What's the best way to play Game Boy Advance games today?

[ExedExes]

AGS-101 GBA SP
Retron 5
Game Boy Player
DS Lite

I've got all of those and they're all the best ways to play. 2 portable options and 2 console options!

GBA games save three different ways, with batteries (SRAM), EEPROM, and flash memory. You can find out what each one has by opening the cartridge up.

[Hazerd]

Backlit Original GBA is the way i play.

Looking to get myself a Frontlit GBC next, but those can go for over $100 as the lighting process is more complex than backlighting a GBA. Wish Nintendo would of backlit the GBA originally, i mean it was a way past a decade from when the Game Gear was released and even that had lighting.

[jmbarnes101]

No mention of the GBA Micro??? It's a quality little system and another solid option for GBA games.

[darsparx]

Yeah maybe if you're only looking to play gba games. I honestly think that thing is too small. They should've done a backlit ogba instead of that tiny thing

[Tanooki]

I know everyone has their own feelings on your questions so here's mine:

Is there a particular model I should be looking for? Yes and no, depends what you want and how you want it. You can use the GBA (wide looks like controller sorta), the SP (001 which is backlit, dimmer but fine), the SP 'Brighter Model' (101 it's backlit, bright and sharp), and then the GB Micro (tiny, but clear and crisp.) Also the old original Nintendo DS and the DS Lite will also play the stuff too. The DS isn't very bright but still good, just lower glow, but the DSLite is bright and sharp I think it shares the same panel tech as the Micro and the Brighter SP.

The question is though, do you ONLY care about GBA or do you like Gameboy and Gameboy Color? If you want 8bit gameboy, scratch the DS models and the Micro, they're GBA only. If not everything is fair game depending on the comfort of each model and how the screen looks to you.

That aside you have another three good choices yet. 1) GB Player, needs it+disc and plays anything GB/GBC/GBA on your TV via Gamecube. 2) Retron 5 which plays anything GB/GBC/GBA but also 8/16bit Nintendo stuff and Genesis too. 3) Modded original GBA someone stuffs the 101 Brighter screen into.

So ask yourself, do you want a portable or something on your TV? If you don't like handhelds and want it TV based then research the GB Player and the Retron5, see which of those you prefer best for audio/visual quality and options. The GBPlayer is basically a stock gameboy with a slight visual filter option while the R5 is an emulator android box that has all those emulation options for audio/visuals plus save states/loading you get on PC.


Also, it seems like Game Boy Advance game saves are stored on the cartridge itself? All Gameboy games, any Gameboy version save on the game cartridge itself. GB, GBC, and around 20 GBA games use one of 2 model of battery the 1616 or the 5025(larger cell) to store the data. Most GBA games though have a chip that just stores it, no fears of data loss from dead batteries.

Anything else you wish to know? Personally I like using original hardware, but I do also have both the GB Player I've held onto and the Retron5 as well and I'll go between any of them depending on my mood or if I want to take it with me. I've got the NES style GBA SP, Micro, a GBC, GB Pocket, and original GB too for on the go.

[Hazerd]

The original GBA SP is frontlit, the 101 model was actually backlit.

[darsparx]

Well the 001 isn't bad unless you have one that the L or R decide to be iffy. Where mine is guilty....feels like it needs to be opened and cleaned really well or something.

[Sarge]

Yeah, I remember having to SRAM-patch almost everything when I was flashcarting. Tons of GBA games are EEPROM.

And yes, the GB Player is basically the GBA version of the Super Game Boy. Real carts all around.

[BoneSnapDeez]

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[Tanooki]

If you don't mind the $140 price tag new or a bit less used, the Retron5 would probably be best, though I can't guarantee you some imported chinese swiss army emulation box will last anywhere near as long as a GB Player+Gamecube will. The up side is, if you have any old NES, SNES, Famicom, Super Famicom, Genesis or Megadrive carts they work too...and all in 720p over HDMI.


One thing to note, natively the R5 will not save a game back to your cartridge, it saves to the system storage chip instead. You have to through the menu tell it to write back to the cart to put it on there. Sucks but not, why not? It works as a way to recover/store back ups of your save games -- very vital if you're up to doing a battery swap if you suspect you have a dying pokemon cartridge or something of value.