GBA came out 20 years ago today in North America

[Anonymous No.7852739]

Share your memories

[Anonymous No.7852756]

>>7852739
I remember thinking how retarded it was that burgers were getting stuff just a few months late instead of having to wait a year or more like the good old days.

[Anonymous No.7852759]

Parents bought me a gba after my dad got pissy and smashed my gbc on the pavement.

Had a ac adapter where I had to remove the batteries, and a twisted blue wire light. Rrally enjoyed it a for a long time, until tbe ds game out. Picked it up again when my friends got back into pokemon, and a friend let me borrow fire red.

[Anonymous No.7852761]

the WarioWare games are still fun to this day.

[Anonymous No.7852767]

got an nes edition gba sp for graduation. thats it. still have it to this day.

[Anonymous No.7852770]

Was busy doing drugs when this came out, also bypassed the Ps2 and GC as well.

[Anonymous No.7852772]

Got a GBA and Advance Wars for Christmas of 2001. Fun times. Just bought three for cheap and will mod them with a backlight. Unsure if my soldering skill is up to snuff for the composite video mod via link cable port, but its not like I don't have a gameboy player for that particular need.

[Anonymous No.7852773]

>>7852770
Did you have an OG XBOX instead?

[Anonymous No.7852774]

My sister had a fuchsia gba, which got stolen at her elementary school. :(

[Anonymous No.7852776]

>>7852739
>Basically a portable SNES for all intents and purposes
>Only two front-right-hand buttons

What a stupid design choice

[Anonymous No.7852784]

>>7852770
better use of time than playing 6th gen and above

[Anonymous No.7852786]

>>7852776
Simplistic, though a little too simplistic. We had to wait until the DS for 4 face buttons....

[Anonymous No.7852790]

>>7852739
The screen was absolutely fucked. Had a few decent games though, but generally the sound was shit as well except for a few titles.

[Anonymous No.7852797]

>>7852790
It's sad the aftermarket has to provide solutions the company thought wasn't cost effective.

[Anonymous No.7852803]

>>7852739
The dark screen wasn't a big deal to me as a kid, but for the longest time the only games I had were Jimmy Neutron, Zone of the Enders, and Super Mario Advance.

[Anonymous No.7852804]

first time I was disappointed by nintendo and their first party games and it has been non stop since then.

[Anonymous No.7852808]

>>7852803
>Zone of the Enders
The PS2 game was fun as hell. I could never find a CIB back in the day.

[Anonymous No.7852809]

>>7852804
Even during the money printing DS/Wii era?

[Anonymous No.7852816]

https://miscrave.com/articles/game-boy-advance/

[Anonymous No.7852831]

>>7852808
The GBA game was a turn based strategy game like Advance Wars or Front Mission.

[Anonymous No.7852849]

>>7852803
did the library even have anything other than licensed shovelware, bad versions of console games, and mario advance?

[Anonymous No.7852851]

>>7852809
especially then

[Anonymous No.7852862]

>>7852739
Got the SP at Walmart. Friend gave me a flashcart later on which was really primitive compared to everdrives. I remember playing a lot of Goomba NES emulator (contra mostly), Gradius Galaxies, Double Dragon, and a few odds and ends. Worked at a call center and would bring this to the night shift. Also when Mother 3 fan translation came out I had just broken up with my first long term girlfriend so it was a great comfort to have.

I still have the same SP but the right trigger is a bit messed up. I can't believe I used to play that so much it's tiny as fuck.

The Switch is cat shit compared to GBA and DS.

[Anonymous No.7852891]

I never got a GBA until it was cheap to get one, at around 2007 or so. But I remember thinking it was an amazing device when I played the demo units at Walmart and Kmart. The idea that I was playing a game as beautiful was Warioland 4 or Super Mario 2 on a weird purple little handheld was amazing to me.

[Anonymous No.7852930]

>>7852849
Golden Sun
Fire Emblem
Advance Wars
Pokémon
Wario
Megaman Zero
Megaman BN
SRW
Castlevania
Metroid
FFTA
All those Final Fantasy Remasters

[Anonymous No.7852931]

>>7852739
i had my gameboy color in my pocket on the ride to my aunt's pool. My sister and i ran out and jumped in instantly when mom parked her minivan.

you can imagine what happened 5min later....

long story short I wanted a new gameboy and I got the glacier white gba. Still got it.
backlit ags-101 installed
tempered glass screen installed, because the film on the OEM plastic screen began peeling off and it looked like clear coat chipping away.
new battery cover because old one finally broke at the tab

now all she needs is a new shell because the plastic is cracking at weak points.

