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[sixteen-bit]

I hate Portrait of Ruin, which is a shame since the soundtrack is so good.

I think all the castleroids are worth playing except PoR and Harmony. My favorites are Aria and Ecclesia.

 

[Blue Submarine No. 6]

Thanks for the tip Blue Submarine, I might get one of those. The Micro is just not good enough, it doesn't feel right and the screen of my frontlit GBC from rose colored gaming is too washed out.

Ya, I have a front-lit Neo Geo Pocket Color I wish I'd never bothered to get... it's so washed out I prefer the original system, even if I have to deal with poor lighting which equals dire viewability... damned thing cost me a $100 and just sits on a shelf... I'm much, much happier with this GBA.

 

[Uncle Rupee]

I'd love to buy them all, but I'm saving some money for gifts and such for Christmas.

How long are the games you rec'd btw?

Depends on how much time you want to spend harvesting souls. You can probably do Aria of Sorrow in 8-10 hours. They're not very long games, but they're very enjoyable. I think I ended up putting in more like 20 into Aria though, since I was having a blast collecting soul powers. That aspect gets a bit old in the following DS games.

 

[DracoBlade]

I hate Portrait of Ruin, which is a shame since the soundtrack is so good.

I think all the castleroids are worth playing except PoR and Harmony. My favorites are Aria and Ecclesia.

Funny I like PoR much more than OoE. I have multiple reasons why so i will cross-post from my arguments in the CV Community thread :

I'm probably in the minority but OoE is my least favorite DS CV entry. Beautiful animations, a compelling take on story/protagonist (by CV standards), aside I found the game to be to short (or artifically padded by diffculty spikes, dont get me wrong I relish the challenge but

Spoiler

dat Blackmore was a nearly game smashing prick!)

. The soundtrack is arguably my favorite of the recent iterations as it seems Yamane really endeavored to experiment with different tempos/styles. Ultimately however my biggest problem with the game is the fragmented pacing. I love how its essentially an homage to classic level by level based CV's but for a SOTNvania I believe pacing is paramount and a cohesive level layout is key/personally preferred. IDK but if I had to make my own DS rankings DoS and PoR precede OoE.

All in all I love the game but it remains my least favorite of the masterful DS trilogy.

The gameplay was certainly top notch and taut but I felt it kind of lacking, limited to no pickups and only runes. Granted its kind of semantics as a weapon pick up is essentially the same as rune collecting but idk I always loved the loot fest of SOTN legacy games with arsenals of varying names and usually interesting backstories/connotations to mythical weapons (Excalibur etc.). The combat system wasn't bad by any means but it felt like a palette swap (i.e throwing axe becomes simply a larger throwing axe with a different rune) with only a handful generally varied/dramatically changing up gameplay.

 

[Dash Kappei]

Dammit, why did i miss out of those faceplates? I know where a micro is with a hideos camo faceplate for less than $50. I wont buy it until i have a faceplate on its way though.

There's NEW STOCK!
Contact me if interested

 

[blizzardjesus]

Btw, I thought they used new shells, how can it be dented?

Uhm, I hope I didn't waste 100$...

He makes the shells himself. I'm guessing he used a original shell to make the mold. The only downside for doing that is that any lil scuffs and dents on the shells are duplicated. But the plastic feels really nice, the system gets new button Contact pads under the d-pad, A, B and new glass screen along with the backlit display. Recent batches have custom colored buttons, where the first ones reused the original grey buttons. The buttons are stiff and springy, most likely due to being aftermarket party rubber pads. Not uncomfortable, just different. I'm sure they'll soften with use over time.

I got mine the other week. The screen is really bright, in some games/side scrollers have a little ghosting, like 1 pixel's worth. I got used to it after a few hrs. Overall I'm pretty pleased with it. I'll prolly get a second one at some point once the demand subsides.

This is the RCG modded GBA compared to my Afterburner modded GBA, a original SP and the micro. The Micro is the brightest and clearest of them all, but theres something I like about the form factor of the GBA, it has a comfortable feel over the other models..

 

[Uncle Rupee]

This is the RCG modded GBA compared to my Afterburner modded GBA, a original SP and the micro. The Micro is the brightest and clearest of them all, but theres something I like about the form factor of the GBA, it has a comfortable feel over the other models..

Yeah, not a fan of the custom shell and buttons they produce. Otherwise looks pretty good.

 

[Grief.exe]

Plus that glass screen from RCG is so sexy.

