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Games Entertainment

Nintendo Gameboy Advance, In Advance 161

Posted by timothy from the first-temptation dept.
IEEE1394 writes "The Gameboy Advance is due to be released in North America on June 11, 2001. Many reviews of the Japanese units have been done, but I haven't seen one of the North American unit. Futurelooks has snagged a unit and some games recently and has done a thorough review of the unit. Hopefully this will help some of you folks figure out if you should run to your closest Circuit City in the U.S., or Futureshop in Canada to buy it. For a hundred bucks, it's a steal, so you know I'm there! Check it out!" Now if only that screen was touch sensitive;)
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Nintendo Gameboy Advance, In Advance More

Nintendo Gameboy Advance, In Advance

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  • Re:Gameboy Advance in San Fran (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Played one at a Toys R Us in SF also. Was similarly unimpressed... but true, may just be that it was "Mario" :)

  • StrongArm CPU + 4 Player Link Cable (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    World's smallest Beowulf cluster?

    In all seriousness though...I give it, oh, a week and a half before someone ports Linux to the thing.

  • Re:Didn't pan out for the dreamcast... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    A few games do things; but the screen is too small to be useful. The GBA will give a much better resolution.

    NBA 2k1 has a nice feature: it shows the current fatigue of the guys you have on the floor, number of timeouts and other useful things.

  • Re:And SDKs? (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    That would be nice, but luckily hobbyists can use gcc and friends to build stuff for GBA. Check out gbadev.org [gbadev.org] for info. There's also plenty of homebrewn demos and source to try out.

  • Few other bad things ... (Score:3)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 04, 2001 @05:19AM (#178536)
    You cannot simply 'add' a backlight. A backlight is BUILT-IN to the display BEHIND it, so it gives a very nice lighted display. What you need to buy is simply a LIGHT, which if anyones played with a regular color game boy is TERRIBLE. They cause glare all over the screens and you're usually left there not playing the thing at all until you're in the perfect lighting condition, or doing odd controtions with your head to get the right angle to view it. A very very bad move on Nintendos part here. While it may eat up batteries, they could have had a button to turn the light on and off, and it also has an AC adaptor which you can just run it out of the wall anyways (This is how everyone I knew played their gameboys anyhows.. )

    Also, they dont seem to have a VIDEO OUT on the thing anywhere! Everyone would LOVE to be playing these new 2d games on their TVs rather than on a dinky screen. Nintendo doesn't realize that their market is capturing 2D side scrolling game fans that are SICK of todays 3D blandness. We're foaming at the mouth for another 2d color Zelda, Metroid, Kid Icarus, Mario, Mega Man, Castlevania etc ..! We don't want a 3D system! We want another 2D system! And this is a step UP from the SNES, so it's all good in our books!

    Good job on having it backward compatible with old gameboy games, though! The price is pretty cheap too, but i'd gladly fork out another $50-100 for a special backlit version and TV OUT..

  • Has anyone hacked a Gameboy to give it a bigger, brighter screen? Or is the usual way to do that to run an emulator on a PC or Palm-like device?
  • Historically, Nintendo has always maintained tight control over who could produce games for their systems. In fact, this was one of the main reasons for Nintendo's success with the NES in the mid-80s.

    One of the reasons that Atari failed was because anybody could make games for it - the cartridges were just standard ROM chips of about 4K or so stuck on a card and encased in plastic. Lots of companies made lots of crappy games for the system. When these companies went out of business, their inventory was dumped on the market at liquidation prices, which depressed prices for other games and the cycle continued. Atari also had PR problems because some companies made porn games for the 2600. (If you ask me, though, anyone who found stick-figure porn at about a 100x100 resolution with 16 colors arousing had issues...)

    By implementing a patented lockout device in the NES cartridges, Nintendo could regulate the number of cartridges on the market to prevent oversupply and prevent really crappy games from reaching the market. They could also collect royalties on each game sold for the system, regardless of the developer. Since this strategy worked so well for Nintendo 15 years ago, it's no wonder they continue it today.

    Why do I know this? I wrote a 50-page report on the video game industry up to the time of the NES for a high school senior project. Read it at my webpage [mkfs.com], but ignore the first 5 pages - it's methodology and crap that's really not that interesting.

  • They have released newer models that take care of the glare problem.

    Review of the newer model [ign.com]

    Vermifax

  • Forget rechargables. That system took the portable out of portable systems. It was a mini console.

    "Nintendo sucks. I am so sick of the lack of games, the high price point, the cartrige (read suck) using, peice of junk machines that they produce. I swear, I will never buy another Nintendo machine"

    The price point is one of the cheapest for handhelds, they have always done quality over quantity, cartridges make sense for the small form factor, and they are hardly junk. That aside you are entitled to your opinion.

    Vermifax

  • 1) Price.
    2) Brand name
    3) 3d is not always better than 2d
    4) In any case gameplay is more important than graphics.

    Finally, I'm sure there were people like you saying the same things about the original gameboy. "What's this black and white stuff, we're doing color games here." We all know how that turned out.

    Vermifax

  • "The reason they're doing it without charging, from what I've read, is because Nintendo's trying their usual 'supply issues' speech like they've done with every system" No the reason EB is doing it is because they make next to $0 on the GBA itself, making their profit from the games/peripherals, just like the game company. The bundle phenom is just to get people to buy games they otherwise might not and make it seem like a deal at the same time.

    Vermifax
  • Renders just fine on Konqueror. Konqueror is the shit, man! I haven't installed Java support which might be why it seems to work fine, however ...

    --

  • I've promised my girlfriend that I'll go shopping with her, any time, anywhere, if she buys me a GBA. No more riding the escalator to kill time!

