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GB/GBC/GBA Collecting Thread

G

Grief.exe

Member
sixteen-bit said:
I'm not really a fan of either ergonomically since I have big hands.
SP would be the better buy though. Cheaper, better screen (assuming you get the AGS-101 backlit model), and compatible with all Game Boy games.
Click to expand...

How does the SP have a better screen than a Micro?

I'm just curious.

The Micro would have the better pixel density.

I personally have huge hands and the Micro ergonomics aren't too bad, I bend my pointer fingers to hit the R and L buttons, and my thumbs to hit the D-Pad and A/B buttons.
 
G

Grief.exe

Member
Grief.exe said:
Tip: When you are searching Craigslist remember to search for odd names as well.

GBA
Game Boy
Game Boy Advance
Game Boy Advanced

I also search all of those replacing 'game boy' with 'gameboy' without the space.

I just stumbled on a bunch of new entries that I hadn't seen before by putting in Advance and Advanced.
Click to expand...

synt4x said:
Yeah you can get lucky sometimes with alternate search terms. The best is when the seller doesn't even bother to write down the game name and instead just writes something like "Game Boy Game".

By the way, is Perfect Dark for GBC just really cheap or something? I see one CIB copy in pretty nice condition on a Swedish auction site right now and it's a buy it now listing. It's listed for 99 SEK, which is $15 but with the buying power we have in Sweden you can pretty much think of it as $10. Is this normal? It almost seems to good to be true. But the seller has a great track record. I'm confused. Granted I've never really checked the prices for that game but I thought it was well regarded? Or is the game shitty so no-one wants it? Couldn't find any completed listings on that site unfortunately.

Edit: Or maybe I'm just too used to NES and SNES prices so it seems cheaper than it is. :p
Edit2: Yeah checking ebay it seems $15 is pretty standard. So never mind I guess.
Click to expand...

Ya this new strategy might have netted me some great games.

Harvest Moon
Oracle games
Super Mario Advanced games
Zelda 4 Swords

I'm gonna pick up Zero Mission this weekend.

I still am having trouble finding that illusive FFVI and Aria of Sorrow.

I forgot one. I also use the search term 'Nintendo' as well.

People will sometimes just list them as Nintendo games, or throw them in with a Nintendo DS.

Plus I'm always on the lookout for DS/GC/N64/Nes/SNES deals as well.
 
P

Parallacs

Member
Regarding SP vs Micro, it really comes down to taste

SP
+Bigger screen
+Brighter

-Oversaturated
-Clicky annoying buttons
-Makes you feel like a 12 year old in public

Micro
+Sexy
+Better color reproduction (think plasma vs LCD)
+Fits anywhere
+Really good Dpad and buttons

-Expensive
-Small (can cramp hands)
-Can't play gameboy games

I prefer the micro, but also have an SP (AG-101). Get both.

Parallacs said:
Collection :)
Click to expand...
 
L

Lambtron

Unconfirmed Member
I found this site the other day where a guy sells GBAs pre-modded with a backlight and a glass lens. This has always kind of been my dream GBA - the original had the best form factor by far (IMO), but such a shit screen. The work he puts into it seems pretty good, and the prices are actually less than listed in his post about the process. I emailed him to get into his queue and I'm going to get a Milky Pink one modded ASAP.

I have both models of SP and a Micro, and I'll keep them all, but I really, really want one of these.
 
P

Parallacs

Member
Lambtron said:
I found this site the other day where a guy sells GBAs pre-modded with a backlight and a glass lens. This has always kind of been my dream GBA - the original had the best form factor by far (IMO), but such a shit screen. The work he puts into it seems pretty good, and the prices are actually less than listed in his post about the process. I emailed him to get into his queue and I'm going to get a Milky Pink one modded ASAP.

I have both models of SP and a Micro, and I'll keep them all, but I really, really want one of these.
Click to expand...

This is amazing. I hunted for afterburner kits for a long time to make one of these. The original Advance had really great buttons and I loved the form of it.

Maybe I'll get a Spice Orange one and send it to him. The last thing I need is another gameboy. I probably have 20 of them.
 
L

Lambtron

Unconfirmed Member
Parallacs said:
This is amazing. I hunted for afterburner kits for a long time to make one of these. The original Advance had really great buttons and I loved the form of it.