 

[plc268]

He makes the shells himself. I'm guessing he used a original shell to make the mold. The only downside for doing that is that any lil scuffs and dents on the shells are duplicated. But the plastic feels really nice, the system gets new button Contact pads under the d-pad, A, B and new glass screen along with the backlit display. Recent batches have custom colored buttons, where the first ones reused the original grey buttons. The buttons are stiff and springy, most likely due to being aftermarket party rubber pads. Not uncomfortable, just different. I'm sure they'll soften with use over time.

I got mine the other week. The screen is really bright, in some games/side scrollers have a little ghosting, like 1 pixel's worth. I got used to it after a few hrs. Overall I'm pretty pleased with it. I'll prolly get a second one at some point once the demand subsides.

This is the RCG modded GBA compared to my Afterburner modded GBA, a original SP and the micro. The Micro is the brightest and clearest of them all, but theres something I like about the form factor of the GBA, it has a comfortable feel over the other models..

He doesn't make the shells. He takes the shells and paints them. The clear colors are painted with candy auto paint. The buttons are made by him by resin casting.

 

[blizzardjesus]

He doesn't make the shells. He takes the shells and paints them. The clear colors are painted with candy auto paint. The buttons are made by him by resin casting.

No, Somewhat incorrect. I own one(the clear blue one in the picture, there are some that are painted yes. but the majority are new shells made from molds. You can't paint an opaque system and make it transparent(if you can, you will win a nobel prize in physics). And I can say that buttons on mine are definitely not resin.

 

[BomberMouse]

No, Somewhat incorrect. I own one(the clear blue one in the picture, there are some that are painted yes. but the majority are new shells made from molds. You can't paint an opaque system and make it transparent(if you can, you will win a nobel prize in physics). And I can say that buttons on mine are definitely not resin.

Mine does seem like a atomic purple repainted. All those dents are killing me, I contacted on FB but they haven't replied.

 

[plc268]

No, Somewhat incorrect. I own one(the clear blue one in the picture, there are some that are painted yes. but the majority are new shells made from molds. You can't paint an opaque system and make it transparent(if you can, you will win a nobel prize in physics). And I can say that buttons on mine are definitely not resin.

Look... no offense, but you don't know what your're talking about. Wiggy's posted several times on some of his processes, and unless something's changed, he casts his buttons from resin molds. Perhaps he sprung for plastic injection molding recently (doubtful, because it's expensive) recently, I don't know.

As far as the shell, there were transparent shells on the market. And candy paint is a transluscent paint. It's designed to go over a metallic base, but you can also use candy paint on clear plastic, and it'll effectively tint that plastic. And again, Wiggy has said in the past that this what he does.

In an ideal world, yes, he would have a mold that he could just spit out a new shell whenever he wants, but it doesn't work like that. Injection molding is extremely expensive, and while the molds already exist, tooling it up to print a couple of one off colors is still expensive.

 

[Dash Kappei]

I thought the fact they're rarely in-stock was exactly because he always needs to secure enough shells in the first place? There would be no shortage, or at least not for such long periods, if he could sprung one up whenever he likes. Mind you, I don't own a RCG custom console but that is what I always believed.

Either way, I don't see why it'd be so impossible to have non-custom molded translucent colored shells since there actually were transparent GBA/GBC (maybe also OG GB?) shells sold on the market.

 

[Uncle Rupee]

The GameBoy Color has quite a few good games that unfortunately never made it out of Japan, and thanks to GAF I discovered two examples that every self-respecting GBC collector ought to have in their collection:

Samurai Kid & Daiku no Gen-san Kachikachi no Tonkachi ga Kachi

Although published by Koei and Irem and starring different heroes, both were developed by a company called Biox and share the same design elements. If you're into puzzle platformers you should definitely check them out as they are very well made games and don't require any Japanese. Samurai Kid seems to be the better game out of the two, but they're both worth owning.

Gameplay clip of Samurai Kid

 

[BomberMouse]

Samurai Kid & Daiku no Gen-san Kachikachi no Tonkachi ga Kachi

Thanks for the tip, those look great. Will check them out later.

 

[Grief.exe]

Do more posts like that Uncle Rupee!

 

[dancrane212]

Got my back lit GBA from Japan this week, courtesy seller ferrerhk on Ebay. I found the communication from the seller a little lacking - I was left a couple days after I did the "buy it now" thing wondering if they'd received my payment (in fairness, it was a weekend), but the shipping was quick, and the system I received is very nice. The shell is in great condition and the mod work seems to have been done flawlessly. I purchased the model he offers without the switch for brightness settings (I figured that I never used it on my GBASP-101 anyway). Total cost to my door was less than $100. I'm very satisfied.

