/vr/ - Retro Games

>>10724156
It had the hardware to be the peak of 2D... but not the resolution, so no, it isn't the peak at all.

>>10730130
I mean, the GBA SP came out only 2 years later, and the issues with battery life and price, while were a thing in 1990 with the Game Gear, likely wouldn't have been as bad, it was already 2001 and Nintendo had made the Game Boy Light in 1998 just fine. Also, having 4 face buttons back then would've made SNES ports easier to make, while also allowing for more options in newer titles, I don't get why so many people get upset at the thought of the OG GBA having a backlit screen and 4 face buttons in 2001, it wasn't the 90's anymore, it could've been done and would definitely have been good, without the price at the time being so much higher than what it was. I'm likely not alone in saying that the dark screen in the OG GBA really hurt the system for me.

>>10613152
GBA.
I love the library and it's among my favorite of all time consoles... if I had to rank them, depending on the mood I'm in, I might even rank it 1st. but I had an awful 1st impression of it. All other kids I knew had a GBA SP, and I got the OG GBA, I guess it was cheaper, and I'm grateful for the gift I did get, but man... that was the darkest screen I had ever seen, downright unplayable, at least for me.
I ended up not enjoying the few titles I had, and never rented anything despite having a store in my street with GBA stuff to rent, and any front light solution sucked to me, I needed a backlight.
After I got into emulation, I began to appreciate it and make up for lost time, but I still really wish I had gotten a GBA SP or a DS, to appreciate it all back then as a kid, it's a shame, but it's past me.

>>10613310
As much as tendies try to cope, having to find the absolute perfect lighting conditions just to see a garbage screen, outside when the light might be completely different from how you need it to be, defeats the whole purpose of a portable... which is convenience, the 1st decent handheld they've made was the Game Boy Light and then the GBA SP, all other consoles in the Game Boy lineup are garbage if we're talking about the hardware and playing experience, despite the library being still quite good even today. Lynx and Game Gear are, and were, vastly superior, and shoudl've won it...

t. I grew up with a GBA and the screen made my experience horrible, and stopped me from truly enjoying it's superb library, all of the other kids had GBA SPs and I'll never forgive Nintendo for releasing something with no backlight in 2001 when Game Gear and Lynx both had it in 1990.

>>10590770
NES, Game Boy, PS1 and PS2 had this same issue too, and you know what they have in common? It really isn't complicated, when you have a system that's dominant in their respective makets, home console or handheld, and you have to choose for which console you'll make your video game, you go for the one with the most users... all of these consoles I've mentioned had 100m sales aswell.

If a console just so happens to get 10x more new software than the competitions, and the majority of developers are mediocre or bad, then there'll be 10x more bad video games... that's all, really.

Still, just like those other consoles I mentioned, while there was a lot of shovelware, there were so many gems too, GBA stands among the classic consoles that shall always be remembered by us.

>>10565598
I hated the GBA as a kid because I had the OG at the time while most kids had the SP and actually saw what they were playing, the OG GBA screen was so dark, much darker than GB and GBC from my experience, though maybe it's just placebo, I believe that having better graphics and detail is what makes it harder to see with no backlight, if compared to simpler graphics, it was a shame...

Anyways, years later I got into emulation, and a bit later emulating on portables, and now it's one of my favorite consoles of all time, it just had so much good stuff, and every IP I like was in it too.

It felt like a portable PS2 in the sense that it had a bit of everything, just a shame about the light, and it only having 2 face buttons, could've been even better than it really was, but it's still good.

>>10548929
A handheld NEEDS a backlight screen to even be qualified as playable, trying to position yourself and the handheld in the perfect place, under the perfect lighting conditions, just the see what's in the screen is BS and defeats the purpose it, that being convenience/comfort. So yes, Game Gear was better than Game Boy, and the 1st decent Nintendo handheld was their GBA SP, in 2003.

>>10505457
I distinctively remember struggling to see what I was playing at all on my OG GBA even with lamps at home, or natural sunlight, no matter what, the screen never actually looked good, it just ranged from "Awful" to "Bearable" visibility wise... if you had an OG GBA, you know this to be true, anon...