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DSi will have downloadable Game Boy and Gameboy Advance Titles

March 23, 2009 in News comments 23

A while back you may have heard that Nintendo has invited its Club Nintendo members to an exclusive pre-showing of the DSi. Kombo has revealed that a regional representative running the event has confirmed downloadable Game Boy and Game Boy Advance titles for the system.

And yes, the guy asked twice to make sure he wasn't hearing things.

Unless I missed it previously, then the big piece of good news to surface from this event is that downloadable Game Boy and Game Boy Advance titles are coming. I'll just let that soak in for a minute. Finally, we may have a shot at playing some portable classics again, and without the hassle of gambling with eBay's counterfeits or peeling stickers off of GameStop's cartridges... which could also sometimes be counterfeits.

To start with, however, there will only be first-party Nintendo titles. Which, if you ask me, there is absolutely no problem with. Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, Donkey Kong '94, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, perhaps Tetris... yeah, we're good here.

Just like everything else, though, these will be region locked. As a plus, you'll be able to save and run the games from an SD Card-- a feature we're still waiting on for the Wii. What's more, for those worried about space, the DSi will support SD Cards of capacities greater than 2GB, which is the current limit for the Wii.

[And in this article's comments section:]

I was given that information from the regional Nintendo representative that was running the preview event. Even I questioned it thinking that had to be a mistake, but when I asked for a clarification she clearly reiterated that we will see classic Game Boy and GBA games made available for download at $5 and $8 each (500 and 800 points) to be stored and run from the SD card (but not transferable to the Wii).
Reenee via ds.kombo.com »
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  • 0
    chautemoc Mar 23, 09
    Nintendo probably should've got on this earlier so like..half of DS owners wouldn't have written it off already.
  • 2
    carouselambra Mar 23, 09
    what a hack man, they remove the capability to play classic gameboy games, and then sell it back to us? its like a doctor saying yeh im gonna cut your giblets off now, not for any reason i just felt like it but you can buy em back off me if you want and i'll sow em back on
    • 1
      Big A2 Mar 23, 09
      Not quite, by taking away the GBA slot they're not comming into our hours and smashing all our Game Boy cartirdges. We still can play them, it's just that now, we can buy them for less money than we would on eBay.
      • 2
        carouselambra Mar 23, 09
        It's still a slap in the face man. They've swapped one feature out for another; just to capitalize on the profits. who can you blame though; them for making the same things and slapping a new label on it every few months, or us for repeatedly buying em?
        • 0
          xxxRockerxxx Mar 23, 09
          But if you have the game, why would you buy it again. Just play it on your DS or GBA. If you don't have the game and bought a DSi, you'll be in for quite a deal to buy them for $8.
        • 0
          player300o Mar 23, 09
          Yeah... here is the thing - the world revolves in 30 or so year increments, the first 30 being 30 years of innovation, the next 30 is all about capitalizing on that. I mean, what new technology have we really seen in the last couple of years? It's all just tweaks for this or small changes here and there. Your argument is applicable to almost every gaming generation. PS -> PS2 -> PS3, XBox -> XBox 360, and NES -> SNES -> N64 -> GCN -> Wii. Deal with it.

          TL:DR - IT HAPPENS, DEAL WITH IT.
      • 0
        player300o Mar 23, 09
        The less money thing is debatable. For some of the more popular games, yes, you can now get them at a cheaper price, but for some of those cult classics, it's now maybe $3 or $4 more, depending.
  • 1
    Galacticdramon Mar 23, 09
    So they're going to sell ancient games with added region locking? Brilliant.
  • 0
    Mudkip94 Mar 23, 09
    This is so cool. I never really played any GB game but pokemon games. Now I can have old super mario games that is just sweet
  • 0
    random_gamer Mar 23, 09
    This would make me buy a DSi, were my current DS not perfectly functional.
  • 0
    MusiKon Mar 23, 09
    Hey, I just thought of something, that would make this a whole lot interesting. If GB/GBC/GBA games can be downloaded to the DSi, does that mean that multiplayer will be wireless? Or is everything still single player?
    • 0
      player300o Mar 25, 09
      No multiplayer, unless they wanted to start changing the game's code, or provide weird workarounds in the OS. Since most GB games were looking for a specific piece of hardware when using multiplayer, unless Nintendo wants to trick the game or redo that part of the game, there is no multiplayer. That's why the GBA couldn't trade Pokémon from Red to Blue - because of "missing" hardware issues.
      • 0
        Big A2 Mar 26, 09
        The GBA could trade from Red to Blue. You just need a normal Game Boy link cable, not a GBA one.
  • 0
    Anubis Mar 23, 09
    Damn, that's a cool concept.

