Episode 363: Game Boy Advance

The GBA episodes (I'll count the 2001 episode) have been very good.

Eino Keskitalo

Nintendo made plenty of transparent consoles that seem to have held up perfectly well at the hands of kids. Really seems just to be a case of transparent/translucent plastics falling out of vogue. They'll be back eventually.

Retronauts

I don't know if this is correct, I'm not an engineer or anything, but it's possibly the lack of transparent plastics in modern Nintendo handhelds may be a durability issue. Since Nintendo designs their hardware to be very child-durable, such at the Switch being able to fall from a certain height without being damaged, the chemicals that makeup affordable transparent plastics may be too brittle for that need.

xarathion

My biggest regret for not owning a Wii U at this point, with it's library now mostly ported over to Switch, is missing out on the GBA VC. I'm using a PSP to help fill in the gaps of my gaming bucket list. But, I would fully welcome Nintendo to bring this console back in VC or classic edition form.

Scott Scallion

the more i think back, the more I realise that the GBA is probably the system I'm most nostalgic for. I had an NES, SNES and N64 as a kid but had mostly stopped playing games for a couple of years, except I still played a lot of Pokemon Silver on my game boy pocket, I didn't follow games or read magazines or anything like that, so I wasn't aware of the system being released. Growing up in rural ireland I never spent any time online, so when i went to college in 2001 and suddenly had access to the internet, I learned of emulation. Like Adam says in the episode, it was something that is kind of synonymous with the system, so I started emulating a bunch of games, eventually though I had to get a system and got one for christmas that year, but my strongest memories are of playing the two Oracles games, as I didn't have a GB Color, the GBA also unlocked access to a bunch of games i'd missed on the color, which in the early-ish days gave me a lot of extra games to play, at least until the library started to really flesh out in 2002. Also, I have a lot of affection for Golden Sun as it was one of the first "proper" JRPGs I ever played, having been bereft of the genre due to living in Europe where nobody bothered to release them on nintendo consoles and also not having a PS1 where most of those kinds of games ended up. Even though Golden Sun isn't a great game, especially in the interminable dialogue scenes, it unlocked a love for the genre that has never really subsided. Also, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 was way better than it had any right to be for a portable version of that game

forpush

I’ve had a chance to listen now. Great conversation! Please have Adam on again; he was a really good guest. Also, I heartily endorse a follow up episode to just focus on the games library (like you also talked about doing with the 3DS).

Mike Brothers

All of what you mentioned is what I’m getting with my upcoming mod. I think I’ll be right there with you as far as this being the best way to play any GB games.

Mike Brothers

This episode was great! And having Adam on there was great too! Excellent chemistry between everyone.

Stephen Faulkner

I bought my GBA along with Sonic Advance, Breath of Fire, and Golden Sun on the last day of USAF basic training. That was not a great time in my life, so it helped to have a great portable system that I could play whenever possible. After my classification training, I was stationed on Okinawa, and one of the first things I did was go to a used game store and bought a Japanese copy of Mega Man Zero. "It's a Mega Man game, " I thought. "The perfect game for someone who doesn't read any Japanese." Of course, it turned out to be one of the chattiest MM games, and had a lot of text regarding the Cyber Elves and their abilities. There was a two-week shipping delay to get anything from the US, so like Adam, I played the leaked ROM of Metroid Fusion while waiting for my physical copy to arrive. Last year, one of my Pandemic Projects was to add a new case and IPS screen to my original GBA. It really is the perfect way to play these games. The SP might protect the screen, but the original form is much more comfortable for my hands.

Brian Rude

Jeremy, you can play Boktai on a everdrive/flash card as there is a patch that lets you manually change the amount of sunlight you are virtually sitting in.

Andrew

I’m right there with you. I was an RPG noob back then having only completed the first two Pokémon gens and this game was a great bridge to more advanced series. Plus I loved the graphics, music, and class systems. Love these dudes but there’s no need to shit in this series.

Conner McCabe

There IS a mod you can do to make the Vectrex less noisy, though I don't know - I kind of feel like it's part of the experience of the machine to have that weird buzzing sound.

Kevin Bunch

I maintain that the original GBA has the greatest shoulder buttons for any system, especially as far as comfort.

Bennett Billard

You'd want to play Super GnG on GBA via Wii U because it has a bunch of extra stages that aren't in the SNES original! It's still not as good as the Super NES version, but if you love that game, the GBA version is definitely worth checking out. Also, Jeremy mentioned Swiss/GB Interface, but didn't explicitly mention that it moots the GB Player disc! That thing is expensive, as you mentioned, but with GB Interface, you don't need it and you can often find the Player without the disc a lot cheaper!

