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Game Boy Advance SP Sells 1.1 Million in U.S.
clu76 writes "An article at Business Wire indicates that Nintendo has sold 1.1 million Game Boy Advance SPs since hitting the shelves less than 10 weeks ago. The article goes on to say, 'The new model has sold at a rate of more than 10 per minute, non-stop, since launch.'
Two new colors of the popular handheld have also been announced: Flame (red) and Onyx (black)." I'd attribute this to the SP being the first Game Boy to have a screen that's viewable in total darkness, as well as not requiring batteries. Anyone got ideas for what to do with an old GBA?
Anyone got ideas for what to do with an old GBA?
I'll take it.
Yet another signature that refers to itself. The irony and humor is dead.
Give it to me?
Cypherpunks: Civil Liberty Through Complex Mathematics. Those who live by the sword die by the arrow.
Anyone got ideas for what to do with an old GBA?
Send it to me.
When the Backlight is on the screen gets all hazy from too much reflection and glare from it's own internal light. Also, let's not forget you have to pay extra to get a headphone jack. That extra accessory makes the GBASP a little less portable than the previous incarnation.
Send it to me! The NetBSD port is only a few days away. I could patch in a keyboard and a numeric coprocessor and a hard disk and wifi/wired ethernet...
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
"Anyone got ideas for what to do with an old GBA?"
:P
Boy, one would think the Slashdot editors had never heard of eBay.
Simpli - Your source for San Jose dedicated servers and colocation!
While I do like the GBA SP, and it's screen, I'm sticking with my GBA and AfterBurner ( http://www.tritonlabs.com/ ) internal light (which is in my opinion as good as the GBA SP light), just because I can't use the GBA SP without getting cramp.. I'd live nintendo to release a new GBA SP about 50% bigger, then those of us with larger hands (or it seems normal man-sized hands) can hold it without cramp!
Combination - fun iPhone puzzling
Here's a high-resolution picture of the two new colors. Unfortunately, you won't be able to buy one until September.
For more information, click here.
Get some rechargable batteries and a lamp. Use it. You'll live.
Or use your m4d h4XX0r1ng skilz and get an afterburner lighting kit for it.
-
ping -f 255.255.255.255 # if only
Very nice. So I guess it runs off the pure power of geek? Or have they nailed that whole zero point energy conundrum?
I had a sucky sig.
Yeah buy an afterburner kit and save yourself 75.00 (price of new sp - afterburner). If you aren't sure of your skills then get one from a guy who will also do the modding for you. You'll probably still be ahead by about 50$. I've installed 2 and the people I did it for had them for about a year. I think when they saw it afterward they wished they had bought the kit sooner. Also Lik Sang sells premodded cases in lots of colors if you don't mind soldering but are afraid of cutting your case a bit.
In Republican America phones tap you.
I think it would be intresting to see how many of those purchases where new or old gameboy users simply upgrading.
Why not run an open source web server on it? Or is that not in vogue anymore?
Was the picture of the red and black versions big enough? I mean really....
Whoever stated that signature sizes should be limited to one hundred and twenty characters can just go ahead and kiss my
No batteries, eh? So they finally accepted my idea for the nuclear reactor power pack...
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
My only real problem with it is that the hinge doesn't act as a switch. That seemed like a no-brainer to me. Close the GBA, it turns off. Instead we get a goofy little switch on the side.
Oh, and the headphone adapter. What the hell is up with that?
--
the strongest word is still the word "free"
"Anyone got ideas for what to do with an old GBA?" Yeah, donate them to the blind, since they don't need to be able to see the screens anyway.
Anyone got ideas for what to do with an old GBA?
Save it for use as a controller for your Gamecube for when Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles comes out. It's rumored to *require* a GBA for every player.
--Jeremy
Jesus was a liberal
I read the internet for the articles.
That is one badass big screenshot!
/.?
Honestly, who would link to a 2000px screenshot here, on
I'd attribute this to the SP being the first Game Boy to have a screen that's viewable in total darkness, as well as not requiring batteries.
Here I thought I was happy with my original GBA---and now I find out the new one doesn't require batteries!
Christian Jones
Medicine. Mathematics. Mediocrity.
I got mine back in March, shortly before I came to Japan.
To say the least, it's worth the money. Even more so if you (like I) owned zero consoles before it.
