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This is the Nintendo Gameboy Advance section. I have a small but perfectly formed selection of
Nintendo Gameboy Advance
Games, as well as Nintendo Gameboy Advance Consoles and
replacement hardware. Click any of these links to take you to the appropriate
section.
The Nintendo Gameboy Advance
section.
The Game Boy Advance
(ゲームボーイアドバンス, Gēmu Bōi Adobansu, often shortened to GBA) is a 32-bit handheld
video game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo. It is the
successor to the popular Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21,
2001; in North America on June 11, 2001; in Australia on June 22, 2001, in
Europe on June 22, 2001; and in the People's Republic of China on June 8, 2004
(excluding Hong Kong).
In 1996, magazines including issues 53 and 54 of Total! and the July 1996 issue
of Game Informer featured reports of a new Game Boy, codenamed Project Atlantis.
Although the expected release date of "early 1997" would make this machine seem
to be the Game Boy Color, it was described as having "a 32-bit RISC processor"
and "allowing similar to SNES standard games-playing to be played in the palm of
your hand"—a description that more closely matches the Game Boy Advance.
On December 1, 2006, Nintendo of America released launch-to-date information
indicating that the Game Boy Advance series had sold 33.63 million units in the
United States. As of September 30, 2007, the Game Boy Advance series has sold
80.48 million units worldwide, of which 42.82 million are Game Boy Advance SP
units.
The Game Boy Advance has become the modern flagship of sprite-based games. With
hardware superior to the Super NES it has proven that sprite-based technology
could improve and live side by side with the 3D games of today's consoles. The
Game Boy Advance not only has one's typical platformers, but also a huge
collection of SNES-style RPGs. It has also become a popular system for
old-school gamers due to the increasing amount of games ported from various
8-bit and 16-bit systems of the previous era.
Through the use of flash cartridges and emulators the Game Boy Advance can even
play NES and TurboGrafx-16 games, as well as AGI-based Sierra On-Line PC
adventure games. Backward compatibility for Game Boy and Game Boy Color games is
provided by an 8.4 MHz Z80 co-processor, while a link port at the top of the
unit allows it to be connected to other devices via use of a Nintendo Game Link
cable or GameCube cable.
Many people have developed their own software to run on the Game Boy Advance.
This is typically tested using emulators, and later written to flash cartridges
to run on real consoles. Most such developers use a version of the GNU Compiler
Collection (gcc) and program in either C or C++, though recently some developers
have started using Free Pascal.
In early 2003, Nintendo upgraded the Gameboy Advance to the Gameboy Advance
SPgiving it an internal front-light that can be turned on or off, a rechargeable
lithium ion battery, as well as a folding case approximately half the original
size. It was designed to address some common complaints with the original Game
Boy Advance which was criticized for being very uncomfortable. The Game Boy
Advance SP also came with a new and much brighter LCD screen for improved
playability.
Around the same time as the release of the Game Boy Micro, Nintendo released a
new backlit version of the SP in North America (commonly referred to as the "GBA
SP+"). The switch that controls the light now toggles between "normal" (which
itself is already brighter than the original Game Boy Advance SP's screen), and
"bright," an intense brightness level similar to an LCD television set.
In September 2005, Nintendo released a second redesign of the Game Boy Advance.
This model, dubbed the Game Boy Micro, is similar in style to the original Game
Boy Advance's horizontal orientation, but is much smaller and sleeker. The Game
Boy Micro also allows the user an ability to switch between several colored
faceplates to allow customization, a feature which Nintendo advertised heavily
around the Game Boy Micro's launch. Nintendo also hoped that this "fashion"
feature will help target audiences outside of typical video game players, much
like its new Wii. Unlike the previous Game Boy Advance models, Game Boy Micro is
unable to support Game Boy and Game Boy Color titles.
Nintendo's competitors in the handheld market were the Neo Geo Pocket Color,
Bandai Swan Crystal, Game Park 32, Tapwave Zodiac and the Nokia N-Gage. Despite
the competitors' best efforts, Nintendo maintained its majority market share
with the Game Boy Advance. |
