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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.
4 buttons and a 4 way pad... writing notes on it might be a little tricky.
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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?
absolutely. My favorite game is still F-zero, and you absolutely *need* the L/R buttons on the top of the unit. Even if this new GBA has these buttons, the width of the unit is going to make accessing them awkward.
I don't read or respond to AC posts
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?
People want a backlit colour LCD? So that'll be why the Gameboy was a huge success, and the GameGear and Atari Lynx failed, despite both being technically superior, and having some great games.
Do you suppose this might have had something to do with battery life? As I recall, you were lucky to get a couple of hours out of the GameGear.
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."
It should be pointed out that the Gameboy Advance does some trickery to accomplish Gameboy Classic compatibility. It's both a software and hardware based backfall, and it's not perfect but it works well enough to cover the vast majority of the games.
;)
Still, if for some reason you feel the need to EMULATE a Gameboy Classic on a Gameboy Advance without resorting to it's built in capability then feel free to put your roms on a Flash Advance cartridge and run those Gameboy roms under GBonGBA. It's still slow and beta, and there's some question as to if it will ever run full screen, but then -- on future Gameboys, it just might.
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
What's wrong with frontlit? My PDA is a frontlit colour screen (like most these days) and it looks fine, and is easily readable in all but the most extreme circumstances. It also lasts much longer than it would if backlit.
---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"
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!
It has A, B, Start, Select (and one other button - probably on/off for the screen). The two shoulder buttons are on top. That's not really four "Face" buttons, since everyone was expecting X and Y to join A and B, like the SNES.
It should be easy to see that this is no change over the existing GBA. Nothing has been added here except for the screen ligth and a new form factor.
This means the rumors for the Clamshell Design, Lighting, and Smaller design are true. Just look at the picture here where you can clearly see the cartridge port. MAN that thing is tiny!
The rumors about 4 face buttons are obviously not true. At least, not with this upgrade.
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
if a disabled person wants front facing buttons, there's no reason he/she couldn't get his/her EE-ish friend to disassemble it, and move the shoulder buttons to a more accessable spot with some solder+wire in one of those radio shack project boxes. probably a 2 hour hack or so. parts and (probably free) labor would add maybe 20% of the cost to the box, which is a hell of a lot less upmark in price than a disabled computer system would run.
just curious, but what is an LP syndrome? louis parkinson's or somthing? my medical knowledge is weak at best. if you have a similar syndrome or somthing, get in contact, and i can probably build you somthing to use all the buttons easily for your GBA in a relatively compact case.
moox. for a new generation.
You read my mind. Find one of your friends who's into hacks like this (like me :) and get him to reposition buttons...typically, they're just momentary spst switches, which are easy to either move or replace or duplicate using parts from radioshack. If you want to go a little nicer, order some custom buttons off the web.
--trb
thats 4 X 16 = 96. woot!
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.
Worm Light is a nice add-on, but I was never able to deal with the glare. You'd always get this really hot spot of light near the top of the screen. If you play with the angles enough, you could get it so that it didn't interfere, but it always seemed a little half baked. Directable lamps are definitely the only way to go.
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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You reminded me of an old project that Nintendo had back in the 8-bit days, the nintendo hands-free controller. You moved a little ball with your chin to handle the direction keys, and sucked and blew on a straw for the A and B buttons. I never actually used one myself, so I can't say how you did start of select, or how long you could play the game without hyperventilating, but I was always impressed that they had made it at all. I wonder if they've tried similar projects for later systems?
"When will Nintendo realize that people want a backlit, colour LCD display."
What people want is a small game system that runs for hours on a couple of batteries with plenty of games. Backlit color LCD displays are only a consideration when the first goals are met.
Game Gear: Crappy color screen. Decent library. Not very portable and 6 AA's got you 3 hours of game play. System failed.
Atari Lynx: Crappy color screen. Not much in terms of games. Not very portable and 6 AA's got you a whopping 3 hours of game play. System failed.
Turbo Express: Best color screen ever on a portable. Good library of games. TV Tuner. High price. 6 AA's got you a whopping 3 hours of game play. System failed.
Neo Geo Pocket... Dare I continue?
Nintendo, the only company that has been successful with two portable systems is unaware of what people want?