Gaming Let's talk about the original GBA's screen.

[supernintendo128]

I mean holy crap, it's dark. In fact, I think it's even darker than the Game Boy Color's screen.

How the hell did Nintendo think that THIS was acceptable for 2001? For games with brighter color palates like Mario Kart or Mario Advance, you can see the screen pretty fine under decent lighting (and those games even look, dare I say, pretty good on the original GBA), but for games with darker palates like Metroid Fusion and Castlevania, it's unbearable. I tried playing Metroid Fusion on the original GBA, and in the darker areas, I could barely see anything.

I was lucky enough to grow up with the then-new and improved GBA SP with the frontlight (I eventually switched to the backlit model). How in the hell did kids put up with this? What was Nintendo thinking when they designed this thing?

Sorry for the rant but I'm genuinely curious. How did people put up with this?

 

[Deleted User]

It was a chore to play. I bought the gameboy player in 2003 and played my gba games on the tv.

 

[supernintendo128]

It was a chore to play. I bought the gameboy player in 2003 and played my gba games on the tv.

Sweet! I remember getting a Game Boy Player. I played it all the time!

 

[mte90]

Since I changed the screen with a backlit my life with GBA improved so much.
I think that at the time the technology wasn't enabling to do that, infact the SP model has that new screen.

 

[slaphappygamer]

Nintendo was secretly in kahoots with Nerf. It was a BIG coNspiracy. Nintendo made a screen that worked best outside, where it was a great place to shoot your buddy with a nerf gun (of course, while they were trying to play said “Mario kart”). Eventually, you’d loose all your “ammo” in the bushes out front and would have to buy more “ammo”. Nerf guns never used batteries, because that you be a “coNflict of iNterest”. I have nothing more to make up.
I do remember reading that backlit screens were new and expensive at the time and the gba was meant to be as affordable as possible so that more people would play them.

 

[ChaosEternal]

Honestly, it never bothered me when I was a kid. I even remember thinking that my parents' plan to get an SP for me was a waste since I was satisfied with it. Kids are able to look past a lot of things that might be deal-breakers for an adult. That being said, once they did get me that SP, I don't think I ever went back.

 

[JuanMena]

I remember getting my first Black GBA with Zelda Oracle of Ages around 2004.
I saw it nice, I think. I've always had a good sight, so I noticed very little diference between the GBA and my old GB.
Never noticed that it's indeed darker than a GBC though.

What I know is that Nintendo made GBA colors a little bit brighter to compensate this mistake, and that's why most of the early GBA games has brighter colors. For instance Super Mario Advance series.
That's what I learned until I found romhacks to correct the colors of some GBA games.

I've played GBA using my Wii and a Sony Trinitron and they look amazing. Kinda like SNES games. I do noticed that they looked weird in comparison with their SNES counterparts but never knew what it was or why they looked different. but I knew they seemed like bleached.

Now I know that it's both problems: Darker Screens + Brighter colours.

 

[Pokemon_Tea_Sea_Jee]

There was at least one Castlevania game for Game Boy Advance that put a sort sort of thick, blue border around your character so that it would be easier to play the game.

There is a ROM hack that removes the blue border. youtu (DOT) be/SFN972KabBQ?t=259


Sorry, I was not able to post that as a normal hyperlink. My GBAtemp account is brand new. This is my first post on the GBAtemp Forums!

 

[Deleted User]

There was at least one Castlevania game for GameBoy Advance that put a sort sort of thick, blue border around your character so that it would be easier to play the game.

There is a ROM hack that removes the blue border. youtu (DOT) be/SFN972KabBQ?t=259


Sorry, I was not able to post that as a normal hyperlink. My GBAtemp account is brand new. This is my first post on the GBAtemp Forums!

http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/677/
Do you mean this romhack for Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance?
Welcome to gbatemp!

 

[Pokemon_Tea_Sea_Jee]

Do you mean this romhack for Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance?
Welcome to gbatemp!

That's the right one, yes

Thank you a lot for your kind welcome! I do appreciate you for that.

 

[Plstic]

I hated that screen so much that I got the SP launch day.

 

[Goku1992A]

Remember this is from 20 years ago I loved gameboy color and advance I remember during that period of time I actually beaten all my games on it. I had no issues with the screens. (Although the GBC addon light was ridiculous)

Pokemon Crystal - Favorite GBC Game
Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced / Legacy of Goku 2 - Favorite GBA Game.