  • I couldn't wait, so I picked up a Japanese unit a couple months ago. Other than the irritation associated with using a reflective LCD (at least until someone releases light for it), it's AWESOME. The batteries lasted longer than it took for me to finish Super Mario, which was impressive. F-Zero is fun, but a little tough. I haven't put in a whole lot of hours with it because I haven't built up enough skill to open the more interesting tracks.

    I just got Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 yesterday, and I haven't been able to atop playing it. Other than getting used to the isometric view, the game plays like a dream. The animation is super-smooth, and the game has most of the tracks found in the Dreamcast version (not all of them, though :( )
  • I think the problem with the Best Buy display is the metal cage that covered the bottom of the unit -- it prevented natural hand placement, making the controls feel more awkward than they actually are.

  • Re:Gameboy? Hope it pays off... (Score:5)

    by GeorgeH ( 5469 ) on Monday June 04, 2001 @06:26AM (#178548) Homepage Journal
    I respectfully disagree. As far as the market for portable consoles goes, Gameboy has been a bigger success than anyone anticipated. It was introduced in 1990, and shortly after it had competition from Sega and Turbografix, neither of which sold well despite having color screens.

    The Gameboy has survived for 10 years with only one upgrade (color) since it was introduced. That's better than any console in the history of video games. I think this says something fundamental about the handheld console market - people don't always want the best hardware as long as they can play games with high replay value (I suspect bundling Tetris with the Gameboy had a lot to do with its early success).

    If all people want is a game that they can play riding in the car, or between classes, or sitting in a doctor's office, they don't want to carry around 3d goggles, custom input devices, etc. They want to carry as few items as possible and buy stuff like light guns and goggles for their powerful home console.

    You suggest that the GameBoy will lose the market if they don't provide these add-ons. I'm curious who you think they'll lose the market to: Sony or Microsoft? The Gameboy's marketshare makes Windows look like it's at death's door. If the GBA doesn't catch on, it won't be because of competition providing a better product, it'll be because people don't want the GBA.
    --
  • While I am looking forward with excitement to the GBA (although probably not buying one), I still can't understand why anyone would ever buy anything at Circuit City. Everything I've looked for there was either way, way overpriced, or they just didn't carry it. Their selection of computer hardware is worthless, and the sales staff is so pushy you can't even browse without being attacked.

    Not to mention that I'd never give my hard-earned dollars to the chief backer of DIVX players...those guys should be shot. Who knows what multi-million-dollar scheme they might try to ram down my throat next. Best Buy all the way.

  • Don't be so shocked. They started a long time ago. You're somewhat out of date.

    Doing a little project with the SA-1110. It's a slick chip. Has a hardware register you can use to change the clock frequency dynamically. Neat.
  • Less than a dozen?

    US Launch:
    Super Mario Advance, F-Zero, Army Men, High Heat Baseball, Tony Hawk 2, Dodgeball, Fire Pro Wrestling, Top Gear GT, Tweety and the Magic Jewel, Fortress, Iridion 3D, Pitfall, Ready 2 Rumble, Chu Chu Rocket, Rayman, Castlevania, and Pinobee AT LEAST. That's 17 games.

    Besides, do you honestly think that you're even going to play 5 of them all the way through before the next set of games hits the shelves?

    Note: I didn't say 17 *good* launch titles, but you didn't mention quality either. That said, F-Zero and Tony Hawk have been enough to keep *me* busy lately.


    Raptor
  • Yes, there was a backlit greyscale GameBoy released in Japan only. I believe it was called the "GameBoy Light" or something similar and came out shorthy before the GameBoy pocket.
  • While I would prefer that there was downloadable SDKs available on Nintendo's website, complete with examples and sniplets of code, you probally won't see it.

    Why?

    Nintendo wants their products to have a complete pollished look to them... something that most non-professional (notice, I said most... ) software lacks. Granted, some of the professional titles are pretty shoddy looking as well...

    Anyway, if Nintendo officially endorsed it, you would have 200 Tetris clones in a week... and maybe 1 or 2 would look as nice as the Tetris that originally came with the Game Boy 12 years ago.

    So, what does that leave? Well, there are a number of websites that have been documenting the AGB, as well as the CGB and more. There is a large community of developers working to figure out the AGB. In addition to game writers, there are emulator writers, and developer tool writers as well.

    Currently, the development environment is a bit, well, on the slim side... but, you can already use gcc to write code for the AGB. There is even work on a cable that would allow you to download code to the AGB through the link port from your PC... no flash card needed. Even Nintendo doesn't offer that (yet).

    Anyway, I think it's much more interesting to go about developing for the AGB this way... it's like early Linux kernel development. Lot's of unknowns, and everyday brings a new piece of knowledge. Pretty cool!

    If anyone wants more info, go to http://www.devrs.com/
  • I avoided upgrading to the Gameboy Color... Just couldn't see buying another GB just for color (I have a Palm Vx, too -- no color). A TV tuner would be nice, though...

    I, for one, am glad they made it backwards compatible with old carts. I think that is the reason why the GameBoy has survived this long in a fairly fickle markey.

    I have a Game Gear also. I was never a fan of the "long" shape vs. the "tall" shape of the Game Boy. Too bad they went with the "long" shape.

    Now, finally, a reason to upgrade! Can't wait to run Linux on it. 8^)

    Jethro
  • The article itself was fairly decent although well written, although I could make a comment or two about taking your photographs at an angle so you don't get your silly reflection in there...

    The only thing that kept catching my mind was the guy's constant banter about their not being a backlight. He tried to make it easier by saying that it increases battery life, which it of course does...but he's missing the point that the Game Boy in any form has NEVER had a backlight. So all of his complaining about not being able to play in certain venues certainly hasn't stopped anyone in the last ten years, so I really doubt that its something worth mentioning.

    Maybe he was a Game Gear player or a Lynx player (I had a Game Gear)...but between me and you, not having a backlight suits me just fine. Now only if Palm would use that reflective-TFT in their color displays...then we could finally use them outside!

