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Handhelds Entertainment Games Hardware

Gameboy Advance SP Reviewed & Disassembled 154

Posted by CmdrTaco from the lets-get-in-there dept.
lotech writes "lik-sang has a review with full photos of the new Nintendo Ganeboy Advance SP. Not just supplying heaps of photos they have even beaten the pack on voiding the warranty and include heaps of internal photos. The handheld market is heating up with new releases from Nokia too and also the feature packed GP32. Oh and maybe then there maybe some Sony competition soon?"
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Gameboy Advance SP Reviewed & Disassembled More

Gameboy Advance SP Reviewed & Disassembled

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  • On the box it reads: (Score:4, Funny)

    by Lethyos ( 408045 ) on Tuesday February 18, 2003 @09:12AM (#5325059) Journal
    "New front light screen" [lik-sang.com]

    Sounds a lot like engrish to me.

    "GameBoy SP new and much enjoyable front light screen! All GameBoy games can you have play!"
    • Very funny.
      Now let's hear you say it in Japanese...
      • I would, but Slashdot's HTML parser strips these:

        GameBoy のsp 新しく, 楽しい前部軽&# 12356;スクリーン&#12 290;GameBoy のゲ
        ームすべ ては&# 12354;なた演劇を&#26 377;することが&#1239 1;きる!
      • It's the same in Japanese, actually. They just use the English. :)

  • This is the TiBook of handheld consoles... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Max Romantschuk ( 132276 ) <max@romantschuk.fi> on Tuesday February 18, 2003 @09:13AM (#5325061) Homepage
    No, seriously... I really think it looks much cooler than the stuff Nintendo has done so far. Anyone else think it's all or partially Apples "fault"? And I mean that as a good thing.

    • Uh, no. (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Viewsonic ( 584922 )
      Nintendo has been doing little flip-open portable game systems long before Apple did anything cute with their computers.

      • Re:Uh, no. (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Max Romantschuk ( 132276 )
        Nintendo has been doing little flip-open portable game systems long before Apple did anything cute with their computers.

        I was actually referring to the silver look and generally stylish design, as opposed to the orange 80's Donkey Kong flip-open thingies.

  • Linux? (Score:4, Funny)

    by TiMac ( 621390 ) on Tuesday February 18, 2003 @09:13AM (#5325064)
    So who's gonna be the first Slashdotter to get a Linux distro to run on it?

    PS2...Xbox.....Gameboy Advance?

    No...it's not ENTIRELY flamebait. :)

    • No, it's the Ganeboy advance!

      Whatever it is, I want one.

  • With the size of a mini CD I don't see why Sony .. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by adzoox ( 615327 ) on Tuesday February 18, 2003 @09:14AM (#5325070) Journal
    With the size of a mini CD I don't see why Sony ... could make something with a 3 inch screen and mini DVD and integrated controls. No expnsion slot needed just USB for ethernet, memory, etc.

    Make it capable of using Mini DVD Videos like the Hitachi Camcorders. Other features: TV out, USB, Mp3 capability. I think this would be a popular convergence.

    They could even release 5 game PS1 packs on one mini DVD. Most of those games were 100 - 300 MB.

    I believe battery technology is where it would need to be for a unit like this as well.

    • Re:With the size of a mini CD I don't see why Sony (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 18, 2003 @10:29AM (#5325570)
      If a PSOne + 4" LCD screen without battery or integrated controller costs $150, how much do you think your smaller version with integrated controller, 3" screen, hi-capacity battery (because of all the freaking MOVING PARTS), USB, and mini-DVD drive instead of a regular CD drive cost?

      If your answer is $200 or more, congratulations, you have yourself a portable system that will sell so few numbers as to be unprofitable, and therefore unfeasible for any smart company to produce.

