Gameboy Advanced screens are really dark?

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Atariboy
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Re: Gameboy Advanced screens are really dark?

Postby Atariboy » March 31st, 2017, 8:16 pm

The original GBA still has one great use in 2017, and that's as a controller for the Game Boy Player. Comfortable horizontal layout like a typical console gamepad has, decent d-pad, long battery life with standard AA batteries, and with an ideal button layout for Game Boy games.

Image

In my opinion when paired with a GBP, it's much preferred over the stock GameCube controller or any SP model. I even prefer it over the excellent Hori digital gamepad for the GameCube, since the GCN's button layout that is copied just isn't a great match for many Game Boy games.

Verm3 wrote:The Critic states in his Sega Rally review for the Advance, that he uses a Game Cube Gameboy player for playing Advance games. How does he play GB and GB colour games?


While I don't know what his preferred hardware choice is for playing those games, the Game Boy Player is backwards compatible with original Game Boy and Game Boy Color games. So if he owns one of these accessories, he can certainly play older Game Boy software on it.

All Game Boy Advance handhelds share this trait as well, except for the short lived Game Boy Micro which eliminated the Z80 processor that was necessary to enable BC (A trait shared by the backwards compatible DS and DS Lite which could play GBA games but not GB/GBC games).

Verm3
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Re: Gameboy Advanced screens are really dark?

Postby Verm3 » April 2nd, 2017, 3:51 am

Thanks for the detailed information Atariboy; though I'm still a bit confused; I always thought all variants of a Nintendo handheld generation could play the previous generations games.

It would be cool if someone knows of a list of every variant of every Nintendo handheld variant, that lists what each one is backward compatible with?

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Atariboy
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Re: Gameboy Advanced screens are really dark?

Postby Atariboy » April 2nd, 2017, 10:13 am

Verm3 wrote:I always thought all variants of a Nintendo handheld generation could play the previous generations games.

Not quite. There have been three exceptions to that rule.

There's the aforementioned Game Boy Micro that only was compatible with GBA software, along with the DSi and DSi XL. Both of these DS revisions could only play DS software and lacked any GBA backwards compatibility, although 3-4 retail DS releases did rely upon the enhanced capabilities of the DSi and couldn't be played on a regular DS or DS Lite.

But few would misconstrue that as meaning that the DSi line was a successor to the DS, with it thus incorporating backwards compatibility by virtue of playing regular DS games. To 99.9% of gamers, a DSi is just a DS revision just as today's New 3DS is still a 3DS.

Verm3 wrote:It would be cool if someone knows of a list of every variant of every Nintendo handheld variant, that lists what each one is backward compatible with?


Nintendo handheld backwards compatibility is pretty easy.

All Game Boy Color systems play regular Game Boy Games. All Game Boy Advance systems (Including the Game Boy Player) except for the Micro, will play Game Boy and Game Boy Color games. For the Nintendo DS line, both non-DSi handhelds will play Game Boy Advance software but not older Game Boy/Game Boy Color software, while the two DSi revisions lack any sort of backwards compatibility.

And of course all 3DS and New 3DS systems, including the 2DS variant, play last-generation DS games (And the DSi exclusives).

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Gentlegamer
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Re: Gameboy Advanced screens are really dark?

Postby Gentlegamer » April 2nd, 2017, 10:25 pm

I have the GBA SP with the upgraded screen, but I would like to get an original GBA with screen modded, I've seen those out there.

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Atariboy
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Re: Gameboy Advanced screens are really dark?

Postby Atariboy » April 3rd, 2017, 2:25 pm

While I'd miss the built-in screen protection that the SP model offers, such a modded system would be the ideal Game Boy Advance handheld in my eyes.

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MoarRipter
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Re: Gameboy Advanced screens are really dark?

Postby MoarRipter » April 3rd, 2017, 8:02 pm

Gentlegamer wrote:I have the GBA SP with the upgraded screen, but I would like to get an original GBA with screen modded, I've seen those out there.

Atariboy wrote:While I'd miss the built-in screen protection that the SP model offers, such a modded system would be the ideal Game Boy Advance handheld in my eyes.


16194928_10154924411157152_6085837588474157321_n.jpeg
16194928_10154924411157152_6085837588474157321_n.jpeg (46.43 KiB) Viewed 1374 times


I posted this picture in the other thread about handhelds, even though there's dust under the screen and this one's frontlight appears to have been installed slightly off-kilter I can confirm it's more preferable to the SP, mostly due to comfort and not having the large GB/GBC cartridges jut out of the bottom.


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