GB’s do 10 hours on a battery set. GBA’s do 20 hours. However, in order to do more hours they have to cut power somewhere. Must be in the screen.
Try Castlevania on the GBA, I read no one can play it cuz they can’t see it.
I got my Virtual Boy for $150. Not the best investment, let me tell you. I was wondering why the games were going down to $10 each, but I soon found out. Oh well, it’s not like I paid it with my own money.
I’ve never heard of that problem with Castlevania. Maybe it’s because someone who just bought a shiny new $100 system doesn’t want to admit any faults, I don’t know. However, I have heard several reports saying that it is the best GBA game currently.
About the lameboy advance comic, that was made by the same kind of person who made this. It’s funny, but not the most accurate, if you get what I’m saying…
I’d recommend buying the Gameboy Color, it’s a nice machine. But why not get the Advance? It’ll play all of the existing Gameboy games anyway.
Well, I was going to not say anything because it’d seem long and preachy and I have a tendency to kill threads mysteriously by posting, but I love the GBA and I have to at least attempt to stick up for it, heh…For what it’s worth, the only other Nintendo product I’ve had was a first generation Game Boy (no color). The SuperNES was sweet, but I never bought one, and the N64 was just horrible…Not really looking forwards to the Game Cube, but the GBA had me from the minute I heard about it. I bought the GBA and Mario/Castlevania/Tony Hawk 2
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It’s not backlit because it sucks batteries up like crazy, and would cost way more money than it does right now. Right now it’s selling for the same price as a Game Boy Color (though a lot of stores are selling the “packages” where they force you to get a bunch of stuff you may or may not want). Backlighting also washes out the colors, and it’s not too bad when your system can only show 16 colors at a time (Lynx)…but the GBA can show 511 colors at a time which is beyond significantly higher, and would look awful. For comparison, the SNES could only do 256 colors at once, and the Genesis (and Nomad, though I’ve never had one so I don’t know how it looked) could only do a mere 61. Yeah, they could have released a backlit screen, but it would cost way more when you buy it, when you buy batteries, and might screw with the colors.
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No, you can’t just plug your GBA into an outlet, but you couldn’t do it with the GB either (possibly the GBC, I never bought one so I have no idea if it came with an adapter). I had to buy a battery pack for my GB, just like for the GBA. The point of a GBA is that it’s supposed to be PORTABLE…Not plugged into a wall all day long. So an adapter isn’t going to be it’s focus, otherwise it’d just come with a plug hanging off it to stick in the wall.
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The screen is dark. If you get it at the right angle under a lamp it looks good, and if you find a sweet spot it looks INCREDIBLY good. The best light is direct sunlight. Sit near a window or go outside and let the sunlight hit it and you’ll get a really vibrant image. Even with Castlevania…Castlevania is too dark to play in normal room light (partly to blame on the fact that Castlevania takes place in darkened dungeons and hasn’t got a bunch of bright neon happy colors like Mario), but if you play by a lamp or in the sunlight, you can see it perfectly. I’m not saying the screen isn’t dark or that it’s okay that it’s dark…I’m just saying that you CAN get around it. And when light add-ons come out, they’ll likely fix the problem even more (yes, you’ll have to buy them, but you had to buy them for the GB and GBC as well).
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Yep, a lot of the GBA games are ports of SNES games. Pretend you’re a company…Making a game takes a year, but you have a wickedly popular game from a few years ago (like say, Mario Kart, F-Zero, etc.)…All the graphics, sound, programming, everything…it’s already done. Tweak it for a few months to fit the GBA and boom, you have a “new” release. The people that hated the game won’t buy it, and the people that loved the game will be happy to get a new version they can play on a portable (with some updated graphics/music/etc.). The GBA has been out ALMOST a week now…You can’t expect something like Chrono Trigger to come out first. Give the GBA a few months, like until the Christmas season, and you’ll see some extremely good games. Companies just need time to make them, heh…
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The Virtual Boy sucked, heh…It lasted what, a week?
