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Hardware > GBA SP w/backlit screen

#57568 - SmileyDude - Mon Oct 17, 2005 2:00 am

So, I went and upgraded my 1st gen SP with a new 2nd gen SP over the weekend -- highly recommended if you like the new screen of the micro, but the micro is just too micro for your hands (or if you care about GB/GBC compatibility).

I can't say enough about how nice the screen is -- I've seen shades of blue that I didn't realize that I had been missing on the original GBA and SP. It's also really nice to have white be white and black be black.

Another thing of note -- I was impressed with the screen alot, and then I hit the brightness button. Wow. This is a very good upgrade for the SP.

For those in the states, if you want to upgrade, you should check out EB Games. They had a deal where you trade in a GBA (original -- not SP) and 5 games, and you only need to pay $29.99 for the SP. I went through my collection and found a pile of games that I never really cared for and dug out my original GBA as well. Not a bad deal at all. Especially considering that normally they would've only given about $20 for all of that stuff.

You may have to call around and find an EB that knows about this deal -- I went to the Burlington, MA location (on Rt.3 -- not the mall), and they had no idea. The Burlington Mall location (about a mile away), on the other hand, did. So, YMMV.

I haven't had a chance to dump the BIOS yet on this one -- I'm not expecting large changes, but it would be nice if Nintendo changed the BIOS by at least one byte so that we could detect the new display type. They did it for the DS, so it's not a stretch that they would do it here as well.
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dennis

#57573 - DekuTree64 - Mon Oct 17, 2005 2:35 am

Ooh, thanks for the tip about the EB deal. I never got an SP, so I still have my old original to trade in :) Although I don't have 5 crappy games to go with it.

I've seen the new screen in action though, and it is indeed amazing. I just hope they have enough sense to upgrade the DS too, the current screens on it are so washed out in comparison.
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The best optimization is to do nothing at all.
Therefore a fully optimized program doesn't exist.
-Deku

#57578 - tepples - Mon Oct 17, 2005 3:20 am

They don't take 5 homebrew games on a CD, do they? ;-)
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#57619 - SmileyDude - Mon Oct 17, 2005 12:26 pm

DekuTree64 wrote:
I've seen the new screen in action though, and it is indeed amazing. I just hope they have enough sense to upgrade the DS too, the current screens on it are so washed out in comparison.


You are absolutely right on that -- I'm actually surprised that they are both backlit. They don't look like they're both the same kind of screen. The DS screen doesn't get the same blacks and whites that the new SP screen gets.
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dennis

#57966 - wwcube - Wed Oct 19, 2005 5:32 pm

SmileyDude wrote:
I haven't had a chance to dump the BIOS yet on this one -- I'm not expecting large changes, but it would be nice if Nintendo changed the BIOS by at least one byte so that we could detect the new display type. They did it for the DS, so it's not a stretch that they would do it here as well.

It was same as 1st gen SP. So, We can not detect 2nd gen SP by BIOS checksum.
GBmicro also has same BIOS. (I have dump the BIOS to GBAMP CF using my own dumper.)