The thing lasts forever with the light on, and even longer with the light off. And it's very, very small. Only downside might be the attachment you have to buy for the headphone jack but the sound isn't really that important.
Nintendo did an awesome job with the SP. Now if only they had 4 buttons instead of just A and B...
With Nintendo pushing connectivity with the GameCube, I have commited the life of my original GBA as a controller for the GC. My SP is a little small to use for a controller for a console, and this way I don't have to hook/unhook the GBA every time I want to leave the house. I don't play the GameCube in the dark, so the lack of lighting is not a problem.
Those numbers seem a bit high, but what do I know.
I think EB locally, maybe even globally, was offering them for $49 with the return of your current GBA. Not a bad deal.
"This must be a Thursday, I never could get the hang of Thursdays."
I've been wanting to get a GBA SP for the longest time, but couldn't bring myself to buy a Silver or Purple one (yes, I know its officially blue).
Give it to a child you know and them start stealing his games that his mom buys him. also, when you are playing the child you can fiddle with the lighting and make it so he can't see the screen while you take him to school in some head-to-head action with the gameboy advance link cable.
Does anybody know if NetBSD has been ported to this yet?
At holding a good piece of hardware from the public until now. Why didn't the original Gameboy have these features? Why could these two versions at least have been released alongside each other? I realize they were probably going for a low-end market, but damn, talk about milking a dead cow.
I simply wonder how many they would've sold if they could keep up with the demand. It took me 3 weeks to get a GBA SP, and then I had to get the blue one (I wanted the silver one), or face another 2-3 weeks unless I got lucky (and no, I haven't seen a silver one in the ~1 week since I got mine). The worst part is that everyone I asked pretty much knew what I was going to say by the time I got the words Game Boy out of my mouth, but they had to wait for the SP because they have so many of the old GBAs on the shelf and would love to get rid of them.
Everyone pretty much said that they get a shipment of 12 of them every couple of weeks, 6 of each colour, although sometimes they come in seperate shipments. They also have no idea when they will receive them (except for a couple of the larger retailers like WalMart which gets more regular shipments, though the shipments are the same size).
-PainKilleR-[CE]
My hands are somewhat big and i find the grip on the SP model too small and awkward, the old model is a bit bigger, but with the afterburner, i actually think you're better off(the dimmer chip has different levels of intensity, and an auto-off feature, very handy if you leave it turned on because you can't save at that moment).
By the way, i think Nintendo has done wrong requiring an adaptor for headphones, because in both the old GBA and the SP the speaker is practically useless.
Exactly what do stats like this mean? I understand how you get that stat, I just do see the point. You trying to tell me that somewhere in the U.S. in the wee hours of the moring (lets say between 3am and 6am) that every 10mins in that range that a GBA is being sold?
70% of all stats are made up on the spot. 40% of everyone knows that.
It doesn't require batteries???. What does it run on... thumb power? I think they mean it now uses rechargeable batteries. http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/systems/gameboyad vance_sp/battery_faq.jsp
"Fighting for peace is like fucking for chastity."
A great man I know bought an SP and left his GBA at work for bored people to play (this is a receptionist job with very slow times). He is unto a god.
Save it. Final Fantasy: Chrystal Chronicles uses a GBA hooked up to your Gamecube as a controller.
Some people will shout that they did this just to sell more GBAs, but it all makes sense, really. A Final Fantasy where the game pauses every time one of four players need to change equipment?
This method also encourages you to talk to each other during the game, since you only see your own stuff and need to tell the other players that you're low on healing potions or whatever.
Leveling up builds character.
"Anyone got ideas for what to do with an old GBA?"
Mutter curses while throwing it in the dumpster on your way out to get the newest version, now with Tint Control®. Gotta stay on the bleeding edge you know.
Seriously tho, Toys for Tots or something along those lines would be a nice this to do with "out-dated" game systems, just make sure you pack the games with them.
I understand that the newest Gameboys have the backlit screen and are small and sleek and sexy but what games are driving the sales here? I haven't heard about a killer game for the Gameboy akin to what Tetris did for the original GB.
DID YOUR MOM SERVE YOU AN EXTRA HELPING OF DUMB TONIGHT?
Must be popular since it looks like both bestbuy.com and amazon.com have sold out of the units!