      More likely scenario is that SUCCESSFUL portable game systems NEVER "evolve" to use optical media drives which use moving parts. They are OLD/inferior technology compared to current high-capacity solid-state storage media, and are completely unsuited to portability. Think discman vs. mp3 player. Nintendo will own this market for as long as they stick to cartridge-based portables that maintain compatibility with older software. The real next step, hopefully, will be a GB with back-compatility, front-lit screen, full complement of 6 or more buttons not counting select and start, wireless connectivity of some sort, minimum 16-bit 22.05 KHz 2MB wavetable sound, and Playstation-level 3d hardware. Such a system that is durable enough to be handled by children will not hit the $100 magic price point for another 4-5 years at least.

      • Re:With the size of a mini CD I don't see why Sony (Score:4, Interesting)

        by adzoox ( 615327 ) on Tuesday February 18, 2003 @11:15AM (#5325966) Journal
        Current, "nearly CD diameter" CD Players get 20 hours off of two AA batteries. A Casio 4" TV gets about 4 hours off of two AA batteries. With a higher capacity LI ON or Polymer battery like the iPod has in it, the ability to play Mp3's and watch movies - like the rumored video iPod - could EASILY sell millions of units at $199. The gamecube could be shrunk, less controller, less bulk, less packaging = possibility to add the features I have mentioned. There would be almost ZERO cost for production (a little R&D) to produce a Gameboy cart interface for it. An entire gameboy "electronics set fits into a space about the size of a gameboy cart!

        Besides, who YET has money money initially selling the hardware?

        And I disagree with you. Cart games are EXPENSIVE to produce. optical games can be cranked out up to 20X faster and if I read right at Tokyo ETimes about this; a total "optical game" package costs even after royalty for about $4-$7 US. A cart costs up to $15 to produce.

        Nintendo has LOST the home war. They will soon lose the portable war if they don't come up with something better than cartridges.

        • Cartridges DO NOT cost that much to produce. Especially the low capacity ones used in the GBA. Maybe 15 years ago they costed around $20 to make, but now it is around 1 or 2 dollars.
        • I dont agree about Nintendo losing the home war. I think now that Zelda and Metroid are out, you will start seeing a lot of GameCubes selling. I know I always intended to get one, but the only compelling reason to get one, for me, was those two games; now that they are out I will buy.

          Another problem, for me anyway, is that there isnt one of the three (GC, PS2, and XBox) that is a clear loser.

          PS2 isnt as technologically advanced hardware-wise as XBox, but it has a really good stable of games, AND is backward compatible with PS1 (a real plus, since PS1 was the last generation best seller, and still has really good games).

          XBox has some really kick-butt hardware, but since they are the new kid, they have yet to get games associated with MS (like Mario, Metroid, and Zelda for Nintendo, or Final Fantasy and Metal Gear for Sony; technically FF is Square, and not specifically tied to Sony, but you get the point). XBox has really come on strong with XBox Live, and the ability to potentially use it as a mini-PC is very intreging to me as a computer geek.

          Finally, GameCube has the GBA link thing (which they need to use in more games), they have all the signature Nintendo games, and their game design is continually breaking new ground in terms of originality. I wish other games had copied Zelda: Ocharina of Time's control features- it just worked so well. Metroid does this as well with their 'Lock-on'; aiming has always been a weakness on the console compared to a keyboard/mouse setup.

          But the poster before was right- you will always be better off with solid-state devices on a portable system. Moving parts = things to break.

          Also, throwing all those things into one device, while nice on paper, will cost so much, and take so much development time, that by the time you get it to market it will be three years from now and cost $500- a price point that nobody will want to approach (hear that Palm?). Nintendo knows what they are doing. The most someone would reasonably expect to spend for something like that is around $100.

          Once you start to approach $200, people start thinking about all the other things they can do with that money. Also, what parent in their right mind is going to give a $200 portable device to their kid, that they can throw in their book-bag, break, or lose?

        • I disagree with most of your points:

          Yeah, a cd player gets 20 hours off 2 AA batteries and a TV gets 4 hours. Now combine the two, you have less than 3 hours left, and thats without the game optimised CPU. Run the CPU at full speed and you have less than 2 hours left. 2 hours of battery life for a gaming machine is pretty useless.