    -Julius X
  • The Dreamcast had a similar deal with the LCD-Display equipped memory cards which would snap into the controller. I only have about 10 games, but none of them do anything meaningfull with the LCD. Some games show little cartoon versions of your character, etc... but none use it to display usefull information. Maybe the concept didn't work in playtesting?
  • I have a Japanese GameBoy Advance and the worm light sucks with it. What you want is a LightBoy Advance [therage.com]. It's a unit that sits on top of your GBA and magnifies and fully lights the screen. It requires additional batteries and is more expensive than the worm light but it's well worth it.
  • Sega had a hand held device called the GameGear. It was 8 bit, however, it was superior in at least a couple ways to todays GameBoy Adv, 8+ years later. It had both a backlit display and a TV tuner, neither of which the LameBoy Adv. has.

    You forgot "...yet". Who's to say that Nintendo won't make a TV Tuner for GBA? I also had the GameGear, w/ the TV Tuner (as well as the Atari Lynx, NEC TurboExpress, and the Original GB and GBC), and while I liked the system, it totally sucked batteries dry. And did you ever notice how big it was? Or how few games were released for it? If all you want is cool harware, fine, but I like my portable system to be *portable* AND play a lot of good games.

    I suspect if Sega had the money right now, they would produce a handheld that was 64 bit, played games off CD, played CDs, mp3 CDs, VCDs, and DVDs, and STILL nobody would buy it...

    Of course nobody would by it, do you have any idea how much something like that would cost?! Or how big it would be? Look at those portable DVD players out now for an idea of what sort of money you'd be paying for something like that.

    Nintendo sucks. I am so sick of the lack of games, the high price point, the cartrige (read suck) using, peice of junk machines that they produce. I swear, I will never buy another Nintendo machine.

    Lack of games? The Gameboy has more games available than just about any video game system ever released. If you're talking about the N64 then you have a point, but is it more games you want or better quality games? Regardless of quantity, Nintendo has always made top quality games.

    And as for price point and cartriges, do some research. You say you want an XBox or a PS2 when the Gamecube will also use optical storage (mini-DVD) and come in at $100 LESS than either XBox or PS2 ($199 vs $299).

    You have a right not to like Nintendo but at least get some facts straight before forming your opinions.
  • From ARM's website:

    High-performance, low-power StrongARM processors provide ideal solutions for portable communications and consumer electronics devices. The processors, which were jointly developed by ARM® and Digital Equipment Corporation, are now available from Intel.

    So, perhaps you were correct the first time.

    --
  • Since the linked website ate my webbrowser (when I saw 8 java apps start at once I knew I was in trouble), I didn't get to read the review.

    The one fact that I was looking for was what processor it used.

    Thank you. :)

    And to answer your question Intel started making ARMs when they couldn't make a low power embedable CPU on their own and bought them out.

    Does anyone know how the GBA runs old GB(C) carts. I guess the StrongARM is fast enough to emulatate an 8MHz Z80. I don't think the ARM is binary compatible with the Z80.

    --
  • I saw one in a Toys R Us a couple weeks ago. The only problem I had with it was the fact that it was bolted down to a shelf about 3' high (I'm 6'1"). And the fact I had to fight off some little kids in order to play it.
  • There was something called a TriStar 64. It played GB, NES, and SNES games. http://www.tristar64.com [tristar64.com] for their homepage.
  • In addition to the great looking GBA games due at launch there are a huge amount of GBC games like dragon warrior 1&2 and the just released Zelda duo
  • Try finding a Wide Boy Advance. This is like the Super Game Boy for the SNES but it is for GBA games on the N64. This is how all of the earlier Japenese games were tested before the hardware was in developers hands.

    On a side note, the Wide Boy Advance is the reason some of the games seem so dark on the actual GBA. The image on a TV was much brighter than the GBA screen.
  • There was one version that had a backlight, but it was only released in Japan. A friend of mine had one for a while...it was pretty cool, but the battery life sucked.

  • The GBA has a z80 of some sort built in. I don't know if it does anything useful when the ARM is running (like the PS2's PSX), though.
  • I did take that (the security cage) into consideration. The problem is, to me, still the display in relation to the controls, you have to hold the whole unit at a very specific angle to get the best picture and for the few minutes I used it it felt uncomfortable. Perhaps if I was relaxed in a comfortable chair with a good light source it wouldn't be as bad. I just wonder how useful that scenario is for a "portable" gaming system.

  • Demo's at Best Buy (Score:4)

    by dman6666 ( 38641 ) on Monday June 04, 2001 @05:23AM (#178568)
    I was able to preview one w/ the Super Mario game at Best Buy. The unit looks heavier than it feels. Even with the security cage and wire on it it felt VERY light in my hands.)

    Standing there, under the warehouse high Flor. Lights the display was viewable and playable but it lacked contrast. I guess at that pricepoint, what can you expect. Maybe GameBoy Advanced TfT is in our future? With LithIon Batteries... hmmm... an organizer cartridge and some flashram... :-)

    As for the game itself, Super Mario was definitely NES / SNES Quality. So, step back in time and enjoy the 2D Graphics and Gameplay as you remembered them.

    I did NOT like the placement of the DPAD controls and buttons in relation to the display. I only used it for a few minutes, but maybe they'd grow on me after a while. The problem was holding the unit at the right angle to light/see the display made the buttons seem out of place (and vice versa).

  • I have one. The contrast is about the same as my Palm V, but it's a little more noticable because of the black/whiteness of the display (as opposed to the V's greyish-green color).
  • I thought that the GBA processor was 16MHz, but then again, finding this information has been really hard, so maybe it is 60- 75MHz.

