Topic: Should nintendo got rid of the gba slot for the dsi or should they of kept it??

People are still talking about this? There are 6 different handhelds which you can play GBA games on. Shut up about the stupid GBA slot. Playing GBA games on the DS is a hassle anyways, it's much more comfortable on a micro.

6? I thought there were only 5...
_{Micro,GBA, SP,DS, DS lite. Yep, that makes 5.}

Regardless of whether you like the GBA or not, the system was going to die off pretty soon anyways, unless we expect the 3DS to play 3 generations of games. I've got both a DS lite and DSi and I don't really miss the GBA slot. There were a couple of good games but most were just remakes.
@RWP The kid probably was given a GBA because his parents couldn't afford a DS.

I just can't understand why anyone would complain about the DSi not having a GBA slot. If you want to play GBA games, there's so many ways to do it, and it's likely you already have at least one of them. The DSi was intentionally built without the GBA slot because the market for GBA carts has shrunk to virtually nothing. They were trying to phase out the old technology and, as Sean Aaron said, remove Slot-2's weakness to piracy.

@Token Girl I think you understood what I meant by "no one"; I didn't mean there is absolutely no one looking to buy GBA games, I meant that the amount of people buying the games is negligible - particularly from Nintendo's business standpoint. I'm willing to bet the GBA games in store, if any, were used and on resale. I also only see pirated GBA carts in stores round here now. In others words: no money to Nintendo either way. See the point of losing the GBA slot? I'm not saying I hate GBA games, because I love them. I have a fairly extensive collection of beloved GBA carts (I think Castlevania: AoS is the best of the new ones, and the Fire Emblem games on the GBA are the best too ). But I also still have my GBA and DS Lite from years ago, which I use for GBA games from time to time.

@110percentful You forgot the Gamecube and its handy Gameboy Player expansion. Then we have emulation... so technically 7.

When I was considering getting a DS, one of the things I really debated was whether to go with the DS Lite for the GBA slot or the DSi for DSiWare. I ended up going with the DSi and don't regret the decision at all. One of the deciding factors for me was realizing that if I really wanted to play GBA games, I could pick up a used GBA for $25 at GameStop. For a late adopter like me, there are more than enough DS games available that I don't feel the inability to play GBA games has hurt me at all, especially not when you consider DSiWare's selection.

Realistically, Nintendo has to abandon the slot at some point. They can't keep supporting backwards compatibility indefinitely as that just raises costs of the handhelds. In this case, I think Nintendo was actually quite smart. By introducing the DSi without the slot, that easily deflects all the criticism the 3DS would've gotten if it was the first system to get rid of it. They can argue the 3DS is still backwards compatible as it will support DS games.

Nope. There are two different models of the advance sp, micro, original gameboy advance, DS Phat, and DSLite.

You can also play them on the cube as somebody else mentioned.

So technically there are 7 different consoles that you can run your gameboy advance games on.

Thank you for saying that. it's like every where i go people are still talking about this.

I am kinda glad they got rid of the GBA slot on the dsi. if you really want to play GBA games you can get the GBA, SP, SP second model, DS, DSlite, micro, and of course, the GB Player for Gamecube. Since their is a wide selection of games on DSiWare it doesn't bother me that the GBA slot is gone. To be honest, i don't really care much about my GBA games anymore. plus, it would have cost nintendo money to put the GBA slot on the DSi anyway. people need to move on from the GBA games.

Eh, a lot of the DS install base begs to differ. A significant amount of players such as grandparents and new-age gamers that only own a DS have no use for the GBA slot. Also, I think it was good in a way to dispose of the slot because it prohibits design functionality and we're inevitably going to lose it with the 3DS (people would be upset anyway). If it weren't for the loss of the slot, we likely wouldn't have things like the extra 12MB ram (compared the DS' 4MB). You can always pick up an SP for next-to-nothing if you're desperate to play games that aren't current gen...

I think initially the DS audience was much more interested in playing their GBA games. When the DS launched, the selection was very small. It made sense for Nintendo to keep the slot, because it's basically saying you have the new, albeit limited selection of DS games to play, but also the huge GBA library. Compare this to the PSP's release which didn't have a previous generation's library to fall back on. By the time the DSi launched, however, there was four year's worth of DS games to choose from. The GBA slot no longer became a necessity to give people a broader selection of games to choose from.

I think we're seeing the same thing with the 3DS. When it launches, it will be able to play DS games. This means no matter how few 3DS games are available at release, there will still be hundreds of games that can be played on the system. Eventually Nintendo will grow the 3DS's library to the point where they'll be able to abandon needing the DS's support. It's actually a very savvy business move when you think about it. Nintendo has positioned themselves to where they never have to worry about bottlenecking the amount of content available to customers.

I just use 2 different systems: My DSi for DS and DSiWare games, and my GBA SP for GB, GBC, and GB games. I still have my original GBA and DS Lite, too, but I never use them

They probably shouldn't have, but theres a possibility that it would of cost the same as the XL, if they kept it?

Hmmm...What if they made a extention that connects to the DS slot.

I only played my Micro on airplane flights, so maybe once or twice a year; the DSi XL on the other hand I find quite engrossing; possibly because I can play it with the stylus whilst eating lunch (mahjong is great with noodles!) - unlike the GBA which requires two hands for all games - and thanks to downloadable software I have a library of games available without having to swap cards.

Frankly I'm finding it difficult to summon to motivation to replay my GBA games enough to do retro reviews before selling them off!

GBA games are much more fun when played on a GBA SP. The DS Lite screen is too small for me to enjoy GBA games. So good riddens GBA slot.

@Sean Aaron Finally, someone else who sees the true benefit of the stylus - I can eat while playing! Sudoku and the Ace Attorney series also make for good lunch games.

To me this is like asking if an MP3 player should come with a built in cassette player. It's time to move on.

There´s a difference. You can probably convert or buy all the music you used to play in your freestyle. You can´t play great games like Metroid Fusion, Gunstar Super (Future) Heroes and Astro Boy: Omega Factor without a GBA slot. To me, it´s a disappointment the feature is missing on recent systems.

With all of the additions they made to the DSi, there was no room for the GBA slot, even in the XL's case

I agree with most of you guys, the slot is not needed......As for guitar hero, they can design a new extention that connects to the DS slot.

This is one of the reasons a virtual console for the handheld is desperately needed. Nintendo has done a decent job making games from previous systems available in the most recent generation (like Pokemon, Super Mario 64, etc.), but there are still tons of fantastic games that become difficult to play, and as time goes on, that number continues to rise. Not to mention the fact that third-party developers usually avoid updating the old games, instead concentrating (logically) on making new games.