          Now imagine throwing a gamecube CPU in this. It requires a lot more juice than a GBA/portable TV CPU, dissipates more heat and of course its bigger. Your battery life would fall very low, less than 30 minutes.

          Now, keep in mind, that a CD/dvd/mini-cd for a game unit must spin a lot faster than an audio CD, else access time is a pain and load times takes forever. Your battery life just fell down to 15 minutes on two AA batteries.

          Now, okay, double the ammount of batteries - 30 minutes. Not enough... Add a pda battery... because the CPU needs so much power and because of the spinning disc, you still get around 30 mins.

          Although my battery life time are clearly eastimate and that the batteries could last a lot longer... they could still last a lot SHORTER...

          Now think about the price of putting everything together, and you will see that its just not possible with today's technology. Maybe in 10 years (the time it took to get a snes equivalent to get portable...) we will have cartridge that hold enough data and new cpu that need less juice that will make this possible, but right now, is just not possible. ...

          And nope, Nintendo has not lost the home war, if you take world wide sales, they still sell more than the Xbox. Add gameboy advance and gamecube sales and you get pretty impressive numbers. I dont think Nintendo will lose the portable war either, all its competitor crank losy products right now (n-gage with 3-4 hours of battery life? hahaha, GP32 looks nice, but it will never get here, and wonderswan are already dead (bandai is discontinuing it to work on GBA games instead).
          • My laptop (An Apple PowerBook G3 that is 3 years old lasts 2.5 hours watching a DVD on a 14.1" screen). The battery is about the size of a Gameboy color, it could be MUCH smaller, as the new iBook battery is which lasts 3 hours watching a DVD.

            Similarly, the Sony Mavica CD Cameras last about 4 hours with the LCD on. MINI CD's and a MINI DVD does NOT spin up as fast, it doesn't have to, the tracks aren't as far spread.

            I have been reading that the new OLED takes up 1/5 the power of an LCD.

            The technology is all there, it would take VERY minimal effort to shrink the Gamecube, and the CPU it uses is SIMILAR to the one I have in my PowerBook a PPC G3 450, I beleive with ATI video. The new chips from IBM at this speed are almost cool to the touch!

            Games don't make a platform. Popularity makes a platform, games follow.

            • " My laptop (An Apple PowerBook G3 that is 3 years old lasts 2.5 hours watching a DVD on a 14.1" screen). The battery is about the size of a Gameboy color, it could be MUCH smaller, as the new iBook battery is which lasts 3 hours watching a DVD."

              That would make the gaming system VERY heavy. The system got to be light, cuz you will end up holding it in your hands for a long time. Take the size of the GBA SP, where do you put an ibook battery in this? And where do you put the mini-cd drive? That takes room too.

              I own a gamegear, and it's BIG. It's almost impossible to carry it without a special carrying case. Yet, my GBA, although not as small as a GBA SP, is not an incovenience to carry. The GBA SP improves a lot on this, it fits in a shirt pocket, even jeans pockets.

              Even if the gamecube CPU is shrinked, it will still consume more juice than you can afford with 2 AA batteries. Beside, it would cost so much that you'd have to spend well over 200-300$ to get such a system.

              Nintendo know what they are doing very well, else they would not own the portable gaming market.
        • "Nintendo has LOST the home war. They will soon lose the portable war if they don't come up with something better than cartridges."

          Nah, they're still in the fight. If anything, Microsoft is losing the home war.

          Besides, the GameCube's big selling point right now (other than its library, that is) is its ability to tie in with the Game Boy Advance. PlayStation 2 may be outselling GameCubes, but GBAs are outselling PS2s by a comfortable margin.

          Bandai just announced that the WonderSwan Color has officially joined the long, long list of handheld platforms bitch-slapped by Nintendo. And "bitch-slap" may be too mild a term.

          When all is said and done, technology doesn't count as much as games. If technology were all that mattered, the 2600 would have died with the advent of ColecoVision and Intellivision, we would have all been saying "Zelda who?" as we played our Sega Master Systems, and Square would have never jumped ship to side with Sony.

