Fuck the Super Gameboy
July 21, 2013 7:55 PM Subscribe
"Fuck the Super Gameboy": Why the Super Gameboy was awesome and why it crashed and burned. By Christine Love, creator of Digital: a Love Story and Analogue: a Hate Story.
Part 2: Fighting games
Part 3: Donkey Kong '94
Part 4: Now you’re playing with power—SUPER POWER!
Part 5: Kirby's Dream Land 2
Part 2: Fighting games
Part 3: Donkey Kong '94
Part 4: Now you’re playing with power—SUPER POWER!
Part 5: Kirby's Dream Land 2
The most frustrating aspect of the gameboy adapter legacy, IMHO, was that Nintendo fully developed and prototyped a version for the N64 that corrected many of the SNES model's shortcomings and even supported widescreen televisions...then never released it!
It was years and years before the GBA adapter plate that goes under the Gamecube finally came along, and of course shortly thereafter the DS lost its Game Boy backwards compatibility sealing forever in the past the (by some metrics) most popular videogame format of all time.
posted by trackofalljades at 8:20 PM on July 21, 2013
It was years and years before the GBA adapter plate that goes under the Gamecube finally came along, and of course shortly thereafter the DS lost its Game Boy backwards compatibility sealing forever in the past the (by some metrics) most popular videogame format of all time.
posted by trackofalljades at 8:20 PM on July 21, 2013
(should have included a link, here for the curious is what the Wide Boy 64 was like)
posted by trackofalljades at 8:29 PM on July 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by trackofalljades at 8:29 PM on July 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
For example, if your screen doesn’t scroll vertically, you could colour the ground differently from the top of the sky.
This is exactly how things used to work on a lot of games on my old Amstrad CPC - four colour palette, but the game watched the screen refresh interrupt, and switched the palette for, say, the bottom quarter of the screen (the ground, the status bars) to give the effect of more colours. However, this leads me to take issue with this comment in the article;
It’s completely unique: nothing has ever had a resolution as high as the Game Boy’s and shared the same palette imitations.
According to Wikipedia, the Gameboy's resolution was 160 x 144 pixels - my Amstrad's 4-colour mode was 320x200, a resolution similar to many other 8-bit machines back then. I guess maybe they need to clarify this claim with "no handheld console has ever had a resolution as high..."
posted by Jimbob at 8:29 PM on July 21, 2013 [2 favorites]
This is exactly how things used to work on a lot of games on my old Amstrad CPC - four colour palette, but the game watched the screen refresh interrupt, and switched the palette for, say, the bottom quarter of the screen (the ground, the status bars) to give the effect of more colours. However, this leads me to take issue with this comment in the article;
It’s completely unique: nothing has ever had a resolution as high as the Game Boy’s and shared the same palette imitations.
According to Wikipedia, the Gameboy's resolution was 160 x 144 pixels - my Amstrad's 4-colour mode was 320x200, a resolution similar to many other 8-bit machines back then. I guess maybe they need to clarify this claim with "no handheld console has ever had a resolution as high..."
posted by Jimbob at 8:29 PM on July 21, 2013 [2 favorites]
I can’t for the life of me figure out what this colour relationship actually is. They’re not quite complementary, although they’re certainly a few steps removed from it. I asked my art student friend, but all he said was “There’s a word for that relationship too but no one knows it but color theory teachers."
Art student friend should listen to his color theory teachers, that's basic stuff, not arcane knowledge hoarded by Arch Color Mages! That orange/purple is triadic with one color knocked off to fit the palette limitations. *looks at BFA diploma on shelf* Rest easy, buddy, today you weren't neglected.
posted by jason_steakums at 8:34 PM on July 21, 2013 [30 favorites]
Art student friend should listen to his color theory teachers, that's basic stuff, not arcane knowledge hoarded by Arch Color Mages! That orange/purple is triadic with one color knocked off to fit the palette limitations. *looks at BFA diploma on shelf* Rest easy, buddy, today you weren't neglected.
posted by jason_steakums at 8:34 PM on July 21, 2013 [30 favorites]
I guess maybe they need to clarify this claim with "no handheld console has ever had a resolution as high..."
