How good is the gameboy player?

[whoisKeel]

how good is this gameboy player that attaches to the gamecube, i may be alone here, but i think the gba is the current best system. I do own a gba but i don't really care for the tiny controller and little screen (unless i'm in a portable environment)...so how does it look, is it all weird looking from being blown up or what? I know it doesn't extend to the whole screen, but that doesn't seem too bad.

[WiseSalesman]

Well, it's blown up, so of course it's quite pixelated. If you can deal with that, it's just fine. Just remember, ALL it does is play GBA games, do don't go into it expecting any extras or anything.

[norkusa]

Just remember, ALL it does is play GBA games, do don't go into it expecting any extras or anything.

What else do you expect it to do? It does basically everything a GBA can do...play GB games.

I don't have any problems with the pixelation. I play all my GBA games on the GB Player in full-screen mode on a 36 inch TV and they all look great to me. Original GB and GB Color games are another story though.

[NE146]

I was somewhat dissapointed it didn't have Super Gameboy support.. but I suppose that would require SNES-like capabilities as well. As it is, I guess I dig it. *shrug*

ps. The games really don't come out all that pixelated. But you can tell they're made for a lower resolution

[digitalpress]

I think it's the greatest peripheral released in 2003. I don't see the games as being especially pixellated but rather like playing SNES (for GBA) and NES (for GB/GBC) on the TV set. I don't think I ever would have appreciated the GBA system if this hadn't come out, as I rarely play handheld systems. If you haven't bought one yet, just do it. It's a terrific investment.

[Darth Sensei]

If one plays the NES emulator with a flash cart in this thing, do you still have pixilation?

[The Manimal]

To get a less blurry (better) picture, I always set the GB Player to SHARP. I think there's 3 settings (SHARP, NORMAL, SOFT).

I first starting using the sizing without the border, but now I am using the border since it looks too blown up the other way.


Like it, definitely.

[GrandAmChandler]

I think it's the greatest peripheral released in 2003.

Better than the HULK controller?!??!

Just kidding LOL

[Nature Boy]

I really love my GBA Player. Without it, the GBA games I buy sit unplayed until my next road/plane trip. With it I'll sit down and actually finish some of them for a change.

I personaly can't stand "Full Screen" mode, so I just keep it as is. The graphics look just fine to me - mind you most of what I've been playing on it is "Wario Ware," which isn't exactly a graphical test worth of using as a yard stick :)

[Jive3D]

I can't speak higher about the GBPLayer for the Cube. I love it. The control is spot on, the images look great, its great fun all around. I'm glad that nintendo released it because there was no GB player for the N64 (well not official or released to the public that is).

I think it's a must have for any cube & gba owner like myself.

And throwing a flash card into the mix opens up WORLDS of more games to play on it.

[Ed Oscuro]

If one plays the NES emulator with a flash cart in this thing, do you still have pixilation?

._O

Anyhow, there's good and bad points compared to the Super GB. On the minus side you can't create your own color schemes nor draw your own backgrounds (or draw over the playfield...the Nintendo Power Super Game Boy guide had a field day with this ability) but on the plus side the preset color schemes are pretty good--if Link's Awakening is any indication. Rupees and certain other items are two shades of blue, Link's composed of greens, and the background is...pink. Other colors are to be found in the game such as the egg in the title sequence which I believe was red.

Some of your GUI options (Z-button) are useless--for example, the timer. It just counts down and then puts a message onscreen. Doesn't affect the gameplay, but maybe it's useful if your stove's broken and you need an ad hoc egg timer (I do hope you get that stove fixed because no decent homemaker would have time to leave the GameBoy Player on just to time things, and furthermore the alarm is pretty much unnoticeable unless you're looking at the screen).

Cartridge swapping, and perhaps more importantly game resets, are accomplished with the rightmost option which is something like "change game." Anyhow, it doesn't eject the cartridge automatically but as I've said, if you just want to reset the game you just have to hit this button twice, and that's quite nice! Without rice.

There are three graphical filters which affect the graphics somewhat--they make progression from frame to frame sharper or blurrier depending on your preference.

Unfortunately they don't allow for remap of different buttons to the shoulder buttons--while it would've been rather hard to use Metriod Fusion's shoot on a shoulder button, mapping the Jump to R would've been a blessing as the A and tiny B buttons right next to each other have to be used continually throughout the next-to-last fight of the game, and this would've helped considerably. That's perhaps a complaint against the GameCube controller in general, but the only remap function available simply takes the L and R buttons and swaps them with the two yellow buttons above A which isn't really that useful.

That said, I bought a GameCube when this marvel came out and only then. It's also saved my GameCube from taking an unsightly ding to the front bottom right hand corner of the case, and probably its relatively uncomplicated construction serves as a nice cushion as well ;)

[Jason One]

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[whoisKeel]

ok thx everybody, seems like it has a good picture, which is what i was concerned about.

[jaybird]

I'll buck the trend a bit & say that I think the GB Player is a really cool device, but one that I never use.

I bought Final Fantasy Tactics Advance & have played close to 60 hours of it - all on my GBA SP. If I'm going to sit in front of a television - I want to be playing Xbox, PS2 or GCN games.

My GBA playing time is dedicated to times I'm away from the television, so those games are the last ones I want to be playing when I do have time to sit down in front of the "big screen."

If I didn't already have a GBA SP, then it would be a different story...