          "ETimes about this; a total "optical game" package costs even after royalty for about $4-$7 US. A cart costs up to $15 to produce."

          Cart storage capacities go up without requiring a new media interface, an advantage cartridges have over optical media. That's why cart production prices don't go down the same way as optical media. Comparing the two is like comparing the prices of CD-Rs and RAM. Super Mario 64 was on a 64 Mbit cartridge, Majora's Mask was 256 Mbit, and I recall hearing of a 512 Mbit N64 cartridge. Tiny GBA cartridges started at 32 Mbit and are already hovering around 128 Mbit (if they aren't there already).

          Will you still be jumping up and down about the wonders of optical media once cartridge capacities start to outstrip them? Between the constant effort to squeeze more transistors on a chip and the way it takes several years for a new optical standard to get out of the gate, I don't see the size gap between the two lasting much longer.
      • If a PSOne + 4" LCD screen without battery or integrated controller costs $150, how much do you think your smaller version with integrated controller, 3" screen, hi-capacity battery (because of all the freaking MOVING PARTS), USB, and mini-DVD drive instead of a regular CD drive cost?

        Less, and here's why. A 3" screen is cheaper than a 4" screen, especially if you can get away with lowering the resolution. The controller is not a significant cost. A mini-DVD drive shouldn't cost much more than a CD drive over the long term -- and remember, portable consoles have a lifetime of 8-10 years.

        But most importantly, this: Sony can take a loss on them. The mini-DVD format means that users can't just use their existing PSOne games (on CD) -- they'll have to buy them again. Sony can charge $30-$40 each for games that they've already written. Nintendo is already doing this with SNES games on the GBA, and it's got to be hugely profitable. Sony could sell PSOne games on mini-DVDs for $20 and still turn a profit, because the disks are so damn cheap compared to cartridges.

    • Re:With the size of a mini CD I don't see why Sony (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Guppy06 ( 410832 ) on Tuesday February 18, 2003 @11:15AM (#5325967)
      "I don't see why Sony ... could make something with a 3 inch screen and mini DVD and integrated controls."

      Because maybe Game Boy has been eating technilogically superior handhelds for breakfast for the better part of a decade now and Sony isn't dumb enough to spend all that R & D money on cannon fodder?

      "I believe battery technology is where it would need to be for a unit like this as well."

      This new Game Boy uses a Li-ion battery. What more do you want?
    • Probably because the mechanical devices need to move & read a disk would occupy so much space that there wouldn't be much left for the game hardware. While disk drives are good for mp3/music players and such, the processing power for a decent game system requires more hardware. Think of adding a disk dive to the GBA, you would probably more than double the thickness of it. Quite simply the hardware isn't there yet. I wouldn't be surprised if one of Nintendo's future portables can play Gamecube discs.

  • More GBA SP Impressions (Score:5, Informative)

    by Omkar ( 618823 ) on Tuesday February 18, 2003 @09:14AM (#5325071) Homepage Journal
    Here (PGC) [planetgamecube.com]
    and some nice pics Here [ign.com]. Boy, this is late!

  • multiple functionality key (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    If current devices just keep getting smaller, soon I'll have a jumble of things bouncing off my keychain. It's stupid. I can't hold a feather up to my ear to talk on, or a piece of paper for playing games on. I want some feedback from gravity to know if my phone has gone silent because the connection dropped or I dropped it!

    The better solution by far would be to combine a few of them so that my phone, pocket computer, camera and portable game machine all fit in one nice small (but not too small) package. If the manufacturers don't figure that out, they won't be selling them for much longer. The market for these things is hitting the point of diminishing to no returns.

