HOLY MOTHER OF CRAP!! Playing GBA games on my CUBE?!? MY prayers have been answered!

-=Kamikaze=-

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Nintendo has just announced a peripheral that once attached to the bottom of your cube allows you to play Game Boy games on it. That includes both the older GB, GBC and the newer GBA games, furthermore you can attach your GBA to the cube and use it as a controller. GOOD GOD! This is exactly what I've been sacrificing 2 virgins for every single night since the announcement of the GBA. It's going to cost about 41$ (5000 Yen) and is released March in Japan, May in the US and who cares about Europe since I'm importing one from Japan the day it is released. Good times, good times.
 
The "Game Boy Player", just look at it:
 

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This is the first I've heard of this but then again I've been away for a while ^_^ Sounds promising alright and it would be a rather nice addition to the Gamecube.
 
It was announced today on IGN, I don't know about other sites, perhaps Nintendo.com also mentions it but I don't know. I'm still in a state of shock induced trance of happy, happy, joy, joy! Thank god they didn’t announce the GBA2 today as well since then I would have died becoming the only scientifically diagnosed person to die of overwhelming levels of joy.
 
I don't understand:
A) The thing is huge. Considering it's a GBA emulator without it's own screen, controls or batteries, why does it have to be several times bigger than a GBA?
B) Surely the reason for wanting a GBA is it's portable, because
C) why would anyone want to buy a GBA emulator for their Cube when the GBA is essentially a handheld SNES emulator?

To me this ranks alongside limited-edition coloured consoles as a really, really pointless item.
 
Because I bought the GBA BECAUESE it's a SNES emulator and I will buy the Gamecube Game Boy Player BECAUSE it's closer to having a SNES than a GBA is. I never got to have a SNES so I bought the GBA to make up for it, I didn't buy GBA because it's portable. I only play the GBA at home so I might as well as play it on a large screen and not waste batteries or worry about lack of light. The size of the thing is probably more a due to convenience than limit of technology and it’s not like you have to lug it around with you, just snap it at the bottom of the cube and there it stays. Not to mention that adding this to your cube should make it a perfect cube with equal length on each side, and if that’s not enough to justify it’s purchase I don’t what is.
 
Yes, I am looking forward to this too, being able to play Advance Wars and Tactics Ogre on a larger screen will be most handy!

I think lechacals points are valid, my counter points are that :-

A) My GBA gets little play time at home due to lighting issues (don't have afterburner :( ) and temptation of full screen gaming.
B) A lot of the games are enhanced snes versions and TBH I still play SNES games a lot.

This is a good little peripheral, not for the masses but handy for a few.
 
I can kind of understand up to a point, but if you've shelled out (what? £70?) for a GBA, I think you must be mad to spend £30-ish on that thing for the privilege of being able to play GBA cartridges (essentially SNES games) at another £30-a-pop rather than a brand new GC game for £40 each.

If I was sitting down with the GC plugged into the telly and I was struggling to choose between Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Advance 3, then I'd have to consider that I'd probably wasted £130 on a GC. I mean, these are 8 year-old games
 
I think you are missing the point, it's not that they are old games but that they are classics. I've been waiting for another game like Symphony of the night for years and playing Harmony of dissonance on my TV brings me closer to the goal. The top 2D games of the GBA have a quality about them that one can only find in 2D games and only if you played games loved these types of games before. So all in all I think that our enthusiasm is partly caused by nostalgia. People where sorry to see 2D gaming die with the arrival of the 32 bit generation and the beginning of the era of 3D gaming. Being able to play GBA on your television is like somehow SNES made a comeback and brought 2D gaming back from the grave with it. And it's not like that we only get ports, we also get new games. Yeay!
 
I still reckon that £30 will buy you a second hand SNES and a pile of classic cartridges. But I suppose there must be a market for it.
 
Originally posted by lechacal
If I was sitting down with the GC plugged into the telly and I was struggling to choose between Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Advance 3, then I'd have to consider that I'd probably wasted £130 on a GC. I mean, these are 8 year-old games

Ahhhh, the days of 2D platformers, still never bettered in 3D IMO. I would take Super Mario World over Super Mario Sunshine anyday.

The added benefit of not having to have a SNES console cluttering up my living room (it is bad enough with the Megadrive, DC, N64 and GC!!!) is also worth considering.

I have already said before that many of these games have never been bettered, the reason why they get played on my PC. :)
 
I think its a decent addition if you already have GBA titles to play of course. The SNES games are indeed classics but thus far theres no Chrono Trigger (Grrrr) and Fire Emblem (GRRRR) on the GBA. Also does this device enable link up games? Since it'll also be nice to (finally) have a multiplayer game of Mario Kart with your own screen ^_^ Plus using your TV the chances are that the sound will be in stereo so you can really hear what the GBA is capable of... Especially with CastleVania and the new Metroid Fusion.

Sure enough the point of the GBA is portability and it does it well but sometimes it is nice to play on the big screen in Pro Logic II ^_^ Its certainly not for everyone but its a nice addition regardless. The N64 had GB adapters as did the SNES... Hell even the PS2 can play GB titles after modification so there does seem to be a market out there.

