Posts Tagged ‘gameboy advance’
Podcast: GBA Forever
This week the boys are talking all about the Gameboy Advance. Nintendo’s successor to the extremely popular Gameboy was touted by many as the SNES in your hands. Well it was a lot more than that and we’re talking all about the crazy library of games that reminded us how fond we were of the 16 bit era.
Day 11
On the eleventh day of Christmas my memories gave to me…
11 Different Gameboy Advance Colors!
Gameboy Advance (GBA) was not the first console to offer multiple colors. In fact, it wasn’t even the first Nintendo or even Gameboy console to do so, but it definitely was the first to push variety. Releasing with seven initial colors, the GBA created the first Christmas where it wasn’t just about getting the right portable for your child, but also the right color. Of course the really popular ones, fuchsia and arctic come to mind, were the first to sell out and the most common, indigo, was the only color left in every retail outlet. Not only did they feature various normal colors, but limited edition colors were offered worldwide, creating a high demand to grab all the various rare (and expensive) GBAs for collectors.
I’d love to say that I’m not guilty of this, but back in 2001 when I went out to purchase a GBA with my Christmas money I hunted at a bunch of stores and didn’t buy the portable for 2 weeks because I didn’t like any of the colors I found. My heart was set on the midnight blue color, which I later discovered was only available at Toys R Us and had its horrendous logo above the screen. I quickly settled for one in glacier, but not before finally finding a midnight blue – in hindsight I probably could have made some money re-selling that thing.
I still think fondly on those times, despite the fact that the GBA would start the trend of console iterations – the GBA SP being such an improvement over the original I couldn’t help but pick it up as well. Anytime I go to a used game store I always browse the GBA consoles for that random shot I could get my hands on the limited Japanese clear orange or spice colors. I think it was the only console cycle where I never had to hunt for a specific game but I always had to hunt for a specific colored console.
Gaming To-Go Part 3: Self-Reliance
Given the low price point for both games and hardware, massive amount of ports, and obvious room in the market for clones, portables were not hard to find. It wasn’t until the late 90s that they actually found their voice, though, starting with weak license translations and resulting in full-blown solid titles developed solely for portable platforms. At the same time, many developers would revert back to ports now that they could make long RPGs of yesteryear and games from last gen run in your hand.
Game.com – Released: 1997
Pronounced “game com” and not “game dot com”, this newest handheld from Tiger Electronics was a clear attempt to make a cartridge-based handheld version of the games they popularized in the late 80s. Much like those old school handhelds, the games shared popular licenses of the time and similarities in gameplay, but for the most part were unique creations. Think of a company that only does book adaptations to film – the concept remains the same and the characters are familiar, but it’s essentially something new. This sounds like a good idea, but for some reason Tiger always seemed to miss the point of portable games and Game.com is no exception.
Gaming History 101 