No.1038
What do you think of the GBA?
I think it was probably the peak of handheld gaming.
No.1039
I liked it a lot.
No.1042
No.1044
Cons:
>shitty plastic buttons
>ran on AA batteries
>poor screen
>broke easily
Pros:
>LB RB were alright
>headphone jack
>screen light addon
>comfortable in hands
SP was better imo
No.1049
Embedding error.
It had Wario Ware Inc. and Rhythm Tengoku, so it just manages to beat out the NGPC as my favourite handheld ever.
No.1053
not retro, but psp is objectively the best handheld
No.1059
No.1061
the most comfortable shape of all the handheld consoles, literally fits in my hands, but the lack of screen lighting and shitty audio capabilities are definite cons. also, there's less good games on it than you'd think, but it has a few classics (Metroid Fusion & Zero Mission, Wario Land 4, Sonic Advance and Golden Sun to name a few)
No.1137
>>1038I agree. The SP version was especially great, since you didn't have to worry about lighting as much.
>>1053You're shitting up this board, too? Jesus Christ.
No.1140
>>1137Ergonomically, the SP was not that much different to the GB(C), but it felt uncomfortable as fuck after the original GBA.
No.1143
>>1053I used the PSP to play GBA games more than PSP games.
No.1180
I found the GB micro to be pretty cute
No.1197
>>1180It was fucking adorable.
I was always put off by the perception of the screen being smaller, and the lack of GB/GBC compatibility was silly, but I still logged a tonne of hours with it.
No.1201
>>1197I regret not getting one when stores started to sell them cheap to get rid of them in the areas I lived at the time.
No.1202
>>1201How do they fare against the other models in price these days?
No.1207
>>1197The small screen just makes games look a lot higher res than they are.
No.1208
>>1207Yeah, that's why I used "perception". I really did love the clarity and brightness of it, having been an early adopter of the original model.
No.1627
>>1053I agree. The best emulator handheld I ever had was the PSP. I play all my NES, SNES, Genesis, GB/C, and GBA games on it.
No.1656
>tfw my PSP broke and now I can't play SNES games on the go.
I think I'm going to buy a PS Vita and emulate shit on that.
No.1693
No.1695
I thought it was good, but the SP was much better even though it lacked a headphone jack.
The screen on the original GBA just seemed a bit more poor compared to even the GBC, but maybe my memory is old.
No.1697
No.1818
Nigga I probably spend hundreds of dollars on AA batteries.
No.1821
>>1038I liked gameboy color better.
No.1824
>>1197I honestly wish I still had mine, or that I didn't stop messing with the cases.
Still though, it's closer to my heart than the SP.
No.1827
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>>1038Comfiest handheld there is. The only true flaw it had was there no being a backlight. Nintendo cheaped out on it. There was the Gameboy Light that came before the Advance, so Nintendo should of included it from the very beginning.
No.1938
>>1053This. Fantastic library, great homebrew, a bunch of emulators.
No.1940
No.2029
Terrible screen, gave me headaches, but emulating it I've loved chu chu rocket, advance wars, drill dozer… It's arguably my fav handheld to emulate but the other competitor is GBC which wins out on having a lovely gentle screen.
No.2030
>>1180Cute to look at but not actually useable because it's a handheld for ants.
No.2076
I had one but never had any good games for it besides the LTTP port
were there even any good games for it besides pokemon?
No.2078
>>2076Of all GBA games, two came to mind
>Advance Wars>Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga No.2082
>>1038Brings back so many memories.
My favourite wasPokemon and advance wars
No.2088
>>2076I mentioned 3 really nice, less played ones, just 2 posts above you
No.2091
>>1038>Shit screen>Shit Audio>Mostly ports and movie licensesIt was ok.
No.2092
>>1038wouldn't the DS be the peak since it's got a built-in GBA?
No.2094
No.2219
>>2076
2 Fire emblem games, 2 excellent metroid games, Wario Land 4, Mario Tennis, and nice ports of the DKC games.
It was a good console, at least on 1st party games.
No.2233
>>1038
I can't remember if I owned one and played it or if I played all the games on an emulator.
