Hardware Are we spoilt by backlighting?

[xcalibur]

As some of you know, my DS is broken and I borrowed an old GBA from a friend. I think its almost unplayable because of no backlighting yet I remember playing the old gameboy fine. Has backlighting spoiled us?

 

[pasc]

The Backlight is one of those things which make the DS even more enjoyable. Sucks for you.

 

[Rayder]

Yeah. I have an old GBA.....it collects dust in the face of my DS.

 

[foob]

As some of you know, my DS is broken and I borrowed an old GBA from a friend. I think its almost unplayable because of no backlighting yet I remember playing the old gameboy fine. Has backlighting spoiled us?

The current focus is on good backlit displays and it's probably fair to say in most conditions they are really better, but the outdoor aspect is sorely lacking for me. I suppose we need more advancements and price/performance improvements before we play in direct sunlight again

I haven't even tried the original GBA (!) but have fond memories of playing Game Boy in the sun (and the more light you fed it, the more these puppies loved it). I miss that aspect of outdoor gaming. If the original GBA was anything like the original Game Boys, I would love it - outdoors or in well-lit environments of course

 

[gblock247]

Backlighting is nice, but in its infancy, it was a battery HOG.

Had a Game Gear, was lucky to get 30-45 minutes of gameplay out of 6 "AA" batteries. Sega Nomad(the handheld Genesis) wasn't much better and it had a rechargeable battery pack. Thank God for progress

 

[greyhound]

you can do a backlight mod, i'm sure your friend would benefit too

 

[Vater Unser]

Are we spoilt by having warm meals?
Are we spoilt by color TV?
Are we spoilt by stereo sound?
Are we spoilt by mobile phones?
Are we spoilt by next-generation graphics?

Of course we are. Isn't it awesome?

 

[armagedalbeebop]

Are we spoilt by having warm meals?
Are we spoilt by color TV?
Are we spoilt by stereo sound?
Are we spoilt by mobile phones?
Are we spoilt by next-generation graphics?

Of course we are. Isn't it awesome?

i sense wisdom in this words

 

[Hyperlisk_]

Afterburner

 

[Destructobot]

The original GBA screen was horrible unless you were in direct sunlight. I think Nintendo did this on purpose to sell more SPs, because when the GBA first came out developers were complaining that the GBA screens were a lot darker than the screens on the development systems. This resulted in all of the first gen GBA games being almost unplayably dark in indoor conditions unless you had a light attatched to the system.

 

[EarthBound]

Afterburner

AWWWW

I remember doing this back in the day. Glad they wised up,and put a backlight in the SP +after that.

 

[DanTheManMS]

Got my original GBA right here beside me, heh. The lack of backlight was annoying most of the time, but I sometimes really wish I could view my DS screen in the sun even half as well as my GBA.

If I had more dollars than sense (pun intended), I'd get the ultimate tricked-out GBA. Original GBA, glacier blue, with the Afterburner mod and dimmer switch installed for both indoor and outdoor gaming. I'd then get the GBAccelerator installed, plus the device to send video output to a TV via standard A/V cables. Finally I'd get the doohicky that lets you plug an SNES controller into the GBA's link port for use with SNES Advance (which the GBAccelerator would help make playable).

Shame that half of those components aren't available at all anymore.

EDIT: "installed" not "enabled"

 

[PuyoDead]

I installed that afterburner on mine. I loved that thing back then. It really did make all the difference in the world for that. The first Castlevania on GBA was hard as hell, just because you could barely see it.

 

[Rawrl]

BAAAAWWWW the original GBA doesn't have a backlight, however will I see the screen?

Cry more, the original GBA was just fine. I used my original GBA almost exclusively until this past Tuesday, when I got my M3 Real, despite getting a DS Lite for Christmas (one game lol). Aside from the backlight (which was nice, I'll admit), the original GBA was better than the SP in every way. It actually fit your hands, it didn't have that annoyingly tinny speaker, and - most of all - it didn't have those shitty "clicky" buttons.

Try not playing it in the dark and you should be OK.

 

[DanTheManMS]

Well, the L+R buttons are the clicky style, but otherwise I agree. That's why I refused to upgrade to an SP despite the obvious advantages of the frontlight and later on the backlight. I simply liked the comfort of the GBA more.

Unfortunately, eventually I had to give up my nice buttons when I bought my DS Phat.

 

[foob]

Got my original GBA right here beside me, heh. The lack of backlight was annoying most of the time, but I sometimes really wish I could view my DS screen in the sun even half as well as my GBA.

If I had more dollars than sense (pun intended), I'd get the ultimate tricked-out GBA. Original GBA, glacier blue, with the Afterburner mod and dimmer switch installed for both indoor and outdoor gaming. I'd then get the GBAccelerator installed, plus the device to send video output to a TV via standard A/V cables. Finally I'd get the doohicky that lets you plug an SNES controller into the GBA's link port for use with SNES Advance (which the GBAccelerator would help make playable).

Shame that half of those components aren't available at all anymore.

EDIT: "installed" not "enabled"

Hell, I didn't even know half those items existed, but I LIKE YOUR THINKING!

*looks for sunlight gaming icon*

 

[Fat D]

you know what would be awesome? a non-reflective screen with backlighting.

 

[santorix10]

As some of you know, my DS is broken and I borrowed an old GBA from a friend. I think its almost unplayable because of no backlighting yet I remember playing the old gameboy fine. Has backlighting spoiled us?

Yeah, it has. But, for dual-screen devices it would be a pain to get the lighting right for both screens. Actually, I like the GBA for not having a backlight for some reason. For one thing, I never use my backlit game systems outside, so I'm limited to systems that are as old or older than the original SP. I guess not having a lit screen adds "character" or something to me. Like those people who like to beat up/rustic-ify their wood floors.

 

[Try2bcool]

I didn't think the frontlighting on my SP was nearly bright enough, and I played a phat DS and wasn't satisfied with it either.

I waited to get the Lite because it was so much brighter.
The buttons are the next issue I wish they would fix, the Lite D-pad is a piece of crap (almost the same as the SP). Nintendo seems to think only children play these things...I have big hands, dammit!!

As far as being spoiled, since I got my 60" Sony, I can't watch a smaller TV! And I'm looking forward to the day when every channel is HD!

 

[Neko]

IMHO the SP's backlight is shit. Too dark and the colors are just shit. I had no problem playing my old GBA in my room , but with the SP I couldn't. weird.