    Paperboy anyone?
  • 0
    nflsmc Mar 23, 09
    What about Game Boy Color?
    • 0
      Akira_EX Mar 23, 09
      GBC games are pretty much GB games; they're included in that umbrella.
  • 0
    phowell23 Mar 24, 09
    They coulda made a fourtune if they would have put this on the original DS. People have been playing gameboycolor/gba games on ipod touches and psps for a while now.
  • 0
    carouselambra Mar 24, 09
    quote
    Yeah... here is the thing - the world revolves in 30 or so year increments, the first 30 being 30 years of innovation, the next 30 is all about capitalizing on that. I mean, what new technology have we really seen in the last couple of years? It's all just tweaks for this or small changes here and there. Your argument is applicable to almost every gaming generation. PS -> PS2 -> PS3, XBox -> XBox 360, and NES -> SNES -> N64 -> GCN -> Wii. Deal with it.

    TL:DR - IT HAPPENS, DEAL WITH IT.
    "It happens, deal with it", is not an intelligent responsible way of coping with that, dont summise it like that man. There is a problem, so "It happens; CHANGE IT," is more applicable here. If it bothers you enough, that is. But I agree man, I agree on that trend - things get too comfortable, things stay the same, then people complain and wonder why. Not just gaming either, that's how the world is. You cant change it all; but you've gotta find one avenue that matters to you, and change THAT, whatever it is. Too much of a commitment for people in that though. The irony being, that it's those trailblazers that are actully gonna profit the most.

    quote
    But if you have the game, why would you buy it again. Just play it on your DS or GBA. If you don't have the game and bought a DSi, you'll be in for quite a deal to buy them for $8
    Yeh but you're looking at this logically man. Gamers are not logical think of the people who trade in their gba/ds to get a dsi. If the dsi had a gba port, there'd be no worries there. But they've removed that; becase they KNOW that those people WILL dish out the $8 or however much it is, just for the comfort of playing the same game on a new system. Think about this also - the GBA could play classic gameboy games. If they'd REALLY wanted to, they could have made that possible for the DS.
    • 0
      xxxRockerxxx Mar 24, 09
      I'm a gamer and I do tend to thing pretty logically.

      quote carouselambra
      think of the people who trade in their gba/ds to get a dsi. If the dsi had a gba port, there'd be no worries there. But they've removed that; becase they KNOW that those people WILL dish out the $8
      Then those who did that shouldn't be complaining about how bad a feature it is then. If they did that than oh well, if they want to spend their money let them.
      • 0
        carouselambra Mar 25, 09
        You're an exception then man, for example my brother has 3 copies of the same game for 3 different systems and one of em he doesnt even own the system for.

        It just seems to me, that they're deliberatley doing it in a roundabout way; fair enough man it's people's money they can spend it how they want. But a lot of people, lot of gamers, wait to be told what to spend their money on. A lot of us, have got a gamegear under the bed somewhere, or a Gba in a box somewhere. I see the benefit here, that someone who doesnt; someone who never had the chance to play those games and systems, have got the opportunity to here. But 75% of the people who are gonna buy these games, do it out of nostalgia. If the companies wanna play to that, they could instead make it possible for the system to actually physically be able to play those old cartridges you've got lying around.

        I suppose really though, if you want a productive solution to it, what you can do, is trade in those old cartridges you've got lying around, and use the money to buy their virtual counterparts here. But still, I dont like this, I wont be buying a dsi man, it's too much of a hack.
  • 0
    Blaze Mar 25, 09
    That sucks, I was really hoping to hunt down the Sonic Advance games.
  • 0
    anacreon Mar 27, 09
    makes me happy i still have my gba... main i really should have bought an sp its a pain finding batteries :/

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