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Game Boy Advance Designer Talks Handhelds
Thanks to Gamepro for posting an in-depth interview with the man behind the Game Boy Advance SP, Kenichi Sugino. Interestingly, he mentions that seeing the Afterburner third-party backlight for the GBA "..reminded us of exactly how many users really wanted to see some kind of light in their Game Boy Advances. It was an impetus for us to devote the time to figuring out how to finally just do it." Also, asked about Sony's new PSP handheld, he offers: "As I mentioned before, a portable system isn't about features as much as it is about balance - the balance between capability and price."
Yes, the SP finally gives us what people have wanted since the original Game Boy- a backlit screen. So Why, oh WHY did they leave out the HEADPHONE JACK this time? :-P
Leave it to Nintendo to take a potentially perfect system and give it a near fatal flaw.
When their numbers dwindled from 50 to 8, the dwarves began to suspect Hungry.
I suppose it would be damaging to Slashdot's reputation to write Game Boy Advance properly.
Leave it to Nintendo to take a potentially perfect system and give it a near fatal flaw.
Look, if you really need it, there's at least one company manufacturing headphones with an integrated convertor thingy so all you need is the SP and those headphones.
Yes, it's stupid and annoying, and they should have caught it, but it's a small price to pay for actually being able to see something when playing the castlevania games.
I don't own a GBA but it does look appealing, with some games I would love to play, while the PSP seems to have only its hardware specifications to go on right now. I see no games yet, battery life, and launch titles. The N Gage looks awful to me because of how it loads games and the potential for 18 buttons for all games. Though I think the PSP doesn't have much to go on regarding software, I do believe that Nintendo shouldn't be complacent and be ready for the PSP.
Since I'm too lazy to google up a qualify this, take it with a grain of salt.
I read somewhere that the SP was in development before the advance hit the market. So if they had planned on the light beforehand, it would be pretty hard to see the afterburner and 'get inspired.'
That, and Nintendo knew they were juking all of us (myself included, I bought an advance the first week, and an SP the first week. However I love my SP so damn much I never leave home without it).
I don't really mind double posts on
Don't forget the work by Mr. Ocada & the rest of the RE&D Department
As someone who works in the computer industry doing product management / marketing (which, while it may not be self evident from the title is as much about funneling in customer requirements to the engineering team) and as someone who spent the money on the Afterburner kit for his and his wife's GBAs ... all I have to say it TTHTHthththtptpttltlthhthtTTHTHTPtT!
... the GBA is my way of making it through a long cramped flight. I need the backlight for all the lowlight situations I am in while flying. Guess where I need headphones the most? Guess where I have the -least- storage capacity while playing.
Someone in Nintendo needs a clue that they are losing on the adult audience (and we have quite a bit of cash to spend). If I had to guess, the persons who "forgot" how many of us wanted backlights were the same folks who decided that we'd be happy to buy an adapter just to be able to plug in headphones.
I'm an air traveller for work sometimes
Pheh.
It is more productive to voice thoughtful opinions (reply) than to judge (moderate) others.
WHAAA they didn't include a headphone adapter so I will whine now, WHAAA they didn't include a back/frontlight so I will whine now. Okay how about this GET OVER IT! Yes that's right, don't bitch and moan, it doesn't exist so move on! Go buy the freaking adapter and get off your high horse, but oh wait this is slashdot so instead of doing something about it we'll all sit here and whine FUCKING BRILLIANT! Besides if you would RTFA you would know that only a minority of users use the headphone jack I guess that SAME minority also uses linux, makes you think eh? So you'll bitch about Linux, bitch about this and bitch about that all you people do is bitch get the hell out of your parents basement and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! GAH okay this is my rant of the day just all the headphone bitching got me finally.
That was where the basic flip-top design came from. It's something that's never been done with game machines before, so I liked the idea right off.
Anybody remember the Game & Watch?
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Q: One of the main complaints people have about the SP is its lack of built-in headphone jack. What was the reason behind removing it?
KS: Well, you can use headphones with the SP if you plug in an adapter, of course. In the beginning we planned to include the jack, but from a purely physical standpoint, we just couldn't get it in. (laughs) If we put the port in, then that's that much cubic volume we can't use for other parts of the GBA. We were worried, of course, how people would respond to that, but when we looked at our research, we found that the percentage of people that use headphones with their GBA is actually pretty low. It's low, but there are people that use them, so we decided to build the system with the majority of users in mind and, at the same time, also accommodate the rest of the people that play it with the adapter. It was a compromise, you could say.
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I think the only thing missing from that system is the XYAB button configuration found on the SNES. That would have really made it a COMPLETE system.