  • And another new console design... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Memetic ( 306131 ) on Tuesday February 18, 2003 @09:16AM (#5325087) Homepage Journal
    Another new design called B'ngo [theregister.co.uk],a sub $200 handheld console / phone is covered on The Register. [theregister.co.uk]

  • Cynical Nintendo marketing or just bad design? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by DrXym ( 126579 ) on Tuesday February 18, 2003 @09:16AM (#5325089)
    The GBA shipped with a shiny, glarey, barely visible screen with no backlight. Was this just gross incompetance on the part of Nintendo or part of some scheme to keep selling us new models that promise to fix the massive deficiencies in the last one? I find it hard to believe they didn't know, all the way through developing and testing the thing that the screen was so appalling. How much would the backlight circuitry have cost them? A few cents maybe?


    Frankly, I might have bought more games for my GBA if I thought I could actually see them. Instead it sits in a drawer except for occasional forays in good lighting. Nintendo can go to hell if they think I'm going to make the same mistake twice.

    • So sell your GBA on ebay, and get a SP.... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Viewsonic ( 584922 ) on Tuesday February 18, 2003 @09:21AM (#5325109)
      Geesh, with all the awesome games on the GBA, you'll be missing out bigtime. Unless games really dont mean much to you. Or just get the GBAPlayer for the GameCube when that comes for 40 bux.

      • Or... (Score:3, Funny)

        by Rayonic ( 462789 )
        Or buy the GBA games that you want, download (or rip) the game ROM, and play it on an emulator.

        Hm...
      • I hadn't heard of the game boy player [gamespy.com] until now.. thanks. :)
        I thought it was kind of dumb that if I really liked a game and wanted to be able to play it on my gamecube and gba that I would have to buy 2 copies of the game. Although, I imagine playing the gameboy version of something on my gamecube wouldn't look as good as the gamecube version.

    • Re:Cynical Nintendo marketing or just bad design? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by SkreamNet ( 610802 ) on Tuesday February 18, 2003 @09:40AM (#5325202) Homepage
      One big selling point of the GameBoy has always been long battery life. Lighted screens eat battery life. Therefore Nintendo tried to make a screen that made the most of ambient light rather than to backlight it. I know of a lot of folks that appreciated that, and had no problems with the screen. My palm has a backlight, but I never turn the thing on... same with my TV's remote control. I'm not willing to lose the battery life.

      • Re:Cynical Nintendo marketing or just bad design? (Score:4, Funny)

        by moncyb ( 456490 ) on Tuesday February 18, 2003 @12:58PM (#5326690) Journal

        Why don't they put a hand crank on the side so you can recharge the thing? Then they could have a really bright screen and a fast power-hungry processor. I can see it now. All the kiddies playing their games and cranking on the box like a monkey! Well, okay, more like the organ grinder who owns the monkey. In fact, the game's goal could be to keep the unit charged. ;-)

      • Well there is a solution for that - an on/off switch on the backlight.


        As for ambient light, I find it hard to believe they paid any attention to that at all or they would have used a matt finish on the screen to diffuse the light rather than the shiniest reflective surface they could find to bounce most of it back into your eyes.

    • Re:Cynical Nintendo marketing or just bad design? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      nintendo said that they had a given price they wanted to achieve with the GBA, and that they would rather include a bad screen than a slow processor since you can upgrade the screen later, but if you want to upgrade the processor, you'll have to change the games, and making a console obsolete after just one year is probably worse than what they've done now.

  • Hmmm... GBA-SP or NGC? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by rickthewizkid ( 536429 ) on Tuesday February 18, 2003 @09:19AM (#5325100)
    I'm trying to decide which one I want. Both have their appeal.

    Of course, One question I had when I heard about the GSP was that the e-reader wouldn't work with it. I would imagine that with the homebrew/demo scene that the original GBA would be better because one could decode the protocol used on the e-reader, print your own cards, and publish your own game that way. That, plus the GSP probably has new "license protection"/DRM/Region Coding/Developer lockout/authentication etc. that the original GBA doesn'have.

    Just my Z80's worth
    --RickTheWizKid
    • And the NGC (Nintendo GameCube)will also have the GBAPlayer which attaches to the bottom of the NGC and will play all your GBA screens through the NGC on the TV Screen.

