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Comment by skhr0680 | Hacker News Reader

SP was popular because it was what the Advance should have been to start. I got an Advance at release and the screen was really nice when I could strain my eyes enough to see anything.

My other favorite Nintendo “WTF” is anything to do with the N64 controller, look it up a teardown if you’re bored

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My favourite WTF regarding the N64 controller was that it apparently re-zeroed the center point on startup but didn't monitor the range of readings in any way. So in some games you could speed hack by holding the joystick downwards/backwards on startup and and generate faster-than-100% run speeds.

I find this very interesting, do you have any sources you can share, related to this, where I could read more?

Unfortunately not, it was just something I remember hearing/reading about back when N64s were somewhat relevant... I've had a look around but I can't find anything to back it up so maybe it was just an urban legend.

I remember the centering as a problem, but never thought about exploiting it in a game. I am very disappointed with me from 20 years ago.

> I got an Advance at release and the screen was really nice when I could strain my eyes enough to see anything.

I seem to remember you could get the picture to fill up the screen. I wouldn't be surprised if this introduced some artifacts though.

I think GP is referring to the unlit, relatively low-contract LCD screen that was only readable in bright light conditions.

The SP was better, but only somewhat: it had a button for front-lit lighting so the image quality was still pretty mediocre. I presume to save battery life, since a back-lit would have lead to much more light loss.

A couple years after the GBA SP (AGS-001) a new revision of it, the AGS-101, came to market. That revision used a backlit screen and the toggle button allowed you to switch between a dim and bright backlight mode. If my memory serves right games on that revision looked like they would on the original Nintendo DS. Obviously battery life took a significant hit compared to playing on the AGS-001 with the frontlight disabled.

The AGS-101 was never advertised outside North America and stayed relatively unknown. I don't fault OP for not knowing about it.

There was also the backlit Gameboy Light, which was only released in Japan. It was essentially a Gameboy Pocket with a electroluminescent back-light. It glowed green like those old Indiglo wrist watches.

I've got one, but sadly the LCD has a bunch of dead lines. Apparently, that can be repaired pretty easily.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy_family#Game_Boy_Light

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