Dace_C: I think your over-exaggerating a bit about the there being millions of games for the GBA (In my opinion, about 25% of those games I find worthy). I aggree with the cheaper price, huge user base and the massive third party support (ack! pokemon... uggg). But like I said before, PSP will come out next fall, by then GBA SP will probably be replaced with another version by Nintendo to compete with the PSP. And so GBA dies like SNES died a slow death when playstation came out, and replaced with the N64 which I think almost died instantly.
Here are the stats of the PSP written from my PSM Magazine:
It will have 4.5 inch(diagonal) backlit, 16:9 widescreen and uses a new 1.8 gigabyte mini-disc developed by Sony called UMD (This alone will attract any developer who does'nt like being restricted by cartrage memory which is about 64megs max and the UMD can hold three times as much as a standard cd-rom). A completely new processor technology, making it capable of smooth graphics that can even outclass the PS2(I think they are talking animation wise, I'm not sure about that one though) It will also feature full 3D graphics and a hardware feature known as NURBS that reduce any blockiness seen on usually smooth objects, such as cars.
Other tech bits: the PSP will feature positional 3D stereo sound, a rechargeable battery, USB2.0 support, and a Memory Stick slot fot saving, data transfer, wireless connections, and more.
To me, it seems history is repeating itself. But now it will be the war of the portables instead. May the best portable win!
What does it take to finish a project?
0) Determination I wish I had!!!!
1) Spare time I wish I had!!!!
2) A faster comp I wish I had!!!!
3) A pet cat I wish I had!!!!
PS1 killed the N64 in terms of sales. In America, the gap was only about 3:1 or so, but in Japan, the sales of the N64 were abysmal. As for systems not existing if their predicessor was a failure; how can you explain why the Dreamcast existed after the Saturn, CD, and 32X were all commercial flops?
I have faith that the PSP will do well. Sony has already proven that it can enter a market it has no experience in, and dominate coming out of the gates. PSP isn't coming out until late 2004, which is 3 years after the GBA (almost the length of a console generation). There were 5 million Dreamcasts when the PS2 launched (with games that looked crappier than Dreamcast games at the time), and yet Sony shrugged it off, and look what happened. In this case, the PSP is truly a generation-jump over the competition! As long as Sony keeps pricing reasonable, the system should sell itself through the games it will be capable of playing.
All you have to do is compare two important statistics to see where the jump in power lies.
The first of which is the storage capacity available for developers. The GBA cartridges can hold about 32MB (hell, the largest N64 cart only held 64MB). Compare that to a 1.8GB capacity on the PSP's mini-discs. That's 56 times the space for graphics, sound, movies, and levels.
The second spec to look at is graphics performance. The GBA has a 240x160 resolution, with SNES level 2D graphics, and rudimentary 3D graphics (maybe on par with the 32X, at about 50,000 polys per second -- and I think I'm being generous). The PSP, on the other hand, sports a higher resolution of 480x272 (3.4 times as many pixels), more advanced 3D graphics -- sony has already stated that the PSP's 3D capabilities will outperform the PsOne's (meaning at least 300,000 polygons per second), and will support NURBs surfaces, which smooth everything off and are most commonly used in professional-quality CG. This is a technique that is rarely, if ever, used even in current-generation consoles, and leads me to believe that PSP's 3D capabilities may be more in tune with the PS2, than the PsOne. Beyond all of this, PSP's 2D capabilities will be more advanced than the GBA's thanks to its faster processor speed, and greater abundance of memory, though the exact specifications of these are unknown.
Just looking at the things listed above should be enough to get the idea of just how much more powerful the PSP is, and what kind of doors it opens up for developers. No longer are they restricted by packing gameworlds and graphics into the limited space of a cartdrige, and no longer are they forced to squeeze every ounce of power out of a system in order to achieve 3d graphics that are 10-years out of date. The greater amount of RAM and processor speed also opens up a ton of options regarding world size and artificial intelligence, allowing the portable versions of games to finally achieve the same kind of gameplay as their console brethren. Imagine playing proper versions of Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy, Grand Theft Auto, Grand Turismo, Virtua Fighter, Madden, or Splinter Cell while on an airplane, or while riding to school or work (presuming you use public transportation anyway, we don't want anybody wrapped around a tree) in the morning.
