The Game Boy Era Is Over

[torgo]

They were less practical as portables due to size and battery life but they had a bunch of great games the GB couldn't handle: Blue Lightning, Power Strike series, Shinobi series, among many others blow away GB games in those genres. I actually like the three systems almost equally as they excel in different areas.

I used to ride the train 2-3 hours a day. So there was a time I owned every single portable that existed at the time. I never even bothered to play the Nomad, Lynx, TurboExpress or GameGear after a while, they were just way too big and ate batteries so terribly that in a truly portable situation they were horrible. Having great games doesn't really matter if it's not practical to play them.

My favorite was the NGPC, pop two AAs in it and it lasted forever, fit easily in your pocket, and with some great games to boot.

picture if you will. The gamegear and gameboy just came out. You have shining force for the gamegear. It is 3 am at night.

Ok, I can concede there are situations where the big portables excelled. But I still hold that a portable needs to be portable, that should be its first priority.

[Frogacuda]

I used to ride the train 2-3 hours a day. So there was a time I owned every single portable that existed at the time. I never even bothered to play the Nomad, Lynx, TurboExpress or GameGear after a while, they were just way too big and ate batteries so terribly that in a truly portable situation they were horrible.

Gameboy Brick got like 10 hours on 4 AAs and was too large to carry in your pocket. Stop comparing those systems to shit that came out 8 years later. None of the early portables were practical like today's are.

Yeah, the Gameboy was a bit smaller and more battery efficient, but if it's still so bad that you have to use rechargables and you have to put it in a bag, does it really make a difference?

NGPC came out a full DECADE after the Lynx, and it wasn't half as powerful, nor was it backlit. It damn well better last forever on a pair of batteries, because it isn't doing shit. And if Gameboy hadn't been lowering the bar for 10 years, the NGPC might have aimed a little higher, too.

[torgo]

Gameboy Brick got like 10 hours on 4 AAs and was too large to carry in your pocket. Stop comparing those systems to shit that came out 8 years later. None of the early portables were practical like today's are.

Yeah, early portables sucked ass. I wouldnt play a GB brick on the train either. But the fact remains people often compare late era Gameboys to the Gamegear et al and claim the early, big portables better. Which is ludicrous and my only point. I'll take a gameboy pocket even over any of them (yes the GBP came out six years later, that's not the point).

Had I been riding the train in 1992, I'd probably just have read a lot of books.

NGPC came out a full DECADE after the Lynx, and it wasn't half as powerful, nor was it backlit. It damn well better last forever on a pair of batteries, because it isn't doing shit. And if Gameboy hadn't been lowering the bar for 10 years, the NGPC might have aimed a little higher, too.

Nintendo and SNK wisely realized portability is more important than power. For what they were sold for, the NGPC and various GBs of the time did about the best anyone could expect at the current levle of technology and still maintain their portability.

And now today I play games on my DS that smokes anything on any of these portables, is smaller than just about all of them, backlit, and I can't even remember the last time I charged it. Nintendo wisely waits for technology to catch up so the game experience doesn't have to sacrifice portability.

[Frogacuda]

Yeah, early portables sucked ass. I wouldnt play a GB brick on the train either. But the fact remains people often compare late era Gameboys to the Gamegear et al and claim the early, big portables better. Which is ludicrous and my only point. I'll take a gameboy pocket even over any of them (yes the GBP came out six years later, that's not the point).

The point was that the Gameboy never deserved to last 6 years against the Lynx to even have a "Pocket" version. If there were any justice, you'd be crowing about the Lynx Pocket that came out so many years later. The Gameboy held everyone back.

Nintendo and SNK wisely realized portability is more important than power. For what they were sold for, the NGPC and various GBs of the time did about the best anyone could expect at the current levle of technology and still maintain their portability.

Bullshit, dude. The GBA came out not long after the NGPC and even that is widely considered to be a very conservative design that could have been done many years earlier. NGPC was an awful piece of kit that SNK threw together because the standard was so low.

God damn, if only Red Jade made it out in 2001 like it could have if they had the balls...

[torgo]

The point was that the Gameboy never deserved to last 6 years against the Lynx to even have a "Pocket" version. If there were any justice, you'd be crowing about the Lynx Pocket that came out so many years later. The Gameboy held everyone back.

I guess I just disagree. The Gameboy has always been a very conservative system technology wise in the interest if battery life and size. Which I've always appreciated. Even the original brick was smaller and had longer battery life than all its competitors. Not enough to make it useful, but it was still a concern.

I still don't own a PSP but I've heard pretty bad stories on its battery life. So again, I'll take slightly less power in favor of battery life in a portable anyday. If I want the latest and greatest, I'll just stay home and play a console.

[Frogacuda]

I guess I just disagree. The Gameboy has always been a very conservative system technology wise in the interest if battery life and size. Which I've always appreciated. Even the original brick was smaller and had longer battery life than all its competitors. Not enough to make it useful, but it was still a concern.

Dude, is the Gameboy Advance larger than the NGPC? Does it use any parts that weren't availible years before the NGPC came out? Think about what you're saying.

Shit, Red Jade was a system that was supposed to come out alongside the GBA that could push near-PSP level graphics, and it was smaller and more battery efficient than the PSP, but it never came out because Ericsson folded, and when Sony bought them, the PSP was already in the works. But that shit could have happened even way back then.

Nintendo just got people so used to shit, they thought shit was all anyone could practically make, but that's a lie, and if you stop and actually think about WHY, you'd realize it.

[voltz]

Everyone knows that nintendo is nothing more then an industry controlling bastard, just now they don't have the luxury to play like that anymore.

[mollipen]

It undeservedly felled many better competitors.

Well, let's be fair here: "better" has to include both hardware AND software superiority. Nothing even came close to the GameBoy family.

Lynx: Great hardware, too expensive, too little good software
GameGear: Terrible hardware, too little good software
Game.com: Interesting hardware, terrible software
NeoGeo Pocket: Mis-handled hardware, too little good software

None of those competing systems deserved to win out over the GameBoy line.

[Frogacuda]

Well, let's be fair here: "better" has to include both hardware AND software superiority. Nothing even came close to the GameBoy family.

Lynx: Great hardware, too expensive, too little good software
GameGear: Terrible hardware, too little good software
Game.com: Interesting hardware, terrible software
NeoGeo Pocket: Mis-handled hardware, too little good software

The Game.com was terrible hardware, not interesting. NGPC was too, really.

But both GameGear and Lynx were much, much better hardware than Gameboy, and both had better game libraries than the Gameboy, especially for the first 2 or 3 years of their run.

[Timber]

But both GameGear and Lynx were much, much better hardware than Gameboy, and both had better game libraries than the Gameboy, especially for the first 2 or 3 years of their run.

No way. The gameboy just had way more shit released for it because 4 to 5 times the amount of games were published for it in the same time period.