    • Re:Hmmm... GBA-SP or NGC? (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      SP has no lockouts, its the exact same damn hardware as GBA.
      And the e-reader DOES work it.
    • Of course, One question I had when I heard about the GSP was that the e-reader wouldn't work with it.

      This was already answered once, but the e-Reader *does* work with the GBA-SP. The expansion plug on the bottom of the mechanism fits just over the bottom edge of the unit, not really getting in the way (unless you hold your GBA weird). Then again, the e-Reader wasn't designed for long-term ergonomics, so it's doubtful you'd really be playing anything on it for longer than an hour.

      I would imagine that with the homebrew/demo scene that the original GBA would be better because one could decode the protocol used on the e-reader, print your own cards, and publish your own game that way.

      The dot resolution on the e-Cards is probably a couple of degrees finer than your standard household inkjet printer. Think about it. The strip is about 3/8" wide, and about 3" long (don't have one on me to measure, so these are estimates). That means you have about 1.125 square inches of data to store about 2KB, or 16000 bits. sqrt(1.125) gives an average side length of 1.0606", and sqrt(16000) gives 126.49...so you'd have to have approximately 120 distinct dot positions per inch, assuming that there's no uber-compression scheme going on there.

      I don't think your home printer can handle that. Perhaps a laser printer, but who knows. Not me, that's for sure.

      That, plus the GSP probably has new "license protection"/DRM/Region Coding/Developer lockout/authentication etc. that the original GBA doesn'have.

      As has already been mentioned and modded up, the Game Boy line (including the Virtual Boy) has never had any physical or logical region protection system. The most you could say for "developer lockout" is the pursuit and C&D of resellers of flash-linker kits, which have a secondary (and some would argue "primary") use of being able to load and play GB roms downloaded from the Internet.

      I understand the interest in developing for these, as I tinker around with them a bit, but it does say something when I'm playing Oracle of Seasons prior to class yesterday, and a kid three seats down from me doesn't recognize the larger GBC cartridge and thinks I'm using a flash cart. When I tell him it's just an older game, he's like "Wow...did you know you can buy a blank cartridge and download games from the Internet on it?"
      • 120 dpi? When most printers are 1200dpi, and even your $250 home laser printer is 600dpi? I can't imaginen any difficulties.

  • Flash Linkers? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by GothChip ( 123005 )
    I'm waiting to get one when they are released in Europe.

    Does anyone know if current Flask Linkers [cdworld.co.uk] will work with the new GBA SP?
    • When I see these things that help you copy games and use stuff you don't own, I always feel tempted to go and steal them from the shop, rather than buy them. After all, the purveryors of them can hardly complain about theft, can they?

      Rob. (the misanthrope)
    • The hardware of the new gameboy is identicle to the old GBA, just in a different shape (with a rechargeable battery and a new screen). As fas as software is concerned, it's the exact same machine. Flash carts should work just fine.

  • Nintendo Finally Does it Right (Score:5, Informative)

    by antinous57 ( 648139 ) on Tuesday February 18, 2003 @09:24AM (#5325125)

    After fumbling around trying to find the best source for light, whether it be my lamp in the living room or the ever annoying 'Worm Light' attachment, the Gameboy will come with a backlit screen. Not only that, but a rechargeable battery that comes standard, and a price tag (albeit you don't import it before the US release date) that will be less than $100. It will make it worth my time to give games like Castlevania a second look considering the first time I played the game I couldn't even see the game b/c the screen was so dark.

  • DMCA Timer (Score:5, Insightful)

    by OffTheRack ( 551671 ) on Tuesday February 18, 2003 @09:25AM (#5325131)
    It's nice to see inside of these devices without having the crack open one yourself. How long before DMCA is used by a company to prosecute anyone that shares such photos? Does anyone know if that has already happened?

    • Re:DMCA Timer (Score:3, Insightful)

      by phoxix ( 161744 )
      Why the heck do we always assume that the DMCA will be used against us for everything?

      This type of thought is getting really disgusting. Sure the DMCA need to be worried about, but letting the DMCA shape our lives without the corporate whores doing anything is giving them the automatic win.

