Anniversary 2025

[Nu-Eclipse]

Honestly one of my more disappointing consoles. Though I think some of that was on me. I just think I expected too much.

I was fine with the GBC on the whole. Not the quantum leap that the GBA would be but a suitable enough stopgap for the time. Though it does feel like there weren't actually many out-and-out GBC games made (I'm sure I'm wrong on that).

Metal Gear Solid/Ghost Babel made it all worth it IMO. Best GBC game as far as I'm concerned.

[wakka]

I remember being kind of bummed at how small the screen was on the GBC. Smaller than the Pocket I had before. But overall it was pretty cool. The colours added a lot to Pokemon Gold and Silver in particular. Link's Awakening DX looked great too.

It was also cheap enough that I could trade in a bunch of PlayStaton games and use some pocket money on top to buy one. £50 as I recall. Damn, remember consoles being that cheap? Even accounting for inflation that's only around ~£90 today.

Gaming hardware these days is so fupping expensive.

Metal Gear Solid/Ghost Babel made it all worth it IMO. Best GBC game as far as I'm concerned.

I recently played this through for the first time on the Analogue Pocket and yeah, it's a great game. Really liked it. My impressions of it are on here somewhere in one of the 'What are you playing' threads.

[Asura]

I was fine with the GBC on the whole. Not the quantum leap that the GBA would be but a suitable enough stopgap for the time. Though it does feel like there weren't actually many out-and-out GBC games made (I'm sure I'm wrong on that).

Metal Gear Solid/Ghost Babel made it all worth it IMO. Best GBC game as far as I'm concerned.

IIRC, and it was a long time ago... I think I saw screenshots of the various games, and was pretty excited. Then, when I actually had the unit in my hand, I remember playing Zelda DX and whilst I could certainly see that it was in colour, the lustre of the screen was very poor and honestly I just felt a bit short-changed. I tried some of the titles that were Color-only and they were better but ultimately the screen tech wasn't quite there. I ended up enjoying the NGPC a lot more, but I suspect that was because the GBC tempered my expectations and the expression of colour on those screens was a bit better.

[Nu-Eclipse]

IIRC, and it was a long time ago... I think I saw screenshots of the various games, and was pretty excited. Then, when I actually had the unit in my hand, I remember playing Zelda DX and whilst I could certainly see that it was in colour, the lustre of the screen was very poor and honestly I just felt a bit short-changed. I tried some of the titles that were Color-only and they were better but ultimately the screen tech wasn't quite there. I ended up enjoying the NGPC a lot more, but I suspect that was because the GBC tempered my expectations and the expression of colour on those screens was a bit better.

Not sure I agree with you about the "lustre" of the GBC screen, tbh.

Definitely don't agree with you about the screen tech. It was excellent - same panels that the Colour Panorama Series Game & Watch devices (Popeye, Snoopy, DK Jr., etc.) used, IIRC.

Held up surprisingly well IMO.

[Asura]

I would show pictures to explain what I mean; however when I google the images, they're either new screen retrofits or, if they're old screens, obviously they're trying to get the best picture possible so they're using bright lighting. Still, this isn't really about how it actually is, vs. my feelings about it at the time.

[Nu-Eclipse]

I would show pictures to explain what I mean; however when I google the images, they're either new screen retrofits or, if they're old screens, obviously they're trying to get the best picture possible so they're using bright lighting. Still, this isn't really about how it actually is, vs. my feelings about it at the time.

Pretty much every retro handheld ever, even the most recent advanced ones like the PSP/Vita/DS/3DS, has been subject to new screen refitting so I really don't think that's the argument you think it is.

[Asura]

Pretty much every retro handheld ever, even the most recent advanced ones like the PSP/Vita/DS/3DS, has been subject to new screen refitting so I really don't think that's the argument you think it is.

I'm honestly not sure what you're talking about here.

I'm literally just saying it's difficult to articulate what I mean.

[Hirst]

The GBC has a decent screen, I just wish they’d backlit it. They looked backlit in the ads.

[Asura]

Sadly I can't find a picture of the same location, but it was like this:




The screenshots in the press felt much more vivid. Now, I'm aware, if you sat under a bright lamp, or were outside on a sunny day, the screen quality was excellent, but this didn't match my use-case for it, so my experience was always that it was a bit dim.

The reason I think about this sometimes is I recall being wowed the first time I saw the type of screen on the GB Micro, AGS-101 or DSLite (probably the DSLite, thinking about it). I actually find it hard to go back to any retro handheld tech from prior eras.

[wakka]

Yeah retro handheld screen technology just sucks compared to what we have today.

You really need a modern screen with an appropriate software filter to get accurate, enjoyable results.

I played Ghost Babel recently on the Pocket and flipping between no filter and the built-in GBC filter - which corrects the colours to approximate how it would have looked on an original screen, and adds the characteristic visible pixel grid from the original screen - you can really see how much you need it. Dark scenes looked bright purple without a filter but looked appropriately spooky and dark with the GBC filter on.

There's also the further complication with the GBA that the screens on the original machine were so bad that developers, including Nintendo themselves, compensated by massively amping up the saturation of the graphics. People do make colour corrected ROMs for these which are an option alongside filters (colour corrected ROM + AGS101 filter can help to take Super Circuit from weirdly murky to as colourful as it really ought to be, without having that 'ROM on a PC screen' look which always just feels wrong for handheld games).

[Nu-Eclipse]

Yeah retro handheld screen technology just sucks compared to what we have today.

Sorry. I think that's harsh.

The GB Pocket screen tech was dope. Incredibly smooth and crisp, with no sunshine glare!

And pretty much everybody on this forum has eulogized about how good the PSP screen looked - a screen that still holds up today even if the content on the platform doesn't.

[Hirst]

I think the best thing about the GBC wasn’t the colour, but the considerable reduction in screen ghosting. The old GB screen was tricky with scrolling games.

[Nu-Eclipse]

In Japan 35 years ago today.

[Asura]

And pretty much everybody on this forum has eulogized about how good the PSP screen looked - a screen that still holds up today even if the content on the platform doesn't.

True, the PSP was a massive leap forward. I remember being blown away by the likes of Lumines.

[speedlolita]

Pretty much every retro handheld ever, even the most recent advanced ones like the PSP/Vita/DS/3DS, has been subject to new screen refitting so I really don't think that's the argument you think it is.

Oh, new screen tech for Vita, DS and 3DS? I'd love to know more. Any links? Thanks!