Through a Game Boy darkly -
June 14, 2001 - Chris Jones
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed
within this column are those of the participants and the
moderator, and do not necessarily reflect those of the
GIA. There is coarse language and potentially offensive
material afoot.
Man, you can have my GBA when you pry it out of my... largely unresisting hands. (It's not that important.)
Don't say we didn't warn you.
Major congrats to my friend Daniel and his lovely wife Christine, who found out recently that they'll be the co-producers of a genetic merger in a few months. (i.e., they're having a kid.) I say this because I sincerely wish them well, and also to give said kid a truly unique birthday present - before it's even born, thousands of somewhat bored, completely disinterested high school and college students will know about its existence. If only someone had done the same for me...
Onward.
| Yeah, but you couldn't play Mario on Optimus Prime's chest |
| Hi--
So it's hard to see. A Worm Light acts as a bright spotlight on only one part of the screen... and if you try and move it off the edge, there's still not enough run-off to work with. All those other accessories make the unit resemble a Transformer. (Though I'm not too thrilled with the bulky new pass-through port.) My solution: stick on an import Sun Filter--which has the secondary benefit of preventing the inevitable scratches, hairline or otherwise--and the light seems diffused more usably.
My friends swears he saw a Korean or Taiwanese manufacturer at E3 in Kentia Hall--where else--display a cord that ran the GBA signal to a TV. Can anyone confirm? Now assuming it's not a given that the GameCube will allow this functionality (or we just don't want to wait 'til November or whenever it's released), and there's also an accommodation for the link cable, too, don't you think this will be the most awesome way to play head-to-head own-screen Final Fight (which is itself most awesome; like I'm gonna settle for a US version without Roxy & Poison) and Street Fighter? It's not like recent console controller design is any less cumbersome or uncomfortable than the entire Game Boy itself....
--J.
(BTW, I think Tetris ripped off High Rise.)
|
The Worm Light is cheap and draws power from the batteries, but nearly every review I've seen on it suggests it's worthless on CotM, so it's not really worth it. There may be a couple of new products out soon, such as the Shark Light that are worthwhile tho... for now, I'll just let other people be my guinea pigs and see what the masses suggest.
As for the GBA-on-TV thing, I don't know of any specific products yet, but a few companies at E3 had some sort of hack whereby GBA games (including CotM at Konami and Super Dodge Ball at Atlus) were played on a TV, some from a regular GBA and some from an N64. The latter was actually a great way to play - the controls mapped well onto an N64 controller, and the picture looked quite decent on a relatively large screen. My next GBA purchase, no doubt.
| The search for lighting continues |
| To quickly refer back to a previous topic, no, I couldn't resist a Game Boy Advance.
On launch day, I picked up an Arctic GBA, Tony Hawk 2, F-Zero, and Castlevania (well, ok, Castlevania was bought like on the 7th). The only reason I bought Tony Hawk was because I listened to the sound clips on IGN and fell in love with the music. I bought F-Zero because, well, it was F-Zero. And Castlevania because it was supposed to be like SotN. By far, I've been playing Castlevania more than the other two. Even with the smallness that is the GBA, it still plays pretty dang comfortably. I have like 4 hours logged on the game and I have the need to log some more pretty soon.
As we know, the GBA games range from dark to pitch black. So while I was working at Toys R Us, I checked out the light accessories to see if anything looked like it would work well. Luckilly, some guy came in playing the GBA he bought and was raving about this thing called a Lighted Game Shield by Intec. First off, I've never even heard of Intec, has anyone else? Secondly, it looked very poorly made. But I took his word for it and bought one. I popped it on (not such an easy task actually) and tried playing F-Zero. It worked great. Next came Tony Hawk. It worked great for that as well. Then I finally tried Castlevania. Um, no. It did nothing for that game but add a huge glare. So alas, on the one game that really needed this light, it failed horribly. AND I had to settle for an Indigo Lighted Game Shield as we didn't have any Arctic ones. Oh well, for $12.00 it wasn't a complete waste. I can play F-Zero and Tony Hawk at night and I have something to protect the screen from scratches.
-Shane, who thinks Arctic has to be the least popular GBA color out there.
|
A simple polarizing filter sounds like a pretty good idea, actually - aside from protecting from scratches, it'd block out a lot of glare reflection. I suspect a lot of the complaints about CotM have less to do with the inability to find a strong light source, and more to do with getting a near-perfect reflection of whatever that light source is when the game's angled just right. Meanwhile the search for a good lighting solution... ah, read the letter title.
| The secret of my success I |
| I don't really understand the complaints about the size of the GBA, especially given the target audience for the product. I was in high school when I got the original gameboy, and of course back then it was a cool enough concept on its own that nobody really cared how it felt... But I remember watching my nephew struggle with playing it and ultimately lose interest because the thing was so damn thick and unwieldy for him.
