I remember excitedly purchasing my first GBA during the Spring 2001 Tokyo Game Show, a week or so after it was launched in Japan. The only game I bought with it, and consequently played an awful lot of, was Konami Krazy Racers. Years later I was at TGS again shortly after the GBA Micro release, and snapped up the Famicom version in a mall near the Makuhari Messe convention center. I still have both, along with three GBA SPs and a DS Lite. (I don't think I ever really used the DS Lite to play GBA games much, but pretty sure I used it to transfer my GBA Pokemon directly the one of the DS games.) Such an incredible system that I still play it pretty regularly even while surrounded by more modern hardware. Thanks for the great video!
I didn't jump on the GB Color as I thought it would lose game play & then I saw Cell Phones using plugin power & waited for portable games to catch up. So I was super excited that the GB Advance SP no longer included batteries! By then there were tons of games too! I felt like I beat a boss fight just owning a GB Advance SP!!! I knew portable gaming would be changed forever at that point!!! A few weeks later I found out I could play original GB & GB Color on this device! Nintendo blew my mind again! Thought I missed out on the GB Color craze, but nope it just started for me! Thanks for the video history on this Retro Break of GB Advance!
I never obsessed over the release of a new console the way I did for the GBA back in 2001. Holy mackerel, was 13 year old me infatuated. It's also the console that got me into retro game collecting years down the line circa 2009.
Same I was 14 in 2001 and the game boy advance blew my mind when I was a kid, true story My uncle Steve passed away RIP in 2009 and my Aunta Anna his wife gave me his NES the same one i played at his house in the early 1990s as a young kid been retro collecting every since for NES, SNES, N64, and I just started with Gameboy Color and and planning to Star collecting Gameboy Advance games soon... :)
Also bought the original GBA at launch. White model with F-Zero! Guy at Best Buy even suckered me into the extended warranty...sigh. Now I play my games on the Analogue Pocket and it is a thing of beauty.
I loved my original purple translucent GBA back in the day despite the lack of backlight. My GB Micro (which is still going strong) felt like such an upgrade though. Still probably my favourite Nintendo handheld!
A really interesting Video about the GBA. When It was released I wasn't hooked for the GBA. Years after I really adore the GBA for all the different Games in the library. Got an OG GBA, the 1st iteration of the GBA SP but I damn love the Gameboy Micro, what a freaking cool device😍😍
I love your passion and videos when it comes to retro gaming! Im getting my GBA modded and revamped so i wanted to look back at some retro content. And your channel is great! Im subscribing!
What an awesome video, thanks for all your hard work putting this together for us to enjoy :) I only got into handheld gaming in the last ten years, and I have a beautiful modded GBA that my best friend put together for me. Now I will forever be jealous of the gameboy player and that visteon setup haha so many cool ways to play! I keep saying I don't need anything else, but maybe... a wonder swan?
You must be almost exactly my age - loved hearing about your experiences with the console. It was the first one I got at launch, too - and then the first midnight release I ever went to was for the SP. I re-bought Konami Krazy Racers last year to see if it was actually as good as I remembered, and it definitely was!
Having pretty much a Super Nintendo in the palm of your hands was amazing back then. Little did we know in 2001 what the GBA was truly capable of. That little handheld was a powerhouse and to this day it and the PSP are my two favorite handhelds
@@RetroBreak I enjoyed both consoles too, and with the design and style and gameplay being similar as well as a few excellent SNES ports to the GBA, one compliments the other quite nicely. Cheers.
Really great break down, so many memories, and you have a lovely collection. Well loved and used I can see the nostalgia off each piece. Also I liked how into detail you went with the iQue , i wish a certain channel didn't smash it and posted it online. 😏
There's certainly a lot of nostalgia hidden away in this room! I've done a few memories videos in the past if you want to go and have a look around on the channel :)
There was a tribal silver version, the one I was holding is just a modded SP as I don't have a none IQue one to show. Hence why the label with 101 was the back of the IQue one
There is actualy another way to see if u have an 101 sp or not. When turned of the screen of the backlit model apears black while the non backlit is grey. Put them side by side and you wil see a clear difference.
Unless I overheard something, this video doesn't includes the 3DS family line of consoles. They all have GBA hardware inside (the same kind of hardware and inner workings as the DS/DS Lite ones). It was officially used just for the Ambassador GBA titles, but with homebrew you can play *any* game you want and run it natively on official hardware - no emulation, neither a hypervisor.
