Considering to buy a Gameboy Advance SP

[Asaki]

What I found said: (Super) Gameboy emulation is possible, although not many ROMs are compatible, Gameboy Color can't be emulated to date.

 

Between Goomba and Goomba Color, Gameboy emulation is probably 98%. The only games I can think of that I can't get working are Bubble Bobble and Faceball.

 

Super Gameboy support is still in its infancy...Goomba Color will only use one of the SGB palettes at a time, so say if there's a game where the background uses a different palette from the sprites, the sprites will end up being the same color as the background. The borders load I guess, though...and I've ported all the SGB palettes over, and Kuwanger's fork lets you make your own palettes

 

Gameboy Color is emulated, though I'd put that at maybe...50%. There's a really good amount of must-have games that run at 100% though.

 

...instead of breaking my neck trying to emulate them or getting that bridge adapter.

 

Emulating them is really no problem at all...plus it's really nice to be able to have savestates, instead of having to write down passwords all the time. But like I said, there's a few games for Color that don't run 100% (yet?), like Shantae, Dragon Warrior III, Elevator Action EX, Toki Tori, Metal Gear Solid, and Duke Nukem.

 

Also there seem to be lots of different models of flash carts, and not all of them are easy to get, especially without PayPal. Also some seem to be particularly cheap in price, others particularly expensive for reasons I can only guess. I've read about compatibility issues and so on, but to be honest all that information kinda confuses me more than it helps.

 

I ended up going with the EZFlash 4. I don't know what the market is like right now, but at the time, it was the only card I could find that took Paypal and wasn't out of stock. The only compatability issues I know of is that it doesn't support Pogoshell, which I guess isn't that big of a deal anyway...and it probably has issues with certain DS games, but I rarely use it for that.

[Asaki]

Edit: I just remembered, EZF4 also doesn't have an internal clock, but if you really want to play Pokemon that bad, just buy it

 

I would've edited the thread above, but for some reason, the "edit" button isn't there...

[vdub_bobby]

I would've edited the thread above, but for some reason, the "edit" button isn't there...

EDIT button goes away after an hour except in a few threads (Homebrew, Marketplace, maybe a few others).

[jeremysart]

Just an idea,

 

Its pretty easy to find a DS for under $70 these days.

Maybe get a DS, then get and AceKard2 for slot 1 and an EZ Flash V for slot 2.

 

With that combo, you can play DS roms, GBA roms, and emulate NES/SNES, plus watch movies and listen to music and have an endless amount of homebrew software at your disposal.

 

Or if you dont feel like ordering these things and trying to figure out where to get firmware and how to get it all working.. you could just get the Action Replay DS, which is SUPER easy to do all I mention above (minus GBA and DS emulation)

[Herbarius]

So, I now got my GBA SP, AGS-101. Got it from eBay, was a little pricey, but not too much, and delivery was faster than expected. Everything works fine, there are some minor scratches on the outside, but not on the display, and that's perfectly acceptable - what do you expect from used hardware... Unfortunately it's the "Tribal" design, but it seems those are the most common AGS-101s (at least here in Germany). Battery charger/power adaptor and even the manual were included.

 

My SuperCard should arrive over the course of the week.

[darthkur]

Here it seems the powder blue ones are the most common AGS-101 models by far. I have three of them. I'd be happy if one was the tribal one.

[Herbarius]

It's not like I really hate the Tribal design, it's just that it's this "forced cool" style I am loathing. How can I describe that... It's like those type of teenagers who start smoking cigarettes because it's sooo cool. The Tribal design perfectly fits to those guys. Well, it could be that it's just me who makes this connection, though

 

Is Powder Blue the same as Surf Blue?

Edited December 6, 2009 by Herbarius

[darthkur]

It's not like I really hate the Tribal design, it's just that it's this "forced cool" style I am loathing. How can I describe that... It's like those type of teenagers who start smoking cigarettes because it's sooo cool. The Tribal design perfectly fits to those guys. Well, it could be that it's just me who makes this connection, though

 

Is Powder Blue the same as Surf Blue?

 

Yeah, I know what you mean. I feel the same way about a lot of things like that. I still wouldn't mind having one though instead of three identical ones.

Sadly powder blue isn't even as "cool" as smurf blue. It's a lot lighter. I much prefer darker colors, especially black. Which technically is the absence of all color of coarse.

 

[Classic Pac]

I just got one here from a fellow member just last month and I can add a few things. First of all you can still get them used at places like Game Stop for around $40, they sell the older model for $20. The games are fairly cheap $20 and less, but most average around $10, but I have picked up a few for $5. There are still a lot of good games out there, the better ones are a bit harder to find. A power supply is a must Nintendo still sells for $7.50 and they still have the headset adapter. Btw you can download a copy of the GBA SP owners manual, and a few other games from Nintendo it's in the support section of their site.

[+wood_jl]

The Gamestops around here don't seem to differentiate between the old model (sidelit) AGS-001 and the new model backlit AGS-101. They had a deal last year where you could trade in either an old DS or a GBA SP towards a new DS Lite - and get $40 off the price of the DS Lite. So I took the side-lit down and was surprised it didn't matter. The clerk didn't even give a shit. Then I saw a stack of used models and they were all the same price. I could tell from the colors they had a few of the 101 models mixed in with the 001.