Now when I go to pick up the kid she's surrounded by her friends with their GB pockets and (soon) GBA's and I see the goldmine that Nintendo struck. I work in the industry and I only know one person who regularly plays a GB, and it's because she's disgustingly addicted to Tetris. Sure the guys will pick one up, giggle at the newest Poketrash release, then they usually toss the thing back in a drawer and forget about it for a while. Now I think the GBA's capability will draw a lot of nostalgic adult gamers and subway riders that have finally realized Palm Pilots are only a small step above useless, but the success rides on the chill'ens and the misguided parents who believe buying things = good parenting.
The Trooper
(Ain't capitalism great?)
|
That's a charmingly cynical outlook on the world you've got there. I'm frequently surprised Palm Pilots haven't been more successful - a lot of people I know live and die by theirs. On the other hand, all they ever seem to do is scheduling and short emails, which it's great for, but if you don't do much of either, then everything else is just a gimmick. Regardless, if Palm Pilots don't sell like gangbusters to the adult world, then the child-sized GBA doesn't stand any chance of catching on with anybody but children. Which is bad luck for those of us who are kids at heart, but have Barrett Wallace-sized hands.
| The secret of my success II |
| So why can Nintendo sell 18 bazillion Gameboys of many iterations?
Well it comes down to the kids. For your average 16-26 year old getting
access to a TV to play your console system isn't that hard. Infact you
probably have your own TV to play it on. Not so for the younger set. I
was over at a family dinner and the child of a family friend had a copy
of Pokémon in his GameBoy. I asked him about it and he told me that he
had 50 hours play time on the sucker. I was shocked to find out that
this was quite normal (as I have never dabbled in the dark arts that are
Pokémon). Now how many 10 year olds would be allowed to get 50 hours
play time on a TV console? The reason that handhelds are so attractive
to kids is the fact that they are not only buying the gaming system,
they are also buying and unshared screen to play it on, one which can be
hidden from Mom. A kid can't play FFVII until 2:00 in the morning, but
they can play Pokémon under the covers with a flashlight. What Nintendo
sells is a personalized gaming system, one that can be played
independently of parents. For the older gamer this independence is
pretty much irrelevant, but for the child it is a huge (if subconscious)
selling point.
--
BeerGoggles_FromMARS
Daniel Kaszor
|
Hmm, interesting theory, and one that might well be true - I know my parents would have loved to limit my play time in front of the TV when I was a kid, but likely wouldn't have minded a bit what I did as long as I was "out in the fresh air". (With bears and other such monsters, but they didn't seem to care about that... *sniff*...) Still, I have a feeling relatively few kids are going to be able to play Pokemon under the covers with any standard kind of flashlight, the way the screen is now.
| I can't disprove this man's not a plant, but... |
| I saw the Tomb Raider movie tonight, it's pretty good. Lots of action, likeable characters and such. I was surprised that the director didn't take many cheap shots at Jolie's butt. There was one scene that showed some cleavage, though.
All in all, it was a good movie, the best I've seen based on a video game. Just thought I'd share the news.
Ryan
|
Actually, the advance reviews I've seen of the film (which have all been from Joe Average types, since there's some sort of gag rule on professional reviewers) have been pretty evenly balanced between "decent action flick" and "worst piece of garbage I've ever seen". Keeping in mind that Internet spies tend to completely trash most movies, there remains the outside possibility that this film's not complete crap... although I won't be seeing it on opening weekend, if ever.
| The arcane history of Puyo Puyo clones: executive summary |
| As I remember it, the framework for the puzzle games in question actually
debuted many moons ago in the Japanese game Puyo Puyo by Compile. However,
money troubles were burying the company (they're gone now), so they licensed
the right to the game to several other publishers. U.S. publishers had a
problem though - it looked too damned Japanese for American audiences (this
was the early 90's, remember). So Sega turned it into Dr. Robotnik's Mean
Bean Machine, unwisely using the disgusting design's from DIC's US Sonic
cartoon. Nintendo turned it into Kirby's Avalanche, while adding voices from
hell (Kirby in particular sounds like Maria from Sesame Street). Time passes,
and the ideas from the basic game make the rounds, resulting in Puzzle
Fighter II Turbo and BakuBaku Animal. No copyright battles have cropped up,
since the heart of the idea is too damn vague to patent (imagine if Nintendo
tried to copyright games with jumping...). Still, if all these rehashes get
to you, there's always Tetris, Hatris, and Wordtris. Or Panel de Pon, Tetris
Attack, and Pokemon Puzzle Challenge. Or Bust-a-Move, The Buster Bros,
or...oh, forget it.