As far as I know, the chip inside the 3DS is backwards compatible with the Arm 7 (GBA), but it doesn’t actually have GBA hardware inside, it has compatibility built into Arm 11?
@@RetroBreak 3DS'es SoC has the hardware needed in order to run 3DS, DSi/DS and GBA software. Like DS'es ones have it too for GBA. It *is* GBA hardware, else we would be talking about something completely different, like emulation. A DS/DS Lite is backwards compatible with GBA cartridges too, and they all have GBA hardware else perfect 1:1 execution wouldn't be plausible under such specs. Both 3DS and DS behave exactly the same way on GBA mode.
You can grab any NES/GB/GBC Virtual Console CIA, and manually inject a GBA game replacing the NES/GB/GBC game. Whenever you boot that title, you'll be shown the GBA emulator Nintendo made for 3DS back then. It runs TERRIBLY. NES, GB, GBC and GBA emulation use the exact same emulator. So, even Nintendo tried to do something about it so it had feature parity with other VC titles, to no avail. That's also why you can dump GBA's bootrom from any NES/GB/GBC VC title, cause the emulator could run GBA and they kept it like that - who knows why.
This is exactly the same case as the CGB mode on GBA/GBA SP: it is a compatibility layer that utilizes GBC hardware in order to run the cartridge that is inserted, but in a different console. GBA hardware isn't only an ARM7 processor like any DS has, else a DSi should be compatible too. It needs the rest of the hardware: sound chip, RAM, video output, the bootrom, controls have to be hardwired (as they are).
That's one of the reasons why there's no sleep mode on DS or 3DS for GBA titles: it didn't existed back then. At most you can put it into sleep if the title allows it, exactly as on the older hardware. Probably Nintendo could've done something about it, but they didn't so it is what it is. They preferred to do the bare minimum, and maybe it was for the best in lots of ways.
For the SP, I wouldn't consider the Lithium-ion battery to be "progress", because when the battery dies it's a pain to replace! Nintendo are quick to stop supporting battery replacement, meaning you have to buy a dodgy unofficial one. I much prefer using standard batteries. My other gripe with the SP was, despite my hands being relatively small, it still felt uncomfortable to hold!
I still think the original design has the nicest aesthetic. I find it the most ergonomic too. Paired with an aftermarket modern backlit screen it really is the ultimate GBA I think.
It's definitely the comfiest to hold, I did have a backlit one, but for some reason the screen just stopped lighting up one day :( Need to get a new one!
I feel we should make Nintendo hold true to that "third pillar" nonsense and release a new Gameboy system. Imagine a Gameboy/ Switch hybrid that not only could have a whole new line up of games but could return the old gba cartridge slot that makes it backwards compatible with all the old gb and gba games, with the added functionality of playing them in docked mode so you can play those games on modern tvs
It would be nice if just 1 video that includes a Visteon would stop saying you can just replace the original controller with the sky active gamepad since you can't...if you did your research you would know the sky active gamepad doesn't allow more than 1 button to be pressed at the same time thus doing things like running in Mario etc is not possible.
I have just ordered one to test it, I just presumed that everyone else that stated it as fact was correct.... obviously should learn my lesson never to trust anything I see on the internet at first glance haha.. Will do an update or short to test it out when it arrives! Thanks for pointing it out! :)
@@RetroBreak for that reason after buying one I bought another Visteon that had a real controller and reverse engineered it and made one ruclips.net/video/sc9kJNtAKvg/видео.html
Am really no fan of Nintendo, at all (I’m much more of a Sega kinda guy) … but I do love ❤️ my GBA (with a V3 screen mod and USB C battery pack). A fantastic little handheld that feels great in the hands and has a great library of games!
@@RetroBreak … yup … I think I have nearly all the Sega games released for the GBA 😆 … but what I’m really into right now is Kirby (nightmare in Dream Land), real cutesy graphics until you realise the core Kirby mechanic is more vicious than Mortal Kombat 🤣 so that balances out all the rainbows, pinkness, fluffiness and jolly bosses!
Never had a gba back then (I had the fat gameboy and my parents thought it was enough 😅). I now have 3 micros : two pink (one to play, one to stay in its box) and the japonese famicom one, wich I never used to keep it pristine. I'm currently waiting for my second hand modded original gba, cause the micro's screen is definitely getting too small for my 36 years old eyes 😂.