[Anonymous No.7852937]

>>7852931
>you can imagine what happened 5min later....
You cried because you were dumb.

[Anonymous No.7852949]

My brother and I both got GBAs for Christmas 2002, after getting to lust over my rich friend's for like a year. Don't remember what game my brother got but I got Mega Man Battle Network, which was actually my first Mega Man game. They put it all out under the tree "Santa style" (no wrapping) and I woke up super early that day, like around 5:00AM, so I tore into it, plugged in its AC adapter (nice call from my parents, they must have been as tired of me stealing remote batteries as I was), and played Battle Network for hours before anyone else got up. Good times. I remember picking up Mario Advance and Earthworm Jim (lol) with Xmas money shortly after. Didn't notice how bad the EWJ port was because I was a kid and hadn't played the better versions in years. My jaw hit the floor when I saw the Special Edition running on a PC a few years later.

>>7852862
>The Switch is cat shit compared to GBA and DS.
Even the 3DS was better by a country mile. I was pretty excited when I heard Nintendo was pooling their development teams to focus on making games for one system, naively thinking that meant "all the games coming out for 3DS + Wii U right now will be coming out for one system instead". But we're getting less releases than ever now, especially if you strike out all the ports... And the Switch's hardware is technically nice in design concept (when it's not breaking down) but it is, dare I say it, soulless. There's no sense of fun or whimsy that all their other previous systems have conveyed. It's just another streamlined consoomer gadget. Glad I've got a decent emulation handheld because catching up on retroshit is the only thing keeping me gaming right now.

[Anonymous No.7852969]

I remember the days when you couldn’t even pay someone to take your used gba with 6 games, now good luck finding one under 50 bucks.

[Anonymous No.7852976]

>>7852969
SPs are even more egregious when it comes to cost.

[Anonymous No.7852980]

I didn't have one (poorfag family) but my friend did. For whatever reason he only had GBC games for it though. Got to play mario land but he wouldn't let me play his pokemon games (for obvious reasons I guess but it still sucked)

I never got a GBA myself until way later, not until pokemon emerald came out at least because I remember I got an SP and Emerald together on christmas.

[Anonymous No.7852986]

>>7852969
Speaking of that, this is everyone's warning to pick up a DSi on eBay if you don't have one currently and want one. They're about 40-50 bucks right now, but they're about to cross that same event horizon from being considered crusty+old to being considered "retro-chic". Glad I scooped my GBP and a few GBCs back in college for $20-30 each before that same effect took hold.

[Anonymous No.7853002]

>>7852986
I don't pay more than $50 for GBP/GBC which I go on to mod and resell.

[Anonymous No.7853004]

My fondest memory of that time was always wanting one but my family couldn't afford it.
A month ago I finally bought a used one for myself and recently my EZ Flash Omega arrived.

Now I need a new battery because a 20-year old one can't deal really well with said flashcart. But I guess a third party new battery is still better than a super old official one, right?

[Anonymous No.7853006]

>>7852986
The DSi is a waste of time, it can't do anything a 3DS can't. Put that 40-50$ towards getting a New3DS before those start getting any more expensive than they already are.

Plus DSi CFW is pretty shit. I hacked mine and I kind of regret it, I need to get around to trying to revert back to OFW.

[Anonymous No.7853021]

>>7852986
DSi seems kind of gimped. No GBA slot, screen size is negligible compare to the Lite. I only have one because some boomer at a yard sale was hocking it for $5. Going to have to agree with >>7853006 and get a 3DS.

[Anonymous No.7853040]

>>7852739
Third-world anon here.
My older brother got the indigo OG one around 2001 from his dad in the US, with a couple of games for it. When the SP came he also got it, again from his dad and a bunch of extra games. By the time he moved with him in the early 2010s he gave me the OG one and around a dozen games (only remember Super Mario Advance though) and carried the SP with him.

I gave my GBA and the games I had in 2014 to a poor family. There's still a little bit of regret within me over doing so, but ultimately I know that I can always emulate the library on my 3DS and I hope that the little girl that got it liked playing on it a lot and still has it.

[Anonymous No.7853046]

>>7853006
>>7853021
lol I've got a n3DS XL, but I hate playing DS stuff on there because of the stretching + bilinear filtering. I know about the native res trick but playing on original hardware would just be comfier. I've got a DS Lite as well but the DSi was always my favorite DS revision from a design standpoint, that matte finish was the best.

