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"Thanks Mr. Emulator"

I'll tell you why.

My Gameboy Advance lays on top of my CD's, it gathers dust, and the only time some of that dust ever falls off is when I'm rearranging my CD's.

The reason?

Lack of (decent) games coming out for the handheld and no effort being put in by Nintendo, probably because there's no competition in the handheld market. If that's the case then bring on the N-Gage or whatever it's called. Oh and while you're at it bring me a Microsoft version and then a Sony. It'll happen anyway with time.

So there it sits, only coming out when I go on holiday, and the only games I have on it are Tony Hawks 2 Pro Skater which was pretty good, Mario Kart which was good but could of been more and the excellent Advance Wars. Now I look into the future and I see nothing I want. Pokemon? No thanks. Zelda? I've played all that before on my Gameboy Colour. I won't even go into SNES ports because I'll start gonig crazy and this post will just get longer and longer.

Last night I decided to go get myself a Gameboy Advance emulator, actually I rephrase that, I decided to use my Gameboy Advance emulator. I want an SP, I wanted to find an excuse to own that sexy silver handheld which looks so much better then my handheld at the moment (which is that milky Purple colour Microchips).

So I started downloading all these ROM's and trying them out. Most were crap and some had really had alot of effort put into them. One noticeable title for effort was Street Fighter Alpha 3. The characters moved slicker then the version on my GameCube, no joke. But the fighting aspect wasn't all so smooth.

I already had Golden Sun and Metroid Fusion. What did I think of them? Pants.

I congratulate Golden Sun for what they've done on it, it looks great. IU can see why so many of you like it, but games take a certain type of taste and Golden Sun wasn't for me. I tried to like Metroid Fusion, it wasn't working. Run to one room, run to the other. Snore, Snore.

But last night I think I found the reason I may be owning a Gameboy Advance SP.

Megaman Zero.

I don't know why I downloaded it, but I did. I had never heard of it before. Then ten minutes into playing it I was a Megaman fan.

The gameplay is hard, it's challenging and the graphics are sweet. I later learnt that Megaman was an actual series and had loads of games out over a lengthy span of years. But Megaman Zero didn't feature Megaman himself but instead someone called 'Zero'. So it was a completely new gkind of game compared to the older Platformers (which I tried and they were great too).

Megaman Zero sees you doing lots of Platforming elements mixed with some RPG bits. You know the kind, you get a Saber and you start using it alot and then it comes up with "+1 Saber skill". It really is a great game.

I'm guessing pretty much none of you own this?

If you don't, it is the best thing I have ever played on a handheld and I'm not going to play anymore of the ROM because I want to play it on my shiny SP. Seriously, look into this game. Download it. If you want challenge mixed with a decent game in itself look no further. Special Reserve have it for £24.99. Bargain, you can buy that if you love it or even win it by trying your luck at GAD 3. Instead I look down the GAD 3 list and see 'Half-life', 'Turok', 'Grand Theft Auto' and all these other big games. Megaman Zero beats the pants off stuff like Monkey Ball jr and other such games you're looking forward to on the Gameboy Advance. And I normally hate this stuff.

I later learnt that Megaman & Bass is coming out on the Gameboy Advance sometime in March. More platforming but once again another SNES port. Still, it'll be great and I probably will pick it up. Megaman Zero though, it's not a port, it's pure GBA exclusive and excellent.

And what's all this thanks to? The Emulator.

Nintendo are making money because of me. Thousands others probably have done the same thing as me. Go on the Internet, downloaded a few games they haven't heard of before, loved them and then gone and bought them. Emulation a Money Maker? Maybe a good topic for someone to write about there.

Thanks Emulator, you've restored my faith in the Gameboy Advance. For now anyway...*Kicks Nintendo*

I'll tell you why.

My Gameboy Advance lays on top of my CD's, it gathers dust, and the only time some of that dust ever falls off is when I'm rearranging my CD's.

The reason?

Lack of (decent) games coming out for the handheld and no effort being put in by Nintendo, probably because there's no competition in the handheld market. If that's the case then bring on the N-Gage or whatever it's called. Oh and while you're at it bring me a Microsoft version and then a Sony. It'll happen anyway with time.

