My Experience with the Game Boy Advance

The thing that started me back into the handhelds was the next installment of the Zelda series: The Oracle games. I bought them on release day, and assumed I could play them in my Super Game Boy. But alas, it was not to be. That night I had to figure out if I wanted to go buy a Game Boy Color, or if I could wait the approximately 3 weeks for the Game Boy Advance. I decided on the latter option, since the GBA could play everything made up until that point plus any future games.

Continuing with what was started in the second run of N64s, 3 color options were available for the GBA. So I got a Glacier-colored GBA on release day at midnight. I played my old games like Metroid II and Link’s Awakening on them because I liked the color upgrades (never having owned a GBC), but not very often. Mostly I played the Oracle games, as that was my only option to play them, while I could play the others on my Super Game Boy on a lit screen. That year we spent Christmas at my parents’ house. My younger brother Mitch got Mario Kart Super Circuit, and he also happened to have a GameLink cable, so we were able to play 2 player on GBA a few times.

In the next year or two, I bought a couple of GBA games, mainly because they were heavily discounted at the K-Mart that was closing down (where Anne was working): Castlevania – Circle of the Moon and X-Men – Reign of Apocalypse (I think it was 2 for 1 on top of a discount). But I didn’t play them all that often.  It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy them, per se; just that I would rather play a console that was lit up and easier to see.

I started playing Castlevania while I was in the hospital waiting for my first child to be born. We had a lot of time to kill so I decided playing that (and Rogue Leader on GameCube) was the best way to spend it.

I bought a few accessories, such as the Worm light and an AC adapter. The light made it easier to play at night or in darker parts of the house, but it left a glare on the screen. The best option was bright but indirect light which was hard to find. There were a couple of places that had good light without the glare (like the bathroom), but most places weren’t optimal. Obviously the AC adapter made it easier to play without having to go through batteries by the case. The adapter took the spot where batteries and the cover were, and had a small port for the cord that could be disconnected.

One thing that made me glad to have bought a GBA was when The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker was released. It featured some GBA/GC connectivity, so I bought a cable and started using the GBA to play as Tingle. It would also be useful for some other games later on. 

I mainly played my games on vacation or occasionally around the house, but I didn’t take it with me very often to places like school or when I ran errands. I bought the Game Boy Player, an add-on for the GameCube. It was the first time Nintendo made good on the promise of an add-on using the expansion port in North America. Since it was basically another GBA, I could play all my games I had in color and on a lit screen. This made it much easier to see without needing the worm light or sitting in a particular part of the house to see.

Later I would buy ALttP/Four Swords and The Minish Cap to stay updated on my Zelda games, but I ended up playing them more on the Game Boy Player because the screen was lit. Just like what I had done with the Super Game Boy, I treated the GBA less as a portable handheld and more of a mini-console.

My brother Mitch had a few games but the one I remember best is the Spider-Man game he had. Interestingly enough, it was the first game that I actually felt kinda like Spider-Man when I played it. Most others didn’t take advantage of how Spider-Man moves. Eventually, Mitch sold off his GBA stuff and didn’t play games as much. But he gave me a nice case to keep my GBA and games in. It was pretty convenient and kept everything portable I owned at the time. It was made to hold both regular Game Boy and GBA games as well as accessories. 

My youngest brother Brady was more into the Game Boy stuff, and got an SP. I liked the light up part of it, but thought that the narrowness of it made it a hassle to hold like the original Game Boy. I preferred the horizontal configuration of the original GBA.

Besides my general lack of interest in portable gaming, my biggest problem was lack of funds (and to some degree, time). By this point, I was a poor, working college student with a small family. So by necessity, I only bought the things I really, really wanted (Zeldas, mainly). Things continued on much this way for about 10 years. I fell behind on keeping up with the latest portable system by missing the GBA SP, the DS, the DS Lite, and the DSi. Even though I knew I was missing out on 2 Zelda Games (Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks), I just couldn’t justify the cost for how little I expected to play them. I think if I lived closer to my brothers, or had a couple of good friends who also had GBAs, I would have kept up a little better.

When the DS came out, I was tempted to get one because it was horizontally oriented and had a GBA slot, but there were two things that kept me from getting one: lack of funds, and the fact that it wouldn’t play GB/GBC games.

One time I borrowed my brother’s copy of LttP/FS and got to play Four Swords using the GB Player and my GBA with my son Avery. I went through the game once, but didn’t know about having to go through it 3 times to completely finish it. I also used it to play FSA once or twice, but because of an incorrect assumption about how the game worked, I didn’t play it at all for years. In my mind, it was one of those, “someday” things – meaning someday I’ll get around to playing it when I get all the equipment necessary (I eventually did).

As mentioned earlier, I had no one to play with, but Avery was starting to get to the age where he could play with me, so I was looking forward to being able to play certain things with him once he could understand the intricacies of the games. It was different than when I had 4 younger brothers or roommates to play with, because I had motivation to buy multiple controllers for the N64 and such.

Over the years, we took the GBA stuff with us on vacations, but didn’t use them a whole lot otherwise. Years later after both Avery and I got 3DS handhelds, I bought a silver GBA SP and another copy of LttP/FS from eBay for cheap. I wanted to try playing Four Swords with Avery, but the used SP ended up having connectivity and charging issues, then it broke. We bought my other son Logan a red GBA SP for Christmas, along with another copy of LttP/FS used from eBay. He played that game a lot, and became quite the expert at only age 3. 

We also ended up buying another SP, two more copies of LttP/FS, and some more GameLink cables so we could finally play Four Swords with four players. I had the original GBA and wormlight, Avery and Logan each had an SP, and my daughter or wife played on the GB Player. We also used this setup to play The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures, in which we played the game on our Wii and had to drag the TV/GameCube downstairs to be the fourth GBA.

Logan ended up breaking his SP when he dropped it onto a hard floor (which cracked the screen), so we had to get a replacement. It was blue, and to be unique I swapped some shell pieces with his old red one so his is now multi-colored. We also bought him Link’s Awakening DX, Oracle of Ages, and the GBA re-releases of Zelda 1 and Zelda 2 for Christmas. Most of the time when I bought an SP used, it came with random GB, GBC, and GBA games. In this way we ended up with a bunch of games we never intended to own. However, they ended up being interesting in the context that I can show my kids the difference between regular GB games, GBC games, black-cartridge games, Super GB enhanced games, and GBA games and how they all work differently in the various configurations. Later we would add Mario Kart Super Circuit and Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 to Logan's collection when we bought some used games from the same card shop I used to frequent as a teen. Some of the other games we ended up with from eBay purchases are Advance Wars, a Spongebob game, Sims 2 Pets, and the Cheetah Girls.

I attempted modding the orignal GBA with LEDs using some instructions I found online, but was unsuccessful. However, in early 2018 I was able to get a whole backlit modding kit from eBay and successfully modded it, so now it has a nice backlit screen. The only gripe I have with it is that I couldn't screw the outer shell back together all the way because it flexes the motherboard (or something) enough to make it not turn on. Also, some of the screen elements leave "ghosts" for a few seconds once they're scrolled offscreen. Although I'm happy with the results, I'll just stick with the DS lite for any GBA games unless they require a Gamelink cable.