Around 20 years ago, I disassembled various electronics and scanned them on a flatbed scanner. The scans were 300dpi. Gameboy Color and Gameboy Pocket were among the items I scanned. You can see the scans at https://waltersgameboy.tripod.com/
I don't remember why I didn't scan my DMGB. Either I had lost it, or it was too precious to me to risk breaking. As a kid, I bought it with my own money. I was probably 11 years old.
edit: I did find my DMGB eventually when I moved out of my family home.
I think it's a mis-label. OG Gameboys had the product code DMG-01 (acronym for Dot Matrix Game) and when talking about different models people often use DMG to specify them or DMG Gameboy when the GB context isn't implicit.
> The original internal code name for the Game Boy is Dot Matrix Game, referring to its dot-matrix display in contrast to the preceding Game & Watch series (which Yokoi had created in 1980) that has segmented LCDs pre-printed with an overlay, limiting each model to only play one game. The initials DMG came to be featured on the final product's model number: "DMG-01"
I regret to see they skipped the Gameboy Advance SP and Gameboy Micro. The former was quite popular because it was the last console that played Gameboy Color games.
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
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.
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 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.
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.
2022: Valve releases the Steam Deck -only slightly more expensive than the Nintendo Switch- allowing the user to play all past Nintendo games, using the power of Linux. Oh, and it has Steam support as well. Oh, and you can and may jailbreak/root it out of the box. Oh, and it runs SteamOS, based on Arch. Oh, and it doesn't have joy drift (OK, don't know about that one, we'll have to see).
I say all of this as someome who will probably buy a steam deck -
"allowing the user to play all past Nintendo games, using the power of Linux"
At least for most folks in the United States, it's illegal to do so. Personally I'd like to see all of the old Nintendo games free to play, but that's not how it works under the current laws.
As a child of the 90s, I grew up in the heyday of wide scale music/software piracy. Unfortunately, now I'm at a place in my life professionally where I'm unable to participate in any of those activities.
The beauty of the switch (and many of the other recent nintendo hardware platforms) is that it allows a legal, low friction, relatively cheap marketplace and device to download and play many of their older games.
It's far from perfect (not all games, reoccurring costs to access, no actual ownership, etc.), but for me, and many other "normal" people who aren't going to to set up emulators and download ROMs, it's not half bad. That's a huge value prop for the switch that the steam deck won't be able to match.
Seriously: I think the Switch will still offer the better "out-of-the-box" experience because all Switch games have been, you know, developed for and tested on the Switch.
Valve knows this and built a compatibility review team https://youtu.be/_OAqvtlgfGA and rating system. Though of course it's still marketing material from the source you should trust the least - the maker.
If the Steam Deck crashes and burns, it won't be because of the out-of-the-box experience, I think. Besides, the Switch's out-of-the-box experience during launch wasn't exactly stellar either: https://youtu.be/Cb-srOfRqNc
If I can play any decent fraction of my Steam library on a Steam Deck then it will automatically have a better out-of-the-box experience than a Switch on which I'll be limited to a relatively small number of games, most of which will cost me an extra $69 each.
For the Nintendo specific stuff, for sure (though a Switch cannot handle all Nintendo stuff, can it?). For the Steam stuff: its a big plus which Switch wouldn't have (compare proprietary platform with the relatively open PC platform), as no other handheld in this price bracket can have access to so many games (requiring these resources). If the community takes off (and I got reason to believe it will) then this is going to be a gamechanger. Consider something like Lutris. Its not "out of the box" but its easy to work with.
That's my biggest concern with the Steam deck. It's too expensive to not replace the analog sticks and buttons from time to time but I haven't heard Valve commit to long term parts availability.
Valve do have a lot of experience with hardware at this point, if it was their first device I would be worried. Also they have committed to repairability with the tear down video if I remember correctly.
Then again, experience with hardware design didn't stop Nintendo releasing a critically flawed design for a ~25 year old invention.
You can't buy replacement components for the Steam Controller. You also can't buy replacement components for their VR controllers, including for the thousand dollar Valve Index, which by the way also suffers from *drumroll* analog stick drift.
Yes, and it's sad because there's so much to say about the Game Boy and its followers, and I'm not even talking about being more complex, just more information would have been nice. And it might have been better with real pictures of the inside of the consoles, instead of the scans which look cool but add nothing else (it hides more than it shows). Just looking cool might of course be enough as it attracts some people not interested in the subject, so I'm not saying it's bad. I'm just disappointed as someone mildly interested on the subject.
I completely agree. I think this would've been more impressive if they left the DSi and Switch out of this.
You could dedicate an entire thesis worth of information to the DS section alone. This page should've focused on the Gameboys legacy, but I imagine it was difficult to obtain devices to scan, they likely used what they had on hand, and am glad they did create it.
If anyone wants to work together to make scans of more devices, I own a very large number of these handheld devices and would be willing to have them scanned.
Not sure what's the most amazing bit... the CT scanning, the information, the imagery, the 3d models of the CT scans or the fantastic page design! :WOW:
What page are you talking about? All I see is a hard-to-read white-on-black quarter page of text that takes longer to scroll through than to read and animated GIFs.
That was painful to try to read... "Clever" design that abuses scrolling, provide only a miniscule amount of info and outright breaks on browser zoom is a nightmare.
I'm not sure who runs it, but I can confirm that the "subscribe" box unobtrusively located at the bottom of the page works and makes sure you don't have to depend on catching it on the HN front page.
The text dims a bit too fast to read comfortably on my phone (especially since in the latest version of iOS Apple has inexplicably moved the address bar from the top of the screen to the bottom).
