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Special Famicom Edition GBA Revealed

Posted by simoniker on from the potent-geek-toy dept.

Tim Grube writes "Gaming Horizon is running a story announcing that Nintendo of Japan has revealed a special edition GameBoy Advance SP to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Famicom/NES. A total of 1000 will be made and will not be available for sale. Instead, they will be given away as part of a lottery if you purchase certain GBA games." IGN Pocket has more information, including a good picture of the unit, which sports the original maroon and white Famicom colors.

18 comments

  1. What does "Special Famicom Edition GBA" mean? by lightspawn · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Does it just have some kind of logo on it and has a different color, like the special edition pokemon etc. GBAs?

    Is it shaped differently? Like a Famicom, or a Famicom controller?

    Can it run Famicom games? Oh wait, all GBAs can do that.

    1. Re:What does "Special Famicom Edition GBA" mean? by TripleA · · Score: 1

      It's just the colour.
      http://pocket.ign.com/articles/428/428514 p1.html?f romint=1

    2. Re:What does "Special Famicom Edition GBA" mean? by lightspawn · · Score: 1

      It's just the colour.

      Well, does this even warrant a slashdot story?

      I don't recall any stories about the Biohazard (Resident Evil), Seaman or Hello Kitty special edition Dreamcasts.

      If you know what you're doing you can paint your GBA any color you like. It's probably more tricky with an SP though.

      C'mon guys, post links to your GBA casemods! you know you want to!

    3. Re:What does "Special Famicom Edition GBA" mean? by MaverickUW · · Score: 1

      It's the colors, and the fact that only 1000 of these will ever be made. Talk about instant collectors item for the winners.

    4. Re:What does "Special Famicom Edition GBA" mean? by nigelb · · Score: 1

      http://www.nintendo.co.jp/n10/fc20nen/index.html

      --
      Hob - Java Spectrum Emulator
      http://www.twinbee.or
  2. Yuck, ugly by Zed2K · · Score: 0, Troll

    Thats the ugliest thing I've ever seen. Special edition hardware usually looks pretty sweet, but I wouldn't want one of those (well except to sell it on ebay to all the suckers).

  3. NEStalgia by isaac · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now in order to fully replicate that NEStalgia, this special edition needs an extra-flaky cartridge connector that randomly stops working until you blow into it for 3 minutes. :/

    -isaac

    --
    I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. For Entertainment Purposes Only.
  4. pure genius. by andrew_dupont · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Great marketing strategy--giving GBAs to those who already have them.

    (Yeah, yeah, I know. Collector's item and whatnot.)

    I rather like the ugly little unit, actually. Bit of a nostalgia kick that only the Japanese can appreciate.

    1. Re:pure genius. by Daetrin · · Score: 1

      Well some of the games that qualify you for the contest are GameCube ones. In fact, one of them is Final Fantasy: Crystal Chonoicles, the buyers of which may need as many as four GBAs if they want all their friends to play.

      --
      This Space Intentionally Left Blank
    2. Re:pure genius. by I.A.N.A.T. · · Score: 0

      Bit of a nostalgia kick that only the Japanese can appreciate

      You're a dirty, dirty racist. Do you have a giant swastika tattooed on your forehead? I bet you wish you could have been Hitler's love-slave.

      --
      Just because the U.S. is the greatest country in the world doesn't mean we're superior...oh wait, yes it does.
    3. Re:pure genius. by Lord_Dweomer · · Score: 1
      "Great marketing strategy--giving GBAs to those who already have them"

      I know you were being sarcastic, but the pathetic thing is, for the largest of their target markets, this strategy works VERY well. To give an example: I was talking to my 12 year old brother about his GBA SP, and he said that he was getting another one. I was baffled as to why, wondering if it was new features or something. What was the reason you might be wondering? They were coming out with a new 'limited-edition' color. Yeah...I almost lost it and explained to him how much of a sheep he was, but there you have it, this marketing shit works.

      Its the same reason some kid will buy the new pokemon game, which is really just the same game, different color cartridge, and one or two bytes of different data for the 1 or 2 different pokemon in that version. I don't know WHY this marketing tactic works, I just know that it DOES work.

      --
      Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
  5. NES Colors? by FoxIVX · · Score: 3, Informative

    which sports the original maroon and white NES colors.

    Actually, it sports the original Famicon colors, white, marron and gold. Nothing to do with the NES, which looks NOTHING at all like a Famicon. The North American NES was grey/dark grey and bright red.

    1. Re:NES Colors? by FoxIVX · · Score: 1

      Well, it looks like the original post has been silently edited to reflect the changes I observed in my above post.

  6. GBA Casemods? by Thedalek · · Score: 1

    This makes me wonder: Why don't we see any GBA Casemods (and by casemod, I do not mean "paint job." I mean taking the GBA guts and putting them in another casing, preferrably one of your own construction) out there?

    I mean, the SP guts are obviously tiny. Most likely square-shaped. What about putting an SP in an old-style GameBoy brick? How about something that looks like a SNES cartridge, but unfolds SP-style? How about one that looks like an Atari Joystick? A mini-gamecube? The possibilities are there.

    --
    Happiness is relative, Based upon the way we live.
    1. Re:GBA Casemods? by nsda's_deviant · · Score: 1

      you know why the SP is so damn popular? because its the smallest GameBoy ever and it has a backlight. if you look at most gamebox mods, theyre done for size anyway. people try to fit mini itx consoles into NES consoles, 5 consoles into a big lian li case, playstation original onto a PSX controller. i love my SP especially because it easilly fits into my pocket, why would i ever want to stuff my pocket with something huge and clunky that just wouldn't fit? your suggestions about adoption arn't totally unfound, i've wanted to put my gamegear in my computer case and play it during boots but adopting an external controller has been really difficult

  7. Gamespy's "20 Years of Famicom" by mrpull · · Score: 1
    If you are a Nintendo geek (as I am), check out today's Famicom, 20 Years of Fun. It is the first in a 5 part series.

    Mr.

  8. I'm sorry... by hiroshi912681 · · Score: 1

    I've noticed Nintendo has been going retro here in the states and in Japan... check out the Japanese shirts: http://www.nesretro.com/shite/famicomshirts.html I've even seen Shigeru Miyamoto wearing the Donkey Kong shirt. In the states, you might find the retro shirts licensed by Nintendo in a Hot Topic. I really liked the one they did of just a plain screenshot of Donkey Kong... I shoulda got it while I had the chance (I own a DK machine, would've been a nice tribute =P). I'm sure alot of ppl have "issues" with the whole goth store, but it's the only local place to pick up Gameskins shirts.

    I really didn't like the famicom or nes colour scheme... but that's just me. I'm about to paint mine black with that new fusion paint from krylon. I'm sure if you really wanted to you could easily make a Famicom colour scheme yourself for your own GBA. It doesn't look that hard to do. Maybe it'd help to get a sticker made, something like http://www.gbamod.com/

  9. Wow by Kelz · · Score: 1

    That thing looks like the pimp-mobile from the third Austin Powers movie.

    Domo aregato, Mr. Nintendo.