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Nintendo Bundles GBA Adaptor With Gamecube
Thanks to a multitude of sites for pointing to a new Nintendo press release announcing they're bundling the Gameboy Player with the Nintendo Gamecube system, starting June 23rd. The Gamecube will keep its US price of $149 for this added-value deal. For those unsure about what the Gameboy Player is, the press release explains it's "..a platform less than an inch thick, which acts as a base for the Nintendo GameCube. By simply inserting Game Boy cartridges [GB/GBC/GBA] into a slot in the Game Boy Player, consumers can use their Nintendo GameCube controller to direct action on the TV screen."
How long before someone finds a way to use them as cheap ROM dumpers?
Gameboy SP? or Gameboy Advance?
I fought the corporate America, and the corporate America bought the law.
That is of course if Australia ever sees the bundle.
This certainly sparked my interest. With such an adapter I could play the games I bought for the GBA. Not only that, but for people with a flash card they can play their own made games on it too.
Most likely you can also use a GB-bridge to also play all your old games from the original gameboy on tv, that would be nifty.
Oh and of course, I could also play the great games from the Cube.
Dre
One great aspect of this is it will allow big-screen, front-room access to wonderful games like Advance Wars and its imminent sequel - games which have far more depth than the majority of PS2/GC/Xbox titles, but don't stand a chance of being released on any of the 'proper' consoles because they're 2D, "old school", blah blah blah. Hell, until its big brother shows up, Mario Kart Advance is flat-out the best 'fun' racer you can play on the current platforms. Yeah, that's like having a SNES in your front room (no bad thing), but a great game is a great game, just like a poor one is a poor one, regardless of poly count and shaders. Truth be told, this will probably lead to my GBA games taking up far more screen time than their GC shelfmates. Bonus.
Nintendo keeps talking about their grand Gamecube/Gameboy intergration plans, but honestly the whole thing is really just too gimmicky for me. Most of the uses that Nintendo has come up for this have seemed really forced - added to the game just to use the connection - rather than well thought out or beneficial to gameplay in any way.
In the new Zelda game, for example, you could use the Gameboy Advance connection to summon up a little flying dude that would drop bombs to uncover secret treasures. But you don't need to do it, and it adds nothing to the game experience.
I still think Nintendo has the coolest system out there and has lots of potential, but someone in the upper echelons of management needs to pull their head out of their ass!
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
The Game Boy Player is the piece of hardware that is going to be bundled with GameCubes, and it supports Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Color, and original Game Boy software.
No hacky GB-bridge type thing required.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, several (all?) stores have been bundling a GameCube with a game for $149.
For example:
http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/ads/shops/createabundle /gc/default.asp
The Gameboy player is definitely cool, but being I already have a GBA, I'd prefer the GameCube + Metroid Prime = $149.
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jason
Its up to you whether or not you would like the Player or a free game:m l
http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/030515/tech_nintendo_1.ht
Come on Nintendo. You know you could do it.
For some GB games (e.g. Kirby's Tilt and Tumble) part of the control method is literally to move and tilt the controller - of course, for the GB this means you're tilting the entire unit and in fact there is a tilt sensor in the cartridge itself.
How will this translate to the GameCube adapter? I wouldn't want to pick up, and tilt or shake anything that had an optical drive in it...
Does anyone know how much the Game Boy Player will cost when purchased separately? I like my Cube, but I'd prefer to not have to buy another one...
http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/categories/products/pro duct.asp?pf_id=233034
This is the same price as new games. So, basically this is the same deal as the bundled game deal I mentioned in my previous post:
http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/ads/shops/createabundle /gc/default.asp
Somehow, I'm a little disappointed, as I thought they would drop the price a little more. Regardless, I may still pick one up.
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Jason
This sounds a bit like a Super GameBoy on steroids. However, I suppose that it would be a lot more practical nowadays with GBC and GBA games. Original GB games didn't look all that great on the big TV with the SGB even with the small visual facelift it offered. GBA games don't suffer from that.
They don't want to make games unplayable without the GBA linkup feature.
However, especially in Animal Crossing, if you have the feature, you're in for even more wicked gameplay. A whole bunch of the connectivity they're showing (GBA as a controller, GBA 4 swords link to Cube, Crystal Chronicles, etc) looks like they thought about the games around the GBAs. Pokemon Collesium's probably going to really take advantage of it, not just as something that's cheaper and more reliable than ye olde N64 transfer pack, but as something that lets you monitor your Pokemon on screen without giving away details and strategies to other trainers.
They're just starting to get into their connectivity stride, the same way MS is just getting into the online stride. Sony's frantically copying both companies (online bundle, camera USB device.. which is funny, since Monster Rancher 3 lets you use Picture Paradise on Sony USB cameras), and might start to lose momentum these next 6 months. We'll see how the summer and fall turn out.
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Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
I hope this doesn't replace the "free game" bundle. Between them, Nintendo has a really great bundle going. With this instead of the free game, though, I think it would be a step backward. =/
Philip Sandifer's academic website
[PS2/Sony] might start to lose momentum these next 6 months. We'll see how the summer and fall turn out.
Your optimism is encouraging, but my guess is this: despite having the oldest technology and fewest unique features, the PS2 will still be the most heavily advertised console. Consumers, being what they are, will still flock to the one with the most ad placements and bright, flashing lights.
--Jeremy
Jesus was a liberal
Does the GB Player allow for GC/GB connectivity? For example, if I have Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Advance, can I transfer my Chao (tamagotchi raisable thingy) from a GB cartridge to the Gamecube game and vice-versa?
I think you can't, since apparently you need to boot up the GB Player with a special disk, so you couldn't swap to a GC game for transfer.
Can anybody who owns one of the Players confirm or reject this impression?
The ENIAC Demo Competition
How long before someone finds a way to use them as cheap ROM dumpers?
They already are. Just connect any GBA, GBA SP (with the light turned off; otherwise you get power issues), or GCN Game Boy Player to a PC with the MBV2 cable (which Nintendo still lets Lik Sang sell even after the lawsuit), and then exercise your Betamax fair use right with mb -1 file.gba -w 300. (Not available in Australia, whose copyright laws consider fair use a much narrower exception.)
Will I retire or break 10K?
The Game Boy Player, like any other GBA compatible hardware, does not support the original GB/GBC carts' analog sound connector. Thus Pocket Music for Game Boy Color won't run.
The Game Boy Pocket, Game Boy Color, and GBA don't have the original (large) Game Link connector. The Workboy PDA conversion kit requires this connector.
Will I retire or break 10K?
but I guess someone could write software to create four separate GBA sessions on a single GC
No. It's not emulated. There is only one piece of GBA hardware in the GB Player accessory.
The proper way to run four-player Mario Kart Super Circuit on TVs is LAN-party style. Get four TVs, four GameCube systems and four GB Player accessories (or four GCN/GB Player bundles), four copies of the game (most games artificially limit what is available with one cartridge), and a 4-player link cable. Then connect the link cable to each GB Player, making sure the short plug is in the GB Player that starts the game.
How do I know this? Anybody who reads Nintendo Power can be as knowledgeable about Nintendo's plans as alleged troll Dr. Samir Gupta claims to be.
Will I retire or break 10K?
How will [GBC tilt games] translate to the GameCube adapter?
Poorly.
That is, unless Nintendo adds a function to the driver disc that emulates the tilt sensor's signals using the C stick.
Will I retire or break 10K?