Viewing Thread:
"Re: GBA a missed opportunity. Never mind the WAP, what about a PHONE?"

What do all four year olds want?

GBA
Mobile Phone
CD Player
PS2
TV
Lego Technics
Fox Kids
Adult Videos.
Padded Cell

I don't see WAP on this list.

Fantasy - Would GBA games suffer if the phone rang or are the kids up to multi-tasking?

That might get a bit bulky to be a hand held, but in 10 or so years, why not?

We should be able to miniaturise satellite receiving technology by then to such an extent that a hand held gaming system could become an all in one hand held home entertainment system (HHHES).

The point is, WAP connectivity is small enough now, today, to be added to a hand held games console. And Nintendo could have done it, but they didn't.

This makes things interesting, because one of the world brand leaders in home entertainment (HI-FI, Video, DVD, Minidisc, Walkman, Mobile phones, Widescreen), is Sony.

They also have the opportunity to bring out such a device. My guess is, 10 years down the line we'll be seeing such things on the shelves, and in 20 years time they'll be commonplace.

Look how they miniturised PC's into PDAs. Today's PDAs have more computing power than my PC that I had 10 years ago.

FantasyMeister wrote:
> you press the 'Connect' button, and type him a message like 'LV5 need key'. Your message is then transmitted immediately to his

Need a few keys then?

Why not put a Gameboy Advance into a Mobile Phone?

Add the Gameboy camera and hey-presto, it's a Video Phone.

Add Sky and you can watch far too much Football. And Eastenders.

No time to play games any more, might get an important conference call in the middle of Brookside!

That's until Video On Demand comes along.

LOL 2

(for PB)

LOL.

Ok, going back to WAP, I mean just that, wireless access protocol.

We're not necessarily talking about voice communication, we're talking about communications without wires, no link cables, so you can exchange data with other consoles anywhere in the world.

So imagine you're playing Mario again. You get stuck, and you need a key to open a door. You know your mate in Hong Kong did that level a week ago.

So you pause the game, go to your address book where your mate's GBA serial number is stored, you press the 'Connect' button, and type him a message like 'LV5 need key'. Your message is then transmitted immediately to his GBA.

If he's online he can transmit the key back to you using an ingame menu, a bit like transferring items between party members in an RPG, except this party member isn't on your console, it's on someone elses, hence the need for WAP. If he's not online the message is stored for him to retrieve later, just like normal SMS messaging.

We can currently do this in PSO on the DC, Diablo II on the PC, but these are hardwired, connected directly to the internet by wires.

There is no reason it can't be done on a hand held console either using WAP technology instead.

Hm. (fast becoming my catchphrase, I feel)

A moblie phone conversation from a Gameboy Advance...

{screen goes wibbly as writer thinks of how it would work}

Bob is playing Mario Advance on his new GBA with mobile phone system...

Bob "Damn it! Take that you stupid mushroom."

phone rings..

Bob " *&&!£ turtle. Hello."

voice "er...hello, is that Bob Jones?"

Bob "Yes. *&^&!£ Boulder. Arrghh!"

voice "It's randells, we've phoned to tell you that you've got the job.."

Bob "Oh, great, hang on a minute..." {bashes buttons frantically} "Argh! No, I don't believe it! Those stupid flowers have eaten me again."

voice, sounding a bit concerned, "er, are you ok?"

Bob "Fine. Ouch! Hahahhaahahaha! I've got through the door with 100 coins."

voice "Um. Forget I said anything, goodbye."

phone goes dead.

Bob "oh, s&**."

I have a mobile phone. I've had it for 2 years.

I very rarely take it out with me.

The thought of being contacted when I'm out disgusts me.

Seriously, when I'm out, having fun, the last thing I want is a call from some relative that wants to dump a load of problems on me.

Now if I'm sitting on a beach, GBA in hand, playing Metroid GBA, I'm not going to pause the game to speak to anyone!

Then there's the cost problem.

Give a kid a Gameboy, and you'll have to keep him in games and batteries. Give him a WAP handheld console and he'll run up huge phone bills by calling his friends and looking at dull text based WAP web pages.

Mobile internet is certainly a viable idea for the business man on the run, but to be honest do kids need it?

I don't think so.

Nice!

Tony wrote:
> What do all four year olds want?

GBA
Mobile Phone
CD
> Player
PS2
TV
Lego Technics
Fox Kids
Adult Videos.
Padded
> Cell

I don't see WAP on this list.

Fantasy - Would GBA games
> suffer if the phone rang or are the kids up to multi-tasking?

GBA wouldn't suffer if the phone didn't ring, but it would be a lot better if you had WAP as an option, even a socket where you could insert the Simm card from your phone and use it to dial out would make it a great seller. (Ignore compatibility issues for the sake of argument here).

My 6 year old nephew does IT at school, he can use his mum's mobile, and taking the average range of a GBA owner to be somewhere around 9-17, I don't see why Nintendo couldn't have made this a feature. They have the technology, why not include it?

FM: On a quest to make hand held consoles 'useful'.

"Employees rule OK"

New Labour "til the tax runs out"

Tony wrote:
> Impossible. Ali decides the winners!


And we all know who decides whether Ali gets his paycheques...