Slashdot Mirror
GPS for GBA
Grey Ninja writes "I just came across a preview for a new gadget that's going to be demoed at E3, which is a GPS and map attachment for your GBA. It should be mentioned that you can pre-order now and get $50 off. " I can't imagine very many useful applications for this, but it sure is nifty.
Except that the GBA's GPS product is $250! It's a neat idea, but for that money I'll just go buy a dedicated GPS unit. It'll probably outlast my GBA and there will come a time when I won't care to tote my GBA around and play games on it anymore - whereas my GPS unit would probably have a constant place on my hip.
Tarsnap: Online backups for the truly paranoid
It's about as useful as... any basic handheld GPS unit. I don't have much use for one myself, but a fair number of people seem to.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
Why? A few reasons...
1) Technical and usability superiority over all direct competitors.
Face it - no other portable game system has been able to go toe-to-toe with the game boy and win. The series has good design, a large library, and no 'major' design flaws (the screen on GBA was the closest, and it wasn't bad enough - compared with Game Gear (eat through 6 AA batteries in an hour or so) or Neo Geo Pocket (suprisingly poor screen, hooks up to a dead game system, no games available.)
2) Marketing
Nintendo knows the portable game market. They know what game to push for, which ones will flop, how not to frustrate gamers, where the money is. They have a huge library that they keep expanding - not just getting new games made, but getting them on salesfloors and in people's hands.
3) Price
Those gaming PDAs are really nice, and I'd kill for one. But, unlike a GBA SP, which is $100 (unless you're savvy, in which case it's $80), the Zodiac, etc. are very expensive ($200+) and most parents don't want to spend that much on features that won't be used. And regular PDAs? Pshaw! They don't have the sound hardware for it - it's harder than just playing an MP3.
Notice that while the GBA has huge numbers of potential competitors, none of them can compete. I imagine that if Nintendo were to collaspe, you'd see five different systems in the portable gaming market within a year.
Maybe, maybe not. There are a huge set of assumptions if it can.
One of the key challenge for the location based services (via mobile phone and/or gps) is the tedious management of access groups and permissions.
It has to do with privacy issues essentially.
A simple scenerio is - the owner of their location information have the full ownership on how they want their location information be shared, and with who.
However, like many other services, location based services, for example, tracking, is usually done with a third party involved - acting like a proxy agent, and as such must have certain permission set from the owner of the location information.
To make things more challenging, we can add another role, by having a guardian over the owner of the location information.
And the quick question now is - who owns the location information? The owner of the location information or the guardian of the owner? There are no easy answers.
Anyway - nowadays, knowing where the kids are is a _willing_ mobile phone call away.
Hey, that's my password you are typing
So far the majority of comments seem to be negative and describe the unit as junk, but despite my having no interest in owning any gameboy unit, this combo inrigues me - a hand-held GPS unit with (gasp!) a useful, legible map display - very nice, and a very smart way of accomplishing it. This is a product I'd consider.
Perhaps those commenters deriding the effort haven't bothered to read the site - that's just my speculation, but it wouldn't surprise me - oops, now I'm getting into flaimbait territory.
RTFM; please, I beg you.
$200? I can get a *VERY* nice GPS unit for a lot less.
It seems to me that add-on gadgets for PDA's or the GBA should be *CHEAPER* than stand alone versions. They don't have to include the screen, buttons or in some cases a CPU.
Why do add-ons cost *MORE*?
So buy a Garmin iQue.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
It would be especially good if all the products would be featured in separate stories!
However, where mobile gaming is concern, I think GBA is quite behind other players -
Not to try and actively bash you here, but as far as general market data and public opinion appears, you are in a microscopic minority.
By way of an example or two, the hardware sales for the GBA and GBA SP combined are outstripping even the PS2 in both the US and Japan.
Contrary to what you may think by browsing some of the bigger gaming message boards, many people play the system/games they do because it's FUN, not because it has the most neato whiz-bang technical specs.
N-Gage, for example, although criticised, is actually a better platform for mobile gaming, with possibilities like bluetooth gaming and over-the-air gaming.
If you overlook all the other glaring, horrible flaws it has, maybe. Nokia is supposedly going to/has redesigned the thing, but at this point there's a mountain of negative publicity and public opinion to overcome.
And even then, simply having wireless capabilities does not make it a better platform - I understand that Nintendo will soon be releasing ( in the US ) a 2.4 Ghz wireless adapter, packaged with the Pokemon Fire Red and Leaf Green remakes.
Just go to Target and pick up a Garmin.
Less money and smaller total size.
And it works.
This company have are betting that people will pay roughly TWICE the price of a standard GPS unit purely for the novelty of being able to use their Gameboy.
Yet another company that just Doesn't Get It.
Seriously, someone should set up a forum where clueless, middle-aged marketing men can float their pricing strategies before shooting themselves in the foot like this.
Backpackers and other travellers
Why would a backpacker want to deal with water damage and fragile connections? For about the same price, get a handheld map GPS that is waterproof and floats. I use a handheld GPS.
LOL... the parent's use of the word "backpacker" is different from what we who actually get into the backcountry and away from civilization. We call those with backpacks "travelers" and those with suitcases "tourists". Well, whatever you call them, it's highly unlikey they will need something waterproof; a ziplock baggie will keep the GBA dry if they have to wander the streets while it's raining. With some extra air in the baggie, it'll even float; just in case you drop the thing overboard while taking a boat down the Seine...
-- If god wanted me to have a sig, he'd have given me a sense of humor.