I know that I personally cannot wait for the PSP. I've been holding off on buying the GBA (and GBC), because I knew this sort of thing was right around the corner. I've even got drawings from 2 or 3 years ago that basically lay out everything that the PSP is. It has been a long time coming, but a handheld system on par with consoles is finally becomming a reality, and I plan to be the first guy in line to buy it.
The fact is:
In the market is place for three consoles.
We now have nintendo gamecube, sony ps2, microsoft xbox.
Some people have two consoles.
They all aim for different groups of people,
those groups overlap each other a bit,
that's why some have 2 consoles or maybe three.
Now for the gameboy market, it's a bit different,
since nintendo is the only player (somewhere in asia,
there is a gp32 which is a GOOD device).
A long time ago, there were some more players,
sega with is gamegear which already had a colour screen.
That sony portable device can be a good thing,
3d power, better processor, more ram, more media space.
But all will come and fall with the design of the fact that it is PORTABLE or not. But the other factor is GAMES,
the psone has many good games in 3d,
the gba has the snes ports, most of them 2d,
but with better gameplay. Altough i woud like to see
metal gear solid on my gba. Anywayz, nintendo says it's
coming with some kind of 3d chip for gba, who knows,
but i doubt it will as good as the 3d chip in the psone or two.
[i am a nintendo fan, pure fan games and gameplay]
That new Gameboy player for gamecube is selling like hotcakes now. I've accaully had one for a while, about 8 years really. Back then it was just called a "Super Nintendo Enterainment system", which is now "Gamecube Gameboy Player". Seriously tho nintendo is pissing me off, if we get one more remake i'll stab somebody. Only good games coming out are fft advance and sword of mana.
Fuzzy Lumpkinzzz: Popularity yes... Sales wise... No.
besides... Like I said before... I think Nintendo will probably make a new portable by then to compete with the PSP.
Kirby Smith: I agree with you, yet I couldn't hold off on buying the GBA, you have lots of willpower not to get one, I've only played a few good games that I liked, others that are just re-hashes of the SNES with no or few enhanced graphics and other are poorly made games, yet I couldn't help getting BOF2, probably because I've never finished that game on SNES.
Jenswa: I've waited for the smoke to clear and the only system I bought was GBA (simply because it is portable SNES that I've missed so much), GBA is fun for now, but I can't wait for the PSP to come out. I hope that 3D chip for the GBA is better that the FX chip they used on SNES.
Crono: Gameboy player... I'm not missing much with that. I personally can't wait for those two games, fft advance will probably have lots of gameplay and awsome graphics, Sword of Mana is the sequel to Secret of Mana that never got ported to the U.S. for the SNES, so I'm really exited that it's finally coming.
What does it take to finish a project?
0) Determination I wish I had!!!!
1) Spare time I wish I had!!!!
2) A faster comp I wish I had!!!!
3) A pet cat I wish I had!!!!
Assault Andy Administrator
I make other people create vaporware
Registered 29/07/2002
Points 5686
16th July, 2003 at 01:33:54 -
Nokia is now shining it's shoes and are soon to release their new game device with doubles as a mobile phone. It's got a 3d graphics card and one of the games that will be released with the device is Tomb Raider in 3d ! You can also play many of the games wireless with your friends. (Heard about this stuff from E3)
That's a mobile phone,
not dedicated portable game device,
still it's cool.
The best game for gba for me is:
Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis
To come back at the question starting this topic:
the snes is a box full of different chips,
meaning each thing that must be done, almost
has it's own chip for it.
The gba has less chips therefore not being able
to do same things at the same time as the snes.