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And now a two paragraph list of other reasons why it’s funky: Nintendo will be stressing the use of the multiplayer abilities (some games you’ll be able to play between 4 people with just one cartridge). Now that we’ve had the SNES/Genesis wave of 2d games, and at the end of it (and into the newer consoles even), 2d was basically at it’s peak…It’ll continue on the GBA, because the companies making the games for the GBA are the same ones that made the wicked games of a few years ago except that now they have more experience. The GBA has cartridges that can hold like 3 times what a SuperNES cartridge could…You could be playing an RPG 3 times as long as Final Fantasy 3. The GBA can handle small amounts of 3d, and like they did in Tony Hawk 2 for it, make games with a 3d character on a 2d pre-rendered background…which means there could be new Resident Evils (and other games…many use the 3d on 2d trick) every bit as good as the PSX versions because the GBA can also do high quality music and crystal clear voices and sound effects.
There’s no other handheld competition (not realistically), which means anyone who develops games for a handheld will be doing it on the GBA (except like, SNK and their millions of fighters on the Neo Geo Pocket, which doesn’t even touch the GBA ability-wise, heh…I wish they’d do a new Samurai Shodown or something on the GBA though, sigh). Konami, Namco, Tecmo, Sega (a new Sonic the Hedgehog is already in the works)…they’ll all be working on the GBA (Konami (or Namco, I forget which) has stressed that they want to focus on GBA development for the next year, even over the PS2/X-Box/GameCube). The GBA can play all your Game Boy Color games, as well as the normal Game Boy ones (and for the monochrome games you can pull a “Super Game Boy” (the SNES thing) and set the palettes so you get a few colors at least). There’s a hookup in the works so that you can directly hook your GBA up to a TV and see it on your TV screen which should fix any brightness/size issues you have…and for the game developers, it’s BEYOND easy to program for. A lot of places complained about the PS2 because it was so not user-friendly, but the GBA they can do blindfolded in comparison…which means better games coming out faster, and more exploration because there isn’t much worrying about “can we do this?” since the answer is “oh look, there’s already a routine for it! Hah!”.
Anyway, there you go, heh…I’ve been following GBA news since I first heard rumors about it, so I figure I might as well ramble a bit and clear some stuff up (hopefully)…I’m not saying the GBA is the end all be all gaming system, but it’s well worth the money when you consider how much potential it has…The GB/GBC has been around for like 12 years now. No one is going to release a handheld to try to compete with Nintendo because Nintendo has used Pokemon to sew the market up with kids and it basically raised the people who grew up with the NES/SNES, so it’s not financially sane, and won’t be for a long time…Which means you’ll be able to get new games for your GBA for a long, long time to come.
Blah…Sorry this is so long, but there were so many “I heard this and this” rumors flying all over this thread that I had to say something. I’m into game development and that kind of geeky stuff and I hate to see people turned off from a system this great because “I heard someone said it sucked and stuff”…
- Tsugumo (can’t feel my thumbs because I’ve been playing my GBA for the past like 4 hours straight…Tony Hawk 2 is incredibly well done)
I realize that, but the least they could have done was somehow make it a little brighter so I wouldn’t have to strain my eyesight under normal lighting condition. I am able to play my old GBC under normal lighting conditions with no problem.
They could have at least given us the option instead of forcing us to buy a battery pack.
And this is another thing that has my panties in a bunch. I’ve already bought the worm light, a battery adapter, and AC adapter for my GBC. Couldn’t they have just made those things backwards compatible too?
No arguement form me here. Thats why I love handhelds so much. It gives me the ability to take and play my favorite games anywhere I want.
I used to have a Game Gear, and there was an adapter that allowed you to use it to play games from the Sega Master System (what they had before Genesis). I remember the shrunk-down text being impossible to read sometimes.
Also, I remember TV tuners being available for the Game Gear and TurboExpress, though I never had one. IIRC, they cost just as much as a decent pocket TV (roughly $130). I wonder if Nintendo will try developing something like that for the GBA?
Hmmm… The GBA only needs 3 volts… I wonder if it would be possible to develop a pactical solar array for it?
GameGear was worse because you ended up spending tons of money on batteries. I agree on the backlight issue, it should have been included and I’m shocked it wasn’t. I’m holding off on the GBA, but I will pick up the GameCube.
So, you once paid $59 for Mario Kart or F-Zero for the SNES (or NES)? & now they make you pay $39 for the same game again just so you can play it on a small screen? That’s wonderful marketing.
