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GlucoBoy turns diabetes blood-testing into a game
A new glucose monitor targeted at children with Juvenile Diabetes hopes to entice its young users by doubling as a video game. The GlucoBoy tests small amounts of blood for glucose levels, just like a normal glucose self-diagnosis device. Upon plugging it into a Game Boy Advance or DS, however, GlucoBoy rewards players for routine glucose checks or having correct blood sugar levels by giving them points, which can be used to unlock mini-games on the cartridge.Interestingly, we originally reported about GlucoBoy way back in 2005, with Engadget having reported on it first in 2004. Due to the device's small market, its inventor Paul Wessel has spent three years trying to get approval from Nintendo to produce the device. GlucoBoy launched in Australia on World Diabetes Day, with plans to bring the glucose-testing device to more regions soon.[Via Next-Gen]
Nintendo Wii and DS sales on Thanksgiving rampage -- trumps own GBA record
Nintendo of America just announced record sales of their DS and Wii gaming rigs. According to internal sales numbers, Thanksgiving week resulted in more than one million DS and Wii units sold. That's one week, from Sunday, November 18 through Saturday, November 24th and breaks down to more than 653,000 DS units and another 350,000 Wiis. The previous all-time Thanksgiving week sales record was held by the Game Boy Advance in 2005 with sales of 600k at the time. Nintendo also said that Wii sales are on track to hit 17.5 million before March 31, 2008. Now, for those of you saying that Nintendo is purposely limiting production to drive up demand, Reggie has this for you, "A shortage benefits no one, we're disappointed. This was all about how we didn't accurately estimate demand. We need to be more bullish about the potential for the Wii." Come on Reg, you're only just now figuring this out?
DS Fanswag: Give thanks with this three-pack!
What with the holiday this week, it seemed fitting to show a little gratitude to you -- yes, you, over there, in the back -- by offering up a pack of games for the grabbing. One lucky DS Fanboy reader can take home Crash of the Titans ($29.99) and The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night ($29.99) for the DS, as well as our beloved GBA version of The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night ($19.99), for you to cherish (and compare to the DS title). In order to win, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post about giving thanks between now and next Monday, the 26th of November. The contest will end that day at 11:59 PM EST, so get cracking! You can only enter once per day, and as usual, the contest is limited to U.S. citizens over the age of 18. We'll announce the winner on Tuesday, November 27 -- and it could be you!Don't forget to check out the official rules if you have questions.
GameBoy App for iPhone released
A group of iPhone hackers has just released version 0.0.5 of gpSPhone. gpSPhone is a GameBoy Advanced emulator for iPhone. As with all first releases, it's still a bit on the iffy side. Although "many games are playable", sound output is pretty awful and the GUI and instructions are being worked on. If you feel like giving this a try, here are a few things you really need to know: You have to run it from /Applications. The programmers obviously hard coded search paths and the app just will not work from any other location. You need to supply your own BIOS. You can easily google for instructions on dumping your own gba_bios.bin. If you decide to download one instead, the correct MD5 for a working bios is a860e8c0b6d573d191e4ec7db1b1e4f6. Stick the bios file into the .app folder. You need to supply your own games. We happen to already own Hello Kitty Party in physical ROM form. So that's what I decided to test out. Playback is...early. I'm sure that playability will improve in future releases but for now, it's not really in the "fun" category; more "interesting because this may grow into something usable". Add your games to /var/root/Media/ROMs/GBA. Thanks Wayne %Gallery-10205%
DS Daily: Filling out the GBA collection
With the possibility of cheaper Game Boy Advance games tempting us, we are considering a trip down to the local GameStop to blow some cash. There are plenty of GBA games we never picked up but would like to, including ... well, a bunch of stuff. Embarrassingly, we never got the Mario Advance games (because we have multiple versions of all the Mario games already). We'd definitely consider those at the right price, for portability alone. We'd also be likely to buy every copy of River City Ransom EX we saw and distribute them to anyone nearby, possibly by throwing them from a parade float. What about you? What does your collection need? Are there any GBA games you want, but have yet to get? If so, are you planning on checking out the (potentially) newly-price-dropped stock?
It's the year of the ... Game Boy Advance SP?
Nintendo's Chinese operation, iQue, has released some very cool Game Boy Advance SP systems that may make you rethink your need for an SP and your impression of the Chinese gaming market, where you can apparently get very cool systems that aren't hilarious knockoffs.While it's possible these are old, we have a suspicion that the Year of the Dog system is recent as of this year, at least. There's also a two-tone Mario edition, and a very cool dragon system that uses the black/red case design from the Boktai GBA. Some of these are available online at amazingly high prices, so we're stuck playing games on our stupid DS Lites.[Via Siliconera]
Kaplan says gamers were bored before Wii
Now, we've been saying for awhile now that the Wii would revolutionize the industry and it has. But, we wouldn't go so far as to say we were bored by it all pre-Wii. We loved the GameCube, we loved the GBA and we still love our DS. We loved the N64. We hardly found ourselves without games to play, that's for sure."A major insight that Nintendo had early on was that they saw that gamers were getting bored, even though they didn't know it yet," Kaplan remarked. Robert Matthews, senior director of consumer marketing for Nintendo of America backed her up, stating "Just look at the way people consume entertainment today. The idea that you would spend hours playing videogames is just not real anymore." While we'd argue that, blogging doesn't leave us with as much time for gaming as we'd like, but we think overall that there will always be a place for lengthy games, jam-packed with feature-rich content and that Nintendo's new proven focus shouldn't try to do away with those.Do you guys care to toss in your two cents?