It's also possible that many people don't consider the Amstrad CPC to be a "console" at all, but more of a "personal computer" (those words are used in most of its advertising that comes up on a Google or YouTube search, in which it doesn't seem to have ever been categorized as primarily a games machine).
posted by trackofalljades at 8:35 PM on July 21, 2013
It's also possible that many people don't consider the Amstrad CPC to be a "console" at all, but more of a "personal computer" (those words are used in most of its advertising that comes up on a Google or YouTube search, in which it doesn't seem to have ever been categorized as primarily a games machine).
posted by trackofalljades at 8:35 PM on July 21, 2013
I never did understand why the SGB got no love from the Game Boy Player. It made no sense.
posted by Purposeful Grimace at 8:37 PM on July 21, 2013
posted by Purposeful Grimace at 8:37 PM on July 21, 2013
It's also possible that many people don't consider the Amstrad CPC to be a "console" at all, but more of a "personal computer"
True, it's not a console - the article's phrasing that "nothing has ever had a resolution..." seemed broad enough to indicate they were also including computers, coffee mugs, and Siberian huskies.
However... the GX4000 was a console, with a resolution that included; Mode 1: 320x200 pixels with 4 colours.
posted by Jimbob at 8:39 PM on July 21, 2013
True, it's not a console - the article's phrasing that "nothing has ever had a resolution..." seemed broad enough to indicate they were also including computers, coffee mugs, and Siberian huskies.
However... the GX4000 was a console, with a resolution that included; Mode 1: 320x200 pixels with 4 colours.
posted by Jimbob at 8:39 PM on July 21, 2013
I guess I should get all needlessly anal about this in their comments, rather than here on Metafilter...
posted by Jimbob at 8:40 PM on July 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Jimbob at 8:40 PM on July 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
Because I'd rather have more of the Donkey Kong '94 platform puzzler!
I was just playing this title and its spiritual successor, Mario vs. Donkey Kong, earlier today. They've both held up ridiculously well and I'd be very up for a 3DS remake.
Never had a Super Game Boy but my GameBoy player on GameCube (and my GBA flash cart) gets lots of love.
posted by porn in the woods at 8:40 PM on July 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
I was just playing this title and its spiritual successor, Mario vs. Donkey Kong, earlier today. They've both held up ridiculously well and I'd be very up for a 3DS remake.
Never had a Super Game Boy but my GameBoy player on GameCube (and my GBA flash cart) gets lots of love.
posted by porn in the woods at 8:40 PM on July 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
GOD YES WE NEED MORE DONKEY KONG '94
I FEEL VERY STRONGLY ABOUT THIS TOPIC
posted by DoctorFedora at 8:44 PM on July 21, 2013 [2 favorites]
I FEEL VERY STRONGLY ABOUT THIS TOPIC
posted by DoctorFedora at 8:44 PM on July 21, 2013 [2 favorites]
Oh endless hours of playing Link's Awakening and Donkey Kong '94 on Super Game Boy, how I miss you.
posted by oulipian at 8:50 PM on July 21, 2013
posted by oulipian at 8:50 PM on July 21, 2013
If you pick up an early model Gamecube (they had 480p component hookups, later removed) and a Game Boy Player, you can play Link's Awakening and Donkey Kong '94 and lots of other Game Boy games in all their glory on any modern HDTV with pretty amazing clarity.
posted by trackofalljades at 8:56 PM on July 21, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by trackofalljades at 8:56 PM on July 21, 2013 [2 favorites]
Those GameCube component cables can be yours for just a little over $200. Guess I'm sticking with S-Video for now.
posted by porn in the woods at 9:04 PM on July 21, 2013
posted by porn in the woods at 9:04 PM on July 21, 2013
Nintendo has a number of those neglected devices. Some others:
- The eReader, which could read software into a Gameboy Advance by scanning special cards with QR-like codes on them. They released a number of NES games on card format, they released a version of Mario Party for it (I still have the cards -- we played it ONCE though), and the GBA port of Mario 3 used the cards to hold bonus levels you could collect. Then they just stopped doing anything at all with it. Did I own one? Yes.
