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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.
Now all someone needs to do is port Linux to it, and it'll make a nice little PDA.
Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
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)?
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.
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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.
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?
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).
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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.
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Here is a decent picture of the new unit next to the old unit
Blah Blah Blah.
Are you joking?
This is videogaming we're talking about. Legacy support is one of the most important features you can offer. The Playstation 2 owes a large portion of its success to its ability to play the massive library of existing PS1 games. Ditto for the Game Boy Advance. What's more, Nintendo would have to be insane to release an entirely new handheld system with an entirely library of completely incompatible games so hot on the heels of the wildly successful GBA. Introducing a new game format without legacy is a certain death notice for the old format(games are still developed for PS1, but there are no developers i know of working on the N64). The backlash from angry GBA users would be deadly to Nintendo.
Even if what you are saying is true and including legacy support limits your ability to progress in unexplored directions(and i'm not admitting it does until you show some pretty convincing evidence. I see no reason why an entirely new format couldn't be defined and then have an emulator which runs the old format inside the new scheme. Considering that each new console generation includes large hardware advances it is a necessary truth that games in the previous format will be less demanding and so emulation is a viable option). Even then, providing legacy support would still be the right choice in the video game industry. Now that Sony has pushed the envelope, I doubt you will see many future consoles without legacy support.
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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.)"
Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
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.
As a GBA owner I can confirm that the screen sucks in many situations. Poorly lit hotel rooms (and I've been in a few), train corridors, cars, outside in the evening.
I'm sick and tired of being told that there isn't a problem with the screen, and that it's fine in good lighting or in sunlight. This is a *portable* gaming system - it should work where *I* go. I shouldn't have to go where it works.
Afterburner was a neat solution, but to have things addressed by Nintendo directly is even better. I'm looking forward to picking up a GBA with a screen that actually allows me to play Castlevania without a full lighting rig.
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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!
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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The cross pad has a pin in the middle such that you can have at most two contacts closed at one time