Gaming Let's talk about the original GBA's screen.

[metroid maniac]

I mean holy crap, it's dark. In fact, I think it's even darker than the Game Boy Color's screen.

When playing GBC games it is, owing to a hardware quirk that results in dimmer colors being used.
https://gbdev.gg8.se/wiki/articles/Video_Display#RGB_Translation_by_GBAs

I don't use the backward compatibility on my GBA very much.

 

[nWo]

In 1991, my dad got for me a original Game Boy system. It was so dope at the time, being able to play Kirby's Dream Land (my first GB game ever), Mario Land, WWF Superstars and Batman. It was incredible (but it used up batteries like crazy ) I played on our living room, right next to the window. It looked okay; on those times, a kid did not think about a lit screen or something, it was just pure fun. Sadly, my system was put on sale or something not so long after that. Many years pass with SNES and N64 on my life, then I got an GB Advance and man, it was a really big improvement. SNES games on the small screen! CastleVania!! wherever you go. Those where the days... I did not think that bad of the screen, I was very happy. The batteries problem was still there, tho that was my primary issue.

But yeah, after the lit screens came out, I guess nobody wants to go back to the old ones. So, it is kind of a "time" perspective. If you grew up with the original GB times, you would not see it as THAT bad, but if you first tried the lit ones, then yeah, going back is a nightmare.

All in all, so many great games and memories to this day. I still love to play the Advance games from time to time.

 

[metroid maniac]

In 1991, my dad got for me a original Game Boy system. It was so dope at the time, being able to play Kirby's Dream Land (my first GB game ever), Mario Land, WWF Superstars and Batman. It was incredible (but it used up batteries like crazy ) I played on our living room, right next to the window. It looked okay; on those times, a kid did not think about a lit screen or something, it was just pure fun. Sadly, my system was put on sale or something not so long after that. Many years pass with SNES and N64 on my life, then I got an GB Advance and man, it was a really big improvement. SNES games on the small screen! CastleVania!! wherever you go. Those where the days... I did not think that bad of the screen, I was very happy. The batteries problem was still there, tho that was my primary issue.

But yeah, after the lit screens came out, I guess nobody wants to go back to the old ones. So, it is kind of a "time" perspective. If you grew up with the original GB times, you would not see it as THAT bad, but if you first tried the lit ones, then yeah, going back is a nightmare.

All in all, so many great games and memories to this day. I still love to play the Advance games from time to time.

I still kinda like the old game boys with unlit screens. For those games, colors look really saturated and unnatural on backlit screens.
When I'm at home and I can easily find a well lit spot, I prefer to play those games on original unmodified hardware.
For the record, my first Game Boy was the frontlit GBA SP.

 

[patters]

When I received my GBA as a Christmas gift in 2003 I was disgusted with how awful that screen was. I, like OP, could not believe that this had been qualified as fit for a real product. I had owned an Atari Lynx 12 years earlier that had a way more viewable backlit colour LCD.

 

[emcintosh]

I mean holy crap, it's dark. In fact, I think it's even darker than the Game Boy Color's screen.
How did people put up with this?

Worm lights that plugged into the link cable port.

And eventually a CCFL flood light. It took its own batteries and doubled the thickness and weight of the console, but the illumination was great. https://www.ign.com/articles/2002/02/22/flood-light-review

Some people didn't put up with it and developed a frontlight kit. I really wanted an Afterburner, but they were expensive and I was afraid of damaging the console.

There was also an inferior version, the Halo Light, which had the light as a separate piece and you only needed to replace the screen lens: