Game Boy & GB Advance Appreciation Thread

[Paulando]

2 hours ago, Stejay said:

Why did I not know before now that there is a Zoo Keeper game for the GBC?  

 

 

 

My new Miyoo Mini has already become a one game machine.

Are you kidding me. Life potentially over.

 

Also, Polarium has a GBA release that has hundreds of extra stages. Great little puzzle game.

[Stejay]

14 minutes ago, Paulando said:

Are you kidding me. Life potentially over.

 

Also, Polarium has a GBA release that has hundreds of extra stages. Great little puzzle game.

I know! Not heard of Polarium, I’ll have a look later.

[Paulando]

20 minutes ago, Stejay said:

I know! Not heard of Polarium, I’ll have a look later.

Oooh. Great little DS puzzle game (a launch title, maybe?) that had a GBA sequel.

[Stejay]

Ah, just done a quick search and it looks really familiar now and I think I actually had it early on for my DS.

[Ninja Doctor]

Zoo keeper was legit the best ds launch game. 

[Stejay]

3 hours ago, Ninja Doctor said:

Zoo keeper was legit the best ds launch game. 

It’s excellence made the recent Apple Arcade version all that more disappointing.

[electricmastro]

9 hours ago, Stejay said:

Why did I not know before now that there is a Zoo Keeper game for the GBA?  

 

 

 

My new Miyoo Mini has already become a one game machine.

 

Ah yeah, it was one of a few interesting GBA games I saw released in Europe, but not the US. I believe there was also a Zoo Keeper game on PS2.

 

[electricmastro]

6 hours ago, Ninja Doctor said:

Zoo keeper was legit the best ds launch game. 

I'd say either that, The Urbz, or Mario 64. Quite a nice match 3 recommendation along the lines of games like Bejeweled.

[Quest]

The Urbz over Polarium, Mr Driller and Wario Ware? 

[Camel]

I didn’t realise the PS2 version came out in the EU. I have the Jp version.

[Paulando]

20 hours ago, electricmastro said:

I'd say either that, The Urbz, or Mario 64.

Mate Mario 64 was sheeeite.

[Rex Grossman]

This would have been lovely.

 

https://twitter.com/huttaburger/status/1554158168216829953?s=21&t=c6GMyYsxtv5jt11V_H1hZg

 

[SilverCrow]

Been Playing this recently ... 

 

 

 

Spent 80% of my childhood banging this out in the car. 

Still one of my Fav crash games let alone GBA games 

[Paulando]

16 hours ago, Rex Grossman said:

This would have been lovely.

 

https://twitter.com/huttaburger/status/1554158168216829953?s=21&t=c6GMyYsxtv5jt11V_H1hZg

 

Gorgeous. Just love the GBA art style. I reckon there are more games on the GBA that I go back to than any other platform. They’ve aged so gracefully.

[Vimster]

Am I doing something wrong with Zoo Keeper because when I used to play the DS one it would go on forever, there didn't seem to be any peril involved. I might see if the GBA one is any harder as I loved the style and love a good puzzle game for a quick go. 

 

My 351P favourites list is about 70% puzzle games including Polarium Advance, Dr Mario/Puzzle League and Guru Logic Champ.

[Oh Danny Boy]

15 hours ago, Rex Grossman said:

This would have been lovely.

 

https://twitter.com/huttaburger/status/1554158168216829953?s=21&t=c6GMyYsxtv5jt11V_H1hZg

 

Nintendo always treated their handhelds like second class citizens when it came to first party content during the GB/GB/GBA era. 

[Alexlotl]

From memory, Stu Campbell (before he went off the deep end) used to have a thing about the GBA version of Zoo Keeper being better than the DS, because the Quest Mode was based on skill rather than luck.

 

It was certainly possible for the DS game to put you in a situation where you couldn’t win certain quest levels if the random drops didn’t contain enough of the right creatures. 

[Darwock]

On 06/05/2022 at 06:16, Gorf said:

 

 

Probably already been said but a dust free environment and clean hands to get the screen in are a must. Did the soldering for the GBC but didn’t bother for the GBA, original game boy is the easiest by far.
 

 

 

 

 

This looks like you put a replacement glass lens on the GBA as well as a backlit screen?

 

My GBA has been getting my attention again due to my kids really enjoying Four Swords+ and Pac-Man VS, so I was looking into ways to at least get rid of the scratches on the screen.

 

It seems there are loads of variations of replacement glass lenses out there, and I have watched a bunch of backlit screen replacement tutorials - annoyingly they often mention problems with poor lenses but don’t point you to a good one. Things like the corner curves not matching the case leaving a gap, or the black panel being too large so it partially obscures the screen.

 

Which one did you use in the above photo and what would you recommend? I’d really like to preserve the original look but some have a different font or holographic effect on the lettering or whatever.

 

I’m a bit more hesitant to replace the screen but it really does need doing - it’s painful to watch my son struggling to see what’s going on.

[Gorf]

Here’s the link:

 

￡34.22 | DIY IPS GBA LCD Screen 10 Levels High Brightness Backlight for Nintend Gameboy Advance Console V2 version with pre-cut housing
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mKWPF1S

 

Lens is glass rather than the original plastic which is nice, however the font has a holographic look (just doesn’t appear so in the photo)

 

If you replace the screen get a pre cut case too

[Darwock]

I have ordered from that link as well as an SP case/screen from the same seller. No point in trying to preserve the original look, there don’t seem to be any dark grey bordered lens/screens anyway.

