History of the Game Boy Advance SP

Appearance of the Console

The development of the Game Boy Advance SP began three months after the completion of the Game Boy Advance. Initially, the development of the console was kept secret from Nintendo's management, and only after the developers showed the prototype to their friends and acquaintances and gathered feedback did they go to the management. Satoru Iwata highly appreciated the prototype and gave the green light for its production.

Notably, the Game Boy Advance SP became the foundation for the design of all subsequent Nintendo consoles, and the idea of the "clamshell" design came from two factors:

1. The concept of creating the console changed: the developers thought not about cost but about style. They wanted to create a console that would be bought not for specific games but as a stylish and fashionable item, like a bright Ferrari rather than an ordinary car.

2. The absence of consoles with this form factor, despite the large number of mobile phones with a similar design.

In general, phones influenced not only the design of the console but also its internals. According to Kenichi Sugino: it was due to the rapid development of mobile phones that separate factories emerged, specializing in specific components for phones (for example, a factory for producing batteries), which allowed Nintendo to utilize these production capacities and meet the huge demand for console components.

Even accessory manufacturers influenced the console, as the backlight of the Game Boy Advance SP was greatly helped by the Afterburner device (which allowed the installation of a backlight in a regular Game Boy Advance).

The most challenging part, according to Kenichi Sugino, was making the controls comfortable. The developers wanted the controls to be no worse than those of the Game Boy Advance. There were two problems here.

Due to the return to the horizontal form factor and the desire to minimize the size of the console, it turned out to be extremely difficult to arrange all the control buttons so that it would be convenient. The developers had to make more than 20 prototypes to find the optimal size and placement of the buttons.

The second problem was related to the clamshell design. The buttons should not protrude too much from the body, as this would interfere with the console's closing. To maintain optimal button press feel (under the condition of reduced button travel), the structure of the buttons themselves had to be changed.

If on the Game Boy Advance the button was a rubber piece that simply closed two contacts on the motherboard when pressed, now the button became a real button. If you disassemble it, you will see that the general principle has not changed - these are two contacts on the board, but now they are connected not by a rubber piece but by a specially bent metal plate. When pressed, it straightens and closes the two contacts, and the click occurs precisely due to its straightening.

The Game Boy Advance SP was born thanks to a huge confluence of circumstances. After all, Nintendo could not even decide on the name and final design of the console until the last moment.

Name

The Game Boy Advance SP was first presented to journalists in early 2003 at the Consumer Electronics Show. There, they could touch the console in person and play on it. But journalists were also interested in the fact that the back of the console had a different name: Game Boy Advance DX.

Given that the console was released with a different name, it can be assumed that Nintendo could not come up with a name until the very last moment.

By the way, (this is just our opinion) but it is possible that the name DX influenced the serial numbers of the Game Boy Advance SP. All serial numbers of the consoles start with a letter, and for the Game Boy Advance SP, it is the letter X.

In any case, on the console's label, the letter X is drawn in two colors and looks like two consoles leaning against each other.

GBA SP Patents

Nintendo could not decide not only on the name but also on the design of the Game Boy Advance SP.

In August 2002, Nintendo filed a patent application for the Game Boy Advance SP (all images below are from the patent).

First of all, this patent is interesting because it planned three (!) different designs for the Game Boy Advance SP.

The first design is shown in the figure above (Fig. 1). The third design (Fig. 31) has the same shape as the first but with a different cutout for the screen (apparently without the Game Boy Advance SP inscription).

But the most interesting is the second design (Fig. 16, 18, 24). Of course, the differences are not so great, but it is still a different form factor. The design is not square but with rounded edges. We cannot decide if we like this design more, but we would definitely like to see such a version on sale.

We are unlikely to find out what guided Nintendo in choosing the final design, but now we know that they had a choice.

Release of the Game Boy Advance SP

It may seem strange now, but the first information about the release of the Game Boy Advance SP appeared in January 2003 (that is, a month before the release of the console itself). On the Nintendo.co.jp website, a press release appeared announcing the upcoming release of the Game Boy Advance SP. The press release also mentioned the main advantages of the console: improved portability, backlight, and a built-in battery.

In addition, there was also a photo of the device (yes, in exactly this resolution and quality):

The console was released on February 14, 2003. The console was sold out instantly (within 4 hours). According to eyewitnesses, people set up tents in advance and waited for the release. It immediately brings to mind the lines for the new iPhones.

