Why can't Nintendo make this?
 

This is all I want. A GBA with a 4-5 inch screen, that has the layout of the original GBA, but naturally has a backlight.

I had the afterburner on my original and it was pretty good, but it could still use a larger screen. The SP doesn't fit my hands well, and still has a tiny screen. The DS has two screens, but neither is impressive in size. The PSP has a great screen, but I don't need one that is that nice, just one that is bigger.

But then they come out with a micro, because obviously people have been unhappy with how big the regular screen is....I assume.

Sure, I may be the minority, but I wouldn't mind something about the size of the Genesis nomad, and I know they can make it lighter and thinner.

Am I alone in this? I love the games, but would love to have a screen of decent size.

Try the Gameboy Player, play them on your TV.

Have one, and it is good, but that big screen isn't very portable. :(

Bigger screen would drain battery life quicker, I assume. And they're always big on maximizing battery life.

I'm fine with the DS personally.

Yeah, I recognize that. But my 14" laptop will run for 2 hours on a charge, and I don't want something nearly as powerful or big.

I checked out the DS pretty carefully, and may get one, but I still wish the screen were larger.

Dave,

the backlighting is MUCH better on a DS than an SP so Gameboy advance games look much brighter. So thats one good thing about it. I will say though I find the DS just as awkward as the SP to hold but it is large in size.

Good luck!

I love the DS. SP cramped my hands, no problems with the larger DS.

At least with GBA games. Some stylus control schemes on DS games are uncomfortable after a while (i.e. the metroid demo).

Yeah, I played around with one at Best Buy this weekend. Definately a better lit screen, but still not as good as mine with the afterburner.

Japan seems to be into the smaller and compact is much better mentality, and Nintendo is a Japanese based company so I wouldn't see that happening anytime soon. Maybe you could get a tablet pc and run emulator software? :)

The original GBA design is my probably my favorite of any GB ever created, including the DS. I too had an Afterburner professionally installed and loved it but after seeing GBA games on the DS I'm probably never going to use my GBA again. The colors are sharp unlike the GBA w/afterburner which slightly washes the colors out due to the fact the AB is just a front light. My only gripe with playing GBA games on the DS is the games don't fill the whole screen and thats due to the fact the DS screen is a higher res screen than the GBA is. I also think Nintendo could have made the top screen about an inch wider . You can't tell me the speakers take up that much room but then again the DS folds together which probably limited how big they could make the screens.