Exercise Your Wrist, Power Your GBA?

The Hong Kong-based videogame store Lik Sang, whose (now unrelated?) company of the same name have been clashing with Nintendo over Gameboy 'backup devices' recently, have showcased another very cool Asian game-related gadget on their site, the SP Mini Winding Charger Handle. According to the manufacturer, "By winding handle to power the [Gameboy Advance] SP console, winding the handle for 8 minutes can play the game for 15 minutes, no need the battery. Human Power!" So you can rotate the miniature handle to power your GBA in handheld-related emergencies, and we refuse to make any obvious jokes at this time.

OK, all together now..

[Unknown Poltroon]

WHY!! Is emergency game boy power worth the 10 minutes of wrist stress? Get another damned battery.

Re:OK, all together now..

[Anonymous Coward]

The SP has a built-in Li-Ion rechargable battery. Swapping batteries isn't as simple as with most cellphones, I believe there are a few screws holding the cover in place.

I still don't understand the facination that many people have with the SP's battery. I've had an original GBA (self-installed Afterburner mod) for quite some time, and carrying a few NiMH's around has worked out great. The cash savings of rechargables with the ease-of-use of swappable AA's.

Re:OK, all together now..

[Anonvmous Coward]

"Is emergency game boy power worth the 10 minutes of wrist stress?"

Let the customers decide that.

"Get another damned battery."

I personally remember how nasty the battery problem was while camping with my parents. Rechargables helped, but were still problematic.

It's a niche product for a niche customer. Don't get excited over it.

On a side note, I agree with your sig. I'm sick of getting modded 'off-topic' when responding to somebody who didn't get modded down.

exercise your wrist

[kurosawdust]

oh man - you know you've got a troll-ific article headline when even the "must...stop...jokes...too...obvious..." jokes seem too obvious.

Re:exercise your wrist

[Sloppy]

I knew someone would comment about an obvious comment being too obvious.

Re:exercise your wrist

[Jerf]

I knew someone would comment about an obvious comment being too obvious.

Well, in this crowd, you can always salvage a joke by going one meta higher, right? Yeah, like this.

Re:exercise your wrist

[N0decam]

Gotta love the old standby "insert joke here" joke. Man, that one cracks me up.

I guess I just have a good imagination though.

8 Minutes of winding for 15 of play?

[NanoGator]

Wow. Glad I've spent all these years improving my stamina.

Lesser known...

[Anonvmous Coward]

Lik-Sang will also provide a velco mod for your GB to attach the GameBoy to the palms of their Winding Handle Charger customers. "We were very surprised at how many of these customers had the right amount of hair on their palms to make the velcro mod work."

I need to buy these for my kids...

[slusich]

Maybe they would spend more time outside if they had to work for every minute of their game time!

Re:I need to buy these for my kids...

[ip_vjl]

Reminds me of the Simpsons episode where the kids wouldn't do anything around the house (yard work) ... but then when the family went to the fair/museum/something Bart wanted to go into the Virtual Yardwork Simulator (VR).

Re:I need to buy these for my kids...

[Jouni]

Combine this with Kojima-san's upcoming curiosity Boktai [gamezone.com], a vampire hunting game that requires sunlight to power up weapons, and you've got your kids sorted. :-)

If they keep this up, in a few years time games could well have even overweight couch potatoes running for their lives. :-)

Jouni

Obvious Jokes

[linuxwrangler]

...and we refuse to make any obvious jokes at this time

No problem, thousands of readers stand at the ready.

Re:excellent!

[GigsVT]

Why, entire neighborhoods, nay, entire CITIES will be demanding a share of the MEGAWATT output created when palm meets shaft in an orgy of solo-sex extacsy.

You joke, but one of those Joy of Sex type books refers to a story about sweatshop girls back before electric sewing placing one heel against their vagina and the rhythmical pumping of the sewing machine pedal with the other leg would get them off, while they were sewing.

Don't know if it's true, but an interesting anecdote in any case.

don't need it

[Tuxinatorium]

most of us nerds don't need any more wrist excircise, thank you. Although it was a great idea to harness the one muscle capable of carrying its own weight in most nerds...

Re: Instead of this...

[DrWho520]

I bought my Gameboy so that I would have something to do instead of exercise my wrist.

Coming to a theater near you!

[mcp33p4n75]

From The Wizard II: The Teen Years... "I love the SP Mini Winding Handle Charger. It's so bad." -- Lucas

Foot petal

[Izanagi]

But, if you had a foot petal you could charge and play at the same time.

Re:Foot petal

[Satan Dumpling]

YES! Connect a foot charger to my rocking chair, I'd never run out of juice :)

Not that I would get one...

[Dreetje]

but I can see the use of it. How many times I run out of battery power and think, how am I gonna solve this? No battery switching (certainly not in the sp since it's embedded, you recharge it with an adapter!) cause you are not a saveable point, what to do? Try to make it back and die horrible!

However most games thought of this, so it shouldn't be that much of a problem, but still a help after all.

Why not make it a kinetic charger though? So when you move the gameboy it gets charged, that would help...I

Heck, why wind when you can use solar!

[Randar the Lava Liza]

There's a solar charger [success-hk.com] for the GBA SP out now too!

So next time you're going camping for a week and can't take all that nature, just get the solar charger and enjoy some quality Advance Wars 2 time without having to watch all that annoying nature.