Strange that.
No.2234
GBA was the peak of gaming altogether for me. It was the first system I bought with my own money, and I played that thing nonstop. Some of the best RPGs ever made, tons of great SNES ports, two excellent Metroid games, two great Zelda games, fucking WARIO WARE INC and TWISTED, Advance Wars, and tons more. Also, it has (IMHO) the best port of Doom 1 and 2 I've played.
No.2240
Shitty licensed games based on tv shows and summer action flicks in the 00s
Gameboy color was decent though
No.2264
>>2234
>WARIO WARE INC.
Jesus, that was fearsomely addictive. I don't think I've ever wracked up as many hours on a handheld title, save for maybe Pogeymans and Card Fighters Clash. And it was just a goofy collection of arcade games…
I never liked Twisted and the later titles, for the same reason I preferred the original Rhythm Tengoku over later editions: the one or two button simplicity was far more engaging; you never had to think, just react.
No.2270
>>2219
>2 excellent metroid games
Fusion yeah, Zero mission was ok but far from excellent
>>2234
>Twisted
muh nigga
No.2274
No.2286
I still have my GBA and my SP. Didn't keep my DS, sadly, but I still have my DS lite.
I still put my SP out and play nightmare in dreamland.
>>1053
>>1938
Agreed. I only wish it had 2 joypads
No.2290
Shit handheld, with a shit library of ports of games I already played and really really shitty licensed games. I only really liked the megaman games, even then only two in both series.
Metroids were kinda boring imo. Never understood the hype behind golden sun and advance wars. Maybe because I already played better TPS and RPGs. The pokemon games were a port and 50% ocean. The Zeldas were a port and a romhack outsourced to Capcom, it really shows too.
Thanks god the GBA emulator was developed relatively early, my sheckels on battery were saved and I discovered just how shitty the library was pretty early on.
No.2425
As with most handhelds, it had a shit library full of licensed garbage. But it did have a couple of great games like Mother 3 and Firered. It had lots of great JRPGS now that I think about it. Personally I think the original Gameboy had a better library, but the GBA isn't bad. Your alright, OP.
No.2426
>>1693
no headphone jack
yes I liked my handhelds to be as loud as possible
well at least in 2015 I play them on a bigscreen with amped stereo speakers, life is good
always hated when good games (most of the GBAs non-licensed/shovelware library is great) ended up on handhelds
No.2430
What are some good third party games?
No.2436
>>2234
>TWISTED
MONA PIZZA GOT NOTHING ON US
No.2448
Its the system with Mother 3 and the system that my favourite emulator uses, so of course highest praise.
Outside Mother 3 the GBA got a whole heap of Tactical RPGs, honestly can't think of another system with any near as many, speaking of RPGs, it also has Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga, which is probably one of the better Mario games in my opinion, yes there was a lot of ports but thats a good thing when its an easier system to use by Emulator than any other one so you can play most major NES and SNES games
No.3228
9.5/10.
Just needed a backlight.
Fuck the SP.
No.3229
>>3228
>Fuck the SP.
I've heard of some people buying replacement SP screens and replacing the screen in the regular GBA with them, thus giving you backlighting with the wider system size. Only real drawback is that it still needs actual batteries instead of simply being able to plug it into the wall with a charger.
Still, it kind of surprises me that it took until the SP to get a backlit, or hell, even sidelit Gameboy system here in the US, considering Nintendo had been messing with the idea since the Japan only Gameboy Light.
No.3230
>>1627
>>1143
>>1053
Namefagging is despicable, but I will sage to offset my heresy of an off topic post:
What's the best model of PSP to get for emulating?
No.3302
>>3230
3000. Uses an exploit to temporarily install CFW. Until it crashes or powers off fully, it stays in fun mode. No risk at breaking it, either, but it's not impossible to permanently modify older variants.
No.3305
>>3302
>>3230
Want to add to that that running the Fast Recovery to boot into CFW mode with the 3000 after turning the system on takes maybe 20-30 seconds. Not real long at all, and isn't a big hassle.
Regardless, just make sure you follow the instructions and get the right downloads to put CFW on the model you choose.
