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Game Boy Advance


All You Ever Wanted to Know about Game Boy Advance

    Everybody got really excited when Nintendo officially unveiled Game Boy Advance in Spaceworld 2000. Now I finally have some official specifications for all of you people out there who are drooling. I personally can't wait till this sucker comes out, I've been waiting a long time for a better handheld system to come out. And this one is going to be the best, hands-down.
    First of all, the scheduled release dates for the GBA are March 21, 2001 for Japan, and June 11, 2001 for the US. They didn't give any dates for Europe, but I'll venture to say it'll be close to the US release date. The retail price of GBA in Japan will be 9800 yen, which will translate to a price of about $90 in the US. That's not bad, considering how good this system will be. I know you guys are dying for those specs, so here they are.


Screen
A non-backlit reflection Color TFT liquid-crystal display
This screen is very similar to the one on the Game Boy Color. It won't have a back-light in order to conserve on battery power. Remember the Game Gear? That thing had a back-light and it took six batteries. Back-lights are power hogs and use batteries like there's no tomorrow. It will depend on ambient light, and you could always buy one of those little flashlight attachments if you want to play it in the dark.
Screen Size
40.8mm × 61.2mm (1.6 in × 2.41 in)
This screen is slightly bigger than the Game Boy's. Which means that the game will be higher resolution than the old Game Boy and Game Boy Color.
Resolution
240 × 160 pixels
This is much higher than the old Game Boy's 160 × 140 (I think that's about right). Anyways, the screen resolution is higher, which means you can see a lot more action on-screen. The screen area is about 40% larger than the GB and GBC.
Display Ability
32,000 colors
That's really nice for a handheld system. I don't remember off-hand how many colors GBC can display, but I know it's less. Game Boy Advance can actually display more colors than a Super Nintendo. Now that's sweet.
CPU
16mhz 32bit RISC-CPU + 8bit CISC-CPU
All I know is that this is good. That is a very good processor for a handheld system. It will make games a lot more lively and give better graphics.
Memory
32KB WRAM+96KB VRAM 256KB WRAM 
That memory is all good. Once agian, I believe this is better than the SNES.
Sound
Built-in monoaural speaker, stereo with headphones.
This sounds a little drab, but don't be fooled. With headphones, the GBA is capable of Dolby-surround special effects. When you get this system, I recommend getting a pait of good headphones, not those little crappy ones that fit in your ear canal.
Link Play
Up to four players with GBA, up to two players with GBC.
Power
Two AA batteries, or AC adapter
Battery Life
about 15 hours on two AA batteries
This is why the GBA doesn't have a back-lit screen. If it did have a back-light, the battery life would only be a couple hours.
Dimensions
82 mm long × 144.5 mm wide × 24.5 mm thick (3.22 in × 5.69 in × 0.96 in)
Weight
140 g (about 5 oz)
Catridge
34.5 mm × 60 mm × 9.5 mm (1.36 in × 2.36 in × 0.37 in), 256 megabit maximum capacity (32 megabytes)
The cartridge capacity is really something. Thrity-two megabytes is the same size as Ocarina of Time. Imagine a Game Boy game that big. Plus, the Game Boy Advance is reverse-compatible with older Game Boy and Game Boy Color games.

Here is a list of games that are officially in production for the Game Boy Advance.
Game
Producer
Aerial Aces Majesco
Caesar's Palace Majesco
Earthworm Jim Majesco
F-18 Thunder Strike Majesco
Fortres Majesco
Iridion 3D Majesco
Jelly Belly Majesco
M&M's: Lost in Time Majesco
Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure Majesco
Ultimate Paintball Majesco
Star Trek: Invasion Classified Games
Tenchu Classified Games
Vigilante 8: Second Offense Classified Games
The Land Before Time Conspiracy Entertainment
Flintstones Conspiracy Entertainment
Tiny Toon Adventures Conspiracy Entertainment
Tiny Toon Adventures (Puzzle) Conspiracy Entertainment
Spyro the Dragon Havas Interactive
Crash Bandicoot Konami
Jurassic Park III Konami
The Thing Konami
Monster Rancher Mania Tecmo
Creatures Swing Entertainment
Rayman GBA Ubi Soft
Futurama Unique Development Studios
Mega Man EXE Capcom

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