So there it sits, only coming out when I go on holiday, and the only games I have on it are Tony Hawks 2 Pro Skater which was pretty good, Mario Kart which was good but could of been more and the excellent Advance Wars. Now I look into the future and I see nothing I want. Pokemon? No thanks. Zelda? I've played all that before on my Gameboy Colour. I won't even go into SNES ports because I'll start gonig crazy and this post will just get longer and longer.

Last night I decided to go get myself a Gameboy Advance emulator, actually I rephrase that, I decided to use my Gameboy Advance emulator. I want an SP, I wanted to find an excuse to own that sexy silver handheld which looks so much better then my handheld at the moment (which is that milky Purple colour Microchips).

So I started downloading all these ROM's and trying them out. Most were crap and some had really had alot of effort put into them. One noticeable title for effort was Street Fighter Alpha 3. The characters moved slicker then the version on my GameCube, no joke. But the fighting aspect wasn't all so smooth.

I already had Golden Sun and Metroid Fusion. What did I think of them? Pants.

I congratulate Golden Sun for what they've done on it, it looks great. IU can see why so many of you like it, but games take a certain type of taste and Golden Sun wasn't for me. I tried to like Metroid Fusion, it wasn't working. Run to one room, run to the other. Snore, Snore.

But last night I think I found the reason I may be owning a Gameboy Advance SP.

Megaman Zero.

I don't know why I downloaded it, but I did. I had never heard of it before. Then ten minutes into playing it I was a Megaman fan.

The gameplay is hard, it's challenging and the graphics are sweet. I later learnt that Megaman was an actual series and had loads of games out over a lengthy span of years. But Megaman Zero didn't feature Megaman himself but instead someone called 'Zero'. So it was a completely new gkind of game compared to the older Platformers (which I tried and they were great too).

Megaman Zero sees you doing lots of Platforming elements mixed with some RPG bits. You know the kind, you get a Saber and you start using it alot and then it comes up with "+1 Saber skill". It really is a great game.

I'm guessing pretty much none of you own this?

If you don't, it is the best thing I have ever played on a handheld and I'm not going to play anymore of the ROM because I want to play it on my shiny SP. Seriously, look into this game. Download it. If you want challenge mixed with a decent game in itself look no further. Special Reserve have it for £24.99. Bargain, you can buy that if you love it or even win it by trying your luck at GAD 3. Instead I look down the GAD 3 list and see 'Half-life', 'Turok', 'Grand Theft Auto' and all these other big games. Megaman Zero beats the pants off stuff like Monkey Ball jr and other such games you're looking forward to on the Gameboy Advance. And I normally hate this stuff.

I later learnt that Megaman & Bass is coming out on the Gameboy Advance sometime in March. More platforming but once again another SNES port. Still, it'll be great and I probably will pick it up. Megaman Zero though, it's not a port, it's pure GBA exclusive and excellent.

And what's all this thanks to? The Emulator.

Nintendo are making money because of me. Thousands others probably have done the same thing as me. Go on the Internet, downloaded a few games they haven't heard of before, loved them and then gone and bought them. Emulation a Money Maker? Maybe a good topic for someone to write about there.

Thanks Emulator, you've restored my faith in the Gameboy Advance. For now anyway...*Kicks Nintendo*

I reckon Nintendo should be releasing ROM demos for the GBA. I mean they probably don't want to start releasing ROM demos for GC (or any next gen console) because file sizes will be too large, and people may not have decent enough PCs to run them anyway, but the pretty much any PC could run GBA games, and the file sizes wouldn't be too big either (especially for demos rather than full games).

It might encourage the use of ROMs for the GBA further, but like what you said it could also be a way for Nintendo to make money. I mean blockbuster and the like don't rent out GBA games, so short of buying one, how are you supposed to try it out first? And anyway, if my experience of searching for SNES ROMs last weekend was anything to go by, I think a great many people would prefer to visit an official page to download demos than trawl the net for hours on end searching for one site that actually allows you to download the ROMs rather than another one that just tells you to vote for it 3 times on a 'top10ROM' site then it redirects you to the same bloody top10ROM site when you try to download anything!