Camelot on Golden Sun 3
Back during E3, everyone got all excited because they thought some screens for a new Golden Sun game had leaked onto the intertron. Of course, it was fake as we soon learned why someone would play with our emotions in that way. Shame on them.But, hope returns, as in an interview with Game Informer, Camelot reveals that Nintendo has told them that they want another game in the series. And, like a mob boss running shop on your neighborhood, you best listen to them. Camelot said "We have to do it! Not just that we have to do it, but we want to do it. Nintendo has asked us to please make it. But at the same time we haven't gotten around to making it. We're not really sure why (laughs)...One of the reasons that we haven't made golden sun is because there are so many fans of the game and we don't want to do something half-assed. We want to give it the time it deserves."While we appreciate the care on their part to create a quality game, one deserving of the Golden Sun name, we think 4 years has been plenty of time to come up with a third installment.[Via Codename Revolution]
DS Daily: Slot 2
Back when the DS was first released, the Game Boy Advance compatibility was a lifesaver. The Metroid Prime Hunters demo got old very quickly, and we were glad to have the massive GBA library to lean on, so we didn't have to resort to Sprung. But now there are more amazing DS games than there is time to play them all. In addition, the design of the DS Lite makes it less convenient to carry around a GBA game at all times. Do you still find yourself playing Game Boy Advance games on your DS, or has your DS's other cartridge slot fallen into disuse? As for us, we'll keep GBA-ing it up until a suitable successor to Astro Boy: The Omega Factor comes along (which will be never).
The hunt for a KB Toys is on
It's quite possible that you live near a KB Toys store; they must still exist or there wouldn't be anybody to announce these promotions. In our personal experience, however, we haven't seen one in years. Every store near the last, say, three or four places we lived has gone away, taking their giant bins of 3/$10 action figures with them. If, unlike us, you're lucky enough to have access to a KB Toys, you can stock up on DS and GBA games this month. From now until the 30th, you can buy one DS or GBA game and get the second for half-price. And if that's not enough to send you to the mall, the same deal applies to Play-Doh.[Via Joystiq; yes, that is a real product]
KB Toys: DS/GBA games are buy one, get other 50% off
KB Toys is doing a better deal than what we've come to expect from Toys R Us by offering "buy one, get one 50% off" on all GBA and DS titles. CheapAssGamer has lead the way to the savings which can be found in-store only and end Oct. 30.Now the key thing is just finding a store. Beyond that there are plenty of other toy related items part of the same deal (we just happen to focus on the video games). Could be an ideal time to get a little early holiday shopping done. Yup, it's almost that time.[Via CheapAssGamer]
Rare Pokemon cartridge holds a litter of Mews
This special copy of Pokémon Fire Red could make you very, very popular in the GTS or at our own Game Night. That's because it's loaded with Mews. This cartridge was used in one of those Toys 'R' Us Pokémon events, to distribute Mews to store visitors. We don't know exactly how rare something like this is, but there couldn't have been many such cartridges produced for a one-off event at a single retail chain.We wonder if there would be a noticeable change in the GTS once a bunch of "legit" Mews is unleashed into the trading community. Would the relative barter value of Mews adjust? Oh, man, why is Pokémon economics suddenly so interesting? What is wrong with us? [Via GameSniped]
Protovania: Auction of Sorrow
Sometimes, eBay makes a compelling argument against buying food. This Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow pre-release cartridge is a perfect example. Mere sandwiches cannot compare to the treasure depicted here. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow is one of our favorite Castlevania games, and one we're happy to have found at all. Our retail copy was difficult enough to track down, but this "debug sample" is really rare. And you get more for your buck than just a messed-up version of the game on a big cartridge: it's got a debug menu that lets you skip to all of the cutscenes, and probably any other portion of the game.Prototype collecting has tempted us for years; even when we had the money to bid on a rare item like this, we've held off out of fear that it would encourage more eBaying. We're not sure we can resist this, however. [Via GameSniped]
Dojo update: Lyn emerges
Another Assist Trophy was revealed over at the dojo today in Lyn, a character from the GBA game Fire Emblem. Wielding a weapon of similar stature to another Assist Trophy, her attacks are more deliberate and less on the reckless side like Samurai Goroh. Aside from that, the site suggests that once you summon her, you grab your enemy and hold on to them, allowing her attack to hit them point blank for massive damage. %Gallery-6869% %Gallery-3347%
Top 10 GBA game list is highly selective
Infendo's list of the Top 10 Must-Buy GBA Games definitely includes ten great games. We approve of Infendo's drive to fill the neglected bottom cartridge slot of the DS with excellence. However, it comes off as a list of the Top 10 First-Party GBA games, with no representation of third-party publishers at all. Every single game on the list, even Final Fantasy VI Advance, was published by Nintendo. We know that Nintendo fans tend to be loyal to Nintendo even to the exclusion of other companies that publish on Nintendo consoles, but a list of great Game Boy Advance games should really have at least one Castlevania game on it. Technically, the NES Castlevania is included as "anything from the Classic NES Series," but that's not what we're talking about. We're specifically talking about the three original Castlevania games made for the system. We'd personally include Astro Boy: Omega Factor as well, but we understand that to be a matter of opinion. And we've grown used to not seeing Super Dodge Ball Advance on best-of lists, because the world is a terrible place. The full list is posted after the break.