- The Gameboy Camera, which actually didn't do badly. It was a very early digital camera with a slew of bizarre but fun features. Did I own one? Yes. I still have it somewhere.
- The Gameboy Printer, which could output pictures taken by the Camera, and some other games, to sticker-backed thermal paper. Did I own one? Yes, I still have it, and an unopened roll of paper for it.
- The N64 Gameboy adapter. Its primary use is to interface a GB Pokemon cart with Pokemon Stadium. I think I remember reading Rare had planned a feature allowing you to take images from the Gameboy Camera and import them into N64 Perfect Dark, but like Banjo-Kazooie's STOP N SWOP, that was just wishful coding.
- The Gamecube LAN adapter. It allowed the Gamecube port of Phantasy Star Online to connect to the internet. Other than that it was used by exactly two games: Mario Kart DoubleDash!! (the italicized exclamation points are part of the title!) and the stellar, woefully underrated Kirby Air Ride. I still want to somehow get together the resources to play Kirby Air Ride with it, but you'd need two Gamecubes, two adapters, and two copies of the game.
- The Gameboy Player is very much the Super Gameboy 2.0, letting people play GB, GBC and GBA games on a Gamecube. Unfortunately, it did nothing with Super Gameboy features, and didn't provide any special services to the GBA software.
- The Gameboy Micro. A Gameboy Advance in a super-miniaturized form-factor, that could be worn like a fashion accessory. To this end they sold all kinds of shells with different designs for it. It was released just before the DS though, and was buried by that platform's gigantic success.
posted by JHarris at 9:20 PM on July 21, 2013 [19 favorites]
- The eReader, which could read software into a Gameboy Advance by scanning special cards with QR-like codes on them. They released a number of NES games on card format, they released a version of Mario Party for it (I still have the cards -- we played it ONCE though), and the GBA port of Mario 3 used the cards to hold bonus levels you could collect. Then they just stopped doing anything at all with it. Did I own one? Yes.
- The Gameboy Camera, which actually didn't do badly. It was a very early digital camera with a slew of bizarre but fun features. Did I own one? Yes. I still have it somewhere.
- The Gameboy Printer, which could output pictures taken by the Camera, and some other games, to sticker-backed thermal paper. Did I own one? Yes, I still have it, and an unopened roll of paper for it.
- The N64 Gameboy adapter. Its primary use is to interface a GB Pokemon cart with Pokemon Stadium. I think I remember reading Rare had planned a feature allowing you to take images from the Gameboy Camera and import them into N64 Perfect Dark, but like Banjo-Kazooie's STOP N SWOP, that was just wishful coding.
- The Gamecube LAN adapter. It allowed the Gamecube port of Phantasy Star Online to connect to the internet. Other than that it was used by exactly two games: Mario Kart DoubleDash!! (the italicized exclamation points are part of the title!) and the stellar, woefully underrated Kirby Air Ride. I still want to somehow get together the resources to play Kirby Air Ride with it, but you'd need two Gamecubes, two adapters, and two copies of the game.
- The Gameboy Player is very much the Super Gameboy 2.0, letting people play GB, GBC and GBA games on a Gamecube. Unfortunately, it did nothing with Super Gameboy features, and didn't provide any special services to the GBA software.
