[Cyrax9]

Ok, I have a problem with my first GBAm an Arctic "White'a GBA, it's called POOR VISIBILITY!!

I seriosuly can NOT see the damn thing! It drives me insane and I've died in "A link to the past" one too many times form a "Stupid Mistake" ebcause I can't see, even with the brightness turned up all the way, aslo GBC games have a much "DARKER" tint to them and that annoys me.

Now that GBA used one of the "Sharp" screens, my Platinum Edition GBA, the second one I bought, uses a "nicer' Panasonic Screen, but still suffers from poor lighiting sitiuations and is a No-Go at night, this is why I'm getting the Platinum GBA SP, the Afterburner and the fatc that I won't need to invest any mmoney in "Energizer" or "Duracell" stock because I'm going through Alkaline batteries like I go through water, just plug it in and recharge, the downside is the "Headphone Adapter" but that should be a cheap $5.00 at the most, and I rarely use headphones anyway, however I ALWAYS use Alakaline Batteries so the Li-Ion thing is a big plus for me.

Add in that afterbruner and the "proected" screen and things are great in every way. I had a friend who put his GBC in his kid-brother's Diaper bag during a trip to Disney, he got there, went to play it and had punctured the LCD, IT WA SIN A FRIGGIN' DIAPER BAG!! There was nothing SHARP in there!! That's the problem with GB's today, the LCDs are too easy to puncture and I might need a new "Screen OCver" for my GBA, I'm currently keeping it in the box, but it's still a pain to cart around the GBA Box like it was shoplifted because I need to "Protect" the LCD, weith the GBA SP, I can have a pocket Knife on top of the thing and it shouldn't puncture the LCD as long as the lid is down (obviously!).

I probably won't get one at luanch but I will buy a GBA SP, and I'm looking forward too the GB Player as well, which I'll probably buy first, hopefully in Platinum Silver to match my GCN, then I'll nab a GBA SP, it's too cool to pass up, and I keep eharing friends admit they'd play GBA in public if it looked more "Mature' the way the GBA SP does, perhaps looks do count in this case, but my primary reason is the afterburner and the Li-Ion battery, why waste a ton of Energizers and have to keep a light-source nearby when you can just recharge the battery and turnon the afterburner when it's dark?

I think the GBA SP is something Gunpei Yokoi himself would be proud of, if only the guy was still alive, he created the greatest gaming device in history and it was rumored that when the DMG Game Boy (The original) came out, a group of ANGRY, MAD LOUD, Sony executives got REALLY PISSED that Nintendo had beaten them to the handheld market and fired everyone working on their "Portable game system" that nerev saw the light of day, this was beforer the PSX, and even before the SNES though so it may have bene a good thing.

Now we know that Sony's firt Portable cosole was a flop in Japan, and their rumored to be working on a "new" Portabel console trhat won't run on Minidisks or MIcro-CD/DVD's but, rather Cartirdges, just liek the GBA! Now I don't know about you gusy, but I'm not sure how well Sony knowns the Cartirdge Department, after all, it was their CD's that killed the N64's carts, and I don't think they'd had too much experiance with carts at Sony, even if they are the "kingof handhelds" as they seem to think.

I wonder if Iwata's message about a "New Console war" and the release of all this GBA stuff now, the GBA SP,a nd the GB Player are becuase he suspects SOny may actually be developing this rumorued handheld and he doesn't want to lose the one market Nintendo holds the way Microsoft holds PC operating systems.

If SOny does make a handheld, it'll be interesting to see if this one makes it out of Japan, or if it's worth sticking next to the Wonderswan Color form BanDai in the category of "Nice try, but no Game Boy pal".

The last system that even LOOKED like it COULD give the big "N: a run for thier money was something developed in "South Korea" and it never made it stateside, weather our relations with South Korea latley are what had the final say, or the system being por, I don't know, but right now Nintendoowns the Handheld market as far as gaming goes.

Here's some food for thought: In World War II, the Japanese were our enemy (One of the three Axis powers for you non-historians who haven't studied that tragedy yet or who lsleep during history class), if something happened to cause "bad blood" between the USA and Japan today, do you think it'd hurt the Video Game market, especially the handheld market which is domniated bya Japanese company?

This is purley a "What if" scenario, but I think if the USA and Japan ever went the way the USA and France are now, we'd ahve aHUGE loss of Video gaming equipment, possibly worse than Atari's fisasco, and just as many American's are now avoiding French Wines and French Cheese, I think US consumers, who have a High Respect for Japanese elcetronics would stop using anything made in Japan,including Sony TV's/VCRs/DVD players and game consoles, it almost makes you think, war is bad for the economy anyway, but what would it do to the Handheld gaming market, especially to Game Boy fans?

That might be worth a new post, but I just had to say what I was thinking there, I'm against a war on Iraq without UN backing for the USA, but if we can get the UN to back us up, then I say they shouyld be disarmed ASAP, we already know there seems to be a "fued" between the US and France on this, but the "What If" I'm thinking of is probably more detrimental to the USA's electronics imports than any other war-scenario. I'm glad Japan is our ally, because if I remerb correctly, all Naval Vessels now carry a GCN, PS2 ro Xbox on board, soldiars bring electronics from Japan to the barracks (yes Cam that includes you!) and the Majority of electroncis in the USA are made in Japan or by Japanese companies, I think we have one ally there that we need to keep, if only for the fact that if it's not "Made in Japan", and it's sold in the USA, there are four other palces it's manufatured in, China, Canada, Mexico, and Korea. Now I have nothing against China, Canada, Mexico and SOUTH Korea (yet), but these countries aren't exactly electonics experts the way Japn is, China and Mexico both have Cheap Labor, and usually Cheap Quality as well, Canada is almost like saying "Made in the USA" althought the quality is slightly better and the equipment more expensive, but anything "Made in Korea" raises suspiciion these days, I think we need to keep Japan on our side, if only for the fact that we rely n theri game consoles too entertain our soldiars.

But anyway, the GBA SP is a fine device, and I can't wait to get my hands on one. I'll probably give "Zelda; A Link ot the Past" a few runs in it before anything else.