Retro Gaming - The Bear and Badger

Nina

Got myself an IPS screen for the GBA and a pre cut shell to actually fit it the other day, it's lovely:

Need to do some soldering this weekend to connect the brightness controls, and fit in the usb-c battery.

I've just popped the screen in for this, it seems to be held into place by a bracket pretty well. Most videos show to stick it to the shell with double sided tape. Also means that I can easily put it into a new shell if this one gets bad with time, it has this weird soft finish that feels nice (bit like you'll find on remote controls) but I'm wondering if it'll wear down.

davyK

Very nice.

Eric

That is lovely Nina, really nice colour. Great work and good luck with the soldering!

Nina

I'm not sold a 100% on the colour yet, my SP is the ice blue one, and my micro is purple, would have wanted to get something that would fit better with those, but they were not easily available with a pre cut shell and a usb-c cable battery cover. Ah well, might just get some orange joy con shells from aliexpress and bring more consistency in console colours that way.

Was considering doing the audio mod as well (change speaker) but there's really no point in that, the default is loud enough if you really want the sound to come from the GBA, and otherwise you'd just plug in headphones. It's not really gonna sound any better than what was programmed / made for the games.

Still getting used to the screen, the pixels look different than on the DSLite I was playing on (IPS has a higher resolution) but it's not off or wrong aspect ratio or anything, so that's good. You can also see some weird blending in Harvest Moon at the bottom right with the little date / time screen, when walking from one area into the other you see some awkward colour changes as it loads the new area. Guess that just wasn't visible on other screens.

Definitely the most comfortable way to play between SP/Micro and DSLite (GBA Macro mod), really happy with that.

retroking1981

I was actually looking into these recently along with Game Boy Colour ones.

Then I wondered how long they would last with standard batteries and thought better of it. Can't imagine them lasting long with a screen of that quality.

retroking1981

Nina wrote:

Definitely the most comfortable way to play between SP/Micro and DSLite (GBA Macro mod), really happy with that.

Ergonomically speaking the OG GBA is by far Nintendo's best handheld.

Nina

Most of the GBA videos I saw did battery tests, but I forgot. I mainly want with the usb-c option as it seemed easy and means I could charge and play. It wasn't too expensive, it's just a battery pack and a little print board connected to that that fits in the battery slot.

Some people mighty prefer the ags-101 screen (backlit sp screen, but the later versions) and I think battery life is comparable to that. 101 is harder to get though, going up in price. The ips screen is really easy and this is version 2, so some screen tearing issues should be solved. I've only played Harvest Moon on it, so haven't tested it excessively.

Blue Swirl

Nina wrote:

Got myself an IPS screen for the GBA and a pre cut shell to actually fit it the other day, it's lovely:

That's a really good looking unit.

GurtTractor

davyK

The mister is looking a bit special. As well as some consoles it's now recreating the arcade board used by Cave for DoDonPachi without a hitch.

davyK

Latest PAL upgrade from SNES to SFC. In glorious condition. One of my favourite titles this.

EvilRedEye

ooooh!

davyK

Manual in great nick. There's even a little quick guide card. Amazing how JP people look after their games.

Eric

That's lovely davy. Beautiful condition.

regmcfly

I grabbed that in 2019 in Tokyo. Upsets me that it doesn't have the name in English up the spine like all the rest do!

davyK

Still after SMW, YI, Pilotwings and F-Zero. Might stop at that. Not sure. Maybe the DKC series as it's quite easy to get hold of.

regmcfly

I have all of them, including DKC EXCEPT Pilotwings and now I'm off to ebay Japan.

regmcfly

Just bought it for £11. Fuck this thread

hunk

What is this Aleste Compile/M2 thing I'm seeing plastered all over the web. I NEED it!

davyK

regmcfly wrote:

Just bought it for £11. Fuck this thread

davyK

Enjoying trying a out a batch of GBA games @Moot_Geeza sold me. Using my much neglected GBA player on the Gamecube. I have an SP but I rarely touch that either.

I'll say one thing - Kururin on GBA is a lot tougher than the Gamecube version - it's toned down quite a bit on GC but it's different. So it's good to see it wasn't just a lift and shift. The GBA games look great on the TV but it might be better experienced on the handheld. Will see.

HOTD Pinball is the gem I reckoned it was, as is G&W Gallery. And I like pit puzzles so Columns Crown pleases me too.

Eric

Nice! I loved my GBA and regret selling my haul to get a PSP. I'll probably end up repurchasing at somepoint.

I splurged on an immaculate boxed NES yesterday that was on sale locally. Went round and he had an Atari Jaguar for sale too and impulsivey ended up picking that up too thinking I'd pick up Tempest 2000.

Would have been wise to check game pricing out first though most are £45 upwards.

Moot_Geeza

Pinball of the Dead is well worth learning, hidden gem for sure.

retroking1981

Anyone here ever played Mega Man Legends/64?

I played the first hour yesterday. Its another classic 2D game that never made the transition to 3D particularly well, but like Castlevania on N64 which I completed recently, I'm finding myself intrigued and enjoying my time with it, despite it having aged quite a bit.

It plays like an old skool first person shooter but in a third person viewpoint. You move forward/back and turn with the D-Pad and use the shoulder buttons to strafe. Feels odd at first but I soon got used to it.

I got a couple of games on the go atm so I'm not gonna play any further yet. I basically booted it up to see if the ROM was worth keeping or deleting.

So does anyone here rate it?

davyK

Didn't even know it existed.

nick_md

Same.

I never played any Megaman games back in the day but it's a series I've gravitated to over the last 5 years or so, mainly the original games on nes emu. Last week I downloaded some kind of new nes style fan game, which these posts have reminded me I should play.

davyK

Only one I played was on wiiware. Tough.

EvilRedEye

I've been playing the new fan translation of Bahamut Lagoon for the SNES that came out the other day. The project was lead by the Higen guy and he's done a lot of work localising how the game renders English text and stuff for a polished localised version.

It's a bit like a Square-developed version of Fire Emblem except you have four characters to a moveable unit and then each unit has a CPU-controlled dragon that follows it around that autonomously attacks enemies and heals etc.

retroking1981

davyK wrote:

Didn't even know it existed.

nick_md wrote:

Same.

I never played any Megaman games back in the day but it's a series I've gravitated to over the last 5 years or so, mainly the original games on nes emu. Last week I downloaded some kind of new nes style fan game, which these posts have reminded me I should play.

Legends came out for PS in 98, 64 was a barebones port of it that came out in the US in 2001 and never made it to PAL territories.

There was a prequel called The Misadventures of Tron Bonne and a sequel called Legends 2 that came out in the UK 2000 and 2001 respectively. Both were PS exclusives.

retroking1981

EvilRedEye wrote:

I've been playing the new fan translation of Bahamut Lagoon for the SNES that came out the other day.

This reminds me that I really need to get around the Goemon 2 translation on SNES, Legend of the Mystical Ninja was such a great game.

Still waiting on a translation of Goemon 3 unfortunately.

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