Maybe they made the GBA micro because of their attempted mobile phone gba? Like they had already the R & D done or they had spare parts they needed rid of? My GBA was a gold pokemon center NYC one which I wish I had held onto. I had that e-reader thing too. Original GBA was my favourite, re: the aesthetics and form factor. Compared to my GB DMG it was light years ahead, like a pocket SNES. That car thing looks crap, like why wouldn't you just play your actual GBA in the car, instead of installing all that kit?
That famicom game boy micro is a thing of beauty.
So glad I bought three and one still brand new in its box back in the day
It’s actually a treasure in pikmin 4
I've been looking forward to these videos every Friday since finding your channel!
Glad to bring some joy to the end of your week! :D Thanks for sticking around!
I love the GBA! Great video, lots of details
Glad you enjoyed!
so many memories! really enjoyed this video and your love for the consoles really comes through here!
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it ,and it brought back some good memories! :D
I remember excitedly purchasing my first GBA during the Spring 2001 Tokyo Game Show, a week or so after it was launched in Japan. The only game I bought with it, and consequently played an awful lot of, was Konami Krazy Racers.
Years later I was at TGS again shortly after the GBA Micro release, and snapped up the Famicom version in a mall near the Makuhari Messe convention center. I still have both, along with three GBA SPs and a DS Lite. (I don't think I ever really used the DS Lite to play GBA games much, but pretty sure I used it to transfer my GBA Pokemon directly the one of the DS games.)
Such an incredible system that I still play it pretty regularly even while surrounded by more modern hardware. Thanks for the great video!
The video I've been waiting for!!! Adding to watch later now
Hope you enjoyed it!
I didn't jump on the GB Color as I thought it would lose game play & then I saw Cell Phones using plugin power & waited for portable games to catch up. So I was super excited that the
GB Advance SP no longer included batteries! By then there were tons of games too! I felt like I beat a boss fight just owning a GB Advance SP!!! I knew portable gaming would be changed forever at that point!!! A few weeks later I found out I could play original GB & GB Color on this device! Nintendo blew my mind again! Thought I missed out on the GB Color craze, but nope it just started for me! Thanks for the video history on this Retro Break of GB Advance!
Great video, this was the console of my childhood I had no idea that iQue existed til now which was interesting to learn about
I never obsessed over the release of a new console the way I did for the GBA back in 2001. Holy mackerel, was 13 year old me infatuated. It's also the console that got me into retro game collecting years down the line circa 2009.
Same, GBA was just mindblowing. Mega Man Battle Network was so impressive to me, my first GBA game. Even the boot up screen enraptured me lol.
Mega Man Battle Network is sooooo good! Me and a friend at school were obsessed with it! :D
@@RetroBreak Yeah it was! I even love the spinoff, Network Transmission. Just incredible.
Same I was 14 in 2001 and the game boy advance blew my mind when I was a kid, true story My uncle Steve passed away RIP in 2009 and my Aunta Anna his wife gave me his NES the same one i played at his house in the early 1990s as a young kid been retro collecting every since for NES, SNES, N64, and I just started with Gameboy Color and and planning to Star collecting Gameboy Advance games soon... :)
I had a friend mod a DS lite into a macro…metal shell….boosted amp…and qi wireless. Love shoving my omega flash cart in there! Cheers
Great video, just got into retro handheld gaming thanks to your video
Really enjoyed this video dude! Love the GBA
Thanks! I really enjoyed making it! :D did you watch part 1 too?
@@RetroBreak No unfortunately not I missed it man but defo going to check it out!
Also bought the original GBA at launch. White model with F-Zero! Guy at Best Buy even suckered me into the extended warranty...sigh. Now I play my games on the Analogue Pocket and it is a thing of beauty.
I loved my original purple translucent GBA back in the day despite the lack of backlight. My GB Micro (which is still going strong) felt like such an upgrade though. Still probably my favourite Nintendo handheld!
A really interesting Video about the GBA. When It was released I wasn't hooked for the GBA. Years after I really adore the GBA for all the different Games in the library. Got an OG GBA, the 1st iteration of the GBA SP but I damn love the Gameboy Micro, what a freaking cool device😍😍
I love your passion and videos when it comes to retro gaming! Im getting my GBA modded and revamped so i wanted to look back at some retro content. And your channel is great! Im subscribing!
What an awesome video, thanks for all your hard work putting this together for us to enjoy :) I only got into handheld gaming in the last ten years, and I have a beautiful modded GBA that my best friend put together for me. Now I will forever be jealous of the gameboy player and that visteon setup haha so many cool ways to play! I keep saying I don't need anything else, but maybe... a wonder swan?