DS may have killed the 'Game Boy' name
We all suspected that the Game Boy Advance was basically moribund, because it lacks the high-tech money-printing capabilities of the DS. Confirming our suspicions, Shigeru Miyamoto mentioned in an interview with Kotaku that Nintendo basically didn't care about the platform anymore. Now, according to George Harrison, it's not just Nintendo's "third pillar" strategy that's out, but the whole Game Boy line. He told GameDaily that "This year in our marketing you really won't see much push against Game Boy itself, so it will kind of seek its own level. It's hard to say in the future if we will ever bring back the Game Boy trademark."It makes sense for Nintendo not to bring back the Game Boy name when the DS has so much momentum. But, personally, we think it's quite sad to see a Nintendo standard go away. Oh, well, at least we've got the Wii now to take over as the most awkwardly-named Nintendo console on the market.
Mazes of Fate getting ported from GBA
We're pretty inured to this kind of thing on the Wii, although we still enjoy getting outraged about it now and then. But now we're starting to see last-gen ports on the DS! Sure, we have the Phoenix Wright games already, but they totally get a pass since the ports are new to the US and Europe. RPGLand reports that Mazes of Fate, the first-person dungeon crawler developed by Argentina's Sabarasa Entertainment, is being prepared for a DS release by publisher Signature Devices and their in-house developer Graffiti Entertainment. Unlike Phoenix Wright, the GBA version of Mazes of Fate did come out in the US-- in December of last year. The DS is a good system for dungeon games, with its map-displaying second screen, and Graffiti is adding new dungeons, characters, and some touch-screen stuff. If you don't already have the game, this is the one to get. Or if you have a DS Lite and you get really embarrassed about the GBA protuberance.
Rumor: Golden Sun DS images snapped [update]
According to a tipster gobo_4227, the following images are from an unannounced Nintendo DS debut of the GBA's RPG series, Golden Sun. The legitimacy of the images is obviously in doubt, but it does realize some of our far-fetched dreams. Make it happen, developers!%Gallery-4733%
Five handheld accessories you should continue to live without
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gadgets/Five_of_the_worst_handheld_accessories_ever_PICS'; Portable game systems are completely self-contained. Unlike home systems, which require a TV, multiple outlets, and a separate controller unit, handhelds contain everything you need to play games, built right in to the unit. They are self-reliant. They are also-- and this goes without saying-- portable. They're designed to be small so you can carry them around.Why, then, do jackasses feel the need to make accessories for handhelds? Accessories needlessly add bulk to Game Boys, effectively exiling them from casual pocket-drops. Here are five of the most pointless things you could ever graft onto a handheld system. We're giving a lot of attention to the Game Boy Color, as it turned out to be a focal point for idiotic doodads. Hopefully, these companies are still tired from their furious crap-assembling, and will largely pass over the DS.
Buy it while you can: Blast Arena Advance
Though newcomers to the homebrew scene likely missed Blast Arena Advance when the title was released mid-2005, and even longtime followers of the community probably acted too slow to pick up one of the original 41 cartridges that were manufactured and distributed later on, there may still be a chance for you to make things right.Developer Matthew Carr (Lemmings DS port) has made available 150 more Blast Arena Advance carts for approximately $14, warning timid buyers that this limited run will be the last for this project. Already, over sixty of the semi-transparent, teal-colored carts have been sold. The penny-wise among you could always download the ROM posted on Matthew's site instead, but you'd have one more hole in your collection of rare GBA games.From its minimalist-but-stylish graphics to its immediate accessibility, there's plenty to compare between Blast Arena Advance and the bit Generations' series presentations. You can play the entire game using just the D-pad, collecting flanges and dodging debris from exploding stars while the soundtrack -- music so good you'll try your damndest to survive longer just to hear more of it -- paints in the scenery missing from the black background. Fling yourself past the post break for some video we took of us playing Blast Arena Advance.