Maybe I'll get a Spice Orange one and send it to him. The last thing I need is another gameboy. I probably have 20 of them.
Click to expand...
I don't have any old GBAs laying around, otherwise I'd do that to save the $20. It's pretty damn nice work though, for sure. The other benefit of this is now I'll have 4 GBAs and I can maybe get a group together to play Crystal Chronicles again.

Uh, more on topic: I re-bought Advance Wars last week and also picked up a copy of Harmony of Dissonance from the local retro shop. I ordered Aria of Sorrow from someone on eBay who claims it's not a bootleg - we shall see. I'll dispute it if it is.
 
N

Neverfade

Member
Fired up my Gameboy Micro tonight to notice a 'glare' type mark on the actual screen. It's only noticeable during dark scenes really -- actually unnoticeable completely during the white bootup background. It hasn't been exposed to heat, and the faceplate has been on it and there's no mark on it that would suggest it was pressed in enough to mark the screen up. Anyone have a similar issue? I assume there's no fix outside of replacing the screen?
 
A Black Falcon

A Black Falcon

Member
Teknoman said:
Any difference between Wario Land II GB and Wario Land II GBC releases?
Click to expand...
The GBC version had a fully colorized GBC version of the game on the cart in addition to the original GB/SGB version, while the original version doesn't. It's not complex... there are a few other games also released on both GB and GB/C dual-mode (or GB and GBC-only, in a few cases), and I don't know of any where anything was added other than a GBC mode.
 
S

sixteen-bit

Member
A Black Falcon said:
The GBC version had a fully colorized GBC version of the game on the cart in addition to the original GB/SGB version, while the original version doesn't. It's not complex... there are a few other games also released on both GB and GB/C dual-mode (or GB and GBC-only, in a few cases), and I don't know of any where anything was added other than a GBC mode.
Click to expand...

Sunsoft's Power Quest was an oddity. In Japan is was a monochrome game. Only the western release was colorized for GBC and came in a black cart.
 
A Black Falcon

A Black Falcon

Member
sixteen-bit said:
Sunsoft's Power Quest was an oddity. In Japan is was a monochrome game. Only the western release was colorized for GBC and came in a black cart.
Click to expand...

Pocket Bomberman is another game that in Japan was GB/SGB only, but in the US it's a black-cart game. I didn't know that Power Quest was GB/SGB only in Japan, though... interesting.

I do find it interesting that, in the US at least, I don't believe that even one single GB/SGB-only game released after the GBC released... and if any did, there certainly weren't any more after 1998. Games all switched over to having color modes pretty much immediately. (And yes, I'd count that "limited color" mode in Pokemon Yellow as a GBC mode. I mean, that's what it has to be.)
 
A

AKingNamedPaul

I am Homie
Pretty sure the GBA SP I got in the mail from amazon today is a fake. There is no Nintendo bar code on the back of it and it says made in china instead of made in Japan. The plastic is noticeably lighter and cheaper feeling than an actual game boy advance SP and the screen is not as bright from what I remember. The battery plate on back is slightly poorly assembled and some logo's don't have trademarks. Also the sticker on back seems really dodgy.

Is this common? Is my memory bad and this is how the SP was built?

Email I got from the seller:
If you are unhappy with your purchase, I will be more than happy to refund you and pay for the return shipping. I can even send you a shipping label for the return. You may be confused as to the screen brightness or parts, because there are two different models of gameboys that were produced. One model the ags-001, which is what you received. The other model is the ags-101 which is what you may be used to seeing. Again, I offer a 90 day return policy, so if you would like to send it back let me know, and I will cover the costs. please get back to me asap and let me know how you would like to proceed with this information.


He has a point about the screen, and is very reasonable. I also don't think the whole "made in china" thing makes sense, since i'm pretty sure china does make the product, but I'm also pretty sure the missing bar code and weird assembly/plastic/Chinese writing on back are signs of a fake.
 
G

Grief.exe

Member
I went out and picked up Metroid Zero Mission from a craigslist ad today and it came with some other games.

Should I just throw these out? Or are some worth keeping?

SSX Tricky
Jimmy Neutron
Power Rangers
Bionicle
Tak

I think I know the answer to this one.
 
J

johnsmith

remember me
I threw away all my boxes a few years ago when I switched all my games to DS cases with printed covers. That was a dumb move, but since I never plan on selling them, not a big loss. But here's my collection:

iUBtbVTsSLobE.png
Click to expand...