Visualize the world of wine
I've been in Japan since April 1st, and the black GBA SP is all over the place here.
I'm suprised Nintendo is waiting until September to release it in the 'states.
The red one is nice looking though. I'll stick with my silver though.
and the you'll be able to play mariokarts again. ahh mariokarts the best game ever invented.
I used to have a better sig than this, but I got tired of it
How does it run without batteries?
On the plus side, the original Xbox controller fit my hands quite nicely. :)
I hadn't realized that "red" and "black" were so last week that they couldn't serve as product color descriptors.
Add Linux and cluster like a mother f...
I'm sure we can hack a cable to string a thousand-odd GB/GBC/GBAs together.
Anyone willing to donate ten thousand AA batteries?
Ten a minute is one every six seconds, or how often the average male thinks about sex? Does this mean tha GBA is on its way to replacing sex? NOOOO.
Nail it to a picture frame, with the caption "If you are going to be an early adopter, occasionally you are going to throw away your money".
We need waterproof GBAs!
Now you're playing in the shower...Nintendo shower!
--
the strongest word is still the word "free"
The GBA has the advantage that it is a very easy machine to do home development on. Grab yourself a flash cart and get going. I should put some references in now.. instead I'll just say any of the top ten links from goodle under "gba development" are good. If you can't be bothered to search for it deving is probably too much hard work for you.
Combination - fun iPhone puzzling
I'd attribute this to the SP being the first Game Boy to have a screen that's viewable in total darkness
What about the Gameboy Light?
Put Linux on it and make a Beowulf cluster of them.
How many hours of gameplay do you get out of a set of batteries ?
http://www.intellipool.se/ - Intellipool Network Monitor
Yeah, install an afterburner kit with the stealth dimmer switch. Sadly, I tried it and fsck'd up prying the screen from the faceplate (I cracked the LCD). I still have the kit, but I'm too lazy and enjoying the new gameboy I bought to replace the one I lost to bother attempting it again. I know about this place but when you count shipping and labor, the price is steep.
Do not read this
Get a flash loader and use your old GBA as a MAME machine. Or web server. Or MP3 player with any headphones. Theres a TV tuner and a FM radio tuner as well built for the large body GBA. And with AV Out on it, you can use your GBA to play all your MP3s or wmvs on any TV or stereo. And with Nintendo's quality craftsmanship, it'll last until your grandkids are ready to play! How many tech devices have that type of reputation?
Eh? Mean extra batteries?
Amazing how Nintendo can continue to dominate the handheld gaming market year after year. One of the major points about a gameboy (be it the original or the new advaced ones) is that they don't suck down the batteries like some of the other flops (gamegear? could you even play all the way through a game without having to swap batteries).
Funny how the basics of what someone would like in a mobile device really help sell it. Maybe some of these pda companies should take note.
-Eod
Save it for use as a controller for your Gamecube for when Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles comes out. It's rumored to *require* a GBA for every player.
I love Nintendo as much as the next guy, but if that were true I would certainly hope it didn't turn into an industry-wide practice for lots of games. No doubt such games would have their market, but I don't know how long folks would be able to swallow having to buy several very different units before going "Hey!"
The coolest voice ever.
I quickly glance at this post and all I see is "...playing the child... you can fiddle... some head-to-head action..."
ewwwww....
[SIG] It's like putting a moose in the blender -- a recipe for disaster!
I'd suggest an old standard, but it's too small for a fish tank...
Well, maybe a fish tank for microbiotic sea life...
Dark Nexus
"Sanity is calming, but madness is more interesting."
You've got it all wrong!
:)
:)
Say that the average male thinks of sex once every 6 seconds (i dont know the actual stat). Assuming there are 6,000,000,000 people in the world, of which 3,000,000,000 are men, then in every period of 6 seconds, there are on average 3,000,000,000 thoughts of sex that occur. That means, there are roughly 500,000,000 million sex-thoughts per second.
Compare that to 1 GBA sp sold every 6 seconds
Don't worry, sex is still WAAAAY ahead
Alex
I guess this means we're not being left behind again. I've got my black one right here and I'm pretty sure red is available - both since their UK launch.
I haven't felt this honoured since Silent Hill 3 turned up... or when we got the English version of Shenmue II.
