Some Gamecube/GBA questions
 

Hi all, I posted a topic about a week ago concerning the Zelda and Megaman collections. Since then, due to various posts from that thread, I have investigated the idea of purchasing a Gameboy Advance to go along with it. So get ready for another round of Newbie questions concerning Gamecube.

One, Gameboy Advance and Gameboy Advance SP. What's the difference? Is one better?

Two, I'm think about getting a GBA both to interact with my Gamecube games (like Animal Crossing) as well as play some old-school NES and SuperNes games on my Gamecube (through the GBA player). My question is, do you use the Gamecube controllers when you do that, or do you control it with the GBA?

Three, what the Hell is an e-reader?

gameboy sp is much better.

yes, you use the gamecube controller for the gba games.

e-reader. allows you to acquire additional cards that will unlock or add bonus stuff to some games.

This is what I use when playing gb/gba games through my gamecube/gb player:
http://image.lik-sang.com/images//la...ller-black.jpg

Great controller, but you have to import it.

I've tried using the normal Gamecube controllers, but they just don't feel right.

I don't have a GB, but...

SP has a backlight, rechargable battery and a better form factor (closing lid).

I'm fighting the urge to buy a GBA SP. Re-discovering Animal Crossing recently has me wanting to check out the GBA 'extras' in some GameCube games (smart move by Nintendo to sell more hardware, it's working).

I don't care for the platform games (Mario) or the Castlevania type games. But the RPG games are calling to me. I'm not really an RPG nut though. Maybe it's just because I'm anticipating FFX-2 for Christmas and that has me in an RPG mood.

Any thoughts on pushing me to or away from buying a GBA?

Btw, if you do get the Gamecube and GB player, I'd definately check out the GB/GBA Zelda games. They're pretty cheap now, and are all excellent games. They all play very similar to the SNES Zelda, and play great on a big TV.

Just be warned that there are 2 versions of Zelda: Link's Awakening. The original (black and white version) and the Game Boy Color version (labeled Zelda DX, which is in color, and has an extra dungeon).

Cool, thanks for the replies, everyone.

I'm interested in this because I'm getting the Zelda Collection with the system, and plan on picking up the MegaMan collection next year. Plus I understand that with GBA Metroid you can unlock the original Metroid on the GC Metroid. And Animal crossing has a bunch of unlockable games as well. So with the GBA and GC combined, it's almost like having access to a NES and SuperNES.

Any good deals on peripheals?

I HATE the SP form factor. If you have larger hands, I found the original GBA works much better - especially with extended playing sessions.

The GBA Player lets you program the buttons on the GC controllers when you play GBA games AFAIK.

If you put five bucks down on Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles at EB they'll throw in free Nintendo GC/GBA link cables. Animal Crossing not only has playable NES games but most can be downloaded to the GBA. The Animal Crossing e-cards had a bunch of cool stuff like games, designs, songs and presents. Other cool GC/GBA link games are Zelda: Windwaker, Pac-man VS (free with game), Sonic Adventure games, Splinter Cell and Wario World. Classic Nes games are avaliable as e-cards and Super Mario Advance 4: SMB 3 have cool e-card features.

I've owned both the original Game Boy Advance and the SP, and the SP is far and away better than the original. There's just no comparison.

Backlight, more compact, and rechargable battery. The rechargable battery is especially awesome.

The only downside is the form factor of the SP. The Game Boy Color (the same shape as the SP) worked okay because it was thicker, but the SP is very thin and so it's a little less comfortable than the Advance. After a few hours, though, you stop noticing it as much.

I agree that the old design was better (more comfortable) but the pros of the SP far surpass the one con.

How is the gba player for the cube? Do the games actually look decent, or do they look to bad to play?

A game such as say mario and luigi or final fantasy tactics look good enough to play, say as good as snes games use to? Or does the picture simply look like pixels...

Wondering if it's worth it to pick up a player, the 50 bucks seems a bit expensive unless it looks decent at least.. Thanks

Also, you gotta buy a headphone adaptor if you want headphones? Is that correct, seems pretty silly..

Much better. Those both are more like PlayStation than Super Nintendo.

Yeah, but the adaptor is like four bucks.

You don't need the adapter to use headphones on the TV if your TV or stereo has a jack for it. the music plays through your tv speakers.

I don't understand why people want to listen to GBA music. Technically it's all bee boo beep and aesthetically it's not much better. Why not just listen to your own music while you play?

:whofart:

Your crazy. :p

Music from the 8-bit-16-bit era was great. Back then they actually had to have talent, instead of sticking in license crap like they do now in alot of games. Even when it's not license it still sucks the majority of the time, totally forgettable music. You won't be remembering Halo's,Splinter Cells,Resident Evil,DMC,ED etc etc music like people do with older gen systems. Again, I'm not saying all music has been bad the past two gens, but a lot more than usual has been crap.

CLEARLY you have not played any GBA games with headphones. While the sounds that come out of the included little speaker are pretty crappy, the stereo MUSIC that comes out of the headphones is actually pretty amazing. Try headphones with WarioWare or any Castlevania game before you make your judgement.

Well, I take back part of what I said. You're right, I've never listened to GBA music through headphones, so I shouldn't judge it from a technical standpoint. However, I still have exactly zero interest in listening to videogame music when I can listen to something like Radiohead instead. In fact, I play all games on mute, not just GBA games, and have done so for years.

in many cases, the music is context sensitive and will heighten the gaming experience.

only exception is in racing games. like project gotham racing 2; i turn off the music.

i'm the opposite; i have 0 interest in listening to my own music while playing games. too distracting.

I was fond of the original Ridge Racers soundtrack and I loved one song from the original Gran Turismo in-game soundtrack for some reason fit the game for me as well. I still need to find that on cd. I could listen to I think it was called "As Heaven is Wide" by Garbage constantly, great song and fit the game imo of course.

Breakfast with Girls

Thanks for the answers.