Video: Super Retro Boy Hands-On Reveals Neat Form Factor, Lack Of Rear Shoulder Buttons

having L & R as face buttons is a total deal breaker.

what a stupid design choice.

That is kinda dumb. I mean, It looks fine for GB and GBC games but having face buttons for L and R is ridiculous.

I'd use it mostly for regular gameboy games so no big deal for me. Not a fan of the way the games stick out of the sp and I actually enjoyed the design of the old Gameboy. For advance games I'll use my SP or micro

Very bad placement, but I never planned to buy this anyway.

This really cool! But is this legal? Will Nintendo send them a cease and desist?

$80? Might just be tempted...

@motang it's legal as long as the patent has expired. I thought patents lasted longer than this, since the GBA came out in like 2001 but apparently not.

Deal breaker. My GBA SP works just fine why would I need this?

@motang Plus that it does NOT infringe on any copyright where the games are concerned: it only plays ORIGINAL cartridges, so Nintendo will probably not bother, much like with the other multi-system retro consoles...

For my part, I tend to customize the X and Y buttons to function as the trigger buttons anyway... but how well that works varies from game to game. It's nice to have the option but it should always remain thus.

...Ahh, as if it matters. Most of my GBA games were lost in my life's Second Great Mysterious Video Game Disappearance, anyway.

@16bitdave you won't need this. It's for people who don't have it. Hope this helps

It's a neat idea, but having the L + R buttons on the front makes me wonder if the designers... ever actually played a GBA?

They should release a horizontal-style version (modeled after the original GBA) sometime in the future, as the vertical "tower" style isn't the most comfortable for adult hands. And yeah, they need to add shoulder buttons without removing the X and Y buttons (and make them customisable, so, for instance, you could map the A and B buttons to X and Y, respectively, if you so chose (so that many GBA SNES ports could be played in the original SNES layout)).

I think that choice of L/R as face buttons is the killer, 2 face buttons and 2 shoulder buttons are lot more flexible for control schemes than 4 face buttons. It'd be decent for GB/GBC. But the GBA SP has a backlight, can play GB/GBC games and has the proper shoulder buttons and its rechargable as well.

The most popular GBA games are Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald, Fire Red/Leaf Green which have the L = A function which is rendered pointless on this system. Then Mario Kart Supercircuit which uses both shoulder buttons...except you almost always need to hold down A and stretch your right thumb across to L to use an item...

It's not horrible or anything but I think they've unwittingly made something inferior to the GBA SP which boasts all the same features.

They should have focus tested before mass producing it.

I don't understand why everyone's obsessed with the shoulder buttons? Sure, it's a terrible design choice, but more importantly, why would anyone want to play GBA games with the wrong screen size? Every video/photo I've seen of this thing shows cropped GBA screens because it isn't 4:3, it's 1:1.

@RazumikhinPG Came to post this. This thing is just a mess, in all honesty.

Notice how she doesn't even try to use the L or R buttons in conjunction with the A button at all. Notice how she crashes into the wall on a straight path in the frickin' first course, because she doesn't use L to bank away. That's because... it just doesn't work. She would have had to contort her thumb while keeping the middle of it on A to pull that off.

You can get by without L & R on the first course of the first cup in F-Zero, but you'll never win on the later courses and cups without proper shouldering. And you just can't do it properly with face L & R buttons. You need shoulder buttons, no matter which F-Zero it is.

@RazumikhinPG Good point, the aspect ratio is wrong, as well...

What a horrible design mistake!
What were they thinking..? Probably just appearance, no play testing required..

They should have gone with the original GBA form factor!

Not the greatest, but I'll probably be picking one up anyway. Don't think it'll matter for most of the games I plan on playing on it.

What genius brought up putting shoulder buttons on the back first? He should get a medal.

There is no reason Retrobit couldn't have used this form factor, they could have used some lockable buttons on the back or even just had sections sunk into the rear of the body that hosted the shoulders... a whole menagerie of solutions would have been better than placing them where it's almost impossible to use one of the shoulders while holding a.

I was originally going to make a statement about how this shows it's not as easy to get handhelds right as Nintendo makes it look. But 90% of the people commenting so far could have placed the buttons better.

@Unblowupable5 You could probably get a second-hand GBA & backlight kit for less than this costs. I'd only buy it if the things genuinely improved the game play experience.

Spend your $80 USD on a backlit screen for your original GBA, much better choice.

I will keep playing my GBA SP AGS-101 however.

im pretty sure everyones still going to get this despite their shoulder button crisis.

Considering it might be an issue for like 5 games of hundreds, it doesn't bother me. I won't be getting one anyways though. I have enough retro games on my Wii/u and 3ds.

Very bad idea... Also this video did not explain anything. Does GB GBC work?

I sure hope they see their issue before manufacture. It should be relatively easy to reposition the L and R buttons to the sides or back. If they do that then there's a good chance this will be fairly successful.

LOL

I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone mention this (at least not on this comments section) but even more so than the bad L and R button placement, I'm actually really bothered by how much they cut off the sides of the screen. You can't even fully see your current lap time in F Zero in the video.

Probably not ever going to get this, unless they have shoulder buttons of some sort. & fix the screen.

Rhetorically, I wonder if the choice of GB/GBP/GBC form factor was purely (if at all because of) nostalgia, or if patents/copyrights prevent use/sale of the GBA form factor?

I might get another model, if they make one, improving the design, yet keeping the $80 price tag.

@KoiTenchi RazumikhinPG Noticed it, too. But yeah, the aspect ratio is horribly configured. (Or misconfigured, as it were.)

@PlywoodStick oh whoops. I see that now. You two even mentioned the specific aspect ratio.