- The Gameboy Micro. A Gameboy Advance in a super-miniaturized form-factor, that could be worn like a fashion accessory. To this end they sold all kinds of shells with different designs for it. It was released just before the DS though, and was buried by that platform's gigantic success.
posted by JHarris at 9:20 PM on July 21, 2013 [19 favorites]
The Gameboy Micro is interesting because there's plenty of people who straight-up adore their Micro, and if you want one, you'll pay through the nose for it.
posted by Pope Guilty at 9:38 PM on July 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Pope Guilty at 9:38 PM on July 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
Count me in as a Game Boy Micro lover. I own two - black and Famicom - and they're fantastic. So much more stylish than the GBA.
posted by porn in the woods at 9:42 PM on July 21, 2013
posted by porn in the woods at 9:42 PM on July 21, 2013
Yes, the Game Boy Micro! One of those with a flash cart is about as close to a perfect gaming experience as you can get. Small enough to be tossed in any bag, second-best Game Boy form factor (I give a slight edge to the Advance SP), the headphone jack that was sorely missing from the SP.
posted by jason_steakums at 9:43 PM on July 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by jason_steakums at 9:43 PM on July 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
And actually, Pope Guilty, I just checked and was surprised to see the prices have dropped a fair bit! I think it was just a few months ago that they were regularly $100-$150 on eBay. Might have to finally get the Famicom one...
posted by jason_steakums at 9:48 PM on July 21, 2013
posted by jason_steakums at 9:48 PM on July 21, 2013
The DPI of the gameboy micros screen makes it almost seem like a retina display. EVERY game looks amazingly sharp on it. In addition to that, it has stellar contrast and brightness, and the unit itself is almost entirely metal(!!!!!!!). It generally feels oddly high quality and like a lot of effort was put in to it. Not that nintendo usually slouched on that type of stuff but compared to the original DS(which felt like a hunk of shit to me, and had the frail crappy hinges) the thing felt like a fucking seiko diving watch or something. The swapable faceplates were brilliant and basically meant that you could scratch the screen all you wanted and then just swap out a cheap cover and have a brand new micro again. There wasn't a single aspect of it that wasn't thoroughly thought out and tested from what i could tell.
I had a mk1 front-lit SP for years, and my friend got one of the micros as a random hand-me-down from his dad who got it to play on plane rides and then moved on to something else. It always felt like what the SP should have been. I was perpetually jealous of the thing.
The N64 Gameboy adapter. Its primary use is to interface a GB Pokemon cart with Pokemon Stadium.
Why the hell did they never just release a cart that allowed you to run any GB/gb color game. I never, ever understood that.
Those GameCube component cables can be yours for just a little over $200. Guess I'm sticking with S-Video for now.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?
I got a gamecube a couple days before launch from some shady NOA employee who showed up at my house off of craigslist(which was new, but just as weird if not weirder at the time) and acted like he was selling drugs. I was the only person i knew whose TV had component inputs, and i saw this cable at fred meyers. I think it was either $12.99 or $19.99. I'm almost positive i had it for a while.
It must be with my gamecube somewhere, with whoever i sold it to. how the HELL is that thing worth that much now?
posted by emptythought at 9:49 PM on July 21, 2013 [5 favorites]
I had a mk1 front-lit SP for years, and my friend got one of the micros as a random hand-me-down from his dad who got it to play on plane rides and then moved on to something else. It always felt like what the SP should have been. I was perpetually jealous of the thing.
The N64 Gameboy adapter. Its primary use is to interface a GB Pokemon cart with Pokemon Stadium.
Why the hell did they never just release a cart that allowed you to run any GB/gb color game. I never, ever understood that.
Those GameCube component cables can be yours for just a little over $200. Guess I'm sticking with S-Video for now.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?
I got a gamecube a couple days before launch from some shady NOA employee who showed up at my house off of craigslist(which was new, but just as weird if not weirder at the time) and acted like he was selling drugs. I was the only person i knew whose TV had component inputs, and i saw this cable at fred meyers. I think it was either $12.99 or $19.99. I'm almost positive i had it for a while.
