GBA Doom

Post by **Graf Zahl** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 3:16 am

The GBA is a piece of crap. Most cellular phones programmed in Java have better performance. And you can do many other things with them besides playing games.

Nanami · Post by **Nanami** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 3:19 am

*blink*

You can?

Lexus Alyus · Post by **Lexus Alyus** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 3:21 am

Yeah... IIRC the NGage can actually do 3D!

Funny that, how did a phone turn into everything?

Post by **Chris** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 3:23 am

Most cellular phones programmed in Java have better performance. And you can do many other things with them besides playing games.

Compiled Java, no doubt, instead of interpretted. And being able to do more things on them other than play games is against Nintendo's policy (which is just fine, IMO.. I don't care if my console can launch the world's nukes.. I just want it to play games). The GBA is about as powerful as the SNES, perhaps a little more so, but the biggest problem it has is the really funky architecture.

Post by **Graf Zahl** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 3:26 am

Chris wrote: Compiled Java, no doubt, instead of interpretted.

Considering the oddities I have seen so far I doubt that very much (depending on the phone.) Most of the processing time is spent in the system code anyway so it's not that critical unless you have a very time consuming game logic.

BlueStar · Post by **BlueStar** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 3:32 am

Lexus Alyus wrote:Yeah... IIRC the NGage can actually do 3D!

Funny that, how did a phone turn into everything?

Too bad you look like an idiot when talking in it, you have to remove the battery every time you want to change games, and there aren't really many good games for it in the first place.

And Graf Zahl, tell me about _one_ cellular phone in the same price range that can play the same games just as well as the GBA.

Chilvence · Post by **Chilvence** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 3:44 am

Nintendo made the GBA so that they could recompile all their old snes games with a few tweaks and make fresh moulah off them. It may be the best handheld on the market, but its still a travesty.

Post by **Graf Zahl** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 4:45 am

BlueStar wrote:
Lexus Alyus wrote:Yeah... IIRC the NGage can actually do 3D!

Funny that, how did a phone turn into everything?

Too bad you look like an idiot when talking in it, you have to remove the battery every time you want to change games, and there aren't really many good games for it in the first place.

And Graf Zahl, tell me about _one_ cellular phone in the same price range that can play the same games just as well as the GBA.

Here in Germany buying a cell phone is really cheap. The only thing that costs money is the contract with the phone company. But most importantly, the games cost much much less than anything for the GBA and even if you buy one of the better phones you are even rather quickly. The GBA and its software just cost too much.

And before you ask: I did development for the GBA and currently I'm working in cell phone game development so I know what I'm talking about when it comes to the hardware's capabilities. The GBA is a piece of crap. Period.

Ixnatifual · Post by **Ixnatifual** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 4:54 am

I think thinking it's a travesty is a travesty.

Ixnatifual · Post by **Ixnatifual** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 4:56 am

Graf Zahl wrote:And before you ask: I did development for the GBA and currently I'm working in cell phone game development so I know what I'm talking about when it comes to the hardware's capabilities. The GBA is a piece of crap. Period.

Uhm please stop developing crap, okay? Developing more ZDoom would be better... but I guess that doesn't pay as much

BlueStar · Post by **BlueStar** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 4:58 am

Graf Zahl wrote:
BlueStar wrote:
Lexus Alyus wrote:Yeah... IIRC the NGage can actually do 3D!

Funny that, how did a phone turn into everything?

Too bad you look like an idiot when talking in it, you have to remove the battery every time you want to change games, and there aren't really many good games for it in the first place.

And Graf Zahl, tell me about _one_ cellular phone in the same price range that can play the same games just as well as the GBA.
Here in Germany buying a cell phone is really cheap. The only thing that costs money is the contract with the phone company. But most importantly, the games cost much much less than anything for the GBA and even if you buy one of the better phones you are even rather quickly. The GBA and its software just cost too much.

And before you ask: I did development for the GBA and currently I'm working in cell phone game development so I know what I'm talking about when it comes to the hardware's capabilities. The GBA is a piece of crap. Period.

I guess it's the same as in Norway. The cellphones may look cheap, but you're really paying for it through the subscription anyway.

And I haven't really seen anyone use a cellphone for the type of games you would buy a GBA for. Yes, the Doom game may be low-res, but other than that it has all I could hope for in a handheld game system. Out of the games I own only two are reharshed SNES games, and they were really great games anyway, that I love to have on a handheld.

Also, when talking about hardware you have to consider the GBA's age. The DS may be a fairer comparison. Personally I will stay with the GBA as it is more than sufficient for my needs. Yes, I agree that the games are expensive, but I buy them second hand anyway. (:

Post by **Graf Zahl** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 5:05 am

Ixnatifual wrote:
Graf Zahl wrote:And before you ask: I did development for the GBA and currently I'm working in cell phone game development so I know what I'm talking about when it comes to the hardware's capabilities. The GBA is a piece of crap. Period.
Uhm please stop developing crap, okay? Developing more ZDoom would be better... but I guess that doesn't pay as much

I'm earning money with the crap I'm developing so no, I won't stop.

Risen · Post by **Risen** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 5:24 am

Chris wrote:And being able to do more things on them other than play games is against Nintendo's policy...

They released some weird things for the Game boy... like the Game Boy Camera. That wasn't a game. (Probably about as practical, though!)

I'd rather they just released a handheld that would play SNES games. Now that would be cool. Mmm... Chrono Trigger on the road.... Not that I would buy it. I don't have the money for that kind of stuff.

Ixnatifual · Post by **Ixnatifual** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 5:33 am

Graf Zahl wrote: I'm earning money with the crap I'm developing so no, I won't stop.

rofl

HotWax · Post by **HotWax** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 4:05 pm

The GBA has long been the best-selling handheld system on the market, no matter how its hardware stacks up against anything else. Cell phones have rapidly been making a shift from being a phone to being a phone/calender/alarm clock/camera/game system, and while they do all these things, they don't do any one particularly well. The NGage is the first phone to attempt to be a game system comparitive to the GBA, and it fails in so many areas it's pathetic. The only thing people are loving about the NGage is the 3D capabilities and the built-in wireless gameplay -- both things are going to be built into the Nintendo DS, so I think that's a move in the right direction. In addition, the DS has two screens--each with their own dedicated CPU--one of which is a touch stylus which could be used for various purposes. It will also have built-in voice recognition and the ability to use both short-range wireless play and round-the-world wireless play, much like the NGage but without the requirement of paying a monthly fee to play with your brother in the next room...

We've yet to see how they're going to accomplish the round-the-world servirce or what that entails. Given the built-in voice recognition, one would assume that using the DS as a long-range communications device would be possible. This will probably come with a monthly fee, but I'm unsure whether the service would be provided by Nintendo (it would be the first such service in Nintendo history), an affiliate, or if it would just work off your current cell phone service.