Game Boy Turns 30 Years Old

[Tanooki]

That's an interesting angle to take, but I think more likely what I said, then catpix said again is potentially more likely. Betrayal. Nintendo is very careful not to outright screw their base. When the 3DS was overpriced to start for more people than not, some like me did buy it anyway thinking it was fair, and in turn ended up with 20 Ambassador games of which the 10 GBA titles still are exclusively set. Given they would have probably charged $8-10 on each GBA game and the other 10 NES games are $5, it was a pretty good handout for an apology.

 

I still think you do have a point on milking battery over brightness, but likely making people be forced to buy 2 units so quickly or to choose black and white with timex indiglo tech *OR* a color screen with exclusives that run on a higher spec made for a bad situation.

[derFunkenstein]

Gameboy is currently the system that gets the most collecting love from me, but I'm limited by my stock GBA. While I used to think the screen was "not that bad", I'm needing more now. Really want to get a modded unit, but don't want to spend the money on eBay and don't trust myself to do the mod.

Id love a modded OG GBA or a consolized one, but Ill get by on the AGS-101 I just bought. The body is beat up but Im going to get an aftermarket body to swap it into.

 

And since I didnt research enough I now have an Everdrivr GB X5 and Japanese Super Game Boy I dont need anymore. :-/. Guess theyll just sit on the shelf for now.

Edited May 1, 2019 by derFunkenstein

[Newsdee]

I dug out my GB Boy Colour yesterday to try the Super Mario Land DX mods (1 and 2). It's cheap and the DPad is mushy, but it has a very nice screen.

 

I have an AGS-101 screen modded into an original GBA shell, but I wouldn't bring it everywhere with reckless abandon as I do with the GB Boy...

Edited May 2, 2019 by Newsdee

[Tanooki]

You got that right given the expense. It's why I use my GB Light sparingly, but it also doesn't leave this room. When it is off I don't even put it in a plastic box as a display piece, it stays in a Nintendo branded in red embroider black leather pouch/case meant for the GBC so it fits perfectly. Great system but to replace that in the condition mine has would shoot uncomfortably well over the $100 mark because there's basically no paint loss. I also didn't take the 101 modded GBA original I had either away from here and due to poor plastic modding on my part a cheap drop killed it anyway.

 

I really should try those SML DX mods out, they must be part of the smokemonster package so I've got that sitting on the micro sd card as it is anyway. I've got enough spare GBA SP (001s) right now I could risk stuff until I sell a couple, though strangely I mostly use my 101 modded cobalt blue SP I keep in a cozy square nylon padded case as I'd rather use it than not.

 

Earlier today I found someone had stuffed a GBC game into a board game-ish box I got at goodwill today, nothing great just tony hawk 2, but I always was curious how it stacked up against the GBA release so I should try it.

[TheCoolDave]

I have 2 of them...My original one has lines down the screen but, it works fine. My 2nd one, that I picked up like 7-8 years ago (as I could not find my original one at the time), is in mint shape and works 100%. I picked it up as a non working one and there was corrosion in the battery department...and I got it working perfectly.

 

I do have a bunch of others...game boy color and a few other models... but, just talking about the original game boy

 

It's really hard to go back to one of these systems today after owning later portable consoles and having a cell phone with a OLED display. Never realised how bad the scrolling tracers were....but, I will pop it out to play with it time to time..

Edited May 9, 2019 by TheCoolDave

[CatPix]

What bother me the most really is the lack of light, either front or backlight.

I can deal with the ghosting real fine; I own the worst offenders in that part with the BitCorp Gamate and the Watara SuperVision, and it's not THAAAAT bad. But as Ashens puts it "you have to stand at the surface of the Sun to get to see the screen" which is quite sucky. It's the main reason for me to get a GB boy Colour, the screen is backlit.

[mbd30]

I was 13 when the Gameboy came out. My friends had either that or the Game Gear, but I've never owned a portable console. I've never been all that interested in them.

[Tanooki]

I was 13 when the Gameboy came out. My friends had either that or the Game Gear, but I've never owned a portable console. I've never been all that interested in them.

In one way that's probably a bad thing as much as a good one. It started out with not a whole lot to really love but bite sized things mostly or horribly stripped back wannabe versions of console games from known franchises then. But, when you get around those and the half baked puzzles worlds of many fun and lengthy/well made games really do pop so it's just as much a loss missing out. You fall into that group who just don't see the value in them for whatever the lack of interest may be. It could be the camp thinking they're just all weak titles and half baked spinoffs not worthy of being considered as full of a game as a console, and others just hate the idea of off tv play or have just trouble seeing it. It's all fair either way. Then again, it's probably why by the time the Super Gameboy came out they really tried to steer it towards console sized stuff because you could do it there, and even more so with the power of the GBA and using that through the GB Player on the Cube.