It must be with my gamecube somewhere, with whoever i sold it to. how the HELL is that thing worth that much now?
posted by emptythought at 9:49 PM on July 21, 2013 [5 favorites]
- The Gamecube LAN adapter. It allowed the Gamecube port of Phantasy Star Online to connect to the internet. Other than that it was used by exactly two games: Mario Kart DoubleDash!! (the italicized exclamation points are part of the title!) and the stellar, woefully underrated Kirby Air Ride. I still want to somehow get together the resources to play Kirby Air Ride with it, but you'd need two Gamecubes, two adapters, and two copies of the game.
I wanted one of those so bad when I first learned about Warp Pipe. That was such a cool hack.
posted by jason_steakums at 9:52 PM on July 21, 2013
I wanted one of those so bad when I first learned about Warp Pipe. That was such a cool hack.
posted by jason_steakums at 9:52 PM on July 21, 2013
I have a feeling that raster bar effects would blow this lady's mind.
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 10:00 PM on July 21, 2013
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 10:00 PM on July 21, 2013
There's some alternate universe where Nintendo's engineers were given a free hand and the software was opened up to anyone, and in that universe I probably would be playing full-immersion games all day on my Game Boy Implant.
posted by Joe in Australia at 10:07 PM on July 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Joe in Australia at 10:07 PM on July 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
I'm working on something that uses a similar limited palette region color change, and this is close enough to what I'm doing to make me rethink a couple of aspects of my project. Thanks PG!
posted by infinitewindow at 10:21 PM on July 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by infinitewindow at 10:21 PM on July 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
Man, someone needs to write a long, detailed exposé on just how fucking awesome Kirby Air Ride is. Because of reasons.
The reasons are all City Trial.
posted by cthuljew at 10:59 PM on July 21, 2013 [3 favorites]
The reasons are all City Trial.
posted by cthuljew at 10:59 PM on July 21, 2013 [3 favorites]
I don't think portable gaming ever got better than Advance Wars on a Gameboy Micro. That was it right there.
posted by naju at 11:01 PM on July 21, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by naju at 11:01 PM on July 21, 2013 [2 favorites]
The 8x8 palette change limitation is common. The ZX Spectrum limited you to just two colors per 8x8 block, which could could be made to look good with a lot of hard work.
posted by zsazsa at 11:02 PM on July 21, 2013 [6 favorites]
posted by zsazsa at 11:02 PM on July 21, 2013 [6 favorites]
Man, someone needs to write a long, detailed exposé on just how fucking awesome Kirby Air Ride is. Because of reasons.
The reasons are all City Trial.
I will probably write that expose, and before too much longer, although such an essay would need a venue. I'm not sure it would be right for Metafilter, and I need to look for more paying outlets for writing if I ever want to get away from the pizza mines.
It is an awesome game. It is a shame that the game was basically the reason Masahiro Sakurai left Nintendo.
I don't think portable gaming ever got better than Advance Wars on a Gameboy Micro. That was it right there.
We played Advance Wars 2 on a Gameboy Player, and logged in hundreds of hours.
posted by JHarris at 11:19 PM on July 21, 2013 [3 favorites]
The reasons are all City Trial.
I will probably write that expose, and before too much longer, although such an essay would need a venue. I'm not sure it would be right for Metafilter, and I need to look for more paying outlets for writing if I ever want to get away from the pizza mines.
It is an awesome game. It is a shame that the game was basically the reason Masahiro Sakurai left Nintendo.
I don't think portable gaming ever got better than Advance Wars on a Gameboy Micro. That was it right there.
We played Advance Wars 2 on a Gameboy Player, and logged in hundreds of hours.
posted by JHarris at 11:19 PM on July 21, 2013 [3 favorites]
Similarly great is fire emblem. my friend still plays that game all the time. After his micro kinda got jacked he ended up loading it up in a GBA emulator on his iphone and continuing to play it every time he was stuck somewhere for more than 5 minutes.
