Nintendo Handheld Gaming Thread (Game Boy to DS)

[strangenova]

I'm surprised there's really no Gameboy (any of them) discussion going on. I know the DS is newer, technically via 3DS still alive due to the slot, but the GB was really where it was at from 1989 into the 2000s.

I loved my Gameboy. I spent countless hours playing mario land 2, links awakening and pokemon red. Links awakening is probably my favorite handheld game ever. The gbc zelda's were good with the interesting password mechanic. I also thoroughly enjoy a playthrough of metroid 2.

[samsonlonghair]

Those Game & Watch gallery cartridges are a great value. They're dirt cheap now.

[ExedExes]

One thing if you really want to get into things to throw games out, try a before and after game of it. Pick a first year game, then pick one towards the end of the GB alone, GB/C hybrid, or just GBC only games. Same hardware though double clocked/double ram on GBC only games to be used, and look how far it went. Or even marvel what a year to two did for the old bird. It went from Tetris, nintendo 'sports' and other basics, to Mario Land 2, Castlevania 2, Gargoyle's Quest, Final Fantasy Adventure, and more. You would think it was almost another system due to the jump in some ways.

It's an amazing evolution. There's lots of good stuff to be had for the original GB, especially near the end. I've still got all the GB titles I had over the years. Revenge of the Gator is a great pinball game. Mega Man's GB series is nice too. The Super Game Boy attachment certainly increased the lifespan of all those games for me. I once heard of a code to put in to get a credits sequence on that in a game magazine, and I did it once, turns out Hori had a hand in developing the SGB, now I can't find it anymore.
EDIT: Found them!

Those Game & Watch gallery cartridges are a great value. They're dirt cheap now.

I've spoken highly of G&W Gallery 4 (GBA) for a long time now, because the unlockables Nintendo crammed into it was nothing short of amazing. The others are also good examples of what they used to do.

[Tanooki]

Funny store in converse to what you said about keeping it all. I swore off the thing around 4 years ago because I had too many damn games and they just sat and rotted 99% of the time, and the 1% of the time it didn't it was like one or two games tops I'd dust off. I held back against my better judgement up until a few months ago. I decided to poke around out of curiosity entirely (we know) fed up with the 8/16bit Nintendo scalping situation and I wanted something old/new to do. I found that in that whole period I left it alone and a bit before prices did not go up at all on the stuff, some even went down, a few went up maybe with inflation, if that in like 95%~(?) of the cases when you stick to just the game. If you add in the manual it still wasn't really a NES/SNES gouge, maybe a buck or 5, nothing nuts, it's the box, always the damn box with Gameboy since they're the first to go and I don't want them.

In a very short amount of time I reclaimed quite a few games I used to have, and grabbed a few I never had (Ultraman, Samurai Shodown 3, Lemmings GBC, Space Invaders, Balloon Kid, Picross and others into the GBC too.) There's still a heap I used to have I will and should probably have got back like the Konami NES franchise gems(will get in color via Konami GB Collection), Gargoyle's Quest, Mega man 2(if not others.) You get the idea. All the stuff has cost me on most of it in probably $5/game on average, just a few set me back over $10 and nothing over $15.

See for yourself - http://tanooki.byethost16.com/gameboy.html

[samsonlonghair]

Those Game & Watch gallery cartridges are a great value. They're dirt cheap now.

I've spoken highly of G&W Gallery 4 (GBA) for a long time now, because the unlockables Nintendo crammed into it was nothing short of amazing. The others are also good examples of what they used to do.

I like that you get the original version of the game plus a remade version. The remade versions are typically pretty good. Characters like Mario and Toad replace stick-men. It feels like a legit remake from the ground up, not just an increased resolution and high-res texture packs like today's "remakes."

[Sarge]

I hear ya on reobtaining stuff. I traded away a decent number of games when I was younger, just because I needed new stuff. Didn't have the financial wherewithal to do otherwise. But I went on an eBay spree probably five or so years ago and reobtained any game that I had on NES. And indeed, as long as you're going for loose, or cart + manual only, it's not too bad. The boxes are what kill you, because they were always the first to go.

I guess the only system and games I need to repurchase is my old Intellivision. My favorite on there? Probably Sea Battle, although the Triple Action game was cool, too. That really was a great little system.

[ExedExes]

Fortunately, the portable market hasn't been affected by gouging as much as the other Nintendo stuff (NES/SNES/N64), which is another attractive benefit to be starting collections for the DS and GBA, and why I created such a thread like this. GB games are surprisingly affordable. I *really* need to look into GB Color stuff. I only got that for 2nd gen Pokemon, really.

For all the portable stuff, there's still a few out-liers on prices. For example there's one game on the DS I want that's holding a decent value; Konami Arcade Hits. Card only is averaging $20. Because it's Konami? It's just like all the portable Castlevania titles on the GBA and DS, still holding value well.

I like that you get the original version of the game plus a remade version. The remade versions are typically pretty good. Characters like Mario and Toad replace stick-men. It feels like a legit remake from the ground up, not just an increased resolution and high-res texture packs like today's "remakes."

The remakes of Fire and Chef are enjoyable on G&W 4.

[Tanooki]

The GBA castlevania games will set you back maybe $20, if that, and the formerly (fairly recent too) expensive double pack on gba is now a $20 game too which surprised me. I saw one earlier thinking it was under marked and checked my phone to a nice surprise.

Maybe that konami arcade (ds?) pack is expensive as it is quality, good arcade games, many of them too, and I don't recall it being around all that long. It was a short run kind of like Point Blank was.

I decided to tool around a little with the old handheld yesterday but over the Retron5. I forgot how fun but also oddly designed the GBC version of Lemmings was. I have no idea why they'd leave out the ability to speed up walking (snore) but it's otherwise very solid and no passwords to save it. Before that I put down a couple of the early stages of Warlocked which is GBC only too, game is just stunning what it's capable of on that hardware.

[strangenova]

I tried to play metroid 2 today but when I got to the first save point the game reset itself. So I started again and got corrupted graphics. Time to open it up...

[ExedExes]

I got a really nice DS case by PowerA today. It arrived from Amazon, I had no idea the seller was from the UK (an outfit called GameSeek), took a little over a week to get here but it was a good deal, holds a ton of games and it's officially licensed by Nintendo. Really good quality.

The GBA castlevania games will set you back maybe $20, if that, and the formerly (fairly recent too) expensive double pack on gba is now a $20 game too which surprised me. I saw one earlier thinking it was under marked and checked my phone to a nice surprise.

Maybe that konami arcade (ds?) pack is expensive as it is quality, good arcade games, many of them too, and I don't recall it being around all that long. It was a short run kind of like Point Blank was.

I had no idea the GBA Castlevanias went down in price. As of right now, completed eBay auctions are:

For HoD: Roughly $20
For CoTM: Roughly $10 (not bad, then!)
For AoS: Roughly $20-$25.

The Double Pack has HoD & AoS and that is going for $20 -- obviously a better pickup than doing $40-$50 for both. So I see there are ways to get your GBA Castlevania on the cheap. Glad I looked again.

Yes, Konami Arcade Hits (DS) is quality through and through. Games like the arcade Contra and Tutankham are there.

BUT, if you want good on the cheap, get the Konami Arcade Advanced on the GBA. Prices are at rock-bottom for it now, and it has Frogger and Gyruss, not on the DS collection, plus a little bonus for each game when the Konami Code is used. I could play Yie Ar Kung Fu all day.

Point Blank DS was a short run? The prices don't reflect that at all. I got mine CIB for just under $10. And it's the arcade experience! The stylus is a perfect light gun.