darkside

A local store is doing this. I can get a Black (from Japan) Game Boy Advance with the Afterburner installed (by them) for $129.99. I'm really tempted. They charge $70 (total for afterburner and installation) to install them if you already have a Game Boy Advance, but I would prefer to have a black one and sell my platinum.

Does this seem like a good deal? I would much rather have my Afterburner installed by a professional than screw it up myself.

ten41

Use these guys http://www.gbabis.com/


They charge 110 plus shipping


I used them to have my GBA modified. They are in Atlanta, i sent them my GBA from Toronto and they got it back to me within a week. It works great.

darkside

They are backordered to mid August. Don't know if I want to wait that long. I guess I will pay the extra $20 to have it tomorrow.

sniper308

There is no way I'd pay this much ... I got a light shield advance for $10 & am quite happy with that. You are paying almost twice the cost of a GBA to get one with an afterburner. I say if you want it go for it, but there's no way I'd pay that. Of course people are paying high prices for the black GBAs anyway, so I'd say if you are bent on getting one with an afterburner already installed and want it now, this is probably a good deal for you.

Kellehair

Save your money. You don't need any special lights. Even Castlevania looks good if you sit near a good lightbulb.

Michael T Hudson

I would go for it. I love my GBA but I wish I had the light in it.

Trigger

I bet you can find a Sega Game Gear for pretty cheap - they've got a backlight pre-installed.

Outlaw

That would be fine but there's no Castlevania and the batteries of the GameGear only last about 2 hours .

I say if you have the extra money go for it, its the best light out there. I got mine a couple weeks ago (with a dimmer dial) and I've been playing my GBA a lot more than I used to. The battery life is still very reasonable....around 10 hours. If you don't want to spend the extra money, the light shield advance is supposed to be pretty good too. I also understand that www.lan-kwei.com has them for $110 and ImportHQ is installing the AB for them (very professional installer), don't know what their turn around time is.

if you think about it $129 isn't "that" much for what your getting: $70 GBA + $35 AB already brings you up to $105, then $25 for the installation (because its a pain in the ass to do yourself).

I put my GBA/AB to the test this fourth of july when I traveled 3 hours away to Detroit, I was playing my Mario Kart on the way back even though it was pitch black in the car, the time flew by.

darkside

Got it today and I love it. Yes I spent too much, but its a guilty pleasure. Tried the light shield and still wasn't happy, but the Afterburner is amazing. Its what I wanted and I actually believe it is worth the cost. I wish I could have installed it myself, but from the horror stories I've heard it seemed worth paying the installation fee.

Now to do something with my Platinum. Don't know if I should sell it or keep it as a backup. I will probably keep it in reserve.

Trigger

The afterburner isn't a backlight exactly, but it appears to simulate one - I know it's not as good as the Sega Game Gear in terms of visibilty and even distribution of light, but how close does it come? I'm curious. One of the things that has kept me from buying a GBA is that it's not backlit (the other factor is that it's a Nintendo product )

darkside

It's more of a frontlight I guess, kind of like some of the color Palm and Ipaqs (though the new T and NR series Sony Clie Palms are true back lit LCD screens and are beautiful). On my unit the light is very evenly distrubuted and the colors and details are very easy to see. There is still kind of a point in medium light where you might have to angle the screen a bit for the best view but its still much improved over the non lit version. Where the Afterburner is most amazing is in low light and darkness. The screen is very bright and easy to see and believe me the unit catches peoples attention. I already had a person stop and ask about it while I was waiting for my food at Chilis. I decided to play a little Chu Chu Rocket and a guy stopped and asked when Nintendo had released a GBA with a light built in.

Whether or not the Afterburner is worth the cost is up to the individual. If I had to do it over again I would, but for some the cost is just too high. I definitely recommend having someone experienced with the installation do it. From what I've heard its really easy to screw up.

Josh H

I've always been happy with the Light Shield Advance. The original model with the yellow light worked good, and the new model with the white light is fantastic.

So there's no way I'd spend that kind of money on the Afterburner.