    The GBA has a single chip, with an on-board ARM7 CPU, Z80 CPU (8MHz, for audio and backwards compatibility) and graphics.
  • Remember the Super GameBoy, that let you play gameboy games on your SNES? I've seen similar things advertised for the N64 (third party unlicensed type dealies), no clue how well they work. With how much Nintendo is hyping the connection of the GBA to the GameCube, I think it's quite likely there will be a CubeBoy or some such adapter that allows you to play your GBA games on your Cube.

  • There was also the NEC TurboGraphix Express... I have one sitting in my room collecting dust. It also had a TV Tuner and was a 16-bit with really nice backlit LCD. The thing was fairly heavy, ate 6 batteries (if I can remember correctly) and a relatively good built-in speaker.

    I would have been nice if the TubroGraphix system would have had a longer run in the market since it was based on a nice card (and later CD) system, responsive controllers, and a small form factor. Sigh... now I have a craving for Bonk and the original Bomberman... :)\
  • 2 pieces -- first, do get one. The screen brightness sucks, but yesterday i was playing tony hawk two in prospect park, and if all goes according to my (made up, praying-type) plan, soon square will release all of the snes rpgs for the gba. really, really a great piece of hardware.

    second piece of advice: there's no regional lock-out on the gba. and with the impending us launch, the bottom has dropped out of the import market. so, at many stores that carry imports, you can actually get a gba for *less* than the retail price of a us version -- and there's *no* difference, take it from me.

    go buy. it's a nice, warm, fuzzy thing -- you grab it, you play it, and you remember why nintendo is allowed to act so strangely as a company -- they're really that good at producing well-designed, durable, friendly products and franchises. werd.
  • The way the developers could make fun of themselves and make it stylish. When you find the lost girl on the beach, you hold her over your head in the usual Link-style, and proclaim "You got Marin! (Is this your big chance?)" Friggin' hilarious, although I have found that people look at you funny when you do that with everday objects...
  • What is Nintendo afraid of?

    Loss of license revenue!

    --
    Later...

  • Controller for GameCube (Score:3)

    by Corrado ( 64013 ) <rnhurt@@@gmail...com> on Monday June 04, 2001 @05:21AM (#178576) Homepage Journal

    I think this thing will be excellent as a GameCube controller. That's the most exciting thing about it.

    • Sports - Pick your play without anyone seeing you
    • RPG - Cast a spell or choose a weapon without having to wait for everyone else to do the same
    • Driving - Rear view mirror? Pit stop choices?
    The list goes on and on... Why doesn't Sony have something like this for the PS 2?!?!?

    --
    Later...
  • It's not exactly a hack, but the original bulky Gameboy came with a magnifying glass-type apparatus that you could attach to the screen. It included a light as well.
    --
  • If they had gone with an optical format, Nintendo probably wouldn't have gone with full-size CDs. Remember that the GAMECUBE uses custom half-size DVDs. It would have been interesting to see what the functionality could have been like if they had used these for the GB-Advance storage. Portable movies?

    You couldn't put full-length DVDs on there, but MPEG4 movies could fit easily.

    Ohh well but they didn't use this, so what am i going on about ;)

  • If you read the article completely, you would have noticed this:

    I know that an accessory lighting mechanism is in the works. You can see that Nintendo left slots for it on top of the casing. The good part about leaving out the backlight though is more battery life. If the display was backlit, there probably wouldn't be any way that the two AA batteries would be able to supply enough power for the unit to last for any reasonable amount of time. Add the backlight to the list of things to get!

    With the backlight addon, the GBA looks pretty sharp i think.
  • Circuit City has had display models available for weeks. I used one about 3 weeks ago (played Mario Advance), and it was cool as hell - I've already got a pre-order in.
  • Since there's a lot of confusion above this post about the relationship between ARM, Intel, Compaq, DEC and Uncle Tob Cobbleigh and all, a clarification.

    Intel bought the StongARM stuff from DEC / Compaq

    No they didn't, they licenced the design from ARM plc, as did DEC/Compaq

    Yes it IS an ARM processor, but not an INTEL one. It is made by a British Company CALLED ARM. You can find them at: www.arm.com They compete with INTEL in the same space with this CPU.

    Sorry, wrong again. ARM don't make anything tangible: they're an IP company pure and simple. They license their chip designs to anyone who's prepared to pay the licensing costs. At the moment, this is pretty much every hardware/white-goods company out there.

    A little bit of history: ARM is a spin-off of the late and lamented Acorn Computers. In the early to mid-80's, Acorn (who had a very nice range of 6502 based micros - the Tube, a shared-nothing multiprocessing architecture, was a very groovy thing to have in a £400 micro) realised that these processors weren't going anywhere and the alternatives didn't fit their idea of what a quality CPU should do (this was in the days when RISC was the next big thing but the only commercially available RISC processors cost the earth...), so they decided to design their own RISC architecture and develop a processor and chipset.

    Some years later (in 1986), the fruits of these labours appeared in the form of (firstly) the ARM second processor add-on (remember the Tube I mentioned above: well this hung off it. Think of it as a mixed 6502/ARM environment: the 6502 acted as a host controller for the second processor board) and this was followed by the Acorn Archimedes - a 32-bit RISC machine which was by some distance the fastest thing around at its pricepoint (Intel had the 386 and Motorola had the 68030). At this point in time, ARM stood for Acorn RISC Machine.