Anyway, even though it is illegal to keep ROMs I think I'm right in saying theres a loophole that allows you to keep a ROM for 24 (or 48, I can't remember...) hours to act as a demo. But there's nothing stopping you getting a game, saving your progress, deleting the file after 24 hours, downloading it again and resuming from where you left off (you still have the seperate save file). Of course, I only ever download ROMs of games I have the actual game cart of, and if I don't have the cart I ALWAYS delete the ROM after a day... ;-)

But seriously, official 'Demo' ROMs for the GBA would be very good. I'd definitely like to give Advance Wars and the new Sonic GBA game a go to see if it was worth me investing in a GBA...

If Nintendo released GBA ROM's (which is a good idea) they'd have to release an official emulator aswell. Problem is, if they start releasing GBA ROM's someone, somewhere, will start hacking them etc so that they become the full game and not just an evaluated piece of software. The only way to get round that is to make the ROM's more demo-like with say one level. Still, this is an idea for the future and it wouldn't work now. GBA games can be emulated too easily for that.

When handheld gaming moves over to CD, or whatever format it will be then, piracy through the Internet will be less of a big problem. The reason is because cartridge based games can be easily emulated, downloaded and then run on an emulator. That's why N64 games could be downloaded and stuff whilst Playstation games didn't work so well. For that you've got to get alot more technical with iso's (which are CD images) which you have to burn to CD etc. It is a process which is much harder and time consuming.

But it is true that people have no way to try games before they buy. You cna do it on PS2, Xbox and GameCube so why not the GBA? Surely that is the format people are going to be more dissapointed on. Take this scene for example: Some kid has just been round his mates and played the new FIFA football game. He loved it, espically the graphics. So he goes to buy the same FIFA game, with the same packaging, but on the GBA. He puts it in, he hates the graphics, the game isn't as good overall and it's basically a whole different concept. he wants his money back. Where as if he had rented it he wouldn't of made such a big mistake.

That's exactly what companys do with these big name games these days. They stick it multi-format and on the next-gen consoles it is the same game but the GBA just can't do the same.

What site did you use? That's a good idea you had btw, there's so many GBA games out there that are really pants. It would prove cost effective (to the consumer) to try them out this way and I'm surprised Nintendo haven't recognised that.

Same, Not about the idea where he got it from,

Sibs's mind works in may ways my friend... Thats one of them :)

Anyway. I thought up an idea, Why not nintendo or sony no matter what put a Classic game onto a Moblie phone, e.g. Bomber man or even Super Mario Brother on the NES. Simply now a phone can do this even in Black & White but of crouse they work in colour these days... Nintendo could make quite a bit of money out of it with its Copyright making it basically a 'Exclusive' to the mobile phone games.

Sibs for Nintendo? :-P

I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo actually were designing a few mobile phone games. In many ways it makes alot of sense.

But I suppose to do that you have to have a partnership with people like Nokia or Orange. So it's more likely Japanese people will get these mobile phone type games IF it ever happens.

Nintendo have their own hardware to concerntrate on though so I don't think mobile phone games will be happening fast. In a way that is just making the opposition to the GBA more strong which Nintendo doesn't want to do. They control the handheld market at the moment. Nintendo can't even release games for it's own handheld! :-S

Sega though...I see them doing something Mobile Phone like.

I've been sick of GBA games for ages too. Got Komani Krazy Racers, Doom, Doom II, Bomberman, Wario Land 4 and a few more I've played. But until recently, Metroid Fusion and Turok have taken over my life. They rock.

Hmmm, i've just noticed i've got underrated GBA games too :-D

Nice post, MwA.

Monkey_With_Attitude wrote:
> Sibs for Nintendo? :-P

eh...?

I've just gotten into emulators myself, and I've started playing all the old Zelda and Final Fantasy games, all of which rule so far. I've also got a few games that I thought would be good, like Chrono Trigger and Donkey Kong 3, so far I havn't been disappointed, although DK3 is a lot more strange and complicated than the GB version.

Sibs wrote:
> Monkey_With_Attitude wrote:
> Sibs for Nintendo? :-P
>
> eh...?

You, you should work for Nintendo on the ideas department or something.