4 ms·

$49 is pretty steep compared to a gameboy, which goes for $20, has a massive catalogue, affordable flashcarts, and several decent toolchains (I personally recco

$49 is pretty steep compared to a gameboy, which goes for $20, has a massive catalogue, affordable flashcarts, and several decent toolchains (I personally reccomend WLA-DX). And it also doubles as an excellent music production platform (provided you like chiptunes) thanks to LSDJ. The GBA goes for similar prices, and has similar benfits (and yes, it's got a solid toolchain). Plus, it plays all the old gameboy games, so all of the above applies (although LSDJ is a royal pain to use on the original GBA, as it assumes a standard GB button layout. Nanoloop has a version explicitly for the GBA, which takes advantage of the new sound hardware, but Nanoloop carts are very expensive).

rtpg 10y ago
Personally I've had a hard time finding any flashcarts for GB/GBA recently. DS ones, on the other hand....
- qwertyuiop924 10y ago
  BennVenn's flashcarts are quite excellent. He's recently released a very cheap SD cart (for the value of cheap: it's way cheaper than an everdrive, though), and his cart readers/flashers, as well as his more traditional carts, are very good. Unfortunately, he's in Austrailia, so shipments take forever. Even more unfortunately, he's usually out of stock, so you have to wait for things to come back into stock, and then race to grab them. And it's not the cheapest stuff in the world, either. His store is http://bennvenn.myshopify.com http://bennvenn.myshopify.com. You'll have to buy reader/writer for the GBA flashcarts, or the non-sd GB flashcarts. There's nothing external needed for the SD carts, though: they even come with an SD.
- b3b0p 10y ago
  Have you ever heard of Everdrive? https://krikzz.com/store/ https://krikzz.com/store/
  - qwertyuiop924 10y ago
    Everdrive is great. Expensive, though.
alxmdev 10y ago
Sure used Gameboys are cheaper, but the supply of usable ones will surely dwindle in the coming years as old hardware inevitably breaks down. It's good to see efforts to create new devices with personality that are fun to work with, not to mention being designed for homebrew software instead of relying on hacks and 3rd party carts.
- bane 10y ago
  There's tons of Gameboy and GBA clones on the market. https://www.amazon.com/Crystal-Black-Revo-K101-Emulator-Handheld/dp/B013T7LT8M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1480391516&sr=8-1&keywords=dingoo+a380 https://www.amazon.com/Crystal-Black-Revo-K101-Emulator-Hand... http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2015/05/hardware_review_revo_k101_plus http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2015/05/hardware_review_rev... http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2016/07/hardware_review_exeq_gamebox_game_boy_advance_sp_clone http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2016/07/hardware_review_exe... (seriously, I'm not even dipping my toe in this list, there's dozens of these)
- userbinator 10y ago
  but the supply of usable ones will surely dwindle in the coming years as old hardware inevitably breaks down Gameboys, at least the original ones, seem to be pretty robust: http://kotaku.com/reminder-the-game-boy-was-almost-indestructible-1631762216 http://kotaku.com/reminder-the-game-boy-was-almost-indestruc...
- Qwertious 10y ago
  Used gameboys dwindling should, in theory, result in more people being willing to sell theirs since the price is higher. Besides, Arduboy being worthwhile in 5 years doesn't stop their launch from flopping.

rtpg 10y ago

Personally I've had a hard time finding any flashcarts for GB/GBA recently. DS ones, on the other hand....

qwertyuiop924 10y ago
BennVenn's flashcarts are quite excellent. He's recently released a very cheap SD cart (for the value of cheap: it's way cheaper than an everdrive, though), and his cart readers/flashers, as well as his more traditional carts, are very good. Unfortunately, he's in Austrailia, so shipments take forever. Even more unfortunately, he's usually out of stock, so you have to wait for things to come back into stock, and then race to grab them. And it's not the cheapest stuff in the world, either. His store is http://bennvenn.myshopify.com http://bennvenn.myshopify.com. You'll have to buy reader/writer for the GBA flashcarts, or the non-sd GB flashcarts. There's nothing external needed for the SD carts, though: they even come with an SD.
b3b0p 10y ago
Have you ever heard of Everdrive? https://krikzz.com/store/ https://krikzz.com/store/
- qwertyuiop924 10y ago
  Everdrive is great. Expensive, though.

alxmdev 10y ago

Sure used Gameboys are cheaper, but the supply of usable ones will surely dwindle in the coming years as old hardware inevitably breaks down. It's good to see efforts to create new devices with personality that are fun to work with, not to mention being designed for homebrew software instead of relying on hacks and 3rd party carts.

bane 10y ago
There's tons of Gameboy and GBA clones on the market. https://www.amazon.com/Crystal-Black-Revo-K101-Emulator-Handheld/dp/B013T7LT8M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1480391516&sr=8-1&keywords=dingoo+a380 https://www.amazon.com/Crystal-Black-Revo-K101-Emulator-Hand... http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2015/05/hardware_review_revo_k101_plus http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2015/05/hardware_review_rev... http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2016/07/hardware_review_exeq_gamebox_game_boy_advance_sp_clone http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2016/07/hardware_review_exe... (seriously, I'm not even dipping my toe in this list, there's dozens of these)
userbinator 10y ago
but the supply of usable ones will surely dwindle in the coming years as old hardware inevitably breaks down Gameboys, at least the original ones, seem to be pretty robust: http://kotaku.com/reminder-the-game-boy-was-almost-indestructible-1631762216 http://kotaku.com/reminder-the-game-boy-was-almost-indestruc...
Qwertious 10y ago
Used gameboys dwindling should, in theory, result in more people being willing to sell theirs since the price is higher. Besides, Arduboy being worthwhile in 5 years doesn't stop their launch from flopping.