Yay, go UK!
[)amien
The APA reports that ADD/ADHD cases have increased at an astounding rate... ...Educators worldwide report a drop in GPA... ...President G W Bush has not been available...
Returned Peace Corps IT Volunteer
Actually, it says right here that it uses a lithium ion battery. 10-18 hours. Finally someone got the right idea. :)
Imagine a beowulf cluster of all the old GBAs..
Flame away...
hmm in the spirit of past hacks..
port winCE on to it?
Don't Tread on OpenSource
Why, turn it into a web server, of course. There was an earlier slashdot article on it here . I mean, what better use for a game boy advance than a web server, especially now that it's replacement has arrived.
There's no sig like SIGSEG
"I'd attribute this to the SP being the first Game Boy to have a screen that's viewable in total darkness, as well as not requiring batteries."
So it is some kind of perpetual motion machine, working off the sweat and fat of its owner?
Why not donate the old GBA to a less-fortunate child? Not every thing has to be about "What's in it for me".
I leave a GBA in the bathroom in place of a messy magazine rack.
. . . not such a great indicator for future productivity of males between the ages 3-21 years.
It's only funny until someone gets hurt. Then, it's hilarious.
Never mind about what to do with an old GBA, what to do with an old original (yes, the original GB) and also the Game Boy Color?
Nintendo intentionally released the non-lit GBA first so people would buy two GBA's. I'm happy with my GBA and I certainly don't intend to buy one twice.
Install your own internal light, and use rechargable batteries. Run the batts dead, swap in a new pair. The SP users are tethered to the cord until the internal battery charges.
Our family has all 3 (no original, but GB, GBA, GBA/SP) - The SP has a nice form factor, but with the afterburner in place, the GBA is also very nice, and in fact the button positions make it a little nicer for gameplay. Doesn't fit in the pocket as well, is all.
In never fails to impress me with how excited people get over these "innovations" in portable gaming. Those familiar with the turbo express have been enjoying a complete backlit screen with 16 bit (heh....here we go) graphics in slick black package for years. The turbo express also boasted a tv tuner and the ablility to share games with the standard console, a feat so impressive you actually have to see the Hu Cards to believe.
My beloved street fighter 2 even looked better on the turbo express than it did on the genesis (64 colors on screen at once, yuk)...if only you could get used to hitting select to alternate between punches and kicks.
You can usually spot one on ebay for around 100 bucks, a few games included...
Can't wait for Advance Wars 2 btw, Advance Wars was a hell of a lot of fun. Besides the games it's easy to code for, and just an all around fun little machine.
I'm the big fish in the big pond bitch.
"I'd attribute this to the SP being the first Game Boy to have a screen that's viewable in total darkness"
That is not true, the GameBoy Light was the first GameBoy to work in the dark. It was Monocrome Indiglow screen.
Check it out here:
Play games on it?
Sell it on eBay?
Christ! What's Slashdot coming to?
It's been like 45 minutes with no penis joke posts...
Any sufficiently well-organized Government is indistinguishable from bullshit.
Anyone got ideas for what to do with an old GBA?
Give it to an unemployed computer scientist.. i happen to know a few..
is that it solves all the problems of the original GBA.
I would have got the original GBA, but I'm hard on my hardware, and screens get scratched. The "clamshell" design of the SP solves that problem.
I also hate buying batteries or battery packs. The SP solves that with an internal Li-Ion battery that lasts as long lit as the GBA could go on a set of alkalines without a light (ten hours) and longer unlit (eighteen hours).
The Castlevania games that every review site ever said "Get a halogen lamp and don't move while playing this" are no longer valid now that the SP has an even front-light (that does make the screen a bit bluer, but still very playable). I don't have to go third-party (sketchy) or trust my own skills (sketchier) to avoid getting dirt in the screen when installing a light.
It's also small. I've got enough crap in my pockets (cell, keys, PDA, etc etc) that I needed something a bit smaller than the GBA. At three inches square, the SP fits the bill.
Yes, the lack of a headphone jack is annoying, but I can play without sound and rarely lose anything. Unfolded, the form factor's similar to the original Game Boy, and I can play it just fine. I guess I have small girly hands. Lucky me.
