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."

Comments

GBA SP And The PSP

[Iammadmak]

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.

Re:GBA SP And The PSP

[Kris_J]

I've got a GBA and a GBAsp. The former is modified with a TV-out. On the whole, they're cool devices, but I haven't found a game for the GBA that pulls me away from Diablo2:LoD yet. That said, I have a friend who had to finish Golden Sun, then Golden Sun 2.

As a side note, much as I typically say that I enjoy 2D over 3D, I've been enjoying the simpler flat-shaded, minimal texture mapping 3D of such games as Super Monkey Ball Jr and Robot Wars: Extreme something...

Re:GBA SP And The PSP

[Daetrin]

Little do we know that Nintendo was collaborating with Sony on a way to make a handheld capable of using DVD disks so GameCube games could be played on it. Nintendo decided the idea wasn't feasible and dropped it though, leaving Sony with the prototype hardware...

Re:Bull

[Babbster]

The interview reveals that the SP started official development three months after they were done designing the GBA. However, he only mentioned that they were looking at doing a smaller GBA with the folding case. It seems that the light wasn't originally a part of the SP project but became so once Triton (a tiny company by any estimate) made it clear that people wanted it badly.

Game & Watch

[Traderdot]

The designer says:
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?

Headphone Jack

[Traderdot]

Many have complained about the lack of a headphone jack. Here's his answer from the interview:

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.

Re:Product Management

[matlokheed]

That and I'd imagine that those 80 gram adapters get lost fairly easily.