Total gamecrack right there.
posted by emptythought at 11:51 PM on July 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
Total gamecrack right there.
posted by emptythought at 11:51 PM on July 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
zsazsa: "The 8x8 palette change limitation is common. The ZX Spectrum limited you to just two colors per 8x8 block, which could could be made to look good with a lot of hard work."
I was just watching a bunch of Spectrum videos the other day, and that image is all the more impressive when you see what the palette limit looked like when handled poorly.
I never had a Gameboy at the time, but playing around with one recently it struck me how much it looks and feels like a handheld ZX Spectrum, only with Japanese-made games instead of weird little British-designed platformers about the miners' strike.
posted by ArmyOfKittens at 4:17 AM on July 22, 2013 [1 favorite]
I was just watching a bunch of Spectrum videos the other day, and that image is all the more impressive when you see what the palette limit looked like when handled poorly.
I never had a Gameboy at the time, but playing around with one recently it struck me how much it looks and feels like a handheld ZX Spectrum, only with Japanese-made games instead of weird little British-designed platformers about the miners' strike.
posted by ArmyOfKittens at 4:17 AM on July 22, 2013 [1 favorite]
I don't think portable gaming ever got better than Advance Wars on a Gameboy Micro. That was it right there.
Christ, the cramp in my hands (and back, and neck) after playing Advance Wars on my GBA for hours - I cannot fathom how much worse it would have been on an even smaller device (totally want one though).
posted by EndsOfInvention at 5:36 AM on July 22, 2013
Christ, the cramp in my hands (and back, and neck) after playing Advance Wars on my GBA for hours - I cannot fathom how much worse it would have been on an even smaller device (totally want one though).
posted by EndsOfInvention at 5:36 AM on July 22, 2013
if I ever want to get away from the pizza mines.
It's god's work you're doing there, son.
posted by Celsius1414 at 8:23 AM on July 22, 2013 [3 favorites]
It's god's work you're doing there, son.
posted by Celsius1414 at 8:23 AM on July 22, 2013 [3 favorites]
I don't think portable gaming ever got better than Advance Wars on a Gameboy Micro. That was it right there.
I got the GBA emulator for my iPhone and rediscovered my love for Advance Wars at the weekend. But it roasts my iPhone and kills my battery dead, so now I'm on the hunt for a cart. I'm surprised it's not on the download store for the 3ds, actually.
(That's not all I'm surprised about by that store, which I looked at for the first time last night. £40 for Castlevania? Yikes)
posted by bonaldi at 8:33 AM on July 22, 2013
I got the GBA emulator for my iPhone and rediscovered my love for Advance Wars at the weekend. But it roasts my iPhone and kills my battery dead, so now I'm on the hunt for a cart. I'm surprised it's not on the download store for the 3ds, actually.
(That's not all I'm surprised about by that store, which I looked at for the first time last night. £40 for Castlevania? Yikes)
posted by bonaldi at 8:33 AM on July 22, 2013
If it's Aria of Sorrow that is not all that bad a price.
Though if possible, a hacked Wii running Virtual Boy Advance and hooked up to a decent television looks damned pretty sometimes.
posted by Pope Guilty at 2:10 PM on July 22, 2013 [2 favorites]
Though if possible, a hacked Wii running Virtual Boy Advance and hooked up to a decent television looks damned pretty sometimes.
posted by Pope Guilty at 2:10 PM on July 22, 2013 [2 favorites]
I think it's the NES Castlevania. The 3DS eShop is really dropping the ball, I don't think there's any GBA titles on there. They should have a full GBA library with Advance Wars 1-2, the Castlevanias, Golden Suns, Fire Emblem, Metroids, Zelda Minish Cap... this is amazing stuff from only like 10 years ago that's being lost completely outside of emulation. Oh and I'm still waiting on Mother 3...
posted by naju at 3:36 PM on July 22, 2013
posted by naju at 3:36 PM on July 22, 2013
So many GBA titles are OOP and command large sums that a flash cart is the only way to go if you want to experience all the system's highlights. Sadly, the flash carts themselves have become difficult to track down.
posted by porn in the woods at 5:52 PM on July 22, 2013
posted by porn in the woods at 5:52 PM on July 22, 2013
Great series of articles.