You must be almost exactly my age - loved hearing about your experiences with the console. It was the first one I got at launch, too - and then the first midnight release I ever went to was for the SP. I re-bought Konami Krazy Racers last year to see if it was actually as good as I remembered, and it definitely was!
Still rocking my graphite AGS-101 SP!!! It’s like treasure to me and I would never let it go!!
Having pretty much a Super Nintendo in the palm of your hands was amazing back then. Little did we know in 2001 what the GBA was truly capable of. That little handheld was a powerhouse and to this day it and the PSP are my two favorite handhelds
1:52 It's like with SE. It stands by nothing. It just means It's better then og.
The GBA is still my favourite hand held console, the style of games are very similar to the SNES which i love too.
Great console, great video.
Cheers.
It was just like having a portable SNES! I loved it, as the SNES was my favourite console!
@@RetroBreak
I enjoyed both consoles too, and with the design and style and gameplay being similar as well as a few excellent SNES ports to the GBA, one compliments the other quite nicely.
Cheers.
nice job
Without the GBA I'm not sure I would have the same appreciation of the 16 bit era
You can check to see if you have a 101 by pressing the Light Button twice, it actually has 2 brightness settings, the first just has 1.
The GBA is not widescreen. It was NEVER widescreen. It displays in a 3:2 aspect ratio. Not 16:9.
Really great break down, so many memories, and you have a lovely collection. Well loved and used I can see the nostalgia off each piece.
Also I liked how into detail you went with the iQue , i wish a certain channel didn't smash it and posted it online. 😏
There's certainly a lot of nostalgia hidden away in this room! I've done a few memories videos in the past if you want to go and have a look around on the channel :)
@@RetroBreak Oh yes, been watching your videos for a good few years now, love your chill demeanor and all the positive vibes.
Amazing, thanks for sticking around! :) and yes… I was so upset when I saw *that video* of the IQue being smashed because they thought it was fake!!
Ive only played the GBA through emulation but DAMN, so many great games!!!!❤❤❤
It still holds up
Nice video. Has there been a silver 101 model?
There was a tribal silver version, the one I was holding is just a modded SP as I don't have a none IQue one to show. Hence why the label with 101 was the back of the IQue one
There is actualy another way to see if u have an 101 sp or not.
When turned of the screen of the backlit model apears black while the non backlit is grey.
Put them side by side and you wil see a clear difference.
Unless I overheard something, this video doesn't includes the 3DS family line of consoles. They all have GBA hardware inside (the same kind of hardware and inner workings as the DS/DS Lite ones).
It was officially used just for the Ambassador GBA titles, but with homebrew you can play *any* game you want and run it natively on official hardware - no emulation, neither a hypervisor.
As far as I know, the chip inside the 3DS is backwards compatible with the Arm 7 (GBA), but it doesn’t actually have GBA hardware inside, it has compatibility built into Arm 11?
@@RetroBreak 3DS'es SoC has the hardware needed in order to run 3DS, DSi/DS and GBA software. Like DS'es ones have it too for GBA. It *is* GBA hardware, else we would be talking about something completely different, like emulation. A DS/DS Lite is backwards compatible with GBA cartridges too, and they all have GBA hardware else perfect 1:1 execution wouldn't be plausible under such specs. Both 3DS and DS behave exactly the same way on GBA mode.
You can grab any NES/GB/GBC Virtual Console CIA, and manually inject a GBA game replacing the NES/GB/GBC game. Whenever you boot that title, you'll be shown the GBA emulator Nintendo made for 3DS back then. It runs TERRIBLY. NES, GB, GBC and GBA emulation use the exact same emulator. So, even Nintendo tried to do something about it so it had feature parity with other VC titles, to no avail. That's also why you can dump GBA's bootrom from any NES/GB/GBC VC title, cause the emulator could run GBA and they kept it like that - who knows why.
This is exactly the same case as the CGB mode on GBA/GBA SP: it is a compatibility layer that utilizes GBC hardware in order to run the cartridge that is inserted, but in a different console. GBA hardware isn't only an ARM7 processor like any DS has, else a DSi should be compatible too. It needs the rest of the hardware: sound chip, RAM, video output, the bootrom, controls have to be hardwired (as they are).
That's one of the reasons why there's no sleep mode on DS or 3DS for GBA titles: it didn't existed back then. At most you can put it into sleep if the title allows it, exactly as on the older hardware. Probably Nintendo could've done something about it, but they didn't so it is what it is. They preferred to do the bare minimum, and maybe it was for the best in lots of ways.