 

It’s so damn confusing though, they have like five different listings for similar things with no indication what the differences are or which is the newest version. They had some listings for standard gba screens that supposedly don’t require cutting the shell, but rather than take risks I went for the one you used. Same colour too. Bit concerned that the pre-cut shell will be a hack job and will show through the clear housing, but I don’t see any sign of that in your photo.

 

Also it appears that I will need a battery replacement for the SP to compensate for the new screen being power hungry, but the ones on aliexpress are all pretty dodgy. I’m looking at this one, if anyone has any insight please let me know!

 

https://handheldlegend.com/collections/game-boy-advance-gba-sp-power/products/900mah-li-ion-rechargeable-battery-replacement-for-game-boy-advance-sp?variant=39397504974982

[MikeBeaver]

5 hours ago, Darwock said:

I have ordered from that link as well as an SP case/screen from the same seller. No point in trying to preserve the original look, there don’t seem to be any dark grey bordered lens/screens anyway.

 

It’s so damn confusing though, they have like five different listings for similar things with no indication what the differences are or which is the newest version. They had some listings for standard gba screens that supposedly don’t require cutting the shell, but rather than take risks I went for the one you used. Same colour too. Bit concerned that the pre-cut shell will be a hack job and will show through the clear housing, but I don’t see any sign of that in your photo.

 

Also it appears that I will need a battery replacement for the SP to compensate for the new screen being power hungry, but the ones on aliexpress are all pretty dodgy. I’m looking at this one, if anyone has any insight please let me know!

 

https://handheldlegend.com/collections/game-boy-advance-gba-sp-power/products/900mah-li-ion-rechargeable-battery-replacement-for-game-boy-advance-sp?variant=39397504974982

So you need a new SP battery? If only someone had made a video on how to source a genuine ( and plentiful supply ) of Nintendo batteries that will fit it 😛

 

 

 

[Darwock]

12 minutes ago, MikeBeaver said:

So you need a new SP battery? If only someone had made a video on how to source a genuine ( and plentiful supply ) of Nintendo batteries that will fit it 😛

 

 

 

That’s great, except for the shivers I got watching you force that knife towards your own thumb FOUR TIMES - I do have a question though as those are presumably all original shells. Does the DS battery still fit in the aftermarket shells, as I understand there is a slight difference?

 

edit - a quick google suggests it’s not actually going to be easy to find a DS battery, everything I could see was for DS Lite or DSi or similar 😕

[Gorf]

11 hours ago, Darwock said:

 Bit concerned that the pre-cut shell will be a hack job and will show through the clear housing, but I don’t see any sign of that in your photo.

The 2 GBA shells I’ve had have been fine

 

Best of luck

 

 

 

 

[electricmastro]

Found out that Pac-Man on Game Boy has a hidden mode where the screen isn't zoomed in, which is usually is otherwise. Rather weird the full-screen wasn't set at default.

 

[Camel]

^ I tried this out last night and I think the answer is: because everything is minuscule. Shame because the game just doesn’t play well when you can only see part of the play area.

[Darwock]

Same problem with Bubble Bobble on the GBA. You want to have the whole screen displayed but when you zoom out everything looks totally effed up.

[Darwock]

First one done! I did the SP first as it was the easiest job, with only one wire to solder and no particular risk of misaligning the screen.

 

This is the first time I’ve ever soldered something successfully - I previously tried many years ago and failed, which I now realize is because the cheap iron I had was not fit for purpose. With a new half decent one everything went the way I imagined it should.

 

However my choice of a clear shell has come back to bite me - it’s annoying me that I can see the half peeling kapton tape I used to route the wire, and also I noticed the ribbon cable is no longer seated properly (probably got tugged out a bit when I was faffing with the soldering). My head is saying ‘leave it alone, it works perfectly’ but my heart is saying ‘open it up and fix that shit’. The plastic case was not originally threaded for the screws so I don’t want to redo those if I can help it.

I had to turn the screen brightness down to the minimum to take the pic, it’s unbelievably bright!

 

[Gorf]

5 hours ago, DualSense said:

How hard it is to swap the shells of a gameboy?  I’ve got a clear purple one which has a few cracks in it. It’s been modded with a new screen etc.

An 8 year old could do it

[electricmastro]

On 24/08/2022 at 06:54, Darwock said:

First one done! I did the SP first as it was the easiest job, with only one wire to solder and no particular risk of misaligning the screen.

 

This is the first time I’ve ever soldered something successfully - I previously tried many years ago and failed, which I now realize is because the cheap iron I had was not fit for purpose. With a new half decent one everything went the way I imagined it should.

 

However my choice of a clear shell has come back to bite me - it’s annoying me that I can see the half peeling kapton tape I used to route the wire, and also I noticed the ribbon cable is no longer seated properly (probably got tugged out a bit when I was faffing with the soldering). My head is saying ‘leave it alone, it works perfectly’ but my heart is saying ‘open it up and fix that shit’. The plastic case was not originally threaded for the screws so I don’t want to redo those if I can help it.

I had to turn the screen brightness down to the minimum to take the pic, it’s unbelievably bright!

 

Amuses me of how a few of the Amiga/older computer games made it onto GBA (Manic Miner, RoboCod, Soccer Kid, Wings, etc.).

[Darwock]

Yeah, it’s nice to have but it always bugged me that the GBA version of Speedball 2 doesn’t let you put any curve on the ball after you throw it. Surely if it was possible on an Atari ST/Amiga it could have been done on a GBA. Oh well.