I've found gold! Or at least something close to it...GBA Micro! ;)

Really nice surprise.
I'm actually regretting not getting one when I had the chance.

Back in the day I remember seeing those in the Flea Market, new.
But at the time I had a Black OG GBA, and felt I didn't needed anymore than that and Oracle of Seasons.

Now that I know they're practically and nearly scarce, I'm scratching my head wondering why I didn't got the one I was offered one sunday in 2005.
If I recall correctly, the GBA Micro can't play GBC cartridges, right? If so, I think that's what I can recall as the reason why I denied getting it in the first place.

JuanBaNaNa said:

Really nice surprise.
I'm actually regretting not getting one when I had the chance.

Back in the day I remember seeing those in the Flea Market, new.
But at the time I had a Black OG GBA, and felt I didn't needed anymore than that and Oracle of Seasons.

Now that I know they're practically and nearly scarce, I'm scratching my head wondering why I didn't got the one I was offered one

Click to expand...

A local webshop here in the Netherlands has enough of them, but depending on the condition they are REALLY expensive! At least 130 euro's with the most expensive one being 300,- (as new in box). I think I got mine for about 120 about 3 years ago from that same website. It's a really cool tiny little thing and the screen is awesome...but WAY to tiny! Or I am just getting old.

JuanBaNaNa said:

If I recall correctly, the GBA Micro can't play GBC cartridges, right? If so, I think that's what I can recall as the reason why I denied getting it in the first place.

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Correct, that is indeed one of the missing features of the GBA Micro that it does not play any GB or GBC cartridges. The only option "might" be to use a modern flash cart and emulate the GB/GBC and play those games that way. It's not exactly the same, i know, but you are playing on the actual GBA hardware.

Archerite said:

A local webshop here in the Netherlands has enough of them, but depending on the condition they are REALLY expensive! At least 130 euro's with the most expensive one being 300,- (as new in box). I think I got mine for about 120 about 3 years ago from that same website. It's a really cool tiny little thing and the screen is awesome...but WAY to tiny! Or I am just getting old.

Click to expand...

That store probably has all GB Micros in existence lel.

Archerite said:

Correct, that is indeed one of the missing features of the GBA Micro that it does not play any GB or GBC cartridges. The only option "might" be to use a modern flash cart and emulate the GB/GBC and play those games that way. It's not exactly the same, i know, but you are playing on the actual GBA hardware.

Click to expand...

One of those is about $4000mxn in my country, that's roughly $215USD.
But just remembered about this which should fit better in a GBA Micro.

The thing that would make a Micro better than a DS-Lite, is the Pixel Perfect screen.
Although tiny, games should look as they were intended to be seen.

JuanBaNaNa said:

That store probably has all GB Micros in existence lel.

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Hahaha, sounds about right . They used to be extremely rare but now they suddenly have more than 10 of them in stock!! see here if you like, please ignore the dutch language and the crappy website look. Bought from them multiple times over the years so it's reliable. But these prices are just INSANE!

A Wii on the other hand is just 9,99 (console only) A Wii mini just around 22 euro's! But I have far to many of those....stopped counting at 15

JuanBaNaNa said:

One of those is about $4000mxn in my country, that's roughly $215USD.
But just remembered about this which should fit better in a GBA Micro.

Click to expand...

That is insane! You should look at the Everdrive GBA from Krikzz. Currently in stock and $104. No idea what shipping and importing to Mexico would cost though. Or maybe from StoneAgeGamer while a little more expansive are in the US which might help with shipping maybe?

There is another one that I have...I had to get it from spain as that was the only webshop that sold it and looked reliable enough. But forgot the name of that one though.
Either way ALL these options are below the $215 you mention. It's not that I don't believe you ofcourse....more that I am shocked it costs that much!

JuanBaNaNa said:

The thing that would make a Micro better than a DS-Lite, is the Pixel Perfect screen.
Although tiny, games should look as they were intended to be seen.

Click to expand...

I am not sure I can agree with you here. The screen on my DS and DS-Lite are very nice and I remember playing Zelda Minish Cap mostly on those actually. The are hardware compatible with the GBA and do not scale the graphics, you just get some black borders on your screen. It's adjustable I think...not really sure anymore since it's been a while.

But I do know the image on my DS'es looked great. Way better than my GBA SP and let's not mention the "original GBA" without the backlight. But if you meant playing on a "Real GBA" then its true, even though it's super tiny it's the best looking GBA screen.

Edit: And just as I hit "post" I found the box of DS / GBA stuff I mentioned! GBA Micro is charging now!

Archerite said:

Either way ALL these options are below the $215 you mention. It's not that I don't believe you ofcourse....more that I am shocked it costs that much!

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Mexican Government is actually the reason why everything is expensive.
First, there are shipping taxes we have to pay.
Then importation/exportation taxes, that you have to pay if you buy from outside.
AND THEN this tax called IVA wich means Added Value Import (Importe al Valor Agregado) which is around 20/40% of the product's price... which is why I rarely can afford nice things.

