Yeah, it's there but I'll grant you not in the same league as the others. There's also a resolution problem, getting a full NTSC resolution on a screen that small causes a lot of details to be skewed and makes text very hard to read. As much of a Turbo/PC-Engine nut I am I can't bring myself to think of the Express/GT as anything more than a cool idea that the technology of the time couldn't properly support.

I always love how people try to justify how great a Nomad or Turbo Express is with an AC Adapter.. that just baffles my mind to no end. If you're going to be leashed to an electrical outlet you might as well hook up the full console.

Back on topic.. somebody at the Digital Press forum successfully removed the screen from the new graphite SP and put it into an NES SP. On top of that, he said it wasn't very difficult! I'd consider doing it but my NES SP if definitely in "pre-loved'" condition so I'm going to stick to my graphite and hope that I can find a nice case for it or hope that I don't drop it as much.

Well the TE was no different to the PSP in terms of battery life. I could get the same amount of play time on my TE and PSP. At least now I don't have to change 6 AA batteries every time.

I loved the TE simply because I could take my games from home on the road and not have to buy new games specifically for a portable system. But I agree with Pixy on the display. Playing an RPG was damn near impossible because of how tiny the text looked..it did not convert well at all onto TE's LCD screen.

Greetings!
Pixy,would you be able to provide a link on this:

Back on topic.. somebody at the Digital Press forum successfully removed the screen from the new graphite SP and put it into an NES SP. On top of that, he said it wasn't very difficult! I'd consider doing it but my NES SP if definitely in "pre-loved'" condition so I'm going to stick to my graphite and hope that I can find a nice case for it or hope that I don't drop it as much.

I'd like to read that,and perhaps give it a try.
Thanx!

CHEERS!

Got my Play Yan micro today and it is really cool. I posted a couple of pics below of it playing music, but my camera sucks taking low light shots. Anyway I have tried it in the bright screen SP and the even brighter screen micro and it works great in both. The idea of having such a tiny movie player with me all the time sold me on it. Yeah, the import is overpriced ($25 more than the Japanese retail price) but I love to spend money so what the heck.

No way to really show the video quality, but its very good. It really seems better than the low res GBA screen should be capable of. It looks even better on the micro with its tighter dot pitch. Nintendo did a quality job on the Play Yan and it can handle 30 FPS with no issues and the music playback sounds very good through the headphone jack in the Play Yan and not as good through the system headphone jack. Not sure what is up with that one.

You can use pretty much any software you want that handles MP4 conversions and the menus are completely in English with images so using it is a breeze. You can use any menu structure you want, but it doesn't do playlists which is a downside.

The Mario menu theme is an add on you have to download from the Japanese Play Yan site. It has bass boost and a sleep mode that still plays your music but turns the screen off. There is also some kind of rythm game you can play with Mario by pressing the A button at the right time, but I have yet to figure that one out.

A very good quality product form NOJ that NOA is stupid to pass over. They should have at least sold it online like they are doing with Electroplankton.

It works fine in the DS, but the DS screen is much dimmer than the new SP and micro so I prefered it on those platforms not to mention that border around the screen on the DS. No it doesn't equal the PSP, but it does a much better job than I imagined. I was able to put two movies and some music on a 1GB SD card so space is not an issue.

Darkside, you mind taking a picture of a movie actually playing? Thanks regardless.

If I could get a good one I would, but my digital camera sucks.

Where can I buy faceplates?

Movies look awesome on the Micro with the PYM. I use my PSP at work to watch movies but now I want a Micro for my pocket. A guy at work brought his in and I was amazed at the quality on that small screen. He had the BBC version of The Office and MST 3000 converted and it looked like TV. Wow. And watching Mario play a game to The Misfits is classic. My PSP may get traded.

I ordered my ammonite one direct from Nintendo, but the last time I was on the website they were only offering the plain black and silver. Not sure if they sold out of the rest or what. I haven't seen them in stores anywhere either, but from what I have heard Nintendo is supposed to start selling accessories in stores in November.