In America, the console was released a little later. In 2017, a video appeared online where you can watch the presentation of the Game Boy Advance SP. Of course, it was not as epic as the Game Boy Advance presentation, but it was still good.

This console was released in an incredible number of colors and limited editions. What can I say if Nintendo released a version of the console with a gold case!

And how about this fact? The German organization "Medical Imaging Electronics" used the Game Boy Advance SP in electrocardiography machines! And this is not a prototype, but a device that went into series production!

Note that even the GBA SP motherboard is used, and a cartridge is inserted into it!

We could end the story of this console here, if not for one interesting fact - the release of the Game Boy Advance SP AGS-101.

If the history of the GBA SP AGS-001 is filled with interesting facts, then the GBA SP AGS-101 is a story about strange sales decisions.

Game Boy Advance SP AGS-101

In 2005, a new version of the Game Boy Advance SP with a bright screen was released. As you probably already know, this model of the Game Boy Advance SP was called the AGS-101.

You can see a comparison of the screens in our article: "Comparison of Game Boy Advance SP AGS-001 and AGS-101 screens".

The only difference from the old model is the improved screen. Nothing else has changed, even the battery remained the same capacity.

The improved screen consumed more power, but it was so much better than the GBA SP AGS-001 that it completely offset all the disadvantages associated with reduced usage time.

To continue the story about this model, we need to go back to the present for a moment. Now, we can simply determine by color whether it is the AGS-001 or AGS-101 version of the console.

If you look at the forums of that time, the most frequent question was: "I heard that a new version of the Game Boy Advance SP with a bright screen was released, but how can I tell if this is it?".

It would seem that this is a new version of the console with a very cool screen (much better than the old one), so its release should be preceded by huge marketing campaigns, promotional events, and lots of news.

Back in early 2005, analyst P.J. McNealy from American Technology Research released a report stating that an updated version of the Game Boy Advance SP would appear by the end of the year.

Nintendo representatives responded to journalists from the website www.gamesindustry.biz that they had reviewed McNealy's report. According to them, he correctly added 2 + 2 and got 4, but this is just his opinion and is not endorsed by Nintendo.

Given these rumors, everyone expected that the new Game Boy Advance SP would be shown at E3 2005, but no, there was not a word about the new Game Boy Advance SP:

What happened next? NOTHING! Nintendo didn't even issue a press release about this version of the console. In the section for shareholders and investors on the Nintendo website, there was also no information about the release of this version of the console, although information about all other consoles is present. On the American Nintendo website "nintendo.com," you still can't find any information about the Game Boy Advance SP AGS-101.

Most likely, the first to learn about the new version of the console were the journalists of the website ign.com, who immediately reported it on September 21, 2005. In a brief preface to the article, they write that Nintendo is quietly (!) releasing an updated version of the Game Boy Advance SP console.

Of course, there is an explanation for these oddities: Nintendo fully focused its efforts on the Game Boy Micro. Given that the Game Boy Micro is a rather controversial product, Nintendo, understanding this, did not want to distract buyers from it.

Nintendo realized their mistake quite quickly. In March 2006, they announced that, due to poor sales of the Game Boy Micro, the production of the Game Boy Advance SP would resume. Most likely, this referred to the release of the console for the European and Australian markets, as it was already being sold in America, and sales in China started in January 2006.

If you noticed, you might have seen that one important region for Nintendo was missing in the previous paragraph - Japan. This is because Nintendo did not release (!) the Game Boy Advance SP AGS-101 for the Japanese market. Yes, the Japanese corporation Nintendo: which released all consoles in the Japanese market earlier than in other markets, which released exclusive consoles for this market (Game Boy Light), simply did not release this version of the console for the Japanese. You can find the Game Boy Advance SP with an American label, European, Chinese, Australian, but not Japanese.

Epilogue

Of course, the history of the Game Boy Advance SP is somewhat strange. The release of the first version of this console was Nintendo's response to a wave of criticism about the backwardness of the Game Boy Advance model. If we talk about the release of the next model, the AGS-101, it turns out that Nintendo's marketing strategy was that there was no marketing strategy. It feels like Nintendo released this console under the radar.

But overall, the Game Boy Advance SP AGS-101 is the pinnacle of the Game Boy Advance series. To this day, this console is extremely well sold on secondary market platforms. Every year it becomes more expensive and rarer. The fact that the demand for it is extremely high is evidenced by the fact that third-party manufacturers still release a lot of accessories and new cases for this console. It is unlikely that demand will decline anytime soon.

If you don't have it yet, we highly recommend you buy it!