Joe Drilling

As someone who owned an iMac and loved the aesthetic back in the day, I feel compelled to correct Jeremy on the fact that he was probably thinking of the eMate (which used Newton technology) and not the iBook, which was the MacBook Air of its day, more or less. I really enjoyed this episode (despite the usual grievances about Harmony of Dissonance's soundtrack). Looking back on the GBA game library, the interesting thing is that it came at a time when 2D development was at a mature stage and a lot of the limitations of the 16-bit era were gone. You saw the result of that in the games: the GBA had a ton of shovelware that was possible due to more streamlined development, and at the same time a lot of developers were trying their best to push the hardware to its limits, (racing games and 3D games in particular) or create 2D games that you couldn't have on consoles. Second- and third-party games really shined for me: Chu Chu Rocket!, DK: King of Swing, Racing Gears Advance, Kuru Kuru Kururin, Happy Panechu!, Astro Boy, Drill Dozer, Mr. Driller A, the Sonic Advance series, Hajime no Ippo. On the other hand, most of Nintendo's output left me cold--I never even played any of the Mario Advance games, and games such as Golden Sun, The Minish Cap, MK Super Circuit, and Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga were real disappointments. It was Nintendo's fresh experiences such as Wario Ware, Rhythm Heaven, Advance Wars, and especially Fire Emblem that really kept me hooked.

David

I ended up with a GBA that had both a (kinda poorly installed) Afterburner and a custom back from one of the TV output mods from the time. I don't remember the TV output being particularly terrible, although I didn't have much to compare it against.

Michael Bentley

What a good, good episode. Thanks guys!

Kormakur Gardarsson

Playing GBA games on the Wii U tablet is amazing, and the only reason I still have that thing plugged in.

GBA Afterburner is the first time I'd ever heard of mod kits being sold as a commercial product. Unfortunately this mod is 1. Extremely desired - fixes major defect, night and day difference. 2. Moderately difficult - not everyone has a soldering iron, multimeter, or dremel tools. 3. Mistakes are catastrophic - easy to fry your GBA. There HAD to have been hundreds of people who'd killed their GBAs trying to install the mod. and here's a Penny Arcade comic from about that time: https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2002/05/20/addendum-to-the-manual FWIW I'm a latecomer to the handheld space and played my GB/GBC games on a GBA SP, my GBA games on a DS Lite (proper backlit), and DS games on a 3DS.

John Simon

Loved this episode! Especially as someone who mods consoles for fun and profit, it was cool hearing people talk about modding. My favorite way to play handheld games is an original model GBA AGB with an ips backlit screen and a USB-C rechargeable battery. Also, I solemnly swear to never defile a NeoGeo Pocket for its screen. It's insane that anyone does. A Neo Geo Pocket with a working screen costs significantly more than a superior IPS screen already made for the purpose.

KerooSeta

Amazing artwork.

Hard disagree on the Golden Sun take in this episode! I personally loved the graphical style of the game. It's also worth remembering how impressive the battle scenes looked on a handheld system in 2001. At a game play level, Golden Sun fixed many of the things I disliked about 16-bit RPGs. Most notably, it made both the overworld and the battle interesting. The game's use of Psynergy added fun Zelda-like puzzles to the "dungeons". The combination of Djinn and classes in the battle system also made it much more than the "press A to attack" common of RPGs of the era. The game wasn't perfect. It took forever to get started (you're in the flashback / tutorial for over an hour). The plot was quite pedestrian. But the game was a standout title for the system in 2001 (right alongside Advance Wars). Perhaps someday I'll pledge to the higher tier to try to personally redress this perception of the game.

Michael Bentley

Bondi is pronounced bond-eye, not bond-ee. Otherwise great episode, great machine, much love.

David Allen

To date, the only console I have bought on launch day. I also second Normallyretro’s pain for I, too, had a best friend who erased my Golden Sun file.

James Ryall

You'd never know this was in the game because the box doesn't tell you and no one ever brings it up but Super Ghouls'n Ghosts Advance has an arrange mode in it with remakes of levels from previous games and different paths to the end! You don't even need to play the game twice! I'm surprised Capcom put both on the Wii U, honestly. This is a lovely episode, thank you!

frankie coleman

My early college years I was completely unable to keep up with new console releases. I do remember seeing my friend's kid playing Yoshi Island on the GBA, maybe 2003 or 2004, (does that seem right?) and being blown away. My SNES nostalgia is heavy, so I immediately realized I needed this device. It actually wasn't until the DS that I started buying and playing GBA games. 2006-2007 was almost the perfect time to grab cheap carts from Gamestop since folks had mostly moved on to next gen options.

Christopher Hughes

Get yourself a clear switch shell set. Its super worth it. My switch now matches my atomic purple gbc and its great

Jonathan

My best friend erased my Golden Sun 1 I imported for the sequel. My greatest memory.

Normallyretro

As far as I'm concerned the biggest missed opportunity from Nintendo was not making an original Mario game for GBA. It could have been the last hurrah for a 2D, pixel art Mario... instead we got ports of older Mario games with the addition of all the characters yelling the whole time. That being said, the GBA SP was my jam. Was like having a pocket SNES I could play on the bus going to and from work and school. Was a sad day for me when the screen got busted on mine, even though I had a DS at that point.

Michael Castleberry

I just happen to be getting back into the GBA right now. I haven't owned one in years. But I just bought one and I purchased some modding services. Getting the latest screen tech and one of those killer looking aluminum shells - plus my first Everdrive cart. Looking forward to this episode!

Mike Brothers

I got my system on launch day as a recent high school graduate. Graduation money well spent?

Eric Plunk

Oh man, the GBA was the first system I ever owned as a kid and my introduction to gaming! The Super Mario Advance version of Super Mario Bros. 3 was the first game I ever played. I think the GBA's SNES ports and the NES Classic series are a big reason I got interested in retro gaming at a young age. Looking forward to listening!

Grant Baxter