      Just my two cents

      Sunny Dubey

    • I don't know, but I'd imagine a company would use trade secret laws for this sort of thing--not the DMCA. Unless they copyrighted how their circuit boards look. (not the design, just the look) ;-)

  • crash test (Score:4, Informative)

    by mirko ( 198274 ) on Tuesday February 18, 2003 @09:35AM (#5325180) Journal
    Funny you should mention that because Lik Sang also published some GBSP crash test videos :
    • http://media.lik-sang.com/content/gbasp-crash/gb asp-extreme-crashtest-liksang_com2.avi
    • http://media.lik-sang.com/content/gbasp-crash/gb asp-extreme-crashtest-liksang_com3.avi
    • http://media.lik-sang.com/content/gbasp-crash/gb asp-extreme-crashtest-liksang_com4.avi
    • http://media.lik-sang.com/content/gbasp-crash/gb asp-extreme-crashtest-liksang_com5.avi

  • Americans get screwed (Score:5, Informative)

    by Nakanai_de ( 647766 ) on Tuesday February 18, 2003 @09:43AM (#5325219)
    I just thought I'd point out that, here in Japan, the GBA-SP comes in 3 colors: silver, cobalt, and black. The U.S. version will only come in the first two. (IMO, this sucks, as black is the coolest.)
    • Here in europe we get black and silver
    • As far as I know the GBA isn't region specific. Which is part of the reason why the are releasing the SP so soon in North America.
      I'm pretty sure (don't take my word for it) is that if you were to order a Japanese model it would be capable of playing your North American games.
    • I'd say they are losing out on Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced; but to be honest I don't think the US ever caught onto the japanese "personalize everything" theme, which is good IMO.

      I mean, does the Sony cybercam REALLY need 5 metallic colors? the TUKA phone some 8 colors? people with all sorts of crazy stuff hanging off there DoCoMos?

      As long as it's functional (and have good games), so what if I am totting around a ping GBA?
    • reply I got from Nintendo:

      Message(#6851-000095-8637\958637)

      Hello and thank you for contacting Nintendo,

      At this time, there are no plans to release a black Game Boy Advance SP, but your feedback is important to us and I will be sure to forward your remail to the appropriate departments for review.

      Sincerely,

      Nintendo of America Inc.
      Sharon Matheny

      Nintendo's home page: http://www.nintendo.com/
      Power Line (Automated Product Info): (425) 885-7529

      -----

      Take our Survey! You have been chosen to participate in an e-mail quality survey. This should take less than 5 minutes. Please click here: http://www.nintendo.com/consumersurvey.jsp?ref=

      -----

      ORIGINAL MESSAGE:
      -----------------

      From: "Cpt_Kirks"
      Posted At: 21:51:45.000 01/11/2003
      Posted To: Nintendo
      Subject: GBA SP

      Hello,
      Is it true that you will not be releasing the black colored GBA SP in
      the US? I thought adults were your target market for the GBA SP.
      I am an adult and would prefer a black one. Please reconsider and sell
      the black model in the US.
      Thank you.

    • There is a fourth color scheme that has been released in Japan: Pearl White

      http://pocket.ign.com/articles/382/382654p1.html

  • No Competition (Score:5, Insightful)

    by GweeDo ( 127172 ) on Tuesday February 18, 2003 @09:44AM (#5325229) Homepage
    As of right now the GBA has no competition at all. The GP32 can't even been seen as an issue due to its pure lack of power. While it has a higher MHZ rating it doesn't have any special hardware to deal with sprite effects, background effects and more...this is where the GBA really out muscles it. The Nokia NGage is still a vague object on the horizon if you ask me. And when we finally do get to truely see it, it will be an over priced monster without support from the big channels that it needs and with a customer base that is too small. The GBA SP is just Nintendo's next step in maintaining their control on this market.

    • Re:No Competition (Score:3, Informative)

      by radish ( 98371 )
      N-gage has been launched, has been reviewed and will be in the shops soon. They've signed a big deal with Sega for content. I'm not saying it's any good or anything, but it is real.

