GBA has the benefit of handling all games from the OG to the GBA games without being too bulky like the DS line. Plus GbA has some great re-editions of SNES games as well as Pokémon FireRed which is a nice revisit of the OG Pokemon (in my eyes). The backlight was awesome! The lack of headphones, not so much but it prepared me for the future (looking at you, Apple). The original GBA shape was much nicer though. I wish they had made a landscape console with backlight.
Luckily the GB(A) consoles are the easiest to mod nowadays, to add backlight, rechargeable battery, better audio... IMHO this is still the best way to enjoy GB/GBA games, instead of emulators which can be buggy/force me to stay on the computer (or worse, on my phone)
This is the way. Still have my AGS-101 SP stock besides new shell and buttons because, frankly, it doesn't need to be modded. But my GBA has an IPS screen, rechargeable usb-c battery, and hi-fi amp. Slap in a flash cart and it is easily one of the best ways to play any Gameboy game anywhere you want
I have everything except the amp mod. What does it do? I’ve heard it quiets noise (which the screen and battery mod apparently contribute to) but I haven’t seen a good comparison of original audio vs the upgraded amp.
The lack of headphones? I had to look it up. The GBA SP didn’t have a port, but the original and the micro GBAs did have it.
There’s some awesome mods to restore headphone jacks in the SP, but I myself prefer the original GBA form factor anyway.
Actually, my preferred ways to play GBA are in the following order of preference:
Analogue Pocket
GameCube GameBoy Player (with a SNES controller using an adapter I intended to link but the Etsy shop appears to be gone now)
GBA has the benefit of handling all games from the OG to the GBA games without being too bulky like the DS line. Plus GbA has some great re-editions of SNES games as well as Pokémon FireRed which is a nice revisit of the OG Pokemon (in my eyes). The backlight was awesome! The lack of headphones, not so much but it prepared me for the future (looking at you, Apple). The original GBA shape was much nicer though. I wish they had made a landscape console with backlight.
Luckily the GB(A) consoles are the easiest to mod nowadays, to add backlight, rechargeable battery, better audio... IMHO this is still the best way to enjoy GB/GBA games, instead of emulators which can be buggy/force me to stay on the computer (or worse, on my phone)
This is the way. Still have my AGS-101 SP stock besides new shell and buttons because, frankly, it doesn't need to be modded. But my GBA has an IPS screen, rechargeable usb-c battery, and hi-fi amp. Slap in a flash cart and it is easily one of the best ways to play any Gameboy game anywhere you want
I have everything except the amp mod. What does it do? I’ve heard it quiets noise (which the screen and battery mod apparently contribute to) but I haven’t seen a good comparison of original audio vs the upgraded amp.
The lack of headphones? I had to look it up. The GBA SP didn’t have a port, but the original and the micro GBAs did have it.
There’s some awesome mods to restore headphone jacks in the SP, but I myself prefer the original GBA form factor anyway.
Actually, my preferred ways to play GBA are in the following order of preference:
Analogue Pocket
GameCube GameBoy Player (with a SNES controller using an adapter I intended to link but the Etsy shop appears to be gone now)
MiSTer GBA core
OG GBA with a screen mod