style Post-Its...even with my chubby fingers, i think I could manage to play that for a few hours at a time...
Ceci n'est pas un post.
The design seems to be pretty nice. It reminds me a LOT of the PC Engine LT version released by NEC circa 1991, here are a few pics:
:P
some guy's auction page
japanese site
It was actually a pretty neat little unit, playing the same games as the home sytem, and I believe you could also watch TV on it! I often mourn the loss of the PC Engine/TG16 systems, they were ahead of their time. They 'got it right' before people could really appreciate (afford?) it.. backlit screens, cross-hardware games, cd-rom storage, multifunction hardware, Bonk!
I wonder if Nintendo studied the LT or if they just took a page from more recent flip-up cell phone design when working on this one.
^nA
^nA! Creatures in my Head
it looks like godzilla...but for international copyright purposes it is not
Does anyone know if this new one will be compatible with existing gameboy cart. backup solutions?
What I've been wondering is does this new Gameboy detect such carts and prevent them from working? I was giving it some thought and one of my basic problems with the Flash Advance is the fact that it will mostly be used for piracy.
Hmm, I wouldn't be surprised at all if Nintendo did in fact add a way of preventing flash carts from being used... or another way of keeping homebrew/demos/pirated games from working.
i have seen some pictures and they look really cool and they finally have a black one to match my game cube
Heart of the cards Guide me
The problem with the GBA screen is not so much that it wasn't lit (unless you play in the dark of course) it was that the front window was built like a mirror so your face would be brighter than the screen behind it. I think if they could have reduced the glare the screen would have been much better right off the bat.
The e-card reader has been heralded by many gaming magazines as the best game system peripheral in years and it's popularity is buildingâ¦how is Nintendo going to mesh these two pieces of hardware? This new Gameboy should have had an e-card reader built in.
Not since Marie-Antoinette played milkmaid has looking simple and honest been so fake and complicated.
boy am i glad I held out on buying a GBA...maybe this one will be better
.smell my feet.
The GBC screen works great if you have *direct* sunlight on it or if you're no more than two feet away from a light bulb shining at it, but in any other situation, forget it. You may be able to see some of the screen but forget about any kind of vibrant colors. Believe me, I know--I've spent many a cramped hour trying to worm myself into an angle where I can see what the hell I'm doing in Zelda. I have a wormlight but it only seems to work in near darkness; it's essentially useless on a cloudy day or with ambient lighting.
This screen sucked.
Omnes arx vestrum sunt adiuncta nobis.
Now all someone needs to do is port Linux to it
Linux probably needs more than the 384 KB of RAM (including video RAM) inside the GBA.
and it'll make a nice little PDA.
A PDA needs a decent input mechanism such as Graffiti, Fitaly, etc. The GBA doesn't have one, unless you somehow adapt L, Left, Down, R, A, and B to correspond to the six dots of Braille. A PDA needs a real-time clock. The GBA doesn't have one.
Will I retire or break 10K?
From the looks of it, other than the new look, it's still just a GBA. The difference between this and the old GBA are like the differences between the original Game Boy and Game Boy Pocket. Shiny new shell, slightly different button layout, a light, but nothing terribly exciting beyond that. No new color capabilities, no new polygon-pushing hardware, just the same ol' same ol'.
I'm going to save my money for the GBA Player for GCN instead. The GCN controller fits more comfortably in my hand (I miss the size of the original Game Boy), and my TV screen is over 20 inches.
gee whiz. You could at least link to a game site like IGN who actually has some bandwidth money to spare.
Planetgamecube just doesn't deserve this kind of abuse.
gameboy has that multipayer hookup, which could prolly be adapted to use a keyboard or a touch screen.
... after seeing some shots. It looks to me that the screen can be flipped around (kind of like sony clie). That would make sense, since big N is going to make a digital camera for it. As to compatibility w/ backup units: they will work because all other games for GBA don't have copyprotection, SO... they wouldn't work. Think: First Sony PSX games w/o copy protection (on regular cds) and then PSOne w/ copy protection and region codes. NO old soft would boot up on it. Same w/ new GB. Chill. Also there is some new port on the back, possibly high speed kind of thing. Or extra one for new accessories like GameReader & Game Sharks. Iam not sure.
but the most obvious is sound (it cannot play the same number of instruments as the SNES could)
The Super NES could mix eight channels in stereo. Most TVs of the era were mono, and few people connected their consoles to a stereo system. Therefore, we might as well consider Super NES sound mono.