The SP is replacing old GBAs ("MOMMY MOMMY BUY IT FOR ME" is a popular one, but far from all) and is increasing the userbase to adults who can drop a hundred bucks on a toy. I just wish they'd premiered with all four colors - I would have preferred black to silver. Oh, I'm sorry. ONYX to PLATINUM.
Dare to Hope. Prepare to be Disappointed.
Anyone got ideas for what to do with an old GBA?
How about just an old GB, spinach green style.
FYI, at E3, Nintendo had a display of Gameboy SPs in pretty much every color of the rainbow. I'm sure you can find photos of this online. So if you want a particular color, be patient.
It striked me that what nintendo should do, now that the old gameboy upright form-factor has been brought back, is to release a version of the GBA SP with the "classic" grey-with-red-buttons colouration of the original gameboy.
I'd buy it just for the nostalgia...
Check out this guy
http://come.to/6955
He does performances using several gameboys wired to some custom equipment
Anyone got ideas for what to do with an old GBA?
I'll take it.
Imagine a cluster of those....
The package said "Windows XP or better. Pentium Class Processor or better"... So I got a Mac with OS X
It says that you can recharge your SP up to 100 times before the Lithium Ion battery goes dead. So my question is where do you get another battery? I don't believe any of the stores are selling them.
-Dipster
Anyone got ideas for what to do with an old GBA?
In fact, came in quite handy this weekend while I sat in the server room watching the transfer of all our corporate email accounts from an old to new server.
EB had a trade-in offer to upgrade to the GBA-SP. You won't get anywhere near full value but then you won't have to pay full price for the upgrade.
They're annoying as hell, they don't sound that great... the only thing they have going for them is they're cheap.
But they're the worst. Bottom of the barrel. Last resort.
Afterburner. Google for it.
Takes about 1/2 to install if you're not stupid and clumsy.
I put in 2, one for each of my kids. No plans to go SP, since the form factor looks great but is a PITA.
What is the deal they improve everything but remove a good thing. My kids have an old GBA and the head phone jack is the only reason I let them play it near me. Nintendo screwed up big time by removing that.
I have had one since the ~30th March 2003. Nothing new :)
I do live in the uk which probably makes the difference.
chris at darkrock dot co dot uk
http colon slash slash www dot darkrock dot co dot uk
I picked up a silver one 2 weeks ago along with a bunch of games and it absolutely rocks. I never played my old gameboy as much as I have been playing this new SP one.
I am in awe at how good the screen is now with the light. You can turn the light off if you want but I don't see how people played the old GBA without a light, its impossible. I was hoping to wait for a black one but got tired of waiting when nothing was announced at E3, oh well.
I found mine at Best Buy, they had a bunch in stock. If you really want one go to someplace like ebgames.com. Amazon doesn't have any and you can't order it online from best buy, circuit city or comp-usa.
Why not add PIM capability to GBA? Or GBC? I tried to find such thinking but no Google-luck. PIM's are stupid-expensive.
... how many of those were advance Advance sales? ;-)
I have a floodlight attachment which I use for light when I need it (which isn't too often for me. Sure, the new one might be better for this, but it doesn't bother me too much...
also...the whole battery thing doesn't appeal to me...two batteries that last 15+ hours is perfect to me (well, 40 hours on the neo geo pocket was better)...I rather be able to put in 2 more batteries than wait for it to recharge...especially on the road (where you use a portable).
I'm sure I will get an SP at some point...but not for awhile.
Also remember that with the GBA SP in the market, you can get the regular GBA at a lower price, meaning it's now easier to get those four GBAs to play The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords or Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles and enjoy multiplayer madness.
There are many reasons to get a GBA and a Gamecube too, the connectivity shown in the two systems with great titles like Pac-Man is just awesome, I played it myself at the last E3 and I was amazed how such a simple idea could breathe life again into a 23-year old game.
Nintendo is pushing the connectivity very strongly as it is the only market advantage it has over Microsoft and Sony, and the gameplay ideas are getting better by the minute.
I wouldn't be surprised if in the next generation Sony tries to do the same with the PSP (they already tried with the Pocketstation), however, price may be an issue with the high specs announced for that machine. So, at least for now, it's easier to try and get more than one GBA and enjoy some of the innovative gameplay designs today.
- Otaku no naka no otaku, otaking da!!!