Archerite said:

But I do know the image on my DS'es looked great. Way better than my GBA SP and let's not mention the "original GBA" without the backlight. But if you meant playing on a "Real GBA" then its true, even though it's super tiny it's the best looking GBA screen.

Click to expand...

If interested, you could watch this video that compares every "way to" play GBA games:
Ah yes, I mixed information as always. Anyway, interesting video about GBA games.

JuanBaNaNa said:

Mexican Government is actually the reason why everything is expensive.
First, there are shipping taxes we have to pay.
Then importation/exportation taxes, that you have to pay if you buy from outside.
AND THEN this tax called IVA wich means Added Value Import (Importe al Valor Agregado) which is around 20/40% of the product's price... which is why I rarely can afford nice things.

Click to expand...

That's really unfair you have so much extra import costs. We have it here to...but only if from outside Europe and if they happen to inspect a packege more closely. Had stuff from china that was held which was just 40 euro's. Ended up being nearly 70 including everything! But also had packages over 100 euro's going through without issues. Hit and miss I guess.

JuanBaNaNa said:

If interested, you could watch this video that compares every "way to" play GBA games:
Ah yes, I mixed information as always. Anyway, interesting video about GBA games.

Click to expand...

I know that channel and I most likely saw it before...but I might rewatch it. Thanks.

I have a preference for the Game Boy Player almost exclusively, but I like the GBA Micro a lot. Great find!

niuus said:

I have a preference for the Game Boy Player almost exclusively, but I like the GBA Micro a lot. Great find!

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Understandable I actually have two of them...gameboy player's....and the worst thing is that I can't even remember using them even ONCE!! Maybe when I was testing multiple ways to dump/verify an original GBA cartridge that I tested that method as well. Don't really remember as it's nearly 2 years ago already!! ...time goes WAY to fast it's not fun anymore!

Tiny update: Have been playing a bit of Zelda Minish Cap over the last week! I had forgoten how to do the most basic things, like how to use all the objects I had already collected so far! While I did not want to do it at first...I got REALLY stuck and did not know what to do to continue and had to look up where and how to get the books missing from the library!

I do like to figure things out on my own though....it's just when I get REALLY stuck somewhere I tend to give up. Which is what I did for about two years before now returning to the game! But I did only lookup the bits I did not know and figured the rest out on my own. Like how to get to certain places on the map.

Anyway I am in the waterdrop palace (or something named really close to this) now and got really far into that dungeon before some creature that could not be killed knocked me out! At least....I could not figure out how to do it! and it kept attacking with a few of it's friends and they got me.

Should probably make a new blog post about continuing the game since it's not directly related to the GBA Micro. I am not even playing on it...that screen is TINY!!! Using my DS to actually play now, hahaha

broo i had that exact gba micro. The memories of... actually not playing on the micro that much because i also had the sp :/

EpikJimmer said:

broo i had that exact gba micro. The memories of... actually not playing on the micro that much because i also had the sp :/

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Beyond just "testing" how it looks, maybe a few laps of mario kart a couple of minutes.....I don't think i have actually played on it either! But man did I WANT to have it!

I did also play mostly on my SP back in the day. But these days I mostly play on my DS since it's got a better and bigger screen. Espacially that last one is important now I am getting older...unfortunately. I do have magnifying glasses for soldering and stuff....but they also help enlarge the screens of handheld gaming. But even with those the Micro is just a bit to tiny to make it comfortable, hahaha

for me, since I don't have my past GBA games, nor do I have a DS lite/GBA, I just play them on my 3DS-- i mean buying them
(no, nso doesn't count. Paying 50$ a year just to get 7 out of the 1538 GBA games is NOT enough)

EpikJimmer said:

for me, since I don't have my past GBA games, nor do I have a DS lite/GBA, I just play them on my 3DS-- i mean buying them
(no, nso doesn't count. Paying 50$ a year just to get 7 out of the 1538 GBA games is NOT enough)

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That's too bad. For some reason I did not buy that many when I bought my GBA SP back in the day....which I thought was not THAT long ago but that was in like 2004-2005-ish!!!
And while I did buy a small number of them on E-bay...I always thought they were real! But 2 years ago I discovered they were fakes/clone's and the batteries died in all of them...lost my 100% complete Zelda Link to the Past this way!!!

Since I have found a reliable webshop nearby I expanded my collection and re-bought the fake ones and now have about 16+ GBA games. And I sometimes "Try-before-I-buy" to see if a game is worth it. Also got a few more consoles from there....it's a problem!

But the biggest thing I am really looking forward on is trying to make my own homebrew game run on the GBA! Not that it's complete or 100% functional...there is a Preview Demo for the 3DS you can try if you want. (see here)

So many ideas and not enough spare time to work on 99.9% of it, hahaha