Kind of proves the point that system add-ons will nearly always flop.
posted by wcfields at 6:01 PM on July 22, 2013
Kind of proves the point that system add-ons will nearly always flop.
posted by wcfields at 6:01 PM on July 22, 2013
And yet somehow, nintendo has made more of them than any other company i can think of. And they NEVER stop.
Just look at MotionPlus, the balance board, and other weird add-ons they did even in the last generation. They're not as bad with handhelds anymore, but they're likely the undisputed kings of mid generation feature adds(and removals), weird plugs in, etc.
I wonder how long it'll take them to realize that unless it's there out of the box no software will really be written for it, because it can't be counted on that everyone will have XYZ feature.
posted by emptythought at 6:24 PM on July 22, 2013 [1 favorite]
Just look at MotionPlus, the balance board, and other weird add-ons they did even in the last generation. They're not as bad with handhelds anymore, but they're likely the undisputed kings of mid generation feature adds(and removals), weird plugs in, etc.
I wonder how long it'll take them to realize that unless it's there out of the box no software will really be written for it, because it can't be counted on that everyone will have XYZ feature.
posted by emptythought at 6:24 PM on July 22, 2013 [1 favorite]
I dunno about Motion Plus- after awhile I think they stopped selling Wiimotes that didn't have it built-in. The add-on thing just upgrades pre-MP Wiimotes and eventually became outdated.
posted by Pope Guilty at 6:34 PM on July 22, 2013
posted by Pope Guilty at 6:34 PM on July 22, 2013
£40 for Castlevania? Yikes
Wait, what? For NES Castlevania? I mean, it's my favorite game in the series, but wow. It's five dollars on Wii Virtual Console. Something is amiss here. Someone with a 3DS, do a price check?
On the balance board, it should be remembered that, outdated or not, Nintendo still sold a ton of them. WiiFit was pretty big for a while. Fundamentally, Nintendo is still kind of a toy company. It's just their target age has increased a bit, and they make consoles and software instead of playing cards and Ultra Hands.
posted by JHarris at 7:06 PM on July 22, 2013 [1 favorite]
Wait, what? For NES Castlevania? I mean, it's my favorite game in the series, but wow. It's five dollars on Wii Virtual Console. Something is amiss here. Someone with a 3DS, do a price check?
On the balance board, it should be remembered that, outdated or not, Nintendo still sold a ton of them. WiiFit was pretty big for a while. Fundamentally, Nintendo is still kind of a toy company. It's just their target age has increased a bit, and they make consoles and software instead of playing cards and Ultra Hands.
posted by JHarris at 7:06 PM on July 22, 2013 [1 favorite]
Doesn't really change my point though. There's oodles and oodles of systems out there without those new wiimotes. And most of the people who buy a used Wii at gamestop will end up with the old-style ones. It's safe to say the majority of wiimotes in current circulation don't have the add on unit nor are they the integrated motionplus type.
It's a LOT like the n64 expansion pack. At some point they started just selling N64s with those pre installed(right? i swear i remember this) but only a handful of games ever used it.
posted by emptythought at 7:14 PM on July 22, 2013
It's a LOT like the n64 expansion pack. At some point they started just selling N64s with those pre installed(right? i swear i remember this) but only a handful of games ever used it.
posted by emptythought at 7:14 PM on July 22, 2013
But a lot of BIG games used it. Gauntlet Legends relied on it for more than two characters, Banjo-Tooie required it, Perfect Dark required it, Donkey King 64 required it.