Saw your post in the pick up thread, the system looks great.

Think I'll end up ordering one of those myself, shipping to Canada pushes the RCG systems out of my price range and this seems like a good alternative.

 

[cafemomo]

Samurai Kid & Daiku no Gen-san Kachikachi no Tonkachi ga Kachi

oh wow, i had gensan thats a really long name ga kachi on the PSP

didn't know it was a GBC title at first.

Or did I play a sequel to that? hmmm.

 

[Dash Kappei]

It was originally an arcade title developed by Irem, it's called Hammerin' Harry in the west.

 

[dgco86]

Guys, what's a fair price for a lot of these 11 Pokemon games: Red, Blue, Yellow, Gold, Silver, Crystal, Firered, Leafgreen, Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald? All of them are original US first releases that are complete with box, manual and all inserts. Firered and Leafgreen both have the wireless adapter. A fellow collector is offering them to me for $600. He also has a sealed set of all 11 games for $1200. Prices sound extremely high to me IMO, but I thought I'd ask the experts.

 

[coopolon]

I had no idea how out of control fake gba games are. I figured if I I bought from ebay from someone in NA with good feedback I'd be safe.

I've gotten two fakes FireReds so far, and I'm really afraid an Emerald coming in the mail next week is going to be fake as well. Both sellers were in the US and had a lot of positive feedack for selling gba games.

I'm thinking about just giving up on getting these two games, it's such a hassle having to return stuff.

 

[Cody_D165]

Guys, what's a fair price for a lot of these 11 Pokemon games: Red, Blue, Yellow, Gold, Silver, Crystal, Firered, Leafgreen, Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald? All of them are original US first releases that are complete with box, manual and all inserts. Firered and Leafgreen both have the wireless adapter. A fellow collector is offering them to me for $600. He also has a sealed set of all 11 games for $1200. Prices sound extremely high to me IMO, but I thought I'd ask the experts.

The CIB set for 600 seems about market price. It averages to about 54 dollars a game, and from what I see most of these go for like $50-60 cib for the first/second gen games, and $30-50 for the third gen. Yellow, Crystal and Emerald actually usually end up being the most expensive of their gen so you might see a bit of a higher price on those (Crystal especially usually seems to hover around the $60-70 mark.) The wireless adapters on the LeafGreen and FireRed will definitely up the value on those a bit as well, those things sell for like $10-15 by themselves.

If you want to grab them all I'd try to haggle him down on his price a tad bit if he'll do that. I wouldn't say $600 is a bad deal on them all, but not really a good one either I don't think.

As far as the sealed stuff goes I'll leave that to someone else, I don't have much knowledge of the cellophane stuff!

 

[SegaShack]

I thought I would share this here. Gameboy Color is my favorite system of all time, even if the best games for it were the original GB games. I recently talked to a Chinese ebay seller who made standard GBC cases and was able to get them to make me a clear. I also ordered blue buttons from Kitsch. For both it was less than 15 shipped to my door.

Also, an added bonus to this case is that the screen is much easier to see now, due to light being let in from multiple angles. Even my atomic purple wasn't this easy to see.

I had to do a bit of sanding on some of the buttons because they didn't fit perfectly due to the non standard case, however it was no big deal. I did keep my original lens though, the new lenses sold on ebay are garbage and scratch very easily. I also have madcatz stereo speakers that sit underneath the unit, great sound, especially for people like me who don't like headphones. Now I just need to find good speakers for my SP and 3DS XL.

 

[Uncle Rupee]

oh wow, i had gensan thats a really long name ga kachi on the PSP

didn't know it was a GBC title at first.

Or did I play a sequel to that? hmmm.

Daiku no Gen-san (Hammerin Harry/Hero) is a series that goes back to the Famicom era, the PSP game was the last in the series (IREM is now defunct). Unfortunately most of the games were never released outside of Japan, similar to the quintessentially Japanese series Ganbare Goemon and Ninja Jajamaru. Hardcoregaming101 has some great articles on these series, btw.

I thought I would share this here. Gameboy Color is my favorite system of all time, even if the best games for it were the original GB games. I recently talked to a Chinese ebay seller who made standard GBC cases and was able to get them to make me a clear. I also ordered blue buttons from Kitsch. For both it was less than 15 shipped to my door.