[mbd30]

In one way that's probably a bad thing as much as a good one. It started out with not a whole lot to really love but bite sized things mostly or horribly stripped back wannabe versions of console games from known franchises then. But, when you get around those and the half baked puzzles worlds of many fun and lengthy/well made games really do pop so it's just as much a loss missing out. You fall into that group who just don't see the value in them for whatever the lack of interest may be. It could be the camp thinking they're just all weak titles and half baked spinoffs not worthy of being considered as full of a game as a console, and others just hate the idea of off tv play or have just trouble seeing it. It's all fair either way. Then again, it's probably why by the time the Super Gameboy came out they really tried to steer it towards console sized stuff because you could do it there, and even more so with the power of the GBA and using that through the GB Player on the Cube.

 

For one thing, I didn't care for the displays that portable systems had at the time. Lots of motion blur.

 

I have played Gameboy and Game Gear games in emulation. Gameboy was one of the first systems that I emulated because the emulator could run on my 486.

[NE146]

With all the talk about the original screens, you guys checking out the recent GB display upgrades like the Freckle Shack? I'm kinda curious although the most recent batch sold out a few days ago.

 

[Tanooki]

 

For one thing, I didn't care for the displays that portable systems had at the time. Lots of motion blur.

 

I have played Gameboy and Game Gear games in emulation. Gameboy was one of the first systems that I emulated because the emulator could run on my 486.

 

That truly makes a lot of sense. Like you I also when I first discovered the idea of emulation found that Gameboy was the first thing I came across. Before I even hit the internet in summer of 1995 I was on local BBS's and someone did a nice early warezy party release of a licensed copy of Marat's VGB for Windows or DOS I forget, and then stuffed like 50 original US/JP Gameboy games or more into a comfy little zip file. I remember not having broadband quite yet so it took a little while to download but my mind was completely blown so if anything ever trickled out after I'd grab it, and then Pasofami+NES for it, and then that really lame VSMC faux mode7 emulator popped up too and that got the ball really rolling.

 

Truth is there though, emulation having the little games on a non-junky screen really brought them to life and far more accessible to a lot of people. In a way the emulator was kind of a taste of what was to come given how the GB Pocket really greatly improved image quality and blur problems, as did the GBC after that.

 

With all the talk about the original screens, you guys checking out the recent GB display upgrades like the Freckle Shack? I'm kinda curious although the most recent batch sold out a few days ago.

 

 

I want it. I'm in and I'll do it. But I'm holding off as there have been reports that kit, but much more so the McWill and another made like that one have some real problems, bugs in the design. I'd like to see something stable before tampering with my one good clean GBC I've mothballed for the right time.

[derFunkenstein]

The Freckle Shack is super cool.

 

I'm just playing GB and GBC games on my GBA version AGS-101. I got an "untested" one on eBay that turned out to only have a dead battery and a beat-up body for $30 and then got an aftermarket shell, charger, and battery. All told I spent around $65 total. The lens was scratched up but the aftermarket shell came with a new one. Aside from the fact the AGS-101 never came in red, it looks just like a brand-new 101.

 

 

[Tanooki]

Smart. I did something similar a year back. I found one that someone put the 101 into a cobalt blue, but they said it was damaged because the brightness couldn't be adjusted and never took a pic of it powered on. I ended up getting it for $40 shipped. It ended up being a case where whoever did the job didn't properly seat the rubber pad under the button of all things. I was thinking some botched soldering job, and it took more time to unscrew it than anything else. These days its my primary if I don't just pop the micro on a pocket.

[NE146]

Yeah for the past 15 years or something I'd been saying that the GBA-SP 101 is the defacto "best" way to play original GB/GBC games (although now I prefer the original GBA with a lit screen).

However these days I DO see the allure of playing on an original Gameboy Color nice and natively. i.e. With no shoulder buttons, a screen you can't stretch, and that nice GBC form factor with the atomic purple I'm pretty intrigued by lighting that screen up and getting some life in it again.

[Tanooki]

Yeah yeah you get it. That's the deal, the 101 has been to a point ideal as it's still kind of in a similar shape folded out, but it's also not quite as comfortable, and that's the rub outside of being stuck using OEM batteries too. This way you get the more classic Gameboy feel yet a 101 quality level panel installed inside and can use AAs either one shot or over the counter rechargeable. Factor in the fact there are select games by design (Kirby TnT) due to parts, or those with bugs in the audio core or worse that really foul up on GBA, the GBC still is ideal. The one sticking point is that TFT with it having to draw in light, but if you have that light applied inside from that new screen it's the perfect stand alone 8bit Gameboy.

[mckafka99]

Just bought into batch #5 for the Freckle Shack kit - looking forward to it.

 

 

[Tanooki]

I should. I had a killer neighborhood garage sale day that included a gbc only nasty on the exterior and a reshelled smoke dmg style too but it was already nice. Ill be part ordering now since I need a shell and another I have had a busted speaker plus Im out of small batteries for the carts.