No.3311
>>3229
Well, the "replacement" screens have been gone for a few years now. People are just stripping screens from the AGS-101 now. I've got a few hoarded and completed the mod on my GBA. It's simple to do, the only real issue is picking the right adapter cable for the best results.
As far as rechargable batteries, there are sites like adafruit and sparkfun that sell li-ion batteries and recharging circuits. I bought one to install in mine but it ended up being slightly too large. It did work and power the GBA with no issues though. There's an 850mah li-ion and mini USB charger I'm looking at on sparkfun that should work for that.
No.3317
>>1044
>GBA
>broke easily
U fukkin wot, m8
No.3320
>>3305
>>3302
Thanks, mang! Sweetness!
No.3322
>>3320
No problem. Just note that PS1 eboots and emulators (with their respective folder hierarchy) go in the GAME folder (PSP games on the other hand go in the ISO folder).
No.3331
I miss playing the GBA on long car or train journies as a kid. Especially since it was backwards compatible so I never ran out of games to play.
No.3340
>>1038
That and the Genesis are probably my favorite systems, despite ostensibly "growing up" more with the the Gamecube, Wii, and DS.
I just wasn't really cognitive enough to be able to play the more fast paced actiony games that I like now, despite that I still loved how fast GBA games were even as a child.
Seriously, go boot up any GBA ROM, ANY, and you'll see what I mean. Unless there's some long ass unskippable "cinematic" intro, you'll be able to press start and mash A like 3 times to get to the actual game.
Can't exactly do that nowadays.
And it was also of the era where cartridges were still big enough to add stupid gimmicks to them physically, which I still love.
Shit like Drill Dozer just was technically possible on the DS at least, and this is admittedly a lot of personal bias, but it just isn't the same as having it built into a single cart.
Wario Ware Twisted as well is possible on the 3DS with its Gyro, but again it isn't the same as having a big monster cartridge tumor bulging out of your system and rumbling.
It's like emulating compared to playing a cartridge of the real thing to me.
The games themselves were also some of my favorites, and again that's a lot of personal bias, but I still stand by my statement that the GBA is really fucking fast.
Like Blast Processing fast, with a heaping focus on gameplay. A lot of the good action games on that system make for really solid TAS's as well.
No.3348
The GBA is good and all but holy shit is it awful for repairs. I mean, I can't even find a scratch remover for the thing - gotta get a new fuckin' screen.
No.3350
>>3340
>And it was also of the era where cartridges were still big enough to add stupid gimmicks to them physically, which I still love.
There are also the Boktai games with the sunlight sensor in the cartridge itself.
No.3351
>>3340
warioware twisted is one of the most fun games I've ever played and I'm glad I still have it to screw around with every now and then.
No.3371
We were so excited for it when it came out.
Then we found you could basically play it in Britain for about three days a year.
I think my brother eventually moved on to the SP and such, but I'd lost the ability to give a shit by then. Even though he pretty much straight up gave me the GBA to keep as my own, I preferred playing our older GB Pocket instead, and occasionally breaking out the Game Gear.
The games themselves were pretty rad, but I enjoyed playing them in an emulator on my desktop PC far, far more than on the actual original unlit machine, which I'm pretty sure points to there being some fatal flaws. It should usually be the other way around…
No.3378
>>3371
>Then we found you could basically play it in Britain for about three days a year.
>go to England
>head to FOOKING BABBAGES for vidya
>GBA needs charging
>plug it into the wall zap splickety splap with a universal adapter and ask someone if they play the GBA
>"U FUKN WOT M8?"
>notice he has a GBA in his pocket
>everyone in England has a GBA in their pocket
>Big Ben starts to chime
>everyone stops what they're doing to count the bongs on their fingers
>man swerves off road and crashes into grocery store and is still counting bongs after crashing
>cashier drops my copy of Advance Wars on the floor while counting bongs on her fingers
>man panting while running frantically down the street: "OI, EVERYWAN, IT'S TIME FOR BOKTAI"
>everyone inside FOOKIN BABBAGES and on the streets start clapping and cheering
>mfw