I am a GBA developer. I have written a mixer that, for eight mono channels, takes about 16% of the CPU. In addition, for another 1% of the CPU, I can use the four tone generators from the Game Boy side to add even more voices to the music. A good composer can make nice sounding music with four PCM channels and four GBC channels.
But the nice thing about the GBA sound hardware vs. Super NES sound is that because the samples fed to the GBA hardware are uncompressed 8-bit signed PCM, it's possible to generate samples in real time. Applications include tightly compressed voice and drumloop samples and realtime synthesis such as TB303 emulation.
Will I retire or break 10K?
But why would one use headphones while the GBA is plugged into the cube?
Because the GCN's sound and the GBA's sound are different streams. The GCN sound goes to everybody; GBA sound goes only to one player. A GCN game that uses the GBA cable could conceivably give audio cues to only one player.
And what about playing multiplayer with linked GBAs? Why should I be forced to use a speaker with no response below 500 Hz?
Will I retire or break 10K?
The ability to bail off of Yoshi's back easily mid jump was one of the best tactics Mario had, the GBA kinda lacks that.
Super Mario World for the GBA dropped the X button (which was an alias for the Y button), no big deal except for X+Y running to gain takeoff velocity quickly. (There's probably a way to do it; I just haven't read the manual.) The SNES L and R buttons became L+Left and L+Right, which freed up GBA's R button for spinjump or leave Yoshi. It's still there.
Heck, there's even a spinjump in Super Mario Land 2 for Game Boy (get big or fire and press Down+A) and the unauthorized NES port of SMW (get big and press Up+A).
Will I retire or break 10K?
one of my basic problems with the Flash Advance is the fact that it will mostly be used for piracy.
Mostly for piracy? The gbadev mailing list has over 1,500 members.
Will I retire or break 10K?
When GP32 came out, people accused it of being too similar in design to Game Boy Advance.
Now, it looks like Nintendo has decided to borrow Gamepark's design for the GPi , a notebook-style GP32 device (not yet released) that has a touchscreen, built-in mobile phone, and runs Linux.
See for yourself:
-- GBA SP
-- GPi
Another interesting thing about this is that both devices are updates to existing platforms: GBA SP from GBA, GPi from GP32. Perhaps Nintendo sensed a potential threat from Gamepark and decided to become more competitive?
Oops!
The Lynx still rocks.
Later
Arek
http://www.futureassassin.com
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
A square that measures 3x3x1 ??
Is that not by definition a rectangle?
http://www.play-asia.com/paos-17_00000260000000000 000000.html
Pre-order the GBA SP.
Oops!
I'm really glad there are that many people using it for legit purposes. I myself have desperately wanted to get into homebrews and developement on the GB/GBC/GBA.
:/
Still, there are always going to be a ton of pirates.
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
...turn it into a cell phone. "Can you play me now?"
I have a Gameboy Advance and a Gameboy Pocket right here. By judging the photos of new design it looks like the Gameboy Advance SP will be much the same size and button placement of the Gameboy Pocket. I never had any problems with that unit cramping my hands....
huh huh... unit cramping my hands...huh huh
seriously
i've heard (from non technical-type friends) that the shoulder buttons are either a) pressure sensitive or b) "2 state" (semi pressure sensitive)
That may be true of the GCN or the PS2, but I am a GBA programmer, and the GBA provides one bit each for the L and R buttons, bits D9 and D8 of the 16-bit register at 0x04000130.
Will I retire or break 10K?
This new GBA looks like the old NEC PC Engine LT... It's a shame that the LT is so rare... one just went on ebay for about $1000. The Turbo Express/PC Engine GT/LT was backlit and compatible with the main console. You could even connect the CDROM to the LT or a TV tuner. And yet NEC's video game systems died quietly. NEC should never had declined the right to be the only system to have Mortal Kombat 1... there might still be a NEC system on the market.
Most people are RIGHT handed! Why is the directional control on the LEFT side? I attempted to play Ms Pac Man on the Gameboy Advance recently but gave up, frustrated, due to the difficulty using the left-side directional controls. I'll likely never buy a GBA until they address this glaring user-interface problem.
Why make sense when you can make pizza? - Zippy the Pinhead
You want us to consider Super NES sound as mono
Few Super NES games really used the stereo effects except perhaps for 2P split-screen games that sent player 1 to the left channel and player 2 to the right channel, and in the GBA equivalent, each player's mixer would run on a separate CPU.
even though the Super NES shipped with a stereo AV cable as standard
Yes, every Super NES system came with an AV cable.
