Speak up mate, you're a little husky! Ahahaha...oh, you've heard that one?
Speak up mate, you're a little husky! Ahahaha...oh, you've heard that one?
Member since:11.10.2002
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A Game Boy Color user of several years' standing, I'd promised myself a Game Boy Advance as soon as I could spare the cash. In mid-February that moment finally arrived, and I headed for my local branch of Game with payslip burning a hole in my pocket. Once in the store, though, I changed my mind.
Was I struck by the sudden realisation that I ought to invest the money in a pension plan instead, or perhaps donate it to a worthy cause? Ho ho, not likely. No - I had seen a poster advertising the launch of the new, improved Game Boy Advance SP at the end of March, and I had fallen in love.
So rather than walking away with a new toy, I put down a deposit and went home empty-handed and impatient. Come March 28th, I was on the shop doorstep at five to nine. Nor was I the only one there.
The preview poster put the price at 'around £90'. In fact it cost £89.99, so I felt that I'd won. Game were also running a handy 'ten pounds off any game bought with the console' offer.
It's that tiny, it took me some time to find the actual console in the box. When I did: wow. Wowie and indeed zowie. For the first time, a portable games machine that really does fit in an average pocket. You will not believe how small and light this little devil is until you've held one in your own hands. It weighs just 150 grams - I've eaten bigger chocolate bars.
The design is radically different from the first Game Boy Advance: it's a chunky, round-cornered square which flips open to reveal a screen in the top deck and buttons below. My boyfriend compared it to a powder compact, which made me wonder why on earth he would know about such things.
All the familiar Game Boy controls are there - the plus-shaped directional pad, Button A,
Button B, Select and Start - and although the positioning is different, my thumbs found them without difficulty. There are also two buttons on the back of the device, a la PlayStation controller, reachable by index finger.
At an impressively dinky 8 x 8 x 2cm, the SP looks like a doll's laptop. Your fellow-commuters will assume you're hard at work on your PDA or WAP phone, especially if you've gone for the smart silver version as I did. (Also available in black or blue.) Or they might think you're spending the entire journey gazing at yourself in a pocket mirror. Either way, they're bound to be impressed.
Probably the biggest technological leap is the light-up screen. One massive disadvantage of the old Game Boy systems was that you needed a strong direct light source to see what was going on; I often had to operate with the Game Boy, or myself, tilted at an uncomfortable angle. There were plugin lights on the market but these were bulky, fiddly and a major battery eater. With the SP, press a button and the screen is magically illuminated. The increase in clarity is incredible and means you can play in just about any situation. Parents beware: you can even use it under the bedclothes!
You can turn the light off to conserve battery power if surrounding light is strong enough - or just to remind yourself of the bad old days.
Another problem with the old Game Boy was battery consumption; the thing gobbled AAs like they were going out of fashion. I invested in a rechargeable battery pack which also worked as a mains adaptor, but this stuck out from the back in a very ugly way, increasing the weight and size by a great deal.
All that is a thing of the past with the SP's built-in, rechargeable lithium ion battery: 'twice the energy capacity of a Nickel-Cadmium battery and greater stability and safety', according to www.whatis.com.
A green light on the console turns red when it's time to recharge; much better than the old imperceptibly-dimming indicator lamp followed by sudden death. Plug in the charger - just like on your mobile phone - and an amber light comes on. When the battery is fully charged the light goes out and you can look forward to another ten hours of gaming with the screen light on, over fifteen unlit. (It doesn't seem to last that long to me, but time does fly when you're playing Tomb Raider.)
There's no denying the console is a thing of beauty, but what about the actual games? The cartridges are expensive; at around £30-£35 they cost a little more on average than the old Game Boy and Game Boy Color games and the same as many full-size console releases. But the graphics and gameplay are light years ahead of older games, making full use of the 240 x 160 pixel screen resolution (the Game Boy Color screen is 160 x 140) as well as the extra processing power and enhanced colour and sound capabilities. And don't forget you're paying for the technology that crammed a game onto something the size of a promotional matchbox in the first place - well worth it in my view.
Detailed graphics and complicated manoeuvres are suddenly possible; games feel like pared-down PlayStation adventures rather than blocky platformers converted from old ZX Spectrum titles. Larger sprites and a bigger colour palette allow 3D effects and realistic light and shadow. Music and sound effects have vastly improved too.
Because the original Game Boy Advance has been out for some time, there are already plenty of GBA titles available and you don't experience the frustration of having a nice new console and only a handful of games to play on it. And if a range of Advance games from Lord of the Rings to Lego isn't enough for you, how about every game ever produced for the Game Boy - Donkey Kong, Tetris and all?
Nintendo say that the GBA is compatible with 'almost all' older games. Advance games cartridges are the same width and thickness as the old kind but half the length, about 6 by 3 centimetres, so if you put an old Game Pak in the front-loading slot of the SP it protrudes cheekily for an inch or so. Not enough to get in the way of your flying fingers, though.
I've yet to find a game that doesn't work in the SP; I tried it on the oldest I own, James Bond 007 for the ancient monochrome machine (cracking good game, incidentally) with no problems at all.
Game Boy titles don't use all the six-by-four centimetre screen due to the difference in aspect ratio between the old squareish screen and the Advanced rectangular one, so the effect is of watching a pan-and-scan film on a widescreen TV.
(08/05/03: I've discovered that if you press the L button while playing an old Game Boy game, the picture stretches to fill the whole width of the screen. If you don't like it - I didn't - press R to change it back.)
Old favourites appear in wondrous clarity thanks to the high resolution. Buy a Universal Link Cable and you can play the old games with friends still using a Pocket, Color or original Game Boy - and send them mad with envy.
The SP is also compatible with certain Gamecube titles, and to this end there's a coupon in the box for £30 off its big brother. For the moment, though, I'm more than happy with what I've got.
In fact I have very few gripes. It would be nice to have more control over the position of the screen; it tends to snap back into the fully open position if you dare try to set it at a different angle. I would also have preferred a wheel to a slider for volume control, to allow fine-tuning of the sound level (just high enough to irritate everyone in my carriage please...yes, perfect!)
The price tag may put potential buyers off, especially with the old-style Advance now being offered at £50. But I believe that once you have seen the Game Boy Advance SP you'll never want to return to the Dark Ages.
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(+) Plenty of storage space, for media. Good Games, Great for partys, with singstar. Very Reliable. (-) Sometimes the optical drive, breaks; but not very likely, my 60gb still working after 2 1/2 years.
hope u still enjoying your GBA SP now, in fact i still waiting for my to arrive...now only buy...finally no need to see the "dark screen" of GBA.
flickpugh 28.12.2004 00:18
Just been playing with my little cousin's one of these today and tempted to get myself one, although I expect there's another new one coming out soon!
pickle78 08.01.2004 14:44
I've been toying with the idea of getting one of these little gems...it's either this or the gamecube, because I find the Nintendo titles irrestistable! Hmm decisions decisions,...i wonder if it still comes with a money off coupon....hmmmmmmmmm
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Advantages: Nintendo exclusive content, touch screen (dual screens), innovative software, superb sound, great graphics Disadvantages: size (could have been smaller).
MotoAthan 07.03.2005 (07.03.2005)
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