Give it all the features of the GBA SP.
Install (or have someone install) an Afterburner, and you've got the SP's front-lit screen.
Purchase a battery pack (preferably one that installs into the GBA battery compartment) and you've got the SP's lack of AA/AAA batteries.
Slashdot geeks propably want to run the GBA Web Server on it. :)
Well, the Ghostbuster proton packs came out just under 20 years ago. You'd think they can get that power source down to handheld size by now.
This post sponsored by Ninja Burger. "
Nanoloop
Little Sound DJ
Other stuff under development
I guess since everybody is being negligent in discussing the cool hacking opportunities for your GBA/GBASP I guess I'll have to step in.
First of all there is a huge development community out there to get you started. Lots of libraries, utilities, and best of all, an ARM GCC port http://devrs.com/gba/
And the ultimate in GBA hacking, the XPort. 16mb of more RAM, 16mb of flash, and a programmable FPGA make this in my opinion the coolest thing you can do with a GBA. Plus it's so affordable how can you NOT get it? http://www.charmedlabs.com/
Second, forget Linux, it's too hefty. You may be able to do it with uncompressed flash and XIP, though. Who cares, here is a eCos port, though, from the same fine people who brought us the XPort. http://sourceforge.net/projects/gbaxport
(I don't work for Charmed Labs, but they make such a cool product I wish I did. ;] )
I traded mine in at Electronics Botique and got $45 toward the SP. Yay! I'm happy.
Speak for yourself.
I've tried Costco
Like everyone else, it shows on the site but it's not in the stores and if you order it, it's backordered for weeks.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
speaking of moron colors how about ./'s games section
Nothing beats the theme music for Atarisoft...
Atarisoft, Atarisoft, Atarisoft, Atarisoft...
RB
----------
ah honey, we're all resplendent - Bill Mallonee
Just get a link cable and a flash rom cartridge, then put your paws on (opensourced) PogoShell and... whoah! :)) I am italian, and it's a pleasure to read tons of english books without having actually to find them in bookshops! And it's perfectly legal, too, for "classics"...
It also had an front lit screen. And it was released in the USA, just very low amounts.
~ Maintainer of the Skajake Projects
Just imagine a Beowulf cluster...
... Make a beowulf cluster of'em!
Surely someone has figured out a way to link together a mixed network of Gameboy, Gameboy Color and Gameboy Advances into a Beowulf cluster.
to set up a torrent for the picture ;)
Anyone got ideas for what to do with an old GBA?
Well, it is theoretically capable of running Linux... naturally, somebody's got to suggest a Beowulf cluster.
--
viqsi - See "vixen"
If we do not change our direction we are likely to end up where we are headed.
...the Gameboy Advances have amazingly crappy screens. My GP32's screen is 50% larger, has an antireflective coating reducing glare to almost zero, and is much brighter than my GBA - if there's enough light to read, there's enough light to use it. Why can't Nintendo manage this?
So it took Nintendo all these years to get a portable unit out what's as functional as the Atari Lynx which was released in 1989? "Viewable in the dark" and it's even in color too! Sorry, I had to laugh.
It just proves the old axiom that the greatest technology can be destroyed by inept marketing or a much larger marketing campaign.
-V
http://www.ncsx.com/ncs0420/goldgb.htm
Nintendo released the GameBoy Light in Japan. It featured an Indiglo-style backlight.
Needless to say, it tanked.
The Human Cow - bringing you scrumtrelescence since 1995
Sell it along with all your games and download the entire romset and an emulator as thanks to Nintendo for rendering their classic GBA deprecated. Gotta tell ya, Boycott Advance 0.28 works damn near flawlessly.
- IP
When I bought my GBA SP at Electronics Boutique, I traded in my old GBA for $35 and my old GBC for $5.
Look at the size of your Wavebird, and look at the size of the GBA [SP], and it should be clear why this isn't going to happen any time soon. The Wavebird's hardwave for communication is so large they didn't even put rumble into it, a standard GC controller function.
Sure, there are ways to narrow down the transmitter, but you're still introducing the chance of intermittent problems with an external device that the game expects to be there.
It's one thing for the Wavebird, it only talks to the GC, but the GBA link enables two-way communication. When your wavebird dies from battery power, what happens? You pause the game with another one, and replace the batteries. When your GBA runs out of power, most games cause an error that says "you're done, reset the box." It's simply not designed to lose the connection in any way.
