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Alternative GameCube GBA Adapter Launched
An anonymous reader writes "GamesIndustry.biz has the scoop that Datel will be launching an
alternative GameBoy Advance player for the GameCube, an unofficial third-party device that plugs into the memory slot of the GameCube. The Advance Game Port will be smaller than the official GameBoy Player, and play GBA games only, but is cheaper
(30 GBP) then the Nintendo version (40 GBP)." No word on US release, but it's interesting to speculate/dream that Datel could theoretically make devices to adapt other Nintendo systems to GameCube.
"its pocketable size is likely to make it very popular compared to the GB Player, which actually needs to be bolted onto the bottom of the GameCube."
Its a console. Its not meant to be carried around from room to room or house to house. Who cares if the player is the same size as the gamecube? For stuff like this I'll stick with official devices.
Virtual Boy on gamecube!!!!!!!
or not
if you want a picture of what it looks like, click here
The think I don't like about this device is that it will most likely be emulation instead of hardware. There no way something in the memory slot of the Gamecube could be playing a gba game and sening out video. I've had my share of shitty emulation already.
I don't really mind double posts on
Sacrifice GB/GBC support for 10GBP? I'd rather pay the little extra (~17USD) for the official product and have built-in support for all three systems.
If it's emulated instead of hardware, then perhaps it could also emulate more than one GBA at once, connected by emulated link cables. If so, I would switch over from the official device in an instant.
Additionally, with titles like Four Swords and Pacman Vs. coming out soon, you'll not want to stray from the official Gameboy Player hardware.
I can see the appeal price-wise, but with $10 separating the two devices, I'd stick with the official Nintendo kit. The one place I'd consider going third party though is with the new wireless systems. Nintendo's won't be backwards compatible with older titles. It will be an all-new connection protocol.
Triton Labs, maker of the Afterburner, announced a wireless connector for the gameboy that would emulate the existing link protocol, so all gameboy games would be able to be used wirelessly. This I'd LOVE to see enabled. I'm pretty surprised that Nintendo didn't follow this path for the new wireless support, they have a good history with the gameboy of legacy support.
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I just don't see a price difffrence of $10 bringing them too many customers.
Does this have any additional features over Nintendo's offering?
symetrix. We are building a religion, a limited edition.
If I were going to a friend's to play FFTA or Four Swords this still wouldn't work because of the lack of a link port. Plus, how would you use the e-Reader on this?
This is a VERY niche product that probably will see a few thousand sold and be a curiousity in five years' time...
Think of this... The Cube generates image, full 3D and all, something GBA plainly can't do. The card scales it down and broadcasts a'la TV. Then the card in GBA receives the image and replays it on the small screen. It also sends back the "joystick events" to the "server". True you're still tied to the wireless link range but, say, your boss at work will allow you to play GB in free moments (say, when there's no customers for a while) but a fully blown console is an overkill - so you hide GameCube in a drawer and "just play innocent Gameboy" :)
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I don't see any mention if this unit handles some key features.
1) Does it scale the image to fit the screen properly? The GBA Player leaves an annoying 1-2" border around the screen
2) Does is offer progressive scan like the Official Nintendo unit? If this is missing, forget it!
3) Does it require a special boot disk? This would truly be a deciding factor as I hate swapping to the GBA player boot disk
I first discounted the value of the game boy player when it was first announced and then bundled with the cube (having been a cube owner for quite some time now). I haven't purchased a GameBoy yet as I just haven't been compelled. Originally they were releasing "new" games for it, and lately they have gone all retro so I am not sure what to think. Anyway, enough with the rant about me.
This little news item got me thinking, if they can send that kind of cool emulation (be it hardware or software driven) through the memory port, along with the recent advances made by the cube hackers in making the network port more useful, the cube could certainly have some interesting innovations in the next while as they bust "open" the hardware more.
This still doesn't convince me to buy a player (I don't play much anyway, no big deal). But I do like the fact that companies are putting out different technologies that can be bolted together to make something cool. It will be interesting to watch as the cube scene continues to develop.
I know this is a bit off-topic, but since the games forum gets so little posts, hopefully it won't be too bad ...
Can anyone tell me what GCN is supposed to stand for when talking about Game Cubes? Best I can figure is Game Cube Nintendo, but that sounds silly. It seems like half of the folks use GC as the shorthand name for game cube, and the other half use GCN.
Just a curiosity I've been meaning to ask for a while now.
TV cards are already available for the GBA. Some have RF receivers; others have audio/video inputs. Check lik-sang.com for more.
Will I retire or break 10K?
That it's a software GBA emulator + an adapter that lets the emulator read the GBA game via the memory card slot converter. Naturally, all GBA games would work as normal since it's emulating the GBA via the GCN hardware.
:)
Unfortunately, as some others have pointed out, it doesn't have link features, the ability to use GBA player rumble features (on GBA player aware games), or the ability to play GB and GBC games (since they would require an emulator for different hardware).
A neat solution, but for the price difference, I'd rather have the first party solution. It uses real a GBA motherboard inside, plus more
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Tetra's Attackers and Pacman Vs. both work via GCN/GBA link cables, not GBA player. The GBA is the controller because it's linked to the cube; it boots via the link port. Unless you're actually say that you have 5 GameCubes, 4 GBA players, and 4 link cables all setup with 5 Tvs (1 GCN for the Pacman/Tetra + 1 GCN+GBA player for each controller port, etc)..
As for Triton Labs wireless link device, I've yet to see or hear anything on it beyond hot air. Nintendo has working demo hardware, even if they do require games to be aware of them. Considering that you have to compensate for potential lag, interference, and disconnects while trying to keep the GBAs in sync, I doubt the Triton solution (if they produce it) will give as consistent a performance as the Nintendo adapter.
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