    Fast forward a few years and it's turned out that trying to compete in the market place with a proprietary computer is not a winner: Acorn are haemhorraging cash on their computer line. They diversify into STBs and the like but they're not big enough to play outside of their own niche (they pretty much owned the education market in the UK) and beautiful hardware coupled with a fairly sweet OS (compare RISC OS 2 with Windows 286 and there can be only one winner) can't compete with the ability to run Word and Excel. However, they're raking in plenty of cash by licensing their (dirt-cheap, high-speed, low-power) RISC core to people who aren't worried about running Word or Excel but do need to go for four days on a single AA battery - mobile phones being a prime example. So, they spin off the ARM part (which has, by now become a joint venture with Apple, who are using the ARM in IIRC the Newton, and VLSI, who were fabbing the processor for Acorn and Apple) into a separate company called Advanced RISC Machines. The aim of this company is to develop and licence the ARM architecture to the world, which they do with significant success (ARM cores have been shipped in somewhere upwards of 400 million chips, and ARM made a profit, after tax, of some £30 million last year). The ARM was (and still is) a lovely architecture to work with: it's incredibly small, runs off pretty much no power whatsoever and has a pretty modular architecture (you can licence various bits of the core as you require). They've also done some very cool things with it: Amulet is a asynchronous version of the ARM core which is being developed at Manchester University (the group's lead by Steve Fuurber, who was one of the original ARM designers).

    Digital came into the picture because they licensed the ARM technology to produce the StrongARM: when Compaq bought Digital, they decided they didn't want to be in the silicon business so they transferred the StrongARM technologies/IP to Intel. Does this make evrything clear?
    --
    Cheers

  • Here in Pheonix Wal-Mart's have them. If you can get the little kids a way and bend over far enough to play the thing (mounted at about 3') its not bad, too small for my hands and the screen doesn't appear to be much better thant he BGC was, but not too bad as a handheld. It looked like the games were for sale alread as well. There were about 10 of them and they had plenty. I personaly thought it was already released here in the US sence I didn't see any comming soon signs.

    -----
  • If you want to play MP3s on Gameboy, there is a device called SongPro (previously named SongBoy) using removable flash cards of up 32 MB, I saw somewhere the "Junior" model costs around $100, but their site doesn't seem to be updated anymore, even the order page is broken.

    Maybe you can find one on eBay if you're lucky.
    With the original Gameboy and its Z80, I guess all the decoding is done with specialized hardware in the card, maybe the Advance could do it by itself ?

    Talking about hardware, the coolest device I've seen was this sonar [gbstation.com] I've seen in a shop in Japan. Now that kicks some ass, I'd be interested in hearing about weird devices you can plug to the Gameboy, GPS, Ethernet anyone ?

  • Okay, then where would the SNES shoulder buttons translate to? :-)


  • Just think, a missile that can run for 20 hours on 2 AA batteries. And can be used to soften the target up for ICBMs. ;-)


  • "The screen is a 2.9" reflective TFT display that measures 40.8mm x 61. The screen isn't backlit, so you'll have to have an ample amount of light to be able to see the screen properly. I guess this means no more playing under the covers in the middle of the night! The maximum resolution is 240 x 160 pixels, and it can display 511 colours simultaneously, and up to 32,768 possible colors in total."

    Did any of the gameboy models have a backlight? I know my first generation one didn't, and my nephew's Game Boy color doesn't...

    Anyway, looks like a cool toy, once they get some good games out in may be time to upgrade from my Neo Geo Pocket Color.


    --

  • I understand the add on.. but they way that my quote reads it seems like his old GB had a backlight... I just wanted to see if anybody knew of a model with one.


    --

  • There's less then a dozen games for the GBA.. That's not enough for me to buy one.


    --

  • My buddy already grabbed an imported one, right here in the USA. Works very nicely =)

    (Now we just need to learn japaneese so we can play the games properly)
  • I noticed this one too, but I dont think you got it right either. I think it should be something like this (snagged from nintendos site):

    2.9" TFT reflective screen
    240x160 resolution 40.8mm x 61.2mm screen size 32,768 possible colors
    511 simultaneous colors in character mode; 32,768 simultaneous colors in bitmap mode

    On a side note I got a GBA myself, imported from japan (gotta have a japanese one ;)
  • The Game Gear was also huge, heavy, and sucked six AA batteries dry in about an hour and a half. It was roughly equivalent to an NES in power and had maybe two games worth playing - Sonic and Columns.

    The Game Boy Advance, on the other hand, is far smaller and lighter, runs for about 20 hours on two AAs, and is substantially more powerful than an SNES. It also has an incredible launch lineup, and more quality games scheduled to come out for it than any other system in the world.

    As far as your pissy "Nintendo sucks" comments, you are aware that the Nintendo GameCube (due in Nov.) will actually be the cheapest next-gen system, and uses optical disks, contrary to what you seem to be suggesting? It's also launching with a bunch of games which look like they'll be amazing. It seems you're tired of the "high price point" but would rather buy a more expensive system with crappier games (at least in the case of the Xbox). Whatever.
  • True, the GBA resolution out does the Lynx by far. But, at least the Lynx had the backlit screen. The LCD technology was a bit odd, but still excellent for back in the day. You would think that Nintendo would be smart enough to allow the GBA the capability to play games in the dark. In regards to your question, I always held my controllers in my left hand (i.e. right handed playing). The old Atari controllers were pretty much universal for the most part (1 stick, 1 button). Most of the modern ones I've seen have been developed for the right handed folks.
    ----Quid
  • Even though it's as old as heck, my favorite hand-held gaming system has got to be the Atari Lynx. The games, graphics, and controls are all class. The game boy is ok, but even this "new" release still looks like it's light years behind the old Lynx (let alone the games for it).
    ----Quid
  • Perhaps you should try MSIE5 on Solaris. I find it highly amusing that the fastest, most standards-compliant, and best looking browser for Solaris is made by Redmond, not Sun's butt-buddies at Netscape.

    Seriously. As we all know, Netscape 4 barfs upon encountering any web technology less than five years old. Netscape 6 is an improvement, but takes over twenty seconds to initially load on my Blade 100 (500MHz USparcIIe, 256MB RAM), while IE takes less than five. Wow. Microsoft is even professional enough to include CDE icons.

