Micro Get!

So, thanks to some of the user suggestions I decided to track down a gameboy micro, and I bought it.  It's PINK, so that's probably why it was still for sale, but not like that bothers me.  Got it used for like, 35 bucks or so, so I think that's a decent enough price.

I guess I bought it because I wanted a system that could play my long-forgotten Gameboy Advance (why do I keep typing Game Boy without a space?) games that I had lying around.  Despite this little thing being totally portable though, I'm not sure I'll ever use it as a "portable gaming device".  I sorta look at gaming as a thing you sit down in a comfortable place to do.  I can't really imagine playing Fire Emblem on a city bus or anything (I did on the way home, but more to test it.  Damn those dialogue sequences are long sometimes!).  It's not like I like to advertise that I have expensive hardware on my person, but also I'm one of those old fossils who still prefers not to cut off as many avenues of human interaction as I can.  Maybe it comes from my having grown up in suburbs and smaller towns, but I find people stuck in their ipod universe a bit off-putting.

Not that I don't have a cell phone, and the isolation that can bring.  And heck, I even game with the little monster (my new phone has backgammon on it.  The AI is sometimes stupid, but it's still fun to play).  But I'm not sure I'm the kind of person to use it as a way to ignore what was going on around me.  If I were doing the Castlevania thing in the middle of a crowded bus I'd feel weird.

So, it's a teenie system that I can use to play all those games I bought, now that my Gameboy Player might as well not exist thanks to my 'splody Gamecube.  Again, thanks to everyone who gave me tips!  Now I feel like I have to keep an eye out for other GBA games.

...And especially since the new build of the ASCII Privateer keeps crashing on me for some reason, I guess I'll be playing old GB games for a while :)

If anyone was curious about ASCII Privateer, it really plays like Privateer, down to the cruising to nav points, navigating asteroid fields, blowing stuff up, modding your craft, and dealing with contractors.  There are a few new elements, and the game is now exclusively from the top down perspective, but I like doing a mission or two on it when spending time--  at least when it's working.  Hopefully when the developer comes back from vacation the new problems will be addressed.

UPDATE:

Been playing for a while, mostly Fire Emblem.  I'm out of practice because I got stomped on one of the first hard levels.  Playing a game on a little tiny screen (that isn't crazy simple) is a mind-blowing experience for me.  I can adjust the screen to fit my current position, can shut the thing off without too much trouble, and the screen is so small that when I look away from it to do other things, I feel like I've grown to enormous size and am walking around the tiny apartment kingdom like a giant on a rampage.  Really!

The screen is hard to see when in a strong light source, although I haven't tinkered with the brightness setting much yet; the resolution is surprising to me, being clear and detailed despite the thing's size.  The shoulder buttons are awkward to use, but since I have few action games it doesn't really matter so much, and the rest of the controls seem fine.  People complain about the speaker, but I didn't find it so bad for such a tiny thing.  Don't have any earphones on hand so I'm not sure how that would go.  I'm impressed overall, but I feel a bit like an archaeologist when I look at my old saved games, wondering what my plans were, and struggling to remember the controls for the games that aren't fond of reminding you.

And now, back to unlocking support conversations!!