The Game Boy Advance is my favorite video game program of all sentence , and while I loved it from day one , I did n’t love the original edition of the handheld . It took almost two years for Nintendo to compensate the original GBA ’s wrongfulness , but its successor , the clamshell GBA SP , was deserving the delay ( and the years spent shinny to see the games I was playing ) .
For the most part , the GBA platform was actually more knock-down than the Super Nintendo , which arrived a decade earlier . arrange all of that 16 - bit playfulness in a handheld also entail the GBA was , not surprisingly , a huge upgrade over the Game Boy Color . Pre - rank one was a no - brainer , and I can still vividly remember the turmoil of picking mine up at a Toys ‘ R Us in business district Toronto on launching break of day , plus the crushing letdown of first powering it up when I got to work after that .
I corrupt Tony Hawk ’s Pro Skater 2 along with the GBA , and from previews , I know the game was a surprisingly successful 2D changeover of an incredibly popular 3D plot . But I struggled to experience it for myself , because for some bizarre intellect , Nintendo decide to skitter any concealment ignition on the original GBA . Even under the bright fluorescents of an office setting , I fight to weight the handheld to properly see the action on screen . Everything else about the first - gen GBA was gravid , but not being able to see it without some stupid third - party screen light accessory was somewhat damning . Even with one of those , you had to get the angle juuuust flop for it to actually work .
Photo: Andrew Liszewski | Gizmodo
For two eld , I sputter to make do with the original GBA , and while I find agency to make the CRT screen moderately viewable , it would be Nintendo who would eventually come up with the best solution , even if it meant consumers would have to buy an entirely new handheld : the GBA SP . Debuting in Japan incisively 20 years ago today , the GBA SP ( the “ SP ” was supposedly short for Special ) looked more like the original Game Boy , with its controls located beneath the screen . But it could fold in one-half like a insolent phone , making it far more succinct and pocketable than all old Game Boys .
The GBA SP also introduced other utilitarian feature , like a rechargeable barrage , but the literal reason most GBA substance abuser were eager to upgrade was because the SP in the end introduced an illuminated filmdom , a very welcome improvement , even if it used front - lighting that completely wash out the showing ’s colors . A supporter of mine managed to snag one during a well - time trip to Japan , but I had to wait an surplus calendar month for the GBA SP to arrive in North America .
By today ’s standard , the GBA SP ’s screen lighting , which you could turn on and off to stretch forth battery lifespan , was actually quite big , but it would once again be Nintendo who desex that problem .
The backlit screen on the GBA SP AGS-101 model (left) looks vastly superior to the screen on the original GBA SP AGS-001 model (right) which used front-lighting instead.Photo: Andrew Liszewski | Gizmodo
Another two years later , in 2005 , the company restfully debut the GBA SP AGS-101 ( the original was the GBA SP AGS-001 ) , which used a much bright backlit LCD screen . Some of the GBA SP box distinguished the unexampled model with a “ Now with a BRIGHTER backlit screen ! ” message , but in some country , the AGS-101 was package identically to the original . It was a bizarrely low - key rollout for a companionship as big as Nintendo , until you remember that in 2005 , the companionship was heavy promote the Nintendo DS , which debuted a year earlier .
The success of the Nintendo DS , which was backwards compatible with the GBA , intend that Nintendo could have just left the GBA SP as it was , ugly lit screen and all . But longtime GBA fan like myself are glad the folding handheld got a refresh , because it brought the GBA SP as nigh as Nintendo has ever suffer to making a perfect handheld .
grant , while it was n’t the most powerful Nintendo handheld by today ’s criterion , it was compendious , had a bully depository library , and did n’t have any gimmicks ( at least until you tacked on ane - Reader ) . That ’s three key points that Nintendo handhelds have struggled to hit all at once since .
All models of the GBA SP lacked a standard headphone jack, instead requiring gamers to use a small headphone adapter cable that connected to the handheld’s link cable port.Photo: Andrew Liszewski | Gizmodo
Why am I hesitant to call it perfect ? Like the big mountain pass on my iPhone ’s blind , the GBA SP had one glaring issuing that Nintendo never remedied : it lack a phone jackstones . You could still use headphones with the GBA SP , but it required the use of a low earphone cable transcriber connected to the handheld ’s link cable embrasure . It ’s miraculous that I still have that cable in my possession — it was so easy to fall back — but it ’s probably because I just leave it in the boxful and chose to never convey it with me for reverence of it going missing .
Years after the GBA SP was discontinued , I was lucky enough to snag a used AGS-101 model in good physical body for about $ 50 , but the recent rise in popularity of retro gaming , and the scarcity of that model , has since bear on prices to well over $ 200 , depending on what color you ’re after . If you want one new in the boxwood , be prepared to spend even more .
Is it deserving it ? possibly not in a time when your phone can easily emulate classic GBA games . But the GBA SP will always remain close perfect in my eyes , with flaws I ’m glad to appear past . Happy twentieth birthday !
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