Good news Dave Long! Xbox game gets patched!

I don’t usually agree with Anonymous posters, but this Guest has a very good point here.

If I had just purchased an “old” GBA for Christmas for someone, I’d be right pissed about now.

The point is the “old” one isn’t “old”. It costs thirty dollars less than the GBA SP will cost when it is released in March. The original will probably be sold for $60 or less when the GBA SP finally comes out. Even if it remails at $69.99, it’s still less expensive and missing one feature from the new device and uses simpler batteries.

You simply pay less for a product that is worth less. They’re not trying to replace the GBA with this new model, they’re trying to reach an entirely different segment of gamers…you know the ones…the bitchers and whiners.

–Dave

I don’t see the big deal. It’s like buying a game for $49.99 and its expansion pack for $29.99 then finding out a week later that a gold edition is coming out next month for $39.99. Don’t see too many people complain about that.

I’m with Dave on this one. Personally I’m not going to pick up the new model because I’m not entirely unhappy with my current GBA (especially since I got that GBA to TV thing). Some people are going to still just buy the regular GBA because they don’t mind the light issue, and they like the design better.

I hate to be the one to inform you, but you are the victim of a global conspiracy in which “powerful forces” work against your ability to get exactly the lineup of products that you desire from every rapacious multinational conglomerate.

I suggest you use your persuasive powers to convince President Al Gore to immediately begin an investigation into…

Oh wait…I forgot…Bush stole the presidency so that he could immediately hand over all the gold in Fort Knox to his oil buddies. I guess we’ll just have to sit back and wait until this country decides to elect a real stand up guy. Somebody like Edwards who wants to fight for the little guy against evil corporations such as Nintendo.

I guess until then we’ll have to be content to rant and rave against all of life’s horrible injustices like optional Gameboy upgrades and tax cuts.

Incidentally, I’m confused as to why you didn’t point out the even greater injustice: why didn’t Nintendo just release the Gameboy Advance at the same time that it released the original Gameboy? We poor downtrodden souls may never know the answer to that terrible question.

I love PC games and I love patches. It is always exciting to download a new patch for a game that adds new features and tweaks. I have 5 gigabytes of patches on my 2nd hard drive alphabetically arranged into game categories.

(And no I am not being sarcastic).

I loath the day when I am forced to buy a shitty console simply to play computer games. When that day comes I hope they have a keyboard and a mouse and full support for my Sony monitor.

Oh for crying out loud Dave.

I have played with quite a few GBAs around the office and have avoided buying one for the specific reason that the screen drives me buggy. I had hoped that the new GBA would be a normal sized one with built-in lighting. However, now that they have gone back to the smaller form factor they have lost me as a customer again. Even my wife, who’s hands are a lot smaller than mine, started to get hand cramps playing on the old GBC. In fact I gave her my old GBC and after she finished Pokemon and Zeld she told me to sell it because she didn’t like the small screen and controls. So, I can’t see this new one being any better.

I think Nintendo missed an opportunity to make a portable system that would have kicked some serious ass.

The market has shown, over and over and over again, that it rewards a game shipped in a good market window, that ships in sync with it’s marketing campaign, that may be a bit buggy or with some unpolished features, over one that ships way late but with fewer problems.

Obviously, there is a difference between “completely broken” and having a reasonable level of bugs or features that could have used some extra attention.

In reality, though, I don’t think there is any practical impact of this, since the VAST majority of users of consoles don’t have online access. If that changes, I could see a more patch-reliant philosophy occurring, I suppose.

Why is it when Microsoft decided to replace the standard Xbox controller with the S-controller you regard it as a sign of the company’s general incompetence and a whithering admission that they haven’t got a clue how to make a console product, yet when Nintendo releases a second version of the GBA that fixes a universally derided problem it is the act of a caring and thoughtful little toy company to placate bitchers and whiners?

In economic terms, the only real effects of console non-patching and computer patching should be for a higher turnover in computer game producing firms.

After all, computer game firms have an incentive to dump buggy products on their customers because they can get away with it; over the long term, this short-term optimization erodes consumer trust, destroys companies, and leads to extremely high turnover in producers. By contrast, the inability of consoles to patch should result in longer-lived development companies.

I have no idea what the 2nd-order effects of this are (gameplay? sequels? takeovers?), but there you go.

Well Dave…I hate to say it, but Jim may have a point here. I think we Nintendophiles tend to view Nintendo through rose colored glasses sometimes.

I don’t agree with those that say Nintendo is just out to collect double the money…obviously you don’t have to buy two GBAs if you don’t want too…but I think that there is at least some sense in which Nintendo underestimated the problem the lighting issue caused for customers.

I’m happy they’ve followed up the GBA with the GASP but I also think it serves the purpose of correcting a problem with the GBA. It’s hardly just a gift to squinting fans…if it was a gift, they’d let us trade in our used GBAs for GASPs. My read on this is that it’s a neutral act. It neither screws over people who bought GBAs nor is it some kind of act of consumer love. Basically it’s a business decision.

I’m glad you often present a well reasoned defense of Nintendo, but don’t go too overboard or guys like guest #1 will look credible.