Just to note on the video tests so far I am using the same exact settings I used on the PSP. 320X240 (this is overkill on the 240X180 GBA screen but my results were not as good when I lowered the resolution but that may be a fault with my encoder), 768kbps and 30fps. Video encoded that way looks really good. It looks TV quality on the micro and really good on the SP. On the SP it is easier to spot slight faults in the image, but its still very watchable. I'm still shocked the GBA can handle the video decoding, but I guess its done mostly with the hardware of the Play Yan and not the GBA processor.

Battery life is right around 4 hours of video with the micro. Not sure on music yet, but its much longer than 4 hours. I would imagine well over 10 with the screen off. One thing they added for the micro is the start and select will flash while playing when the screen is off.

No its not an ipod video killer or equal to the PSP, but Nintendo did design a nice piece of hardware and I don't think there is an another option out there for a high quality video player this small and pocketable. Between this and Fire Emblem Sacred Stones, my micro is going to be very busy.

After getting to spend some time with the micro its really sad this hasn't gotten a US release. Sell this thing for $39.99 in the US and it would be the ultimate GBA accessory.

Well I got the $80 Play Yan with encoder and $80 for a Micro (20% off Amazon, part of a program I'm with). They won't let us bring PSPs at work because it's WiFi enabled. I have a GBA SP TV tuner... going to see if I can use it with the Micro... if not I still have the SP and DS.

All the systems get used though... we're all bored gamers at work so we pass the handhelds around

They will let you have a DS, but no PSP? What is their concern? Because if its security data can easily be sent and received on the DS as well as the PSP.

You're still a 911 operator right?

The PSP has WiFi and if someone brings a laptop, they think we can intercept their data transmission.

Standalone DSs can only communicate with other DSs.

GP: I quit 911 on August of last year!

Won't the DS be wifi enabled once they come out with the online network? I'm guessing we'll have to flash our bios or something.

It's my understanding that the DS uses wireless B technology, but has some sort of proprietery protocol. There are drivers out there that you can use on your PC to make wireless cards communicate with the DS to upload software.

Exactly my point, its not really safe either. (I won't tell. ) You can already get a DS to communicate and intercept data through "force". With time it will only become easier.

Could you upload "anything" though -without- modifying the laptop? With the PSP you can... with the DS I'm not so sure.

Well I was at my local EB tonight and overheard a customer complaining about the d-pad on the SP. He was returning a graphite one. So the sales clerk pulled another graphite off the shelf, opened it up and had the customer inspect it. Same problem. If you press down on the d-pad in the center it would depress like a button would. This made playing certain games hard to control, at least that's what his complaint was. So I waited until he left and asked the clerk, who's a good friend of mine, if I could inspect the SP myself. Sure enough the d-pad did not feel right. I asked him to get a Pearl one out to see if it had the same issue and he got one out of the case and opened it up. The Pearl SP II did not have that problem. The d-pad on the Pearl SP worked like it should. You can definitely tell a difference in the feel of the d-pad when you compare both systems. I wonder if Nintendo is aware of this?

I remembered reading your post GoVegan so I thought I would inform you of my findings this evening. I would call Nintendo up and see if they'll replace your unit or go exchange it for the Pearl one.

Damn. I'll check mine out again, I just got Gunstar Heroes and while I haven't gotten TOO much into it yet.. I didn't detect any issues. What really sucks is that the Graphite SP is easily my favorite looking Gameboy.. and I'm sure I no longer have the receipt. Crap.

Just to let people know Target will have the brighter screen SP on sale in a bundle pack on Black Friday.

It comes with Super Mario World, a car charger and carrying case for $68.88.

I checked mine and it does do this, but it hasn't made any difference when I'm playing games. Everything goes in the direct I push it.

That is a great deal! Anyone know of any GBmicro bundle/deals coming soon?

Just to note that the micro is going to be discontinued in the US. They have already changed it to a limited edition item on the gameboy website and Reggie said recently that the black and silver are not going to be restocked when they sell out, but they will sell the famicom one for awhile.

If you want one of these cool little game boys the time is probably this Christmas as who know if any will be left after that.

Nice idea, but $100 was steep. I'm betting a few stores will do a black friday deal to close them out.

Where did you hear that?!

I can get a Micro for $80 or a Famicom Micro for $140... hmmm decisions decisions