So naturally, if you wanted to play it on the big screen, you could wire in a simple composite or S-Video output, say a mini plug that comes with a connector adapter?
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
Here are my predictions for Nintendo's upcoming improvements to the Gameboy:
1. Organic LED Screen: extremely power efficient, so you can play longer without a recharge.
2. Bluetooth: This would allow adhoc LAN parties, without having to lug around cables and HUBs.
3. Analog Joystick: This will allow for better control in 3D games, and open up more possibilities in 2D games.
4. More Memory, Faster CPU: These are obvious improvements.
5. Wireless (i.e. Mobile) Internet: This one is the farthest off because in order for it to work, it will have to be trouble-free... something that wireless internet access is not! It will eventually happen, but not until we see at least a few more iterations of the Gameboy system.
It isn't worth getting an SP, honestly. I modded my old GBA with the Afterburner, and I like it better than the light on the GBA SP. The one thing that irritates me is that now we get the red - the color I actually wanted - when I already own the black. :(
I don't want the new AGB. An Afterburner looks just as good as the official frontlight (it's not a backlight, folks.) The battery pack can be bought for $15 as an accessory. The SP is too small for big hands, and has no headphone jack.
I wouldn't buy an original AGB at this point; modding isn't a particularly good answer for many, but this is slashdot, so why throw things away?
StoneCypher is Full of BS
1.1 million in 10 weeks is nothing.
The original GameBoy and GBC series sold an average of 1.75 million every 10 weeks sustained over TEN YEARS! Sure that's comparing worldwide sales to a US-only 1.1 million, but think how high the sales rate must have been in the strongest 10-week period.
Keep it, damned! In a few years it will be worth more than the new one. It's how these things go: the original Jaguar E-type is the most coveted one, the original "breadbox" Commodore 64 is the one that has some value, unlike the newer Commodore 64-II (flat box), The Apple 1 motherboard is much more valuable than any Apple II, and the original Apple II is more valuable than the IIc or IIgs, and finally, the Sinclair Zx-80 is MUCH more valuable than the newer ZX-81. Etc etc etc....
Newer and improved technical goods almost always have less value as collectible items, than the models that entered the market.
Sigged!
L and R are there, too. That's 4. 6 if you count start and select.
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Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
Personaly I like the import Orange but there is also Pearl(White). Both are limited numbers but I am willing to pay the extra price to have the Orange one since its my favorite color.
i am we todd did... i am sofa king we todd did
The built-in lighting, rechargeable battery, and folding design are definitely worth the $30 over the regular version.
However, the thing still has a screen that's too small to do proper justice to classic arcade games. Just take a look at the retro game packs. Galaga and Centipede are quite playable on the tiny screen. With Ms. Pac-Man your choices are a maze too small to see or play in, vs. readable graphics for only HALF a playfield!
I suspect this is a matter both of resolution and of physical screen size. I'm not sure what market there would be for a portable intermediate in size between a GBA and a laptop computer. I do know that while this thing's CPU can run rings around my old Atari 800 XL's CPU, the Atari is in some respects the better platform.
A gameboy was made available in the UK and Japan that resembled an old-school Gameboy Pocket and used an indiglo panel to illuminate the screen. Pic of said Gameboy is here: http://www.toysnjoys.com/gb/gb_indiglosilver.html
Took out that tiny speaker and replaced it with a cable with 2 RCA connectors at the end, now I plug it into my suround sound and play Pokemon with surround sound MIDI music. Why did I do this? meh, needed something to do.
There was a version of the Game Boy Pocket called the Game Boy Light, which the same as the Pocket but had a backlit scree.
hi
In one of the magnetic poles?
With any direct lighting the screen is not visisble. But this is the case with any appliance, but to state that one can see under any lighting conditions is not true.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
That is the excuse of panzies.
Women will run away from you if you are using an old GBA.
Yestearday a very sexy lady climbed into the train and sat in front of me, I was playing with my GBASP and I kid you not, she was stearing at me all the time. Then she crossed her leg and began to casually rub her foot against one of my legs.
She freaked out when she show my weeding ring, but I am telling you, the GBASP does not look stupid when you use it.