Why is it when Microsoft decided to replace the standard Xbox controller with the S-controller you regard it as a sign of the company’s general incompetence and a whithering admission that they haven’t got a clue how to make a console product, yet when Nintendo releases a second version of the GBA that fixes a universally derided problem it is the act of a caring and thoughtful little toy company to placate bitchers and whiners?

Well, like I said, it’s not a replacement. I outlined why Nintendo didn’t release the device in this form initially. It simply would have put it out of people’s price range for a handheld. You’ve followed consoles a long time, Jim. You wrote for Next Generation. I’m sure that magazine would’ve said it was too expensive if the GBA had shipped for more than $100. With current technology at the time, it wasn’t feasible without creating problems with either battery life (which people would’ve eaten them alive on) or price (which people also would’ve eaten them alive on).

This fixes a problem that SOME users have with the system. I would bet that for every kid out there that already has a GBA, they could care less about the lack of internal lighting. They’re happy with the $8 wormlight they got for Christmas. Nintendo probably believes this too since the GBA SP is clearly NOT a toy-like device in its looks as the GBA original is. It’s obviously targeted at a specific group of users that differs from the system’s initial target audience.

The bitchers and whiners comment was probably over the top…but the opportunity was too good to pass up. :)

–Dave

Well, first the new GBASP is going to be more than the current GBA. So the issue of low price is kind of moot. This is also supported by the viability of Triton Labs.

Second, previous handhelds had lighting solutions that seemed to work and some of those were out in the early 90’s. I think Nintendo went with the lowest cost screen they could get. Don’t blame them for wanting to make a profit, but it’s kept people like me from buying.

sorry, i think what you meant to say was:
(1)contrary to the 15 hours or so that i have played on a GBA that was unmodified vs. the hour or so that i played on one with an Afterburner…
(2)contrary to the 5-6 people i know who are hardcore Nintendo fans and yet have added Afterburner kits to their GBAs…
(3)contrary to the 2-3 of those above people who have ordered the Japanese GBAsp due to it fixing the above mentioned…

yeah, my beliefs are just founded on the “internet”.

you know Dave, trolling you on these boards should be a national sport. unfortunately, i am not trolling you and you are the biggest Nintendo fanboy out there.

hilarious.

when you going to climb on your cross and tell us about how you don’t post under a pseudonym and fear the repercussions?

well, wing-dang-diddly-do, as David Cross might say. jebus, i guess if Big N said it then it must be true.

and this is based on what? your “internet founded beliefs”? why couldn’t they? they certainly are able now. what, technology morphed in a year? gimme a break. they can do it now b/c the install base of GBA users will support some of the higher production cost of the GBAsp (if i had to guess and that is what that is…i didn’t read it on the internet until i posted this. guess it’s true, right? The Big Brently has said it is.)

you got some fan club or something that you are speaking for? “those of us”? gimmie a break. the screen is flawed. thankfully Nintendo is rectifying the situation. hell, if the GBA wasn’t so flawed, why is every press outlet, including mainstream non-gaming media, hailing this as the best thing to hit handhelds since Metroid Fusion?

GameCube games need patches, too. There are three separate letters in the new issue of GamePro (Issue 173, with Link on the cover) where people are complaining that their GameCube version of Sega’s NBA 2K3 hard locks in the middle of play with a loud buzzing sound. Sega seems to deny there is a problem, and the article mentions nothing about contacting Nintendo.

There is also the issue of Metroid Prime locking up for a lot of people as well. Console games are not perfect and as consoles get more complex so do the games adn so does the bug finding. In 5 years console games will make PC games of today look pedestrian in terms of content and they will be a nightmare to QA.

Man and here I was told the ‘console world’ didn’t have those problems. :roll:

There is also the issue of Metroid Prime locking up for a lot of people as well. Console games are not perfect and as consoles get more complex so do the games adn so does the bug finding. In 5 years console games will make PC games of today look pedestrian in terms of content and they will be a nightmare to QA.

All of the above is probably overheating, UNLESS they can duplicate it with a specific set of actions/events that always causes it to lock. For example, back in the day, my N64 locked up when playing Perfect Dark. I moved it off the carpet surface, and it was (mostly) fine.

Given that CPUs vary in how much heat they can tolerate (eg overclocking) I would expect consoles to be the same way-- some boxes will be quite tolerant of heat, and some will be marginal.

Why is it when Microsoft decided to replace the standard Xbox controller with the S-controller you regard it as a sign of the company’s general incompetence and a whithering admission that they haven’t got a clue how to make a console product, yet when Nintendo releases a second version of the GBA that fixes a universally derided problem it is the act of a caring and thoughtful little toy company to placate bitchers and whiners?[/quote]

It’s worth mentioning that the GBA was released maybe three-ish years before the new one will be, whereas the XBox S-controller was released within a few months of the XBox, and only to the limited market of Japan, after it had been tested with “domestic” gamers.

Yes, those random lockups sound a lot like hardware failure to me, not software bugs.

Ironically, I think I’ve seen a real bug in the PAL version of Starfox Adventures – after an hour or so of playing, a fan-shaped polygon mesh would appear and cover half the screen. Looked a bit as if Tricky or some weeds were stuck too close to the camera. The rest of the game kept running as usual but the fan would stick right there, obscuring the view, and I’d have to restart the game to get rid of it.

Haven’t had any problems with other games on my Cube so far.