A lazy afternoon project installing CR1616 holders in my gen 1 & 2 Pokémon games.
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I read some knowledge about the conception of the GBA that I only see in french, so maybe it can be interesting to share.
It’s linked to his visual designer Gwénaël Nicolas, french so this explains it.
It’s reported that Nintendo wasn’t satisfied with the first prototypes of the GBA, too conventional, too close to the other products like Neo-Geo Pocket and Lynx. So they hired the service of this arty french designer installed in Japon, who hadn’t any experience in video games and worked for many prestigious brand. He made dozens of prototypes, very original (one had the shape of a flower). Nintendo retained the Panda model, whose shape evokes the head of a panda.
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Sounds cool, do you have a link?
I remember the original GBA being controversial due to having a horizontal configuration, and only ‘failed’ handhelds had used that while the vertical Game Boy was ‘proven’ the superior model.
It’s notable that the SP was a vast change of form factor, rather than just adding a frontlight to the old design.
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The story comes from wiki fr, but there aren’t reel sources for some details like the dozens of prototypes with the flower one.
https://www.lafautealamanette.org/post/2008/07/06/705-french-touch-generation
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Great thanks! And interesting white was the original design.
The original GBA is certainly different from most Nintendo hardware to that point.
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Where did you pick up those specific holders? I’m not very happy with the ones I have at the moment and those look better all-around.
I picked up these on Ebay.
I found them an absolute cinch to install and had no issues popping the battery in whatsoever. Definitely recommend.
Thanks - I was able to find a seller in the US that looks identical. For $9 it’s worth a shot.
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I’ve wanted to try this for a while:
Currently without a Game Boy, so I’ll play it next week at home.
Does anyone know why this wasn’t released in Japan? I can’t find any information online…
Kid Icarus OMAM came out in North America and then Europe, but didn’t make it to Japan, just like Wave Race. At least that game was released on the 3DS virtual console in the end.
@harborline_765 @matt @D.Lo — any theories?
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It seems that it didn’t review too well on release in the USA and so wasn’t considered for any other region at the time. It wasn’t until five years later that it was released it in PAL regions as a budget title and as a bundled game with the Pocket, my thinking is that they only did this to tie in and take advantage of the release of the N64 game of the same name, an idea that wasn’t taken up in Japan.
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Huh, I had no idea that was a 92 game. Yeah it was late in PAL and I assumed it was a cheapie to cash in on N64 game hype, just like the James Bond Game Boy game.
Also made by Pax Softnica, of Balloon Kid game!
Thanks for the replies!
You’re probably right about the PAL release being an attempt at capitalising on the N64 version’s success… I still find it odd that this never came out in Japan, though, especially as Miyamoto himself was involved in production.
I got around to playing the game today and it’s a fun time. Controls feel good and the physics make sense once you get used to them.
The main issue I had was playing on a Game Boy Pocket — there are quite a few small details dotted around the courses and in the heat of competition I found it difficult to parse all the information on that screen… Guess I’m getting old XD
Anyway, I broke out the Super Game Boy and now I can see what I’m doing.
Wave Race sings on the big screen. Amazingly, it has quite a lot in common with the N64 version, especially the feeling of turning and jumping.
I’m just about scraping wins at 550cc, so there’s a long way to go to mastering this game. I see there are two more classes and eight courses in total. You can race simply to win in circuit mode, or try to pass through pylons in slalom mode.
Someone should make a top-down F-Zero…
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I’m woefully late on this one. There are a couple of other Game Boy games which skipped Japanese release despite having been developed very closely with Nintendo R&D1 or EAD - Balloon Kid and Kid Icarus II come to mind.
Balloon Kid did get a (hideous looking) GBC remake in Japan, though. Maybe marketing didn’t know what to do with it in Japan? Or perhaps there were marketing silos between Game Boy products and Famicom products, Kid Icarus’ absence is especially weird given the original game’s Japan-only FDS release. Definitely wasn’t originally intended for the global market.
I picked up Wave Race myself earlier this month and I’m having as much fun as you are! The physics are shockingly nuanced given how flat top-down 2D graphics can appear, and the AI really does its best to get in your way. Excellent course design too. And the simulated transparencies for the map screen are amazing! Immediately could tell this was by much of the same team behind Donkey Kong '94 on GB, definitely has the same composer at any rate.
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I’ve been on a massive Game Boy Advance kick this year, completely unexpected given how last year I thought I was “done” exploring the GBA library.
Just had a lot of fun re-exploring the eleven (yes, eleven) Yu-Gi-Oh games on the system, having played three of them growing up. These were largely top tier efforts from Konami, with my favourites being Duel Monsters 6 Expert 2, World Championship Tournament 2004, Reshef of Destruction and World Championship Tournament 2006.
It’s just really interesting seeing the games evolve from their first iteration, you can tell they had multiple teams working on different styles of games as well, from the RPGs to the pure duelling simulation format.
Also got into Mega Man Zero in a big way - incredible games! Zero 2 has perhaps one of the best introductions to a game ever, can’t believe I slept on this series for so long.
Played through Astro Boy: Omega Factor and Gunstar Future Heroes as well the other week, will have to save those for another post though.
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That James Bond game was legit back then as a Zelda-like.
No idea if it holds up but I played it to completion when I borrowed it from a friend.
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A couple interesting rom hacks for the GBA were released recently. (Do we have a rom hacking thread?)
I’m not home but looking forward to trying these out.
Castlevania HoD hack of the Japanese version that adds new playable characters. MegaMan and Mario? Uhh, ok. Castlevania characters may be fun.
The GBA games blend together for me, AoS not as much, and I don’t recall loving HoD so more reason to play it again.
Fire Emblem - all items are unbreakable
I’ve started the first FE, first US one on GBA at least, a couple times but I’m not good enough of a gamer I guess, smh. This may give me some incentive to try again. I could see how some may scoff at it disrupting the design of the game though.
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HoD was by far my least favorite of the GBA trilogy, and this hack doesn’t seem to address any of the issues I had with it. new characters are cool I guess. Aria of Sorrow was brilliant, would have been a better choice to get these enhancements
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I ruined an L button on a GBA SP with Harmony of Dissonance. Too much dashing…
honestly, the best part of the game
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Years ago i made some snes cart displays out of card and foam board, but the approach wasn’t very well suited to GB stuff due to the label positioning. I finally came up with a good way to display them!
It’s just a cardboard backing with 2 sheets (to get required thickness) of foam board, and a plastic sheet at the front. The foam board is sticky one side so i used that side for the front for best appearance. At the back i just used double sided tape. Hole punched the top to hang from some pins in the wall! Small bit of bluetack to correct the weighting (they tilt otherwise)
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