F-zero is a completely new game. I don’t know that much about Mario Kart, but I hear it’s a new game too.
F-zero has all new tracks. I have a magazine that shows all the track layouts, and none of the tracks are even close to resembling the tracks on the SNES version.
It has all new cars, however they might have the same specs as the cars on the SNES version. Unfortunately I don’t know as I havn’t played it yet.
It has multiplayer. The SNES version was only 1 player. In the GBA, you can play the game with up to 4 players. Unlike with game boy and game boy color games, you only need 1 game pak to play a 4 player game.
Unfortunately, the 4 player/1 game pak is limited, as you can only play a single track with a single car. However, if you have 1 game pak per player, you can play the real multiplayer mode which allows you to select your car and track.
If you want to talk about games being released again, talk about Super Mario Advance, Not F-zero or Mario Kart.
The brightness thing could be fixed by the people making the games, to an extent. In Castlevania there’s a part where the screen fades to white for an effect, and at a point in that fade, the graphics are nice and bright looking, even in “normal” light. They could have included an options menu where you could increase the amount of white or something, to what you want. They should have, but didn’t…Chalk it up to being one of the first games developed for the system and not a lot of experience with it yet.
“They could have at least given us the option instead of forcing us to buy a battery pack.”
Could have…But they could also include six games with it, a ton of accessories, and a peanut butter sandwich. How much do you expect them to hand to you when the system is as cheap as a normal GBC? Sony just put out $300+ Playstation 2’s. I paid $190 for my PSX. Systems are expensive…The GBA is nice and cheap. Yeah, you have to buy a battery pack (my battery pack can also recharge batteries), but you’re already saving money so it’s not like they’re ripping you off since you’re paying less than for a normal console anyway.
“And this is another thing that has my panties in a bunch. I’ve already bought the worm light, a battery adapter, and AC adapter for my GBC. Couldn’t they have just made those things backwards compatible too?”
Again, they also could have made it do 3d games and be compatible with the Dreamcast…But really come on…When you get a new system you have to expect to buy new toys for it. Would you complain if you bought a SuperNES and found out your NES lightgun wouldn’t work for it? “They’re making us buy the Super Scope! What a ripoff!”
“So, you once paid $59 for Mario Kart or F-Zero for the SNES (or NES)? & now they make you pay $39 for the same game again just so you can play it on a small screen? That’s wonderful marketing.”
Don’t buy it, or hook up your SNES. F-Zero for the GBA has a load of new tracks, cars, graphics, multiplayer (F-Zero for the SNES was only one player, despite how many people swear they remember it being two player, heh), etc.
The limited multiplayer thing is because with one cartridge it has to send all the data back and forth between the systems. But has ANY other system EVER been able to play multiplayer games with just one cartridge? The one cartridge thing is so you can play it multiplayer with a friend and see “Hey, this is fun…I guess I’ll go buy the full copy which’ll have more stuff for us to do!” or “This bites…no way am I going to buy a copy of the game!” They COULD just make you have to rent/buy a second copy of the game to find out whether it sucks or not, but they don’t.
I’m annoyed that Mario didn’t come WITH the system, considering it’s not much of an upgrade (there’s some new stuff, but not enough to warrant buying it separately really)…BUT, Mario costs like $15 less than the other games because of that, which makes it more reasonable.
Anyway…my basic point is that, yeah, it sucks that it doesn’t come with a million gadgets and junk, but no system does. I had to buy a second controller for my PSX when I got it, along with memory cards. I had to buy lights and battery packs for my GB when I got it. And the GBA is the cheapest system out there…so how can you complain about the cost?
- Tsugumo (swing your arms, from side to side…)
This just in, the Gameboy Advance has a hidden contrast control. Use at your own risk.
Nintendo has a response about the screen issue:
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By increasing the screen resolution and color palette, some of the reflective capacity of the screen is lessened. This makes the screen appear less bright, especially when playing older Game Boy games that werenot designed for the newer Game Boy Advance screen. Some games may
intentionally have a darker look due to the theme of the game, and this is the game developer’s choice. The tradeoff is well worth it, though.
