Video: Did You Know Gaming Delves Into The History Of The Game Boy Advance

GBA was, is and will forever be a fantastic little portable.

I still nervous about GBA cartridge.
Will it usually last forever even I have use it carefully ?
I still afraid of the battery inside of GBA cartridge that someday it will died eventually, cannot save the gameplay anymore.

'Fans of the classic Game Boy eagerly awaited this successor, which was rather like a juiced up Super Nintendo, as you could play that level of games on the go; Nintendo delivered the goods eventually.'
Kinda weird sentence. 🤔

@Anti-Matter Every battery dies one day. I'm surprised yours are still working. The average lifespan is about 10 to 15 years. So if yours are still working, expect the batteries to die sooner than later. You can easily replace them though, but you'll probably loose your save data in the progress (unless you're really quick, or so I've heard).

I need to find my power cable to my GBA SP. I wouldn't mind playing some of my old games again on it.

@Anti-Matter
Without going into too much technical details, GBA Games use the following save battery:
** EEPROM
** Flash RAM
** SPAM
EEPROM or Flash ROM are designed to be written 10K+ amount of times until they stop working. Simply put, you most likely will never see this happen (I've let to experience this).

The few that do use SRAM (Pokémon uses it for the clock) are kind of the opposite. While you can write to SRAM as many times as you like, they don't last as long (Pokémon suffers from this as the clock constantly drains the battery). However, SRAM is easier to replace (well if you know how to solder).

@ZeldaToThePast
The Original Nintendo DS uses the same power supply as the GBA SP.

Never bought as many GBA games as I intended to due to getting my first PC and first access to proper broadband shortly afterwards.
I still go back to Advance Wars 1 & 2 every few years. Really hope Tiny Metal turns out to be good.

I remember reading about the upcoming Game Boy Advanced (yeah, they kept misspelling the thing for the whole article) in one gaming mag, probably around Christmas holidays of 2000. Apart from showing some weird mockups of the console, it was very exciting just to see the screenshots from the upcoming games. I also remember some of the trivia from the video was in the article as well.

We still have our GeimBois, both Advance and Advance SP (and even a link cable on top of that), wonderful little machines.

I got it at launch. And I still have that very model, boxed, to this day.

Did you know? The 3DS is a glorified Game Boy Advance.

I loved the Gameboy Advance. The NDS wasn't that good tbh. The upgrade was very little between these 2 while the step up from Gameboy Color to Advance was a big difference. Lower resolution still on NDS.... it should've been much better. After that I stopped buying any Nintendo handheld. Good for the fans who keeps loving it no matter what

I still have my SP, and play it. It's got the perfect Amiga port of Speedball 2 with the in game speech (ice-cream, ice-cream).
Also still play Doom, Desert Strike, original top down GTA, Fantastic little handheld

@RadioShadow But as far as I know, Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald used Flash storage for the savedata while the battery only powered the clock (RTC) part. Having a drained battery thus means the savedata still works fine yet time-based events such as growing berries doesn't work anymore. Even if you replace the battery, the date counter from the RTC is reset and those events still won't work unless the new battery lasts longer than the amount of days set on the savefile.

Pokémon FireRed/LeafGreen don't have a clock and thus lack a battery altogether.

That's really old news, already watched it a few days ago.

@Anti-Matter that's only for the first GBA games to be released.
All games released later use FLASH saving. (With the exception of some Metroid Zero Mission copies)

Only a few early ones like the first print of Metroid Fusion and Kirby Nightmare in dreamland use battery saving.

I've recently got back into the GBA. I have a Micro, two SPs and just got a modded original model with the AGS-101 backlit screen. That last model is the best. It's amazing how long it lasts on 2x AA batteries, even with the backlight mod. Puts the DS/3DS to shame.

Buying games for the GBA is a pain. I'd like to get mostly loose carts but there are so many fake ones you can't guarantee they're genuine without being able to check for yourself. Some eBay sellers shows pictures of the innards which is always welcome. I've ended up buying mostly CIB games as it's highly unlikely you'd get a fake cart that way (the cart and box/manual would have to have been purchased separately and put together to sell).

I'm also nicely surprised by how many of the games use non-battery saving methods. I always thought they were all saves by battery. Unfortunately many of those that do use batteries are the good Nintendo games like the two Metroids, Wario Land 4 etc. Also as mentioned above the Pokemon games use batteries for their clocks, which drains it loads.

The GBA had to be my favourite Nintendo handheld, even beating the excellent DS/3DS. Just something about the Metroids, Fire Emblems and Advance Wars that swings it for me. And the excellent Wario Ware and Wario Ware Twisted, they would make great mobile games!

@GravyThief

Glad to here your liking your modded GBA AGS-101. I'm currently rebuilding my Sega Dreamcast collection, but after that I might get one. Would love to play some Metroid Zero Mission on that sweet backlit display haha.

I still got many games for my GBA SP (both backlit and frontlit models) including fantastic exclusive gems like Astro Boy: Omega Factor, Fire Emblem, Gunstar Super Heroes, Ninja Five-O, the Mega Man: Battle Network and Zero games, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Konami Krazy Racer, the Sonic Advance trilogy, Dragon Ball: Advance Adventures, TMNT, F-Zero MV and GP Legends, Golden Sun 1 & 2, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge, and the Castlevania trilogy.

Only about 30 games use battery saves other notable releases are Breath of Fire 1 & 2.

I tend to think of the switch as the true successor to the GB line. Still hoping for a non switching switch, called the Game Boy Switch... Finally, the third pillar, or something.

@Meaty-cheeky yeah it's great. I thought I'd be happy with the normal SP as I loved it back in the day, but I never realised how dull and washed out the front light makes the screen look, plus if I play at night in bed it's like shining a torch at the ceiling! I prefer the form factor of the original model too, nicer to hold. Well worth getting one.

@Octane why did you shut down my forum? Do you work for Nintendolife or something?

@Matthew010 I already explained that to you; the forum isn't a chat room.

And no, I don't work for NL, but I am a moderator.

No mention in this video about the big controversy: no backlighting! It made it very difficult to play. Eventually it was added to the SP.

@Octane yet you say NL has a chat room. Show me it if its not a forum

@Matthew010 https://www.nintendolife.com/chat

Thanks @Octane!
Also how do you become a moderator?

I need to find a good battery to replace my GBA's battery. I got a cheap knock off from China and it hasn't really worked....

The GBA, for me, was the golden age for Nintendo handhelds. So many good games, you got some remakes from SNES games, and other original IPs like Golden Sun. Plus, the best versions of Mario Tennis and Mario Golf.

Why did they go into detail able the Super Game Boy and Wide Boy adaptors for playing on a TV screen but didn't mention the Game Boy Player for Gamecube? That's surely one of the most memorable ways of putting GB games on the big screen?

Interesting, as always.