The GBA's Last Stand
1up.com has a feature up examining the possible end of days for the Game Boy Advance. From the article: "...it would seem the end is nigh. Sony's PlayStation Portable offers PS2 level power and a beautiful screen next to GBA's humble, Super NES-quality experience. And Nintendo seems be placing its hopes on its quirky but successful two-screened DS. Rumors of a next-generation Game Boy system were crushed at E3 2005 with the unveiling of Game Boy Micro, a revised GBA selling on its stylish, compact design and beautiful (but minuscule) screen."
...which may work against Nintendo the same way the Atari 5200's 2600 compatibility worked against it.
I believe you're referring to the 7800 here. The 5200 did support 2600 games. However, you needed to buy a cartridge adapter as well as use 2600 controllers. This setup ended up costing about as much as a 2600.
I'll turn into a supernova and burn up everything. Well I'll turn into a black little hole and you'll turn into string.
The quote listed in the summary really has little to do with the content of the actual article. (Indeed, the first page has little to do with the rest of the article.) While the first page does seem to predict the end of the GBA, the rest of article is 5 pages of reviews/previews/hopes for upcoming GBA games. The final paragraph of the article reads: The Game Boy line is reaching the end of its road, at least for this generation. But between the Micro, the DS' backwards-compatibility and a slow trickle of quality software, there should be enough kick left in the system to keep the name alive until Nintendo chooses to unveil the Game Boy's true successor.
Clearly they are not predicting the demise of the GBA, rather the eventual end of that particular piece of hardware but the continuing support of the codebase.
You clearly haven't played Final Fantasy. Pushing the same button.(using the same attack on the default target) over and over again is generally a good way to get yourself killed.