I still want to grab some other stuff, especially rpgs, but I'm wary of all the bootlegs out there. Is there a list anywhere of known bootleg carts?
 
T

Teknoman

Member
Grief.exe said:
I went out and picked up Metroid Zero Mission from a craigslist ad today and it came with some other games.

Should I just throw these out? Or are some worth keeping?

SSX Tricky
Jimmy Neutron
Power Rangers
Bionicle
Tak

I think I know the answer to this one.
Click to expand...

Tricky might be since i've never seen a bad SSX game...but dunno how it looks.
 
IrishNinja

IrishNinja

Member
garage sale this morning: i just barely missed a cheap OG game boy, but swung Dragon Warrior 1/2 (?), Final Fantasy Legend and Pokemon Blue for < $15, did i do good? finally gonna use my GC gameboy player!
 
M

madp

The Light of El Cantare
IrishNinja said:
garage sale this morning: i just barely missed a cheap OG game boy, but swung Dragon Warrior 1/2 (?), Final Fantasy Legend and Pokemon Blue for < $15, did i do good? finally gonna use my GC gameboy player!
Click to expand...

Considering the hellish ebay gouging of Pokemon cartridges in spite of them being some of the highest-print Game Boy games, $15 for Blue and DW 1&2 is nice. If all of my save batteries weren't dead, I'd be mulling an R/B run myself.
 
M

madp

The Light of El Cantare
Lambtron said:
I went to look how much copies of Emerald and Fire Red would be. lol. :( Too much.
Click to expand...

Those are the only two Game Boy-era Pokemon games that I'm still missing. Feels bad, especially since I used to own a sealed Emerald but I traded it to a friend for something else.
 
A

Anth0ny

Member
Woot, just came back from my cousins house. Stumbled upon his old copy of Pokemon Blue and he just gave it to me right there. I've been a huge Pokemon fan since the beginning... but I've always been a Red guy.

I now officially own almost the entire mainline series on Gameboy platforms:

Red, Blue, Green (Japan), Yellow, Gold, Silver, Crystal, Ruby, Emerald, Fire Red.

Missing:

Leaf Green
Sapphire
 
R

Reclaimer

Member
Recent.y picked up a complete Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3. It came with an unopened set of e-reader cards.

Is getting an e-reader a road worth going down?
 
G

Grief.exe

Member
The last couple weeks I have been cruising Craigslist and have already picked up some great games. I'm looking to just continue browsing Craigslist and slowly finishing up my collection.

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
Metroid Zero Mission
Super Mario Advance

Harvest Moon was from a Buy 2 Get 1 sale at Best Buy where I picked up 3DS games.

i5kZLtuHncOmh.png


Teknoman said:
*_* get rid of that.
Click to expand...

In the trash man.

RyougaSaotome said:
Found a boxed copy of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance today. Manual and all. Had to grab it.
Click to expand...

Reclaimer said:
Recent.y picked up a complete Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3. It came with an unopened set of e-reader cards.

Is getting an e-reader a road worth going down?
Click to expand...

Nice Pick ups!
 
P

plc268

Member
Teknoman said:
Wow...that actually looks alot cooler than an SP. I need to get my NGPC modded with a backlight. You did the mod yourself?
Click to expand...

Yep. It's the second one I've done. It's a pretty simple mod. You only have to solder one wire, and dremel a bit of plastic on the front. Other than that, it's pretty much plug and play.

I plan on doing more in the very near future. I ordered a bunch of screens and cables (you order from a guy named zerey zhang in china... he manufactures the adapter cable himself, and provides you with the screen).

Also, I didn't mention, on the black gba, I put a glass screen protector on it. The gba normally comes with a plastic one, but you can also buy a glass one as well that resists scratches.

John Blade said:
Would like to have this. Is there a link of how to build this as I am interested in building one for myself.
Click to expand...

The guide I used was written in chinese (I just followed the pictures). I believe there's a translated version of it somewhere, I'll see if I can find it)
 
W

womp

Member
plc268 said:
Yep. It's the second one I've done. It's a pretty simple mod. You only have to solder one wire, and dremel a bit of plastic on the front. Other than that, it's pretty much plug and play.