[Anonymous No.7853049]

>>7852739
I had the SP. enjoyed playing Metroid Fushion and Sabrewolf on it.

[Anonymous No.7853061]

>Mario and Luigi: Super Star Saga
>Mario Advance ports
>Zelda Minish Cap
>Kirby Nightmare In Dreamland and Magic Mirror
>Metroid Zero Mission and Fusion
>Mario Kart Super Circuit
>Mario vs. Donkey Kong
>Donkey Kong King of Swing
>Pokemon RSE and FRLG
>Pokemon Mystery Dungeon
>Sonic Advance Trilogy
>Sonic Battle
>Wario Land 4
>Warioware and Warioware Twisted
>Mother 3
>Advance Wars
>Spyro Season trilogy
>Crash Huge Adventure and N-Tranced
>Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town
>MegaMan Battle Network series
>Starfy 1-3
>Klonoa: Empire of Dreams
>Banjo-Kazooie Grunty's Revenge
>Drill Dozer
Based system

[Anonymous No.7853069]

>>7852849
Boktai was great. Enjoyed the first 2 games so much I imported the third from Japan and finished it in spite of not knowing a lick of Japanese

[Anonymous No.7853073]

>>7853046
Yeah I do appreciate the DSi's matte finish, I was never a big fan of gloss finishes on pretty much any handheld devices really.

I'd still rather just use my DSfat for DS games I like to play physically though.

[Anonymous No.7853081]

>>7852773
Yes, which in my opinion was much more impressive. I borrowed a ps2 from a friend which I used mostly for dvds since the xbox needed the adapter, although I thought Stuntman was a neat game. Some neighbors let me borrow their GC once and i played Luigis mansion and Hunter:the reckoning , but the GC controls are shite.

[Anonymous No.7853101]

>school lunch time
>sitting in the big field playing advance wars with a link cable
>friend rests his fag on his GBA for some reason
>melts a huge hole in the plastic covering the screen
>still worked
Said friend also stroked his dog's willy for a dare and last I heard he was living on a canal boat.

[Anonymous No.7853110]

>poorfags put money in common with a friend to buy a GBA for two that we'd share

>play advance wars with buddy on the bus to school
>keep playing at recess
>keep playing during lunch break
>keep playing on the bus back home
>repeat the next day

Sometimes a single game could last several days and could end up as "we give up let's call it a tie".

Later on I bought two other GBAs and the cables so we could play Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles and Zelda Four Swords on GameCube with another friend. I sitll got two of those, I cleaned up / repaired them last year.

[Anonymous No.7853112]

>Didn't like how Nintendo would keep releasing updated versions of the gameboy
>thought this would be similar
>one day at recess I noticed a GBA under the monkey bars
>knew which kid it belonged to since he was showing it off in class earlier
>picked it up
>walked over to him
>"you dropped this"
>gave it back to him
>years later bought the GBA SP Toys R Us Gold version with Zelda
>years later mom stole it while I was sleeping and sold it for drugs

I wish I didn't remember these

[Anonymous No.7853158]

>>7853112
Sorry about your mom anon. Good on you for returning that other kids instead of pocketing it though.

[Anonymous No.7853212]

Not OP, but thanks for sharing your stories with us, anon. The gba has a special place in my heart due to having it as a child and also because of how easy it was to emulate.

[Anonymous No.7853226]

>>7852891
Had this feeling with the DS. Was impressed they did the GBA's ten-year console-to-handheld jump in 8.

[Anonymous No.7853230]

>>7852756
no you didn't.

[Anonymous No.7854934]

>>7853230
Not everyone here is a zoom zoom like you, zoom zoom

[Anonymous No.7855224]

>friend showed me his gameboy advance and advance wars back in 2001
>I couldn't see much because screen wasnt lit, and strategy games were stupid, dismissed both gameboy and advance wars
>Years later after highschool worked part time and I bought an AGS-101 and Castlevania double pack, pokemon fire red and leaf green, enjoyed the heck out of them
>stupidly traded it in towards a micro
>family lost house when housing market crashed, moved 3 times and all that time my video games stayed packed in a box
>another 10+ years later when things settle, finished school, working full time: get back into gameboy advance, bought advance wars and now hooked on the series and continued playing the games previously obtained

[Anonymous No.7855462]

The 2D GBA Metroids are the reason I still bother with gaming at all today.