      • Re:No Competition (Score:2, Flamebait)

        by GweeDo ( 127172 )
        Wow! Support from Sega? What more could you ask for! Maybe they will get Jet Set Radio Future! Or a port of another old Sonic game! Or who knows what else Sega might do on accident. Sega has made blunder after blunder in the past few years...I see this as just another one of those.
    • Man... maintaing monopoly control not through extortion but by improving your product so that your customers continue to buy it... Why can't the Baby Bells and the cable companies pay more attention to Nintendo?
    • The GP32 can't even been seen as an issue due to its pure lack of power. While it has a higher MHZ rating it doesn't have any special hardware to deal with sprite effects, background effects and more...

      With a much more powerful processor and 8MB of RAM, GP32 can emulate GBA's hardware effects in software. I've owned a GP32 for about half a year, and a GBA since launch date. Many GP32 games meet and exceed GBA graphics, such as Astonishia Story R [skynet.be].

      Plus, a GBA emulator for GP32 is in the works. TONS of other systems, including NES, GameGear/Sega Master System, and SNES are already emulated well on GP32. Despite all this, however, the one thing really keeping GP32 back from direct competition is Nintendo's stranglehold on the handheld industry and the Game Boy's huge library of games.

      For more information about GP32, check out my old handheld site [cox.net], InsertCredit [insertcredit.com], and GP32news.com [gp32news.com].
  • Penny Arcade [penny-arcade.com]

  • What was that? (Score:1, Redundant)

    by vidnet ( 580068 )
    Nintendo Ganeboy Advance SP

    *cough* Gameboy!*cough*

  • ARM processor (Score:2, Interesting)

    by ScannerBoy ( 174488 )
    Anyone have any specs on the processor and when I can expect to install my favorite *nix version on the SP?

    Come on, I can't be the only one who thought of it!

  • Not really sure how well this pocket system is going to actually feel. It looks very square and boxy...and I know from trying to use my Palm to play simple games, it doesn't feel good to hold something like that for very long.

    I wonder if they went too far towards attractive design and ended up making an XBox controller.

  • I just so happened to have ordered a Gameboy Advance SP from Lik-Sang after ncsx closed their pre-orders. Unfortunately, Nintendo's production is lagging and pre-orders haven't been fulfilled. In my opinion, Lik-Sang should have sent this Gameboy out with the rest of the pre-orders. I'm not against taking apart the thing to find out its workings and all, but I AM against the OTHER article they posted and then removed. In this one they destroyed one of the new gameboys by smashing it and lighting it on fire to appease the owners of past gameboys. Now, tell me whether or not that is being wasteful.
  • This thing is very cool... but there is just a few things that could be done to make it just a tiny bit better.
    First off- the (nintendo®) Logo on the front is backwards when the screen is in the open position, this is the same mistake that Apple made with it's powerbooks and eventually fixed Pic [lik-sang.com]
    Second- the shoulder buttons are upside down! I assume they did this so you could check to see which button was R and Which was L when you flip the device towards you... but really is that necessary? Most people, even children know their left from their right hands- and even if they don't they somehow adapt and figure out what each button does... anyways perhaps it's only me but the buttons seem upside-down Pic [lik-sang.com]
    Lastly- a dimmer on the backlight sounds like a good idea.
    It looks great and I really look forward to getting my hands on one- nice job Nintendo!
  • Why won't any U.S. distributors carry the gp32? It is available in the UK now.
  • I've already found a bunch of dev sites via Google, but I'm interesting in hearing if anyone here has tried developing GB or GBA apps. Good/bad experience?
  • I've got a GBA with an Afterburner frontlight. It works great. No need to change. Enough said.
  • I have seen the GBA and think it is almost perfect.

    I have seen the new clamshell gameboy, and doubt that I will even consider getting one.

    The GBA is just the right size, the only upgrades I need is a backlight and a slightly high resolution. A better screen(in those two aspects) would make this an awesome handheld game system... oh, and maybe a few more buttons, 2 just seems so... few :)

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