I think the magnifying glass should have been omitted completely from the design, since it doesn't add much to the overall experience.Īll in all, the Game Boy Advance is much better off in natural light ¿ a nice, bright room, or under a desk lamp is the best way to play the system. The only real problem comes from the use of the magnifying glass ¿ because it's there, the very top of the screen gets a shadow, masking the first three or four rows of pixels from view. In Complete Darkness: Game Boy Advance with Light Boy Advance
#Bulb boy ign portable
Despite not drawing power from the system or being as portable as Nyko's Worm Light, I think the Light Boy Advance is a much better lighting solution. And the light arm is extremely sturdy, so it doesn't bounce around when you rock the system back and forth, or when you're playing the system in a moving car.
What's more, the unit doesn't project a glare on the screen, so you don't have to continuously maneuver the light to get the reflection off the glass. When the Light Boy Advance is in place, the Game Boy Advance system is a little more clumsy and less portable ¿ but you'll see an awesome difference in picture quality, especially in complete darkness.Īll you have to do is flip the switch, and the light from the arch projects down onto the system ¿ since there are two light bulbs in the unit, the light evenly spreads all over the screen, offering a completely bright and vibrant picture on the Game Boy Advance LCD screen. I'm not exactly sure why they even bothered with the lens, since the image is only like 5% larger than actually viewing it directly off the LCD. The unit has a centimeter-thick magnifying glass that hovers about a centimeter over the LCD screen. Hinged on the back of the device is an arching arm that can either sit flush against the system when you don't need light, or can be raised at a 90 degree angle when you want to put light on the screen. You actually have to apply force to get the darn thing off. The Light Boy Advance snaps into place in the screw holes on the back of the system, and latches to the groove running on the system's edge. The device does not utilize the link port on the system, and requires two AAA batteries (included).
The first official light for the Game Boy Advance is the Light Boy Advance from Sunseibu, a licensed third-party device (meaning it's endorsed by Nintendo whereas the Worm Light is not) that snaps over the Game Boy Advance's screen and provides light to the system if there isn't enough in the room to illuminate the non-backlit screen. And because the company is enforcing its possession of the patent on the whole link cable light, there are other light solutions coming down the pike ¿ after all, the Game Boy Advance needs as much light as you can give it in order to see the vibrant reflective LCD screen Nyko's currently working on a Worm Light Advance for the system, so it'll be a few months before we see something supposedly tailored for use on the GBA. Almost to the point that it's near worthless to have the light plugged in. The result is a working light on the Game Boy Advance, but much, much dimmer than on the Game Boy Color. The Game Boy Advance has the same exact port that the Game Boy Color and Pocket have, but the problem here is the fact that the Game Boy Advance outputs less power to the link cable than the GBC and Game Boy Pocket ¿ 3 volts for GBA vs.
The gray area is in the light peripherals that draw power from the link cable port¿like the Worm Light.