 

Too bad most of them looked like they were trashed. I took the worst one of the crap screen models I had, with off-brand aftermarket charger...(heh) and still got the trade.

[NightSprinter]

My major concern about doing that would be regarding the FamiCom Mini and NES Classic Series games. The only way I got them to work on my DS with the M3 card was to use GBA EXPLoader.

[Herbarius]

The Gamestops around here don't seem to differentiate between the old model (sidelit) AGS-001 and the new model backlit AGS-101.

The same seems to apply here from what I've heard, so I decided not to try that.

 

Well, today finally my SuperCard Mini SD arrived, but unfortunately I still can't use it... I ordered a 2GB Mini SD card with it, but they shipped the wrong item , I just got a plain old SD card (2GB) - And No, it's not an Mini SD inside an SD adapter, I'm not stupid .

At least the SuperCard Mini SD is what I wanted, genuine and seems to work - But all it does is print "not find the SD Please turn off GBA" ...

 

I wrote an angry E-mail to the online shop I got that, stating I either want to return the SD card and be refunded or to immedieately get the difference between the Mini SD price and normal SD price (in their shop) refunded while keeping the SD card.

I'll see how it turns out and meanwhile I'll try to go buying a Mini SD "the old way" - from a store

Edited December 16, 2009 by Herbarius

[Jess Ragan]

Yeah, just stop into a Radio Shack and pick up an SD card package for twenty clams. They've got multiple adapters in the package, letting you slip the Micro SD card into a Mini SD or full-sized SD case. It's kind of like those old Russian dolls that fit inside each other.

[GideonsDad]

Some games I would recommend:

 

Final Fantasy I & II Dawn of Souls

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

Sigma Star Saga

Justice League Heroes - The Flash

 

I could list so many more.

 

GideonsDad

[Asaki]

Sadly powder blue isn't even as "cool" as smurf blue. It's a lot lighter.

 

He said surf blue, not Smurf blue

 

My major concern about doing that would be regarding the FamiCom Mini and NES Classic Series games. The only way I got them to work on my DS with the M3 card was to use GBA EXPLoader.

 

I don't know anything about the M3, but I know most of those games have copy protection on them. There are IPS patches out there somewhere that get rid of it, but I really can't remember where I found them.

[raskar42]

it lives!

 

 

 

anyone know where to get a supercard - mine just broke and dealx dosent seem to carry them anymore.

 

with it my gb micro was the most awesome thing ever.

Edited December 20, 2010 by raskar42

[pinball22]

Game recommendations... seconds to the already-mentioned Advance Wars, Advance Wars 2, and Mario Kart. Also, I really enjoyed Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge and Tony Hawk 2 and 3 (the GBA versions are done from a more isometric perspective... I actually like them better than the regular ones).

[Asaki]

it lives!

 

Oops.

 

I was just checking "My Posts" since I hadn't posted in a while...didn't realize how old this one was.

[raskar42]

it lives!

 

Oops.

 

I was just checking "My Posts" since I hadn't posted in a while...didn't realize how old this one was.

 

hah

thanks a lot Herbert West

[Asaki]

I need fresher bodies...

[AnimeEdy]

You can buy used gameboy advances very cheap these days online, just as long as you use a good website. I would recommend trying to find somewhere that does package deals, that way you can save on shipping costs and they also tend to be cheaper in general. Make sure that the games you get however are not country locked if you are buying from overseas, otherwise it will make playing the games very difficult. I`ve bought games from SAMURAI BUYER before and haven`t had any troubles. There is usually a good package deal available that will save you money because they will ship it for free. I`ll share a link if you want to check them out - https://goo.gl/fLZmgt

[+Midnight Synergy]

Great machine to have, lots of great games! Metroid Zero Mission and Mario vs Donkey Kong are brilliant!

Edited September 4, 2017 by Midnight Synergy

[Video]

Mario vs donkeykong is indeed great. If you like Mario, smb is available as a nes classic title, and the rest of the 8-16 bits are available as super Mario advance titles. I'm partial to advance wars myself, turn based strategy game, and infinitely replayable, thanks to its build your own map feature.

[Tanooki]

Through all the years one thing I've always never really bored of at any time and can find something to do is the Gameboy line. Whether it's the original, the color, (even the Super) and Advance there's so many games, so much variety, and never an inane region locking either with it. I've always had one since they came out as it was a Christmas 89 gift, but despite being a car buddy and randomly elsewhere I never applied myself any less compared to the NES/SNES back then. When the N64 faltered due to carts and more so shenanigans I ran in two directions, heavy into Gameboy and also a Turbo Duo too. Gameboy over the years has been a pocket buddy most the time even into more recent times as the wife usually wants to drive so I can bring the SP for whatever or even more handy the micro as it's nokia brick phone sized. You could be very against a lot of styles of games which could limit you on most other things, but given a history going basically from 1989 through 2008 when Samurai Deeper Kyo came out last in the US market you have nearly 20 years of options.