SonicPanda
P.S. The only court case over a puzzle game occurred when Nintendo sued Atari
affiliate Tengen for releasing an unlicensed 2-player version of Tetris after
Nintendo had shelled out a lot of money for (then) exclusive rights. The
Tengen edition was recalled, and is now regarded as a collector's item. Finis.
|
Well ok then. Thanks for the info.
| A wish list that makes sense |
| Greets,
Well if the stores in my area are any indication of the shipment sizes all over the US for the GBA, then alot of kiddies (and us 'real' gamers too) are going to be out of luck in scoring one of these little systems on its launch. My GBA was picked up right after KMart opened, where they got a grand total of 12 systems including the preorders. That means there was actually only about 8 GBAs available on the shelf.
As for the games, just about everyone has played Mario Advance (or souped up Super Mario 2 as I call it), so I won't mention it. The other two games I picked up are Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 and Castlevania. Yes, Castlevania is as dark as the reviews online have pointed out. In fact, its darker than I expected. This thing cannot be played under normal artifical lighting. However, I got my GBA to be played at work where there's plenty of strong overhead lighting so hopefully I won't have to spring for a worm light afterall. The few minutes I spent squinting at it, revealed a game with a similiar feel as Castlevania: SOTN only I wish Alucard was in it, he's so much cooler than this Nathan Graves person. Tony Hawk I spent more time with, simply because I can see it better, although not MUCH better unfortunately. It retains the same feel as the console titles despite being shrunk down to an itty bitty size. Chu Chu Rocket is next on my list. Now only if some of those tasty looking RPGs will be released soon.
Finally here's something I want to see more of on the GBA:
More Multigame packs. They can put atleast 4-5 NES games (even more arcade) on one cartridge. So why aren't they doing it? Would like to see NES sports compilation (Excitebike, Tennis, Ice Hockey, etc), all Dragon Warrior games NES games in one portable package, Ninja Gaiden 1-3, etc. Its not worth the money to buy these individually even with redone graphics because you can get the same thing for the NES (or SNES) really cheap elsewhere. But old games in large packages are definitely worth $40 on the go. However I WOULD pay $40 for a souped up version of NES Rygar. That would be soooo sweet!
Cheers
RainStar
|
Unlike the PS2 launch, there was no line at the local Best Buy - they had at least 20 or 30 on the shelf, and while there was a small crowd, I had no problem grabbing a GBA, a copy of CotM, and being the first person back at the checkout counter, where the clerk tried very hard to sell me a warranty package.
At any rate, multigame packs of old NES titles sound pretty decent. True, the system lends itself a bit better to SNES-caliber games, but if a company's going to put that much effort in to it I'd just as soon they gave me an entirely new game as a direct port of the original. On the other hand, I'd gladly pay $20 or $30 bucks for a double pack of Metroid and Kid Icarus, or the original Metal Gear and the still unreleased in the US sequel... or even Clash at Demonhead. We know there's gonna be plenty of shovelware on this system, it might as well be cheap, enjoyable shovelware.
| Get a grip, man! |
| Chris,
I officially hate Sony. Sure, they've decided to re-release FFT, but at
what price? That god damned ugly green bar. Why in the name of God would
you put something so ugly on a perfectly good video game? It defies all
logic. Suddenly, paying $120 some-odd american dollars for it on eBay
doesn't seem like such a bad idea.
Adam W., striking fear into the hearts of evil green bars everywhere |
If anyone out there ever doubted how incredibly finicky the US RPG market is, behold! Next you'll be claiming that they should have fixed the translation...
| Wacky Japanese link o' the day |
| Mr. Jones,
Did you see this
?
They're making a Dragon Quest ballet? I can imagine it now. After the curtain rises the lead dancer begins a dance symbolic of leveling-up. This lasts 4 acts, interupted briefly by a very short act 5 where the hero gains two more friends. They then to the symbolic leveling-up dance for another 5 acts end with a short two minute finale and the curtain closes. DQ fans will say it's the greatest ballet EVER. Because it will be Old SKOOL!
Mr. Cruz
|
Considering the-enormous-cultural-importance-of-Dragon-Quest-in-Japanese-society (do they have a kanji character for that concept?) it wouldn't surprise me. The always fascinating Video Senki reported on this a few days ago, and says it's coming out in August.
Still, the mind boggles.
Closing Comments:
Free topic day tomorrow, concluding with a small announcement about weekend DA. See you then.
-Chris Jones, dearly loves his thorn whip
|
