Aylmer
05-22-2006, 11:19 AM
This weekend I bought one of the new GBA-SPs that has a backlit display. So now I have an original GBA, GBA-SP, DS, Micro, and now a GBA-SP Backlit. Plus I have the Game Boy Player on my 'cube. So, I though I'd share some observations regarding games that were originally made for the GBA reflective screen being played on backlit displays.
The original GBA-SP is also a reflective screen, with tiny flourescent lights around the perimeter. Old GBA and GBC games look fine on this machine.
The Gameboy Player's software has lots of screen adjustment options, so any GBA game can be made to look good on your TV.
The DS display was the first one that I noticed anti-aliasing issues with old GBA games. Some are terrible, others are fine.
The Micro has the prettiest display of all, squeezing all those pixels into a much smaller screen. Even badly antialiased games look good on this machine. However, if the game has a lot of small detail, it can be hard to make out some things onscreen. PC ports, especially, with tiny text, can be hard to make out on the Micro screen.
My newest machine, courtesy of a Toys R Us gift cert, is one of the new GBA-SPs with a true backlit display. This machine, when powered down, looks identical to the original GBA-SP (except for the color). It is about .5 ounce heavier. The little button in the middle that turns the light on and off on the original SP is used to toggle between two levels of brightness on the updated SP. On this machine, if a game has jaggy pixel issues, they are magnified bigtime.
I got it because I am getting ready to ebay a sizeable chunk of my GBA game collection, and the trend on eBay seems to be selling a group of games with a console, so that is what I'm going to do, the orignal GBA and GBA-SP in my case. Plus, I picked up FF4 and a strat guide, and since this is an enhanced port of a SNES game, I thought it would be nice to play it on a bigger screen than what my Micro has. So far I'm happy with it. Some games play better on a SP, some better on a Micro. FF4 uses really small text and sprites, so it's a lot better on an SP.
The original GBA-SP is also a reflective screen, with tiny flourescent lights around the perimeter. Old GBA and GBC games look fine on this machine.
The Gameboy Player's software has lots of screen adjustment options, so any GBA game can be made to look good on your TV.
The DS display was the first one that I noticed anti-aliasing issues with old GBA games. Some are terrible, others are fine.
The Micro has the prettiest display of all, squeezing all those pixels into a much smaller screen. Even badly antialiased games look good on this machine. However, if the game has a lot of small detail, it can be hard to make out some things onscreen. PC ports, especially, with tiny text, can be hard to make out on the Micro screen.
My newest machine, courtesy of a Toys R Us gift cert, is one of the new GBA-SPs with a true backlit display. This machine, when powered down, looks identical to the original GBA-SP (except for the color). It is about .5 ounce heavier. The little button in the middle that turns the light on and off on the original SP is used to toggle between two levels of brightness on the updated SP. On this machine, if a game has jaggy pixel issues, they are magnified bigtime.
I got it because I am getting ready to ebay a sizeable chunk of my GBA game collection, and the trend on eBay seems to be selling a group of games with a console, so that is what I'm going to do, the orignal GBA and GBA-SP in my case. Plus, I picked up FF4 and a strat guide, and since this is an enhanced port of a SNES game, I thought it would be nice to play it on a bigger screen than what my Micro has. So far I'm happy with it. Some games play better on a SP, some better on a Micro. FF4 uses really small text and sprites, so it's a lot better on an SP.