    The only problem is that IE won't display local directory listings on UNIX. That's too bad, because I usually use Netscape for this purpose when browsing large numbers of files. (Faster and more effective than CDE's pathetic folder system.)

    I also love how IE on Win32 will show thumbnails of all your images. It'd be great if IE on UNIX could do this. I'm not going to pull any punches: it's wonderful for pornography. It's fine for other images too, but I'm a software engineer, not a graphic artist, and porn is the only plausable reason for having a 1.5GB image archive. ;-D

    Most people are doubtful about the existence of such software, but I can assure you, it is quite real [microsoft.com]. Yeah, it lags behind the Win32 version (as that link shows, 5.0/SP1 is in beta), but it's light years ahead of offerings from Netscape or anyone else.

    --

  • Palm does use reflective TFTs in the M505. That's been one of the biggest complaints about the unit: the contrast apparently isn't all that great.
  • I may have been 14 at the time, but I really felt that Nintendo created some characters you could get attached to in that RPG. I mean, I actually cared about Marin, and when you returned the ghost to his home he said "Boo hoo, boo hoo, nostalgia," and the ending just made me say "woah. that was cool."

    Ok, like I said, I was maybe 14 at the time ;-)

    But there were definitely a few in-jokes scattered around. Like putting Will Wright in. And, of course, the swarm of chickens.

  • Carts vs. CDs (Score:4)

    by wunderhorn1 ( 114559 ) on Monday June 04, 2001 @05:23AM (#178597)
    You can criticize Nintendo for not going with a optical or other format for their games

    I sure wouldn't. Having to stick a CD player on the back would make it a lot bulkier and decrease the battery life.
    Although having it double as a CD player (or even VCDs or -dare I say?- DVDs?) would be kinda cool, I think backwards compatibility with old Gameboy games is a nice touch. I still have fond memories of playing that Legend of Zelda game where he gets stuck on the island...

    Actually, it just occurred to me that what would be *really* cool would be if Nintendo released "memory stick"-type cartridges that you could load with mp3s. Now THAT I would put down $100 for!

  • Anyway, looks like a cool toy, once they get some good games out in may be time to upgrade from my Neo Geo Pocket Color.

    What do you mean 'once they get some good games out'?! Oh, I get it, thats a troll. Good one!

  • Be careful about recommending the current worm light! I own a GBA and I got a "Pass-thru" worm light (the one with nice white LED) and it is a pain in the ass (well it was before I lost it :)

    The problem is: on the GBA, the connector is on the top of the unit rather than the side. When you put the GBC worm light on the GBA, you must fold the wire back onto itself and twist it to make it face the screen. It isn't very steady either unless you coil the wire up (kinda helps absorbs some shock). With the worm lights designed for GBA I am sure this will improve; either the wire will face the right way or you'll have more wire to coil for stability. There is also a tiny little piece of plastic that would slide behind the GameBoy when the light is plugged in, but that snaps off easily. Oh yeah, also, you can only play GBA games with it because the plug is bigger (due to pass-thru feature) and will cover the cart slot (old GB games stick out quite a bit).

    Besides that, I hear that the GBC models are very dim for GBA games (I didn't notice with the white LED one) since the output voltage or something is lower with the newer GBA protocol. Supposedly, when you put in an old GB game (which I couldn't do with my worm light) the connector uses the older protocol and old worm lights shine full bright. I tend to believe that because my friend was connected to another friends GBC with his GBA (trading Pokemon or Dragon Warrior Monsters or some crap) and he ate through a fresh pair of batteries in less than 10hrs.

  • Goddamn amazing! Just got mine yesterday too. Isn't it nice to have an english game ^_^

    The biggest key to playing F-Zero is to tap the accelerator rapidly when you need traction (re: corners).

  • GameBoy has never used lockout. I remember reading about it back when the original bulky GameBoys were new. Not knowing japanese is the lockout ;-)

  • Actually the tracks in F-Zero: Max Velocity are all new, but the gameplay is all there. The wider screen helps too, but I tend to tilt the unit too much as I play and I lose my viewing angle. Tip: tap the accelerator button for more traction around corners and never use your brake (it's a racing game for god sake!). In fact, configure the controls so brake is L+R and turbo/boost is B (a little tricky to do in japanese; I beat the Pawn (1st) circuit before I remembered F-Zero even had turbo!)

    Backlight would be nice, but my GBA has gone close to 25hrs on one pair of AAs (the generic ones that came with it no less)! It's also very close to the same size as a GBC. I, and a few friends, think that it feels (slightly) lighter as well, but I think that has alot to do with the fact that GBA cartridges are about half the size of old GameBoy games! The specs I have seen for it say that GBA is like 2 grams heavier, so I bet sans cartridge, GBA is heavier. Once you see the games in action (screenshots==shit) it's simply amazing that Nintendo has delivered so much more in a package the same size and weight...but longer battery life!

    This thing is a gem, and at $100, a steal (I paid $119). You can start looking for one now, a local game store here had them nearly 2 months ago. They're the japanese ones, but GameBoy doesn't do regional lockout (never has) so all your old US games work fine (my friend has seen minor graphic glitches in some, but I doubt the US version will fix that). American games are on sale now; I got Tony Hawk 2 yesterday (from a "legit" game store that wouldn't import GBAs) and my jaw drops every time I play it. Hmmm, I think I have to go kickflip over TC's roof gap now.....

  • This is something many people don't realize, although I don't know how many would be affected. I have read about an accessory that will give IR capability, but we will have to wait and see.

    Interesting idea there with the security token thing. I'm certain you could make something work. You know, it's not just a faster processor, it's a 32-bit ARM! They are already showing cart writer/backer-uppers [lik-sang.com] (highly technical term ;) and 64Mbit (re: 8MByte) programmable carts [lik-sang.com] for GBA at www.lik-sang.com [lik-sang.com]

  • i bet NetBSD will be on it within 3 days ;)

    -------

  • Because more people will buy a unit because it's cheaper than will buy it because it has marginally better quality.