What the new screen brings to the table is much finer detail and a wider range of colors than what was found on the Game Boy Color. The benefit is that the screen allows you to play console-quality games on a
portable unit.
A back-lit screen has a few disadvantages that would actually make the system less fun and less portable. A back-lit screen would add significantly to the cost of the system, and would drain batteries much more quickly than the current Game Boy Advance screen. Also, back-lit screens are sometimes hard to see when you are playing outdoors.
Game developers are already programming games to display clearly on the new screen. Game Boy Advance games at launch use colors and contrast techniques to make games sharp and bright. This will continue for future Game Boy Advance games.
To get the maximum picture brightness, the best advice I can give is to be sure to play in a well-lit area."
Does anyone know the status of Square making GBA games? I had read somewhere that they were angry with Nintendo and are refusing to make games for the system. I hope this isn’t true…
Yeah, backlighting has its drawbacks. Cost, weight, battery life, etc… There are also huge advantages, at least over the existing GBC. First of all, you almost never have ideal lighting conditions if you want to have a portable system. A backlighting setup helps alleviate (though not solve completely) this problem.
The older systems like the Game Gear used up a lot of batteries real quick but that was because they used inefficient lights. Many years have passed and technologies have come that help alleviate the power problem. You’re not going to get equal performance but you can certainly squeeze a few hours out of a set of AAAs or whatever the GBA uses. Also, Nintendo came out with a lit Game Boy called the Lightboy that featured a built in light that could be switched on and off. This seems like a viable feature for lighting a GBA. I’m not sure on the specifics on the Lightboy though so I could be mistaken.
Theres a group out there devising a way to retrofit a light into the GBA to frontlight or sidelight the existing screen. They haven’t come up with a real solution yet that is cost effective or even possible but they just got started.
I heard some info on Square GBA games on the gamefaqs.com message boards (which, of course, may or may not be accurate)
Anyways, Square wants to make GBA games. However, the president of Nintendo is still pissed at them for supporting the PSX instead of the N64. He won’t let them make any GBA games.
I’ve also heard that Square isn’t being allowed to make games for GBA because GBA is the only Nintendo system that square’s interested right now. They’re just trying to make a quick buck, and GBA is the solution. If Square were proposing to make GCN games, it might be a different story entirely.
About the light boy, that was just a game boy pocket with a light added. It did not display in color. Even if it did, the colors would be screwed up because the indiglo light is green. It wouldn’t be any different with GBA.
As for the group trying to make a light, would you be thinking of portablemonopoly.com?
Incidentally, there is a way to adjust screen contrast, but I’d be a bit wary, because it will seriously void your warranty.
I don’t have one, so I can’t vouch for it, but here it is:
Get a tiny screwdriver (not sure if its flat head or phillips)
On the silver GBA serial number label, push the screwdriver down along it until you find the hole it’s covering and push it through it (perhaps you could use a razor to lift the label rather than destroying it?)
Make tiny adjustments with the screw inside the hole
Again, don’t cry on me, if you GBA explodes and showers you with radioactive waste… 
DON’T DO THIS!!! IGN dropped the ball on this one by recommending it before checking with Nintendo. I don’t have the link handy, but that ‘contrast’ control affects how much voltage goes to liquid crystals. By adjusting it, you may overload them and one day in the very near future you will have a $100 piece of equipment that has great sound but only a black screen to look at.
If you have done this already, you can try to set it back to where it was, but I am not certain how finicky the equipment will be (how much margin of error is acceptable).
Incidentally, there is a way to adjust screen contrast, but I’d be a bit wary, because it will seriously void your warranty.
I don’t have one, so I can’t vouch for it, but here it is:
Get a tiny screwdriver (not sure if its flat head or phillips)
On the silver GBA serial number label, push the screwdriver down along it until you find the hole it’s covering and push it through it (perhaps you could use a razor to lift the label rather than destroying it?)
Make tiny adjustments with the screw inside the hole
Good lord. Well, I’ll stop telling people to do it, then.
I went to the IGN message board regarding this, and there is a very funny dialogue going on between the users there.
Something like “I’m not gonna try it, YOU try it!” “I’m not gonna try it…Let’s get Mikey!”
Zette