I'm surprised there aren't even more people mentioning it. I honestly don't even understand how Retro Bit would let this out the door with the screen cut off for all GBA games. I've got to imagine some games must be unbeatable if you don't know them very wel already because of things you can't see.

@UK-Nintendo But anybody can purchase an original SP for less money than this thing. AND get shoulder buttons. So there really is zero reason for this thing to exist.

As to "is it legal"?
The GBA used a BIOS (which is software so it counts under copyright), so even if the patents expired, they'd have to write a homebrew BIOS to be legal.

(GB/GBC had a boot ROM as well, but those didn't really do anything except check if the cart was "official" and init the palette on GBC for GB games)

Here's a better idea. Rather than buying this hunk of junk, just buy a GBA SP. It's backlit, has shoulder buttons, the correct aspect ratio, rechargeable, has the same battery life, comes in multiple colors, can play GB and GBC games, and is about half the price to get.

RetroBit made a product that is inferior to an official product that came out 14 years ago.

Ive played F-Zero on an arcade cabinet with the would be shoulder buttons mapped to the arcade buttons and it really isnt a big deal at all. after one lap it was simple.

is this.........the nintendo switch?

And not interested, as others said if it was built GBA style I'd be interested. No point having a device that plays some/many games well but kills such good ones isn't worth it.

About the shoulder buttons, i read on engadget that this is just a prototype, and they're considering putting the shoulder buttons on the back (and presumably fixing the screen issue as well)

I'm quite interested in it myself, if they fix those things, i have a GBA SP myself, but a janky cartridge slot (GB games sometimes shift a bit, causing the game to crash) and the fact it's an AGS-001 (so sidelit instead of properly backlit screen) put me in the market for a retro boy...

Bonkers decision. Almost as bad as 1 analogue and no l2/r2 on original 3ds (despite both being industry standard for 15 years!!!???). If you're copying a system, the FIRST (easiest) thing you need to get right is the buttons!! Renders the system DOA!!! Useless!!

Something I've notice about this retro boy that many have yet to say. Will the retro boy have link cable support? I may have missed it, but the console doesn't seem to have an input for a link cable.

I'm sure there are some of you here (including myself) that play the old GBC Pokemon Games or GBA Mario Kart with friends from time to time. The lack of link cable support seems to be another deal breaker.

@Yrreiht For $80 it's actually worth getting a modern system that can play your GB and GBC games. I wouldn't play GBA games on it but I think if you had a GB and GBC collection of gems it would be worth looking into.

@RazumikhinPG You are wrong too, actually.

GBA screen has a 3:2 aspect ratio, not 4:3. To be more accurate, it's 240x160. Still not the right aspect ratio for this cheap piece of plastic.

@Mega_Yarn_Poochy Somebody probably mentioned this already, but only the AGS-101 is backlit, all other models of the SP are frontlit! The frontlit screen sadly doesn't hold up that well compared to the modern screens of today, although the AGS-101's is still pretty beautiful! 😄

It is still a prototype, so if they fix the aspect ratio, I might pick it up as a Pokémon machine :3c

@Mega_Yarn_Poochy GBA SP with back-lit screen are rare. Most of them are front-lit and look relatively bad for nowadays standards. A DS lite can be considered a good pick as well if you don't care about GB and GBC games.

@Shikinouta You and me. We could make great buddies...

Well to sum it up:
GBA: no light, non-rechargeable batteries by default
GBA SP: front-lit (on/off)
GBA SP 101: back-lit (2 brightness settings), but harder to find
GB Micro: back-lit (5? brightness settings), smaller screen/higher pixel density, ONLY supports GBA games
DS/DS lite: back-lit (4 brightness settings for the lite), 4:3 ratio (making the picture slightly smaller, I believe)

@Kroko Ehehe! Anybody who knows the granular specifics of the GameBoy line is a friend of mine! 😊

I still don't actually have a 101 myself, but I was considering moving the screen over into an AGB since that form factor agrees with my big-man-hands a lot better!

@Kroko Thank you for letting me know I'm wrong. It's utterly unnaceptable to mistake 4:3 with 3:2. More so than actually selling this crap. Appreciated.

@amishpyrate That was going to be my plan as well. I don't see myself using this for Gameboy Advance Games (I'll just use my Gameboy Micro for that) but essentially having a backlit Gameboy/Gameboy Color with a similar form factor and rechargeable batteries sounds pretty good to me

@Kroko Even just looking online, GBA SP 101s go for $120 new and >$70 used w/ game. Still a better deal than the Super Retro Trash.

why yes it is. how am i sposed to play gba games on it then?

@DarthNocturnal

doesn't minish cap require shoulder buttons?

Control scheme looks bad. The idea of 4 face buttons is a nice thought for some games, but it's poorly implemented because some games require shoulder buttons. No link cable support makes it a poor Pokemon machine. The good news about this is it's just the beginning. Clone systems like this come out in waves. I'm guessing Hyperkin or someone else will have a different GBA clone out within 6 months of this, hopefully clearing up the issues with this one.

Really

@KoiTenchi did you get a chance to play with this at CES or talk to the guys who are developing the RetroBoy?
I did and i can assure you the screen is not cut off, the reason why it looks cut off is because of that stupid screen border. Which i was told will be either fixed or removed for the final build.

Keep in mind its just a prototype and the main device is still not complete .. i do agree with the button placements though it a bit awkward and the one on the show floor the buttons and dpad were really small - and I think the housing was 3d printed but the hardware was finalized ... From my understanding the shell might go thru a few changes before it becomes final .. but we can only hope they hear the words of the community ...