    Myself, I'm just pissed that they didn't include X and Y buttons. You could have exact ports of a lot of old SNES favorites. Unfortunately, the few games they are porting need their interfaces redesigned, and some games just won't work without those buttons.

    On the other hand, I'm really looking forward to F-Zero and Mario Kart. Almost enough to buy an import off of Ebay. Almost. (Finger itching.)

    --
  • Nah. If it ran on Solaris x86, it could probably be made to run on Linux x86, and that wouldn't make for good press.
  • To reaffirm the previous statement, the GBA has a little switch in the cartridge area. GBC games push the swtich down and the Z80 is used. GBA-native games have a groove in them which makes them miss the switch and so the new ARM chip is used instead.
  • While regular GB and GBC games seem to be averaging $20 US, GBA games seem to be about $30 US each. I don't know how bad that'll translate north of the border.

  • Does the GBA come with a packaged game like the orginal GB did (Tetris), or do we have to buy one the day it is launched? As I have seen no info about any packaged games I can only presume that the later is true..

    Any thoughts???
    -
  • Nokias SDK for their new setop box seems to be free. You only have to pay for the box itself...
  • I notice that they don't provide backward compatibility for the Gameboy Color infrared port. This is too bad, since with the infrared port and the new higher speed processor, it would be possible to consider a GBA Wallet cartridge, usable as a security token.

  • I totally agree. The original GameBoy is incredibly hot even over a decade after its original release. This can't be said for any other console/handheld gaming system, period (please no flames about how great your Commodore 64 is, etc.).

  • But, they're only there for you to play with not buy. I saw a couple of them setup in my local Best Buy in Charlotte. I didn't mess with them, though.


    Refrag
  • NFL2k uses the Visual Memory Unit to assist in private play-calling.


    Refrag
  • "The Gameboy Advance runs on an Intel 32 bit Strong ARM processor"

    now when did Intel start making ARM cpu's?

    __
    Greets, Øyvind Berg ~ ËlaC|n

  • GBA-TV out (Score:3)

    by ĖlaC|n ( 147028 ) <elacin@g[ ]l.com ['mai' in gap]> on Monday June 04, 2001 @07:21AM (#178617)
    I see some of you (and the reviewer too) complain about GBA having no TV out...
    But, you may be wrong.. this quote is from IGNpocket:

    "Best of the batch is a GBA to TV adapter. This is not a TV Adapter -- at least one developer was showing a TV Tuner behind closed doors -- but instead a unit for playing GBA games on your television. Honey, I enlarged my GBA, they say, and supposedly they did. Unfortunately, it's not playable, which doesn't bode well for a unit supposedly due in July. But Yobo Gameware says it works and works well, and if the output is anywhere near the quality of the Wideboy Advance (which blew us away? we NEED to get one of these things), it should be a good thing to have. Even if not, the Wideboy Advance costs several hundred dollars and cred with Nintendo, so chances are, you'd be willing to settle for less. The unit plugs into the GBA Link Cable and outputs 240x160 on the TV (probably won't zoom like the Wideboy, but it's a pretty simple unit). The faux mock-up shows a cable running from the GBA to AV cables without any box or accessories? we're assuming that's part of the mock up and not the real unit. However, if this is how it works, it cuts out the N64 emulation from the process, which is good since the Wideboy Advance showed some sorting errors. Yobo says it wasn't shown because the prototype went back into the works to include a four-player port on the cable, so we'll see when they start showing it around how successful this interesting project is. "

    ( http://pocket.ign.com/news/34950.html )

    This topic have been discussed in the GBADev mailing list, too. According to one of the posters who had talked to one of this guys, the price tag would be 20$-40$!

    Now THAT is cool!

    __
    Greets, Øyvind Berg ~ ËlaC|n

  • Re:Packaged Game? (Score:4)

    by Kingfox ( 149377 ) on Monday June 04, 2001 @06:50AM (#178618) Homepage Journal
    For a month or two now Electronics Boutique has had a special offer for preordering the GBA. "We don't want your money, we just want your business" or some tagline like that.

    Instead of the usual $10 deposit for a game/system, you just signed up that you'ld like a GBA, a rechargable battery pack, and three games of your choice from the launch titles. So they got dozens of people 'signed up' for pre-orders.

    The reason they're doing it without charging, from what I've read, is because Nintendo's trying their usual 'supply issues' speech like they've done with every system.
  • The reviewer had a real bone to pick about the lack of a backlight in the unit. If you ever been around a Gamegear you know how those lights eat up battries. I know Nyko is already making a ne Worm Light that works with the GBA (even has the pass through so you can link and light at the same time..I think). 10 bucks gets you a light that doesn't need extra battries and it barely seems to shorten the battry life in my GBC. If you get a GBA you should just go ahead now and get the light, it helps even during the day. And nothing beats a little GB before bed :)

  • GBA, aka Guided Missle CPU. (Score:3)

    by derrickh ( 157646 ) on Monday June 04, 2001 @05:01AM (#178622) Homepage
    Iraq has already ordered 1500 GBAdvances.

    D

    Mad Scientists with too much time on thier hands

  • That's my only complaint about the GameBoy Color... the screen requires a lot of ambient light (moreso than the grayscale GameBoy) and the protective covering over the screen tends to be very reflective. Depending on the conditions, the screen can be dim and all I can see in the thing is my own face.
  • IMO, Nintendo is doomed to go out of the market with its GameBoy. See it as a sort of "last breath".

    Alot of hitech evolves and improves, and the games would require more and more adaptive equipment to play them. For example, memory sticks, 3d-goggles, custom input devices, etc.