(and no RF switch or mono-only cable)
The first Super NES had a built-in RF modulator that made monaural sound and came with an RF switch identical to the one from the NES. (It also had a stereo AV output, but I didn't see any of my friends using it until I showed them how to hook up the console to a stereo system.) The second Super NES dropped the built-in RF modulator and used the same RF modulator and switch as the N64.
And even if I were to change my GBA mixer to stereo, it would probably still take only 32 percent of CPU time for eight voices. This still leaves over 10 MHz of ARM7TDMI power, which is far more than enough for a typical 2D or pseudo-3D game, especially a Genesis or Super NES port.
Will I retire or break 10K?
I'm hoping Nintendo will continue to release a pink version of the new GBA SP like they did for GB Advance and GB Color.
Can't forget about the girl gamers now... =)
there have been rumors since the original GBA released, but that's all they were, rumors.
I'm pretty shocked too. Amazing thing is it'll be released in Japan in only 4 WEEKS!
Hard to believe we haven't heard of it before, not one peep. Nintendo has some damn tight security!
$150 for a Afterburner GBA is NUTS! Portablemonopoly.NET has them for $119.
they're a bit backordered, but I've e-mailed some of their customers and the ones that have gotten on are happy with their GBA from Portablemonopoly.NET
and most of my friends did have stereo TVs for their snes.
I, on the other hand, lived in a lower middle-class neighborhood.
But I bought it for my Genesis, back when you needed a y-adapter to get stereo from the headphone jack.
And the Genesis stereo was the same as that of the Game Boy and the newer Sound Blaster Pro, where a tone generator could be panned hard left, center, or hard right. Any sound that appeared to "pan" from one side to the other had to use two channels. The Super NES, on the other hand, had a "left volume" and a "right volume" for each channel.
The music of the games of the day was great, and was definitely stereo
The music was stereo, and I often made audio tapes of the music of games with sound test codes. But all too many games I played had either mono sound effects or L/R sound effects split for players 1 and 2. I include in "mono sound effects" any sound effect whose L/R pan didn't correspond to its position on screen, such as the SMW pipe sound that panned R, L, R. (Did you know that the sound effects samples in the SMW animated cartoon were completely taken from the right channel?) Perhaps it was just the genres I played (lots of puzzle games). Viacom's Zoop wasn't stereo, but my clone for PC (called "Zeus"; part of freepuzzlearena) was.
The Super NES itself wasn't mono, but my memories of it sure are.
Quick question: Do most GBA users actually play games in an environment where they would notice stereo separation? Do most use headphones most of the time? I want to know so that in my next GBA project (I'm the producer as well), I can decide on whether or not to spend extra CPU cycles on stereo mixing.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Hi,
:-)
Cool! The black one is the GBA I will buy when it ships in Germany
Ten years ago(?) I was addicted to "Super Mario World" and "Tetris" on my little brother's GB, which was one of the first ones. I'm not up-to-date with the latest GBA-games. Are the new "Super Mario"-Versions comparable to the first versions on the classic GB (because a sequel is not always better)? Is there a "Super Mario Kart"-style game?
Regards, Darkcookie
That was something unique about the SNES. I knew about the stereo AV cables and the RF switch and how to use both. I didn't exactly have a lot of money at the 14 years of age or so when I got my SNES but I wanted stereo. I had a 13" Magnavox TV which of course only had RF in, and a decent Sony portable boom box with detachable speakers AND RCA ins. Thanks to the Unique setup of the SNES I was able to use the RCA cables for sound and still get video through the RF switch.
Currently we still play the SNES at my house, granted the stereo abilities of the SNES isn't overly used but it is used quite a bit. My wife is currently hooked on the Legend of Zelda a Link to the past. When Link has full power the sound his sword makes when it shoots across the screen is followed by the speakers. My 5 year old also likes playing Uni-Racers, that music in it's entireity is stereo. Great thing about a system being out of date, I can go to GameStop on a night when nothing else is going on and load up on a handfull of SNES and N64 games for what a single modern game would cost, the games are old but they're still fun to play.
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On a slight tangent, I think the people who are going to be hit the worst when this thing comes out are the third-party accessory folks like Interact and MadCatz. This GBA already has integrated lighting, a rechargeable battery and even screen protection. That knocks out 80% of the accessory market leaving only the market that Nintendo already controls - link cables, card reader, etc. Consider: I paid $60 for my GBA; I then bought a rechargeable battery for $20; finally, I bought the Afterburner kit for $35. That's $115, $55 of which didn't go to Nintendo (maybe a little less if the battery was done under license). With the new $90 box, Nintendo gets $30 more and the other two companies get bupkis...
Damn, Nintendo is SMART! :)
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