7th January 2003, 11:07 AM
Wow! Color me surprised! *insert Metal Gear "caught" sound*
I wasn't expecting CNN of all places to get the scoop first, but I guess they did. Anyway, it seems they went back to the GB/GBC design over the Game Gear based design. To be honest, I liked the GG design better myself, but if they say it's still comfortable, then it's okay. I suspect the shoulder buttons are back there behind the screen, or maybe in the back of the unit, making them more trigger style. That would indeed make them far more comfortable than the shoulder button placement on the GBA, one of the biggest control flaws. The start/select buttons are also bigger now, another fixed problem.
Backlighting is also a lovely addition, and I suspect the main change they have made. Afterburner had a good go, but now I suspect they will go out of business, unless there is a sufficient number of people who want the old shape but also want a backlighting solution for it. Of course, as I always knew Nintendo would do, they added an option to turn off the light, to increase the life time of the system to 18, two hours short of the GBA's normal life time. To be honest, taking 8 hours of life time from the batteries, as opposed to 5 hours with the afterburner, says the light source isn't nearly as efficient. Aren't the Japanese supposed to make everything more efficient?
The rechargeble battery thing sounds interesting. To be honest, I haven't used alcaline batteries in my GBA for a long while and have been using Mad Catz' rechargeble battery station for all my battery needs, so it won't be that big a change so long as Nintendo gives us two battery packs and the charger with the system, and has an extra slot on the charger where I can just put the GBA-SP like a portable phone for instant charging, just like my current charge unit.
The new shape again is very interesting. It will take up less pocket space, so that's nice. That's something I don't think ANYONE thought Nintendo was going to do. Flipping it does leave a vulnerability, in that it's possible someone could snap off the screen or something terrifying like that. Again though, with how the cartridge plugs in, GB and GBC games will stick out a bit. Fortunatly, it won't interfere with holding it.
It seems that they didn't add more buttons or more power to the system, but like I said, making what would be in essence a new system that would have exlcusive games would be far more risky than just releasing an updated version of the same system, with the same basic abilities. I also doubt they added the infrared communication port from the GBC at all. I doubted it anyway.
One thing though. Did they fix the backwards compatibility flaws? Hopefully so. Also, did they add Super Game Boy mode support for all those old GB games that had it? Also, hopefully so.
You know, ironically, this perfectly fits into my plan. Now I really will buy an updated GBA-SP for myself and give my old afterburned GBA (plus recharge station, since that won't even be compatible now, I can tell just by looking at it that the place for the battery is now much smaller than two AAs, so it likely won't support any alcalines at all) to my little brother and sister.
Well, time to wait for this little sucker to come out. I suspect that if this flip top design prooves rigid enough, this will be Nintendo's basic design for all future GBs.
I wasn't expecting CNN of all places to get the scoop first, but I guess they did. Anyway, it seems they went back to the GB/GBC design over the Game Gear based design. To be honest, I liked the GG design better myself, but if they say it's still comfortable, then it's okay. I suspect the shoulder buttons are back there behind the screen, or maybe in the back of the unit, making them more trigger style. That would indeed make them far more comfortable than the shoulder button placement on the GBA, one of the biggest control flaws. The start/select buttons are also bigger now, another fixed problem.
Backlighting is also a lovely addition, and I suspect the main change they have made. Afterburner had a good go, but now I suspect they will go out of business, unless there is a sufficient number of people who want the old shape but also want a backlighting solution for it. Of course, as I always knew Nintendo would do, they added an option to turn off the light, to increase the life time of the system to 18, two hours short of the GBA's normal life time. To be honest, taking 8 hours of life time from the batteries, as opposed to 5 hours with the afterburner, says the light source isn't nearly as efficient. Aren't the Japanese supposed to make everything more efficient?
The rechargeble battery thing sounds interesting. To be honest, I haven't used alcaline batteries in my GBA for a long while and have been using Mad Catz' rechargeble battery station for all my battery needs, so it won't be that big a change so long as Nintendo gives us two battery packs and the charger with the system, and has an extra slot on the charger where I can just put the GBA-SP like a portable phone for instant charging, just like my current charge unit.
The new shape again is very interesting. It will take up less pocket space, so that's nice. That's something I don't think ANYONE thought Nintendo was going to do. Flipping it does leave a vulnerability, in that it's possible someone could snap off the screen or something terrifying like that. Again though, with how the cartridge plugs in, GB and GBC games will stick out a bit. Fortunatly, it won't interfere with holding it.
It seems that they didn't add more buttons or more power to the system, but like I said, making what would be in essence a new system that would have exlcusive games would be far more risky than just releasing an updated version of the same system, with the same basic abilities. I also doubt they added the infrared communication port from the GBC at all. I doubted it anyway.
One thing though. Did they fix the backwards compatibility flaws? Hopefully so. Also, did they add Super Game Boy mode support for all those old GB games that had it? Also, hopefully so.
You know, ironically, this perfectly fits into my plan. Now I really will buy an updated GBA-SP for myself and give my old afterburned GBA (plus recharge station, since that won't even be compatible now, I can tell just by looking at it that the place for the battery is now much smaller than two AAs, so it likely won't support any alcalines at all) to my little brother and sister.
Well, time to wait for this little sucker to come out. I suspect that if this flip top design prooves rigid enough, this will be Nintendo's basic design for all future GBs.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)