Imagine if Nintendo added "ZSNES" like features like the 2x Sai engine... If it did then I'd buy one in an instant! Hell add that to online gaming and things could get interesting very quickly...
 
You can use the "Gamecube Game Boy Player" to link with another GBA so that's pretty cool.

Where I live old SNES games are impossible to come by. I do actually have a SNES but the only game I have been able to get my hands on is Mega Man X. Still looking for Mega Man X2, Mega Man 7, Metroid, Zelda and a few other classics. And I would very much like to get my hands on a SEGA CDX and copies of Shining Force I, II and CD.

Luckily I was able to purchase a copy of Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy IV, V and VI on the PSX, thank god they where ported. I'm sure that there are places that sell used copies of SNES games but there are non that I know of here in Denmark. So the closest I can come here is looking in the selling section of the paper or search E-bay. E-bay is out of the question since 99% of the games are from the US and won't work with mine SNES. Living on a limiting budget I don't want to pay the sky high prices of E-bay in order to get a US SNES and games plus shipping.

Besides as I said before the GBA doesn’t get old games we actually get new games, and what more we get new GOOD games. The SNES is great and all but it’s a dead platform but the GBA is very much alive and rocking. My only concern about playing GBA games on the big screen is that what might look good on a 2.9” screen might not do so on a 29” screen. I don’t remember what the standard resolution on SNES games where and how it compares to the resolution on the GBA, but a comparison might give a pretty good impression of how it will look.
 
Here we go, a quick search revealed these numbers:

NES: 256x240
SNES: 512x448
GBA: 240x160

Now as I remember things the max resolution on the SNES was not used that often in games but even if that was true things would still not look very good. Damn the GBA can’t even beat the resolution of the NES, once again I would have to say that things are not looking good.
 
Thats why it would be nice for Nintendo to include a 2x Sai engine like in ZSNES ^_^ Don't know if you guys have ever used it but it anti-aliases the graphics and fonts and it really is a superb bit of coding.

The SNES does have a much higher res than the one specified and it has been used on some RPGs (Seiken Densetsu 3 for example), but yeah, in general it wasn't used much due to memory restrictions.

As for the size of the thing, I think its down to accessibility more than just hardware. If it was just a small piece of kit then you would have to turn over the Gamecube just to plug in a game, rather than doing it all at the front.

I read about the GBA Player in depth last night and it is indeed nice to be able to have a multi-player game. Nintendo could really up the ante if they wanted to because Mr Naka of Sega wanted to release the LCD screen for the Gamecube for gaming... He wanted to develop a card game amonsgt others by linking up GC's with the screen. Add the LCD screen with the broadband adapter (LAN) and the GBA Player and the scope will then just open right up. It would really strengthen the online plan if all of this happened... Especially if there are mods available like on the Xbox - Any game that supports LAN can be played online if you have a broadband connection, even if the game does not support online play.

Chances are that I'm just being more hopeful than anything else but the options are certainly there to take advantage of. Nintendo, are you listening? ^_^
 
I have tried the 2x Sai engine you mention and yes it does make everything look very, very good but I doubt it will be included. Would have been nice but I think I would prefer to play the games as they where intended to look. I don’t know about the LAN adapter idea since this unit kind of takes it's place so you can't hook a LAN up to the cube, that is unless I'm mistaking.
 
Thats why I said I was being too hopefull ^_^ Personally I would rather have advancements because of the lower resolution... Just imagine playing GBA games on a 36" screen >_< Still the possibilities are there but as usual Nintendo are either keeping their cards close to their chests or they have no plans at all.
 
bear in mind that CRT televisions apply a kind of antialiasing to the image they display. Just pop in your favourite game in a SNES and compare the TV picture with the unfiltered picture on a PC monitor showing the same title emulated. There is a huge difference and the TV picture looks many times better. So at least we have that, and besides I doubt Nintendo will use the entire screen and area used to display GBA games is most likely small so things don't look too pixelated. Personally I think the advantages will far outweigh the disadvantages so I will definitely be getting one and will be loving it. Unfortunately it turns out that in order to make the unit work you have to boot the cube with a special disc so. And since that disc will only work on cubes from the territory it was released in I’m going to have to wait for the US version to hit the streets before I can get one. Actually I sold my GBA a few days ago expecting the new GBA to hit the streets shortly but if this baby show up earlier I’ll be using my money on this instead.

By the way does anyone know where I can buy PAL SNES games over the internet?
 
TVs don't really apply AA... Its just the way the image is displayed due to interlacing and that. Chances are that Nintendo will give options on the display much like the 3rd party adapter - original, 2x, 4x etc.

If you do require a disk then its not to bad for me.. I have a modified Japanese GC that can play US games so I'll just switch it to play the GBA games.

PAL games thesedays are usually only found in GameStation and the like... I don't know a place that has a huge collection of PAL SNES games anymore so sadly your best bet is ebay. Hopefully someone else will post a link to a decent place though.
 

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