    If GameBoy cannot provide such possibilities, it's end is near. Also alot of crap I hear about Nintendo aiming at adult market - people, who earlier played Nintendo games, would buy one and play one. Well, the young generation is simply bigger plus has more "impulse buying behaviour", plus parents who would have no choice but to buy it for their child.

    On the good side, simple inputs and hardware limits make game development use imagination and fantasy more than simple "raw power", which is only good. I wish some linux programmes were so easy to interface with... ;)

    And hey, anybody wants to port linux to this thing?

  • The Cartridges are specced to hold up to 256 Megs of Data.

    That's 256 megabits == 32 megabytes. It still has possibilities though... Come up with a very small catridge with, say, 8x or 16x or more 32 meg banks of switchable EEPROM and a GameBoy Advance GUI program to boot from and you've got a cute little MP3 player.

  • You gotta love Nintendo... (Score:4)

    by ictatha ( 201773 ) <mikeNO@SPAMnepsystems.com> on Monday June 04, 2001 @05:13AM (#178634)
    This will probably be said several times here, but I'll say it anyway. Nintendo may not have the highest game count, but the games they do have are always great with good replay value. Take F-Zero for instance, I was considering buy a SNES from eBay just to play this game again (and a few others). For the GB Advance, they just made it portable (F-Zero : Maximum Velocity or something like that). A game that is what, 10 years old? They didn't have to spice it up or add guns and blood, they just shrunk it down for their new system. That's why Nintendo rules.

    Anyway, for some good eye candy (both GBA and Game Cube), check out Nintendo's E3 site:

    http://e3.nintendo.com [nintendo.com]

    -ictatha
  • First off, I've played every incarnation of GB, minus the Game Boy Light.(That's the one everyone talks about having the light. Looks like a Game Boy Pocket, but with a Indiglo backlight.) Yes, I had the enormous Game Boy, the dieting Game Boy Pocket, and the excellent Game boy Color. I loved every one of them, and that's why I'm so excited.

    Like I said, I have watched and experienced first-hand the evolution of GB, and from this, I know that the GBA is going to kick @$$. These have always been very good systems, combined with a large library of games and decent cost (but everyone's said that) that it's no surprise to me that it's hung around this long.

    To refute what many people are saying, the back light isn't a big issue. I admit, it would be nice to have a back back light you could turn on and off without loss of battery power, but something like that would suck up batteries like people eat popcorn. However, Nyko makes a exceptional light, The Worm Light. I have had one for may GBC for about 1 1/2 years, and they are very good, as they are cheap, durable, and don't consume much battery power.

    So, the Age of GB ruling the handhelds, IMHO, is still going strong.


    --------------------------------
  • Here's the review of the Japanese version of GBA over at IGN [ign.com]. As well as an older preview, with all sorts of links for the GBA here [ign.com].

    Enjoy.
  • I've played with the "free" version of the GBA SDK. It's not endorsed or encouraged by Nintendo though. I'm not even sure if it's legal... What is Nintendo afraid of? I mean if I develop a game for GBA I still have to put it on a cartridge before I can distribute it en masse. So Nintendo could control the distribution of the cartridges while still allowing developers to dabble with the SDK. They would still be able to verify the quality of games being published. If they are worried about "rogue" distribution channels they can provide a certification programme akin to the "Designed for Windows 9X" from Microsoft. There is no reason for Nintendo to hoard the SDK other than to retain the effective monopoly on games for handhelds.

  • And SDKs? (Score:5)

    by MSBob ( 307239 ) on Monday June 04, 2001 @05:23AM (#178661)
    What I want is for nintendo to lower the barrier to entry for individual developers and small software shops. It's stil an extremely painful process to acquire a license for developing gb/gba games together with the SDK. If there was a handheld gaming console with a lower barrier to entry maybe we would see a lot more Open Source 2d games and lots more small game shops specialising in games for handhelds. I think Nintendo are stifling the market by making it so hard for enthusiasts to develop and distribute games on their platforms.
  • Obviously a cartridge is a more viable format for portable gaming than a CD. CD's get scratched, wobble, and are generally a pain.

    But what about a cartridge VS a DataPlay or a MiniDisk? These skip far less often, are far cheaper to produce, have tons of space to spare, and are re-writable. Plus the technology is (relatively) mature and have been designed from day one for small, power-conserving portable devices. The only problem is that a player designed around a DataPlay would probably be roughly 200 dollars. But with the higher capacity and re-writable disks games like Roller Coaster Tycoon, Loom, and Final Fantasy (7+) would be possible.

    I really think that another company (Bandai? Sony?) has a chance to release a portable, DataPlay-based system with stronger emphasis on story and audio quality and win the older section of the portable market. If they scored some big-name RPG's from a certain company who Nintendo refuses to deal with, and a linup of EA sports games, I think they could be incredibly successful on both sides of the pond.

    (Not that I won't be buying an Advance come June 11, mind you. I just think it is time someone made a credible challenge again.)
  • And that's why we see Sega dominating the handheld market today....oh...wait... It is for goofy marketing ideas like this that has driven Sega out of the hardware market. Nintendo built a virtually indestructible, cheap unit that they will be able to feed with their enourmous library of SNES games, and will play games for hours on it's AAs. (BTW, the fragility of backlit screens was probably one of Nintendo's main reasons for omission)
  • from the article:

    The maximum resolution is 240 x 160 pixels, and it can display 511 colours simultaneously, and up to 32,768 possible colors in total.

    I believe this is inaccurate. I bought the Gameboy Advance involved Nintendo Power last month and I would bet money that GBA can display 512 colors at the same time in "game mode" and 32,768 colors at the same time in "cinematic mode".

    In any case, I didn't see mention of the other graphics mode where it most certainly shows thousands of colors at once for short animations.

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