 

[Plasmaster09]

I mean holy crap, it's dark. In fact, I think it's even darker than the Game Boy Color's screen.

How the hell did Nintendo think that THIS was acceptable for 2001? For games with brighter color palates like Mario Kart or Mario Advance, you can see the screen pretty fine under decent lighting (and those games even look, dare I say, pretty good on the original GBA), but for games with darker palates like Metroid Fusion and Castlevania, it's unbearable. I tried playing Metroid Fusion on the original GBA, and in the darker areas, I could barely see anything.

I was lucky enough to grow up with the then-new and improved GBA SP with the frontlight (I eventually switched to the backlit model). How in the hell did kids put up with this? What was Nintendo thinking when they designed this thing?

Sorry for the rant but I'm genuinely curious. How did people put up with this?

Now I truly know how blessed I am to be a DS kid. (Born basically right after the original model came out- the first system I owned personally was a DSi XL.) Backlight is the norm now, and having hacked my New 3DS XL and using gpSP, I can say that the games that look dull or dark like Castlevania Circle of the Moon must have looked terrible on original hardware.
Thank god they wised up after the original GBA.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

There was at least one Castlevania game for Game Boy Advance that put a sort sort of thick, blue border around your character so that it would be easier to play the game.

There is a ROM hack that removes the blue border. youtu (DOT) be/SFN972KabBQ?t=259


Sorry, I was not able to post that as a normal hyperlink. My GBAtemp account is brand new. This is my first post on the GBAtemp Forums!

having played the GBA castlevania games thru emulation, there's also the fact that Circle of the Moon is so dull and dark looking that even with a backlight it's hard to distinguish things, so they fixed that by making Harmony of Dissonance bright as hell
thank god Aria of Sorrow has a sane amount of average lighting lol

 

[Deleted User]

I had a GBA that I had bought from ebay long ago, not having previously owned the system, and not having been familiar with the GBA. Now, it's my favorite gaming system, but I had to buy an SP, and later decided to buy a DSi, because of how dark the screen was.
I even got a modded original model for my birthday, which was cool.

 

[husky3g]

The original screen did leave much to be desired. I believe Nintendo designed it with affordability in-mind. A backlit screen at the time probably would have costed much more. There's something quaint about the reflective displays, though.

At this point, modding the AGB-001 with an IPS display is possibly the most satisfying GBA experience out there. You get original hardware, a playable screen and a form-factor that's still comfortable for adult hands.

Adding a USB-C rechargeable LiPo mod is also nice. AAs have gone the way of the dinosaur.

 

[Iamapirate]

It was cheap and given the success of the Gameboy and Color, Nintendo thought they could get away with it and sales proved them correct. It's sad that the only GBA with a decent screen (AGS-101) was released when DS was already a thing.

 

[playstays_shun]

it caused GameBoy burnout for me too early on in GBA's lifecycle unfortunately and caused me to overlook, and give up on handhelds, for a long while.

Not having a backlit screen (much less frontlit ) in 2001 was an atrocity and caused me to overlook this 'SNES-like power' handheld (though we know its not 240p capable or as sprite capable like SNES)

I never knew why, but I remember having a fonder opinion of GBC than GBA screen wise. The comparison pic sums it up well!

Colors for some games are extremely nuked like DKC for GBA, there are color restoration rom hacks for it

Oddly enough, the color restoration for SMA4 (SM3) just enables GameBoy Player colors since they distinguished handheld colors from GBP.

--

I also didn't realize the GBA playing GBC is smaller than GBC screen. Thats cool.

 

[Ophidion]

I was just thinking about this the other day. I recently pulled my original GBA out of storage and damn is it really hard to play it! I don't know how I spent so many hours playing it when I was younger. The crazy thing is I really don't remember having that many issues with either this GBA or my GBC. Granted, I did LED mod my little Pelican shield to make it brighter...

I really can't wait for my IPS v2 kit to come in so I can install it!

 

[TVL]

It certainly was weird decision making on Nintendo's part. Feels like their designs sometimes are held back just so it can be included in future revisions. Competitors at the time left it out too though, Game.Com, Wonderswan and Neo Geo Pocket did not have lit screens either. Weird when everyone (except Nintendo) had it in the early 90s.

 

[Metoroid0]

I mean holy crap, it's dark. In fact, I think it's even darker than the Game Boy Color's screen.

Sorry for the rant but I'm genuinely curious. How did people put up with this?

Did they have a choice?
I think that gives you the answer.