In Japan, you could get an official clear version of the GBC. These days it will probably set you back more than $15 though.

 

[Peagles]

In Japan, you could get an official clear version of the GBC. These days it will probably set you back more than $15 though.

We had them here in New Zealand too. I wanted the purple as a kid though

 

[Tempy]

I thought I would share this here. Gameboy Color is my favorite system of all time, even if the best games for it were the original GB games. I recently talked to a Chinese ebay seller who made standard GBC cases and was able to get them to make me a clear. I also ordered blue buttons from Kitsch. For both it was less than 15 shipped to my door.

Also, an added bonus to this case is that the screen is much easier to see now, due to light being let in from multiple angles. Even my atomic purple wasn't this easy to see.

I had to do a bit of sanding on some of the buttons because they didn't fit perfectly due to the non standard case, however it was no big deal. I did keep my original lens though, the new lenses sold on ebay are garbage and scratch very easily. I also have madcatz stereo speakers that sit underneath the unit, great sound, especially for people like me who don't like headphones. Now I just need to find good speakers for my SP and 3DS XL.

Very nice. I assume it's from this seller? http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Full-Ho...-GBC-OEM-Repair-Part-ClearWhite-/181137041790

 

[maxcriden]

Finally got a working DS Lite again and I've been playing SMA4: Super Mario Bros. 3 for the first time. I'm in World 4, on the airship, and finding the game holds up incredibly well. In a lot of ways it really feels like the first modern platformer. There are several clear influences on the modern 2D Mario games and other platformers. It's pretty awesome. I've got SMA2: Super Mario World and SMA3: Yoshi's Island to play next. I also plan on picking up the DKC ports discussed earlier in the thread. So much platforming goodness!

 

[Dash Kappei]

I had no idea how out of control fake gba games are. I figured if I I bought from ebay from someone in NA with good feedback I'd be safe.

I've gotten two fakes FireReds so far, and I'm really afraid an Emerald coming in the mail next week is going to be fake as well. Both sellers were in the US and had a lot of positive feedack for selling gba games.

I'm thinking about just giving up on getting these two games, it's such a hassle having to return stuff.

Easiest way to avoid fakes is to get EU versions

 

[SegaShack]

Very nice. I assume it's from this seller? http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Full-Ho...-GBC-OEM-Repair-Part-ClearWhite-/181137041790

Checked my purchase history, and yes that is it. Funny thing is that the seller did not have them, no seller on the internet had them. I had to send a message leechan to get one specially made, the person who wrote back said "those molds haven't been used in years". I guess after me purchasing it they realized there was a big demand and made a listing for it.

 

[Gormless Noodle]

No idea if anyone knows this, but once upon a time a magazine showed off a JP only Green Limited Edition GBA SP, it had markings on it from some sort of JRPG. I can't find it on any lists or on Ebay. Is it safe to assume it never came out or does anyone know of this? Also, don't remember the name of the game sadly x_x

 

[Grief.exe]

You don't give us a lot to go on, but I'm interested to see where thus goes.

 

[sixteen-bit]

No idea if anyone knows this, but once upon a time a magazine showed off a JP only Green Limited Edition GBA SP, it had markings on it from some sort of JRPG. I can't find it on any lists or on Ebay. Is it safe to assume it never came out or does anyone know of this? Also, don't remember the name of the game sadly x_x

I know there were 2 different green GBA SPs for Pokemon Leaf Green and Pokemon Emerald

 

[Gormless Noodle]

I know there were 2 different green GBA SPs for Pokemon Leaf Green and Pokemon Emerald

Yeah the Venosaur and Rayquaza ones, but those are definitely not it. I was a big fan of Pokémon back in those days, so I would have remembered that much.

I just can't recall the name of the game they made that LE SP for, for the life of me, but I know it was a JRPG and I'm fairly certain it never made it outside of Japan.

I'll see if I can find some scans of that magazine somewhere, that's gonna be a bitch.

 

[Uncle Rupee]

Yeah the Venosaur and Rayquaza ones, but those are definitely not it. I was a big fan of Pokémon back in those days, so I would have remembered that much.

I just can't recall the name of the game they made that LE SP for, for the life of me, but I know it was a JRPG and I'm fairly certain it never made it outside of Japan.

I'll see if I can find some scans of that magazine somewhere, that's gonna be a bitch.