I plan on doing more in the very near future. I ordered a bunch of screens and cables (you order from a guy named zerey zhang in china... he manufactures the adapter cable himself, and provides you with the screen).

Also, I didn't mention, on the black gba, I put a glass screen protector on it. The gba normally comes with a plastic one, but you can also buy a glass one as well that resists scratches.



The guide I used was written in chinese (I just followed the pictures). I believe there's a translated version of it somewhere, I'll see if I can find it)
Click to expand...

Just curious, why does the top of the GBA housing, above the screen, seem to 'bulge' where the Nintendo logo is in that pic?
 
P

plc268

Member
womp said:
Just curious, why does the top of the GBA housing, above the screen, seem to 'bulge' where the Nintendo logo is in that pic?
Click to expand...

It's not bulging. That's just the combination of the glare and shadow coming from my pc monitor above it. It's perfectly flat.
 
T

tiggerkiddo

Member
Lambtron said:
I found this site the other day where a guy sells GBAs pre-modded with a backlight and a glass lens. This has always kind of been my dream GBA - the original had the best form factor by far (IMO), but such a shit screen. The work he puts into it seems pretty good, and the prices are actually less than listed in his post about the process. I emailed him to get into his queue and I'm going to get a Milky Pink one modded ASAP.

I have both models of SP and a Micro, and I'll keep them all, but I really, really want one of these.
Click to expand...

Man I really want to get one of those now, just find the right model GBA and I'm golden!
 
S

Seven Force

Banned
Wow, I just might invest sending my GBA in for that.

Either that or invest in an AGS-101. (What are the average prices for those, anyway?)
 
W

womp

Member
plc268 said:
It's not bulging. That's just the combination of the glare and shadow coming from my pc monitor above it. It's perfectly flat.
Click to expand...

Gotcha, that is why I was asking. Wasn't sure if some cosmetic changes were in effect. :)

.....


Was rummaging in my mother's attic looking for my NES and the games to go with it over the weekend (no luck) and found a Mad Catz carrying case with these in it....

13+-+1
Click to expand...

They must be my brother's since he is 16 years younger than me and I was never a Pokemon guy at the time. However, I do love me some Pokemon Pinball and Pokemon Puzzle Challenge (Panel De Pon/Tetris Attack). Mint condition too. Very rarely do you seem to find a Pokemon Pinball with the battery hatch still in one piece. heh

Sounds like I can keep them in my handheld archive now. Maybe if I keep rummaging around I will find the rest of my own GB/GBC carts that have been missing from my collection for at least 10 years.
 
S

sfog

Member
A Black Falcon said:
I do find it interesting that, in the US at least, I don't believe that even one single GB/SGB-only game released after the GBC released... and if any did, there certainly weren't any more after 1998. Games all switched over to having color modes pretty much immediately. (And yes, I'd count that "limited color" mode in Pokemon Yellow as a GBC mode. I mean, that's what it has to be.)
Click to expand...

Yeah, I believe there were a couple of crappy licensed games (like Rugrats and Small Soldiers) that came out at about the same time as the GBC itself did, but the only one I remember actually coming out notably later than the GBC was Beavis & Butthead (which was supposed to come out in late 98, but got delayed into early 99 for some reason, and was the final non-GBC release as far as I know).
 
A Black Falcon

A Black Falcon

Member
sfog said:
Yeah, I believe there were a couple of crappy licensed games (like Rugrats and Small Soldiers) that came out at about the same time as the GBC itself did, but the only one I remember actually coming out notably later than the GBC was Beavis & Butthead (which was supposed to come out in late 98, but got delayed into early 99 for some reason, and was the final non-GBC release as far as I know).
Click to expand...
Huh, you're right, there was a Beavis & Butthead game in early '99. That's the only one, though, I guess (games released at the same time as the GBC? Not sure if I'd count that or not, unless they were actually slightly after it)... I have wondered if Nintendo said "you should do color in games too", or if the publishers just all switched over because dual-mode support wasn't too hard to add, or something. It was a very abrupt shift. And color did add something to many of those games, but it was interesting how new B&W-only games essentially vanished immediately.
 
G

Grief.exe

Member
Just found someone selling FFVI on Craigslist, lets hope this deal goes through!

EDIT: We are meeting tonight.

I didn't think I would get this one this quickly! Hopefully, Aria of Sorrow is next.
 
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