But this scrolling paradigm is just fantastic for looking through the CT scans on my phone - I can easily move up and down layers. Kudos to the web design.
I was seriously weirded out by the bottom address bar when I first got it, but I now prefer it. Reaching for the top of the screen is uncomfortable, and I like how the bottom address bar works as a tab switcher too.
If anyone is wondering why they go from focusing on heaping praise on the design of the controllers to...uh...the side rails and heat pipe of the Switch(?), it's probably because joycon controllers fail shockingly fast, and Nintendo has done nothing to improve their design despite raking in truckloads of cash.
This, however, is tripe:
> For more than 30 years, Nintendo has stayed true to its holistic philosophy that making great experiences is about more than any given component or specification. This integrated approach to design, engineering, and manufacturing has helped them remain dominant in a space where rivals have come and gone time and again.
More like: Nintendo has stayed true to endless recycling of its IP which keeps game development cheap, while underspec'ing their hardware, figuring that game developers will slave away figuring out how to still make games run and users will grumble but put up with abysmal performance and graphics quality.
People might be shocked to know that the switch's giant screen is 720p, 30hz. Even in 2017, that was pretty terrible. They're desperately milking the Switch for whatever they can wring out of it, too - the recent OLED update shows the desperation. They went with a new display technology that adds little to nothing...because the SoC is so anemic, it can't possibly handle higher resolutions or framerates.
Describing them as "dominant" is a joke, too. Nintendo hasn't had market dominance since the NES; their console sales numbers are quite in line with Sony and Microsoft.
The Switch's screen is not 30hz. It's 60. It's a decent screen especially when you consider the whole device cost $300 in 2017. Do we really need 300+ PPI screens for portable gaming? Higher res screens at that size are IMO diminishing returns. Even Steam Deck is going with a 800p screen. I'm not paying $900 for a handheld console so why bother putting a 1080p or better screen the hardware will never be able to utilize except in the simplest of games?
In a phone or tablet where text is the focus and pentile OLED layouts are common the extra PPI is beneficial but for gaming? And when their OLED screen doesn't use pentile?
I'd rather pay less for fun games than more for games that aren't fun but look nice. Microsoft and Sony often forget about the "fun" aspect.
> users will grumble but put up with abysmal performance and graphics quality
The reason to choose Nintendo has never been to get top-notch performance or graphics quality (not even in SNES days). Nintendo focuses on delivering a fun experience, often for the whole family. There's more to games than graphical realism and framerate.
Your points are valid. The hardware is something like a bad Android tablet with a few buttons. Which makes it more amazing that they're still selling a ton of them.
RE recycling IP: This won't go well indefinitely (and it seems like they're not introducing anything new), but we're right in the middle of a nostalgia hype, so for now if works very well for them.
Its not that amazing from my PoV that they're selling these. I can totally imagine a parent being like: I want to give my child a portable gaming device with fun games which are for their age, somewhat modern, yet part of the Nintendo IP. Enter the Nintendo Switch. It just proves the point that the Nintendo IP is strong, even if the games are not graphical high points. Its all about the gameplay and the characters.
> Your points are valid. The hardware is something like a bad Android tablet with a few buttons. Which makes it more amazing that they're still selling a ton of them.
Buy a bad Android tablet or even a good Android tablet and have your pick of thousands of pay to win 'games' and other addiction fuel. At least Nintendo has a machine that lets you have fun with games instead of nagging you for money or likes.
Which is the reason they are bought by the truckload. It is akin to an android tablet without the terrible android game ecosystem.
As a parent I am happy to have chosen the switch for the following reason:
1. Kids can carry everywhere, like they can play in the plane when going on holidays.
2. They don't have to monopolize the main family screen every time they want to play, yet you can still play in the living room.
3. It cost a lot lower than a playstation or xbox
4. Most games have a decent and long enough offline gameplay, keeping my kids away from being online and be exposed to harassment
5. It is not on a phone, so they don't have to own a phone or use mine.
On the cons side it is way to fragile and has been replaced once.
Note: my kids are 8 and 11 and not heavy video game players. They don't have free access to the console, which mean they didn't develop addiction yet and they can spend literally weeks without gaming.
"Recycling" IP is a dumb complaint about Nintendo. It's not like Microsoft, Sony, EA, Ubisoft, Activision, etc. aren't doing the same thing. There's more Ratchet and Clank's than 3D Marios, more Forzas than Mario Kart, more Assassins Creeds than Metroids, more Call of Dutys than Pokémon games.
Exactly, I see the very same reusal of IP on all platforms.
For parents nintendo is a guarantee of having access to games made for kids. There are certainly comparable games sold for Playstation and Xbox lines but the price range and advertized games show they are targetting adults. Parents of young kids would tend to stear away naturally.
The gameboy came out using a processor that was 10 years old, absolutely crushed the handheld market that was flooded with more powerful competitors, and continued to dominate that market using the same underpowered processor for a decade.
Everyone makes consoles and games. Nintendo makes things people actually enjoy.
They haven’t been dominant in the home console market in decades, but their control over the handheld market is absolute. The PSP is the only handheld to ever compete, and even Sony have bowed out of the whole handheld market.
The dominant force in the handheld market is mobile gaming, is it not? Nintendo sold barely 100 million Switch units in five years - that's about how many smartphones are shipped each month.
When they started out with the original Gameboy, I wondered "why are they doing a CT scan when they could just disassemble it?", but with the newer devices it quickly becomes apparent that getting to all the internals has become more challenging recently...
I don't remember why I didn't scan my DMGB. Either I had lost it, or it was too precious to me to risk breaking. As a kid, I bought it with my own money. I was probably 11 years old.
edit: I did find my DMGB eventually when I moved out of my family home.