This site seems to have most of everything listed (scroll near the very bottom for the portables). Seems like you may be mistaken about it, I see the two Pokemon ones (here and here) and two different shades available through Club Nintendo: green and pale green. There was also a "Mana Blue" one for Seiken Densetsu's remake.

 

[Mecca]

I have an old GBA SP with Spongebob on it that I bought years ago brand new. Of course the case I bought with it to protect the thing actually ended up rubbing some of the paint off of the corners. Is there any kind of cheap paint I can buy to put on it to fix it? I really know nothing about paints or even if this is at all possible. I'm so glad Nintendo stop going the cheap route and now color the plastic.

 

[SegaShack]

I have an old GBA SP with Spongebob on it that I bought years ago brand new. Of course the case I bought with it to protect the thing actually ended up rubbing some of the paint off of the corners. Is there any kind of cheap paint I can buy to put on it to fix it? I really know nothing about paints or even if this is at all possible. I'm so glad Nintendo stop going the cheap route and now color the plastic.

My Red SP I got for Christmas 2003 has a lot of paint worn off from just standard use, I know what you mean.

 

[Uncle Rupee]

I have an old GBA SP with Spongebob on it that I bought years ago brand new. Of course the case I bought with it to protect the thing actually ended up rubbing some of the paint off of the corners. Is there any kind of cheap paint I can buy to put on it to fix it?

Not that I'm aware of. At least now you know not to use those cheap formfitting cases, you're much better off with a soft carry case than those things.

 

[Mecca]

You're right, I probably shouldn't have gotten such a cheap case, but a lot of the blame has to go to Nintendo for making the paint so easy to rub off. It could have been worse, but I hardly used it. I can only image how much more damaged it would have been if I had carried it with me everywhere.

 

[Grief.exe]

You can grab spare shells off of ebay and replace the shell, and keep the buttons.

Mix and match colors for ultimate awesome.

 

[Mecca]

You can grab spare shells off of ebay and replace the shell, and keep the buttons.

Mix and match colors for ultimate awesome.

If it weren't a limited edition GBA SP I would consider doing that, but it's got this cool silhouette in the inside that I really hate to get rid of.

Here's what the outside looks like with the paint rubbed off in the lower left corner. Since it looks like there is no way of replacing the paint, I'll just continue to live with it.

Thank you all for your suggestions.

 

[baphomet]

Sucks, but its not very noticable at least. Im not big on the spongebob outside, but the color scheme looks pretty nice with the yellow and green buttons.

 

[Dash Kappei]

That Spongebob SP might very well be one of my TOP3 GBAs ever, absolutely fantastic and hilarious to boot!

Btw,
I've got a copy of the -[EU, CiB] Castlevania Double Pack - up for trade if anyone's interested, contains Aria of Sorrow and Harmony of Dissonance for GBA. Games, Cartridge and Box prints are the same for all of EU afaik (with the games being Eng only for HoF and Multi3 with Eng/Fre/Ger text for AoS); instructions booklet version is UK/ITA/SPA.
Looking for Mario & Luigi Superstar SAGA, Ninja Five-O (of course we'll talk money as well), Mother 3 (JPN) among others. PM me if interested.

 

[DracoBlade]

Castlevania Double Pack

Damn Id jump on it if it was NTSC.

 

[sixteen-bit]

Fortunately GBA games are region-free.

 

[Booter]

Damn Id jump on it if it was NTSC.

notsureifserious.png

 

[cafemomo]

How do the BoF GBA titles hold up?

Does it remain faithful to the SNES versions?

 

[sixteen-bit]

I only have the first one but as you can imagine the GBA's sound isn't up to snuff.

 

[DracoBlade]

Fortunately GBA games are region-free.

notsureifserious.png

I only collect NTSC :/

 

[plc268]

I only collect NTSC :/

For one, stop calling it NTSC or PAL. NTSC refers to the TV video format, NTSC in US and Japan, and PAL in Europe. While most of us know what you mean, but when dealing with handhelds it's more correct calling it by the territory names.

So, in your case, it should be "I only collect NA games"

Maybe you already knew that, but I'm sure others didn't.

 

[Tempy]

Got my KongFeng GB Boy Colour. Works pretty damn great. Great screen and good controls. Haven't tried a lot of games in it, but compatibility is supposedly quite high. Another issue is that some games apparently have slightly differently pitched music.

Too bad I missed out when this was $21 on AliExpress, so I had to buy this for £29.99 from a amazon.co.uk third party seller.