And of course your tv-screen vs lite screen on the gba
with not completly white colour.
jenswa.neocities.org
Assault Andy Administrator
I make other people create vaporware
Registered 29/07/2002
Points 5686
16th July, 2003 at 06:26:15 -
JD - Mobile phone is it's secodary function, it's a bonus. The idea of it is it's can play wireless full 3D games. Otherwise it wouldn't of been at E3
the nokia n-gage or whatever it is, is poor, have u guys seen how you hold it to use it as a phone??? u have to hold the sides....ummm how to explain....who cares anyone who uses that thing as a phone will look like a complete retard.
secondly, gba to me is worth the price for the castlevania games alone, they are all great. plus the BRAND NEW secret of mana game is gonna pwn everything. with that said, i have been extremely dissapointed in the "greatest game makers" in the world, (nintendo duhhhh) that they haven't made any brand new games for gba. DOES ANYONE ELSE WANT TO PLAY AN ALL NEW SUPER MARIO ADVENTURE??!?!?!?!??! or how about a new zelda???
moving right along, im wondering how much battery life this PSP has...??? u see the Sega game gear had graphics power 10 times the old Game boy (its rival at the time) and it got owned by nintendo because it had a measly 4 hours of battery life with 6 AA bateries.
i dont care at all about power, i was fortunate enough to have been a gamer since the atari, and if there is ONE game, just ONE game that is the true undisputed portable timeless king of the world it is Tetris, i still play tetris dx (gbc) whenever ive got nothing to do or have a few minutes to kill.
anyways, fact of the matter is, nintendo own sony and microsoft, and i should think a lot of ppl in this community would agree (we are making 2d games ya know) and we all know nintendo are the kings of 2d AND 3d. they may not be "cool" they may not have R rated games and they may not play DVD's but at the end of the day who gives a shit as long as we can play windwaker and metroid???
JD: Ha, ha, Castlevania's the first game I've bought for my GBA, then I bought that other crappy flying shooter game called Orion I think, but the graphics were cool.
Dave_C: Bravo, thank's for your opinion, I'm only guessing about the batterys life, but it will probably be about 2 hours, more or less, I'm comparing it to my Sony CD Burning Mavica Digital Camera which has one of the largest Backlight LCD in Digital Camera history, yet it's not as large as the PSP but close to the the GBA screen, just less width. It uses a infoLITHIUM 7.2V rechargeble battery. It's just an estimate though. No hard fact there, but oh well.
What does it take to finish a project?
0) Determination I wish I had!!!!
1) Spare time I wish I had!!!!
2) A faster comp I wish I had!!!!
3) A pet cat I wish I had!!!!
What about the handheld Neo Geo? Or Game Gear?
Seriously, PSP would have to cost a lot, and I could imagine the amount of batteries needed if it's not rechargeable batteries... and then there's the fact that CDs/DVDs can't record save files, so you're going to need to spend money on memory cards.
Ok, let me teach you guys something you might not know about the original Donkey Kong country.
A super computer was used to help create the advanced shiny graphics for the original SNES game. It was called the Challenger. Quite simply it was incompatible with the GBA. So they had to re-draw some of the graphics. If you look carefully though, Donkey Kong has the same smoothness of animation as he did on the SNES version, its just not quite as good looking.
If Nintendo were to entirely make a new computer to handle the graphics for GBA, then you could expect delay after delay, plus the worlds most expensive GBA cartridge. Just think when the SNES version came out it cost..what, £60, £70?
JD: Iridon 3D! That's the one! It's beatiful graphics has bought me but the gameplay what hell of lacking. Yes, your right about finding some help to pick my games, but I've bought the GBA(pre-ordered) and Castlevania(last one in there shelf) and Iridon 3D(plenty of them) on the same day and same order as soon as it came to the Game Crazy Store. So... The estimate price of the PSP will probably be around $200? I think Sonys greed will probably price it at $299 like the PS2 when it first came out. I don't care about a $500 gameplaying phone, so I'm not buying one, but it's a cool design for a phone though. Oh, and thanks for showing the lik-sang.com site to us, it's cool, I didn't know about this site.
[|--CIRCY--|]: I thought all the graphics of Donkey Kong were pre-rendered.
What does it take to finish a project?
0) Determination I wish I had!!!!
1) Spare time I wish I had!!!!
2) A faster comp I wish I had!!!!
3) A pet cat I wish I had!!!!
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jenswa.neocities.org
! You can also play many of the games wireless with your friends. (Heard about this stuff from E3)