It's always nice to get an🔥awesome gift🎁on Christmas🎄Eve...🤘🏼💯✔️
I have a GBA player for the Gamecube but do not have the disc. Would love any advice or links for help. Thanks!
I believe I talked about how to use the Game boy player without the disc in this video from a few years ago: ruclips.net/video/B0Ur_G803UE/видео.html
@@RetroBreak Thanks for the reply! Peace!
I love the micro. I played golden sun, legacy of goku and mega an zero games on it.
For the SP, I wouldn't consider the Lithium-ion battery to be "progress", because when the battery dies it's a pain to replace! Nintendo are quick to stop supporting battery replacement, meaning you have to buy a dodgy unofficial one. I much prefer using standard batteries. My other gripe with the SP was, despite my hands being relatively small, it still felt uncomfortable to hold!
I still think the original design has the nicest aesthetic. I find it the most ergonomic too. Paired with an aftermarket modern backlit screen it really is the ultimate GBA I think.
It's definitely the comfiest to hold, I did have a backlit one, but for some reason the screen just stopped lighting up one day :( Need to get a new one!
Hmm, does the Nintendo DSi have the Game Boy Advance pack?
No only the original and lite have GBA support
But there is a way my brotha
my fav way to play gameboy games are on the nintendo ds Lite
I feel we should make Nintendo hold true to that "third pillar" nonsense and release a new Gameboy system. Imagine a Gameboy/ Switch hybrid that not only could have a whole new line up of games but could return the old gba cartridge slot that makes it backwards compatible with all the old gb and gba games, with the added functionality of playing them in docked mode so you can play those games on modern tvs
It would be nice if just 1 video that includes a Visteon would stop saying you can just replace the original controller with the sky active gamepad since you can't...if you did your research you would know the sky active gamepad doesn't allow more than 1 button to be pressed at the same time thus doing things like running in Mario etc is not possible.
I have just ordered one to test it, I just presumed that everyone else that stated it as fact was correct.... obviously should learn my lesson never to trust anything I see on the internet at first glance haha.. Will do an update or short to test it out when it arrives! Thanks for pointing it out! :)
@@RetroBreak for that reason after buying one I bought another Visteon that had a real controller and reverse engineered it and made one ruclips.net/video/sc9kJNtAKvg/видео.html
What if a manifacturer made a cellphone with a gba cartridge slot?
Phones are too thin now, but id buy it!’ 😅
Am really no fan of Nintendo, at all (I’m much more of a Sega kinda guy) … but I do love ❤️ my GBA (with a V3 screen mod and USB C battery pack). A fantastic little handheld that feels great in the hands and has a great library of games!
Sounds like the perfect mod! and the GBA had a lot of cool sega games too!
@@RetroBreak … yup … I think I have nearly all the Sega games released for the GBA 😆 … but what I’m really into right now is Kirby (nightmare in Dream Land), real cutesy graphics until you realise the core Kirby mechanic is more vicious than Mortal Kombat 🤣 so that balances out all the rainbows, pinkness, fluffiness and jolly bosses!
Never had a gba back then (I had the fat gameboy and my parents thought it was enough 😅). I now have 3 micros : two pink (one to play, one to stay in its box) and the japonese famicom one, wich I never used to keep it pristine. I'm currently waiting for my second hand modded original gba, cause the micro's screen is definitely getting too small for my 36 years old eyes 😂.
Maybe they made the GBA micro because of their attempted mobile phone gba? Like they had already the R & D done or they had spare parts they needed rid of? My GBA was a gold pokemon center NYC one which I wish I had held onto. I had that e-reader thing too. Original GBA was my favourite, re: the aesthetics and form factor. Compared to my GB DMG it was light years ahead, like a pocket SNES. That car thing looks crap, like why wouldn't you just play your actual GBA in the car, instead of installing all that kit?
Is the DS really part of the GBA family?
Yes, up until the DSi they contained original GBA hardware and ARM7 processors
R.B. thanks for the info
2 words.
Advanced Wars.
That is all.
Hell yeah! Advance wars got my number one spot in my top games list! ruclips.net/video/Z8FcT6n_uvE/видео.html
Here in s korea gba is very expensive i want to have one!
俺は今でもカバンの中にmicroを入れて会社に行ってるよ！
いつでも遊べるように。
Awesome! I used to try and play it under the desk at school, until it got confiscated one day! :'(
Lol
Rayman Advance is the worst version of Rayman
My 10 year old self still thought it was amazing!
Jesus this dude was spoiled as a kid.
u understand people buy shit with their own money right