Not that I have any point in this. Nintendo certainly HAS abandoned a lot of hardware.
posted by JHarris at 9:09 PM on July 22, 2013
Not that I have any point in this. Nintendo certainly HAS abandoned a lot of hardware.
posted by JHarris at 9:09 PM on July 22, 2013
I love Kirby's Dream Land 2 but boy is she right that the end is punishingly needlessly difficult. I don't think I managed to beat it until I went back a few years later when I was a bit better at these things.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 11:27 PM on July 22, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by vibratory manner of working at 11:27 PM on July 22, 2013 [1 favorite]
Also this is great overall, I had a super game boy and had no idea it could do this much.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 11:28 PM on July 22, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by vibratory manner of working at 11:28 PM on July 22, 2013 [1 favorite]
The 3DS eShop is really dropping the ball, I don't think there's any GBA titles on there
Nintendo should integrate its online stores instead of reintroducing the same games slowly. It gets tiring the second time.
posted by ersatz at 12:41 PM on July 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
Nintendo should integrate its online stores instead of reintroducing the same games slowly. It gets tiring the second time.
posted by ersatz at 12:41 PM on July 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
The 3DS eShop is really dropping the ball, I don't think there's any GBA titles on there
I can't find a reference right now, but I seem to recall that part of the announcement of the 3DS Ambassador program was that it was going to be the only way to get GBA games on the 3DS.
posted by reprise the theme song and roll the credits at 3:37 PM on July 23, 2013
I can't find a reference right now, but I seem to recall that part of the announcement of the 3DS Ambassador program was that it was going to be the only way to get GBA games on the 3DS.
posted by reprise the theme song and roll the credits at 3:37 PM on July 23, 2013
Yeah, that's Nintendo for you. Sometimes you're amazed they even stay in business at all.
posted by JHarris at 1:48 PM on July 24, 2013
posted by JHarris at 1:48 PM on July 24, 2013
Although I will say this much -- while the best thing to do would have been to outright give everyone with the Wii version of a VC game, imported on their system from a physical Wii, the Wii-U version of it for free, they do sell it at a substantial (75+%) discount.
posted by JHarris at 1:51 PM on July 24, 2013
posted by JHarris at 1:51 PM on July 24, 2013
Japan got "Street Gangs" in the most recent 3DS Virtual Console update. The American version of "Street Gangs" was titled "River City Ransom".
*crosses fingers*
posted by Pope Guilty at 1:54 PM on July 24, 2013
*crosses fingers*
posted by Pope Guilty at 1:54 PM on July 24, 2013
It's been available on Wii Virtual Console for at least a couple of years. Which you could be forgiven for not knowing, considering how terrible the Wii Shop Channel is.
posted by JHarris at 2:03 PM on July 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by JHarris at 2:03 PM on July 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
Speaking of the GBA, the GBA version of River City Ransom was yet another brilliant GBA timewaster.
posted by ersatz at 5:28 PM on July 24, 2013
posted by ersatz at 5:28 PM on July 24, 2013
I know about RCR on the Wii Shop, but my Wii and my TV don't fit in my pocket or run on a battery the size of an iPhone.
posted by Pope Guilty at 10:23 PM on July 24, 2013
posted by Pope Guilty at 10:23 PM on July 24, 2013
This thread has me bidding on GBA Micros. I still have a DS and an original GBA! Why am I doing this!
posted by EndsOfInvention at 12:32 PM on July 25, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by EndsOfInvention at 12:32 PM on July 25, 2013 [3 favorites]
Thanks to this thread, I just unloaded my black GB Micro on Amazon, excellent condition, with box, all faceplates, inserts, etc., for $135. Such a nice unit, deserves all the praise it can get. I had a feeling this item would become more desirable over the years, as it was mostly ignored, for it came out well after the DS (September 2005.) Build quality is tremendous; it's possibly the last time you might see metal used in a Nintendo handheld.
posted by porn in the woods at 9:05 AM on July 27, 2013
posted by porn in the woods at 9:05 AM on July 27, 2013
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