News — Page 8
Two useful upgrades for Game Boy Advance SP.
For a shell replacement: an eXtremeRate shell for Game Boy Advance SP.
Officially the best battery for Game Boy Advance SP — FunnyPlaying, 1040 mAh!
Game Boy Micro
I was browsing IdleFish and came across this!
According to the seller, this is a Nintendo Game Boy Micro, the 20th Anniversary Super Mario edition.
The console does not work. It is listed for 380 yuan (about 4,800 rubles). But there is a catch...
Do not ask what happened to it — I think somebody opened it with a can opener 😅
💸 Nintendo GameCube SpaceWorld 2000 prototype sells for $20,000
I recently wrote that a rare lot had been put up for sale — an ultra-rare Nintendo GameCube SpaceWorld 2000 Prototype, shown to the public at SpaceWorld 2000 in Japan.
The lot has now found a new owner after selling at Heritage Auctions for an impressive $20,000 — roughly 1,800,000 rubles.
And all of that for a non-functional display mock-up that differs from the final console in only a couple of small details: a transparent lid, a differently shaped Reset button, and a slightly larger shell. Inside there are no processors or graphics chips — only wiring and a glowing LED.
🎮 It cannot actually run games. But for a Nintendo collector, it is a piece of history apparently worth almost two million rubles. Such is the magic of collecting.
🔗 More about the lot:
When you want to play but the battery is dead
I was browsing the internet today and stumbled across a “solution” for replacing the battery in a Game Boy Advance SP.
It is something else. A real hack job — an external battery dangling off the console under gray duct tape, wires sticking out everywhere... It looks pretty horrifying. I understand that the person who made it may simply have had no other option, and the ingenuity deserves credit. But there is a much simpler and cleaner approach, with no tape and far less hassle.
Today you can simply buy a replacement battery on AliExpress.
The battery itself is admittedly not great. But all we need from it is the shell. Put a decent 900 mAh cell inside, and the Game Boy Advance SP is alive again — with good battery life. All it takes is soldering two wires.
📌 Full details and step-by-step instructions:
Continuing my deep dive into the PlayStation Vita
Now that I have managed to collect all the major PS Vita models, new articles on the site were only a matter of time.
Several new Vita articles are now live:
- which model you should choose;
- the story of the console's failure — from Shuhei Yoshida's own comments to the Monster Hunter situation;
- and a short guide to telling the PCH-1000 from the PCH-2000.
A few points I found especially interesting:
— Unlike with the PSP or Nintendo DS / 3DS, the question of which PS Vita to buy has a pretty clear answer;
— I still do not understand who the PS Vita TV was actually made for. I doubt Sony designed it specifically for bloggers and video creators, yet it is not especially useful for much else;
— Yoshida considers removing TV-out a mistake, but does not explicitly say it was done to make room for the PS Vita TV;
— He also admitted that the rear touchpad was a mistake;
— I would add that three proprietary memory-card formats across two console families is beyond absurd;
— The difference between OLED and LCD looks far more dramatic in photos than it does in person. Like that meme about Mexico and the US;
— When the Switch came out, Yoshida said, “This is Vita 2.” Funny enough, I had the same thought about the Switch Lite.
If this topic interests you, take a look at the PlayStation Portable family section — that is where all the PSP and PS Vita articles are collected.
Once a mystery, now a press release: a fully gold Switch is coming
Back in 2004, Nintendo ran a unique promotion in the UK for the release of The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap. Golden tickets were hidden inside 25,000 special game boxes, and six lucky people who found them received an exclusive Game Boy Advance SP covered in 24-karat gold. A seventh unit was given away separately through an online contest on gamesTM.co.uk.
The console quickly became legendary. Reliable information was almost nonexistent, only a handful of photos existed, and people even doubted whether these systems were real. Gaming forums discussed them almost like mythical objects.
That changed in 2019, when one owner published photos of his console. The doubts disappeared — the myth was real. The gold Game Boy became not just a rarity, but a symbol of Nintendo's old style of exclusivity.
But times have changed.
In 2025, British company Truly Exquisite announced a limited line of gold Nintendo Switch 2 consoles. This is not a secret, a prize, or a treasure hunt. It is simply a product available for pre-order.
Only 250 units will be made across three versions:
Aurum Edition — 24-karat gold shell;
Platina Edition — platinum;
Luxe Rose Edition — rose gold.
Each console is hand-built and individually numbered. The first 25 buyers will receive personalized engraving and VIP delivery. Prices start at £6,399, or about 700,000 rubles.
It is interesting how much things have changed. A gold Nintendo console was once almost a global legend. People hunted for it and even questioned whether it existed. Today it is simple: open a website and buy one.
The internet has made the impossible ordinary. What people once whispered about on forums is now press-release material and an online-store listing. A transition from magic to marketing — even if this time it is not Nintendo itself doing it.
The world has changed. The magic remains — it just comes with custom engraving and a 700,000-ruble price tag now.
Latest purchases — more handhelds for the collection
All of my recent purchases have finally arrived. I had wanted to dig into the PlayStation Vita family for a while, so I decided to pick up the models I was missing.
PlayStation Vita PCH-1000
First came the PlayStation Vita PCH-1000 — the original model with an OLED display.
PS Vita TV — with a few mishaps along the way
Next I decided to buy a PS Vita TV. I ordered one through Avito delivery for 10,000 rubles. But when the package arrived, I was horrified.
The console had been wrapped in packing tape directly over the original retail box. It looked as if the person packing it had never handled a retro console in their life and considered the box nothing more than disposable junk 👀.
The funniest part is that I had deliberately paid more for a boxed unit so I could later take nice photos for articles.
Instead, I received a box completely smothered in tape — as if the pickup point had plenty of tape but no other packing materials — or sense of responsibility.
I really did not want to, but I had to refuse the delivery. There was simply no clear way to remove all that tape without destroying the box. The seller explained that he had just taken the console to the pickup point and the staff had handled the packaging. Avito ultimately reimbursed him for the full value of the console, while the unit itself, as far as I understood, remained at the pickup point.
Later, while on a business trip, I stopped by a second-hand shop and bought a PS Vita TV in excellent condition.
And it was a complete set.
By the way, while later writing an article about the history of the PS Vita TV, a question came up: is it really impossible to run Sony's flagship Vita game — Uncharted: Golden Abyss — on this console?
It turns out the answer is yes. Sony never adapted many games for PS Vita TV, so they simply will not launch because the system lacks the required sensors and gyroscope. But!
On a modded PS Vita TV, it is absolutely possible to play through Uncharted if you are willing to mess around with plugins and settings.
➡️ Full instructions: How to run and complete Uncharted: Golden Abyss on PS Vita TV
Cartridges and rarities from Japan and China
A package from China also arrived — thanks to Ruslan for helping with it. Inside was a rare Nintendo DS Download Station vol. 19 cartridge.
And another genuine rarity: the Nintendo Power flash cartridge for Game Boy, released by Nintendo itself in Japan. I think this may have been the first flash cartridge for a handheld console.
Oshare Majo Love and Berry: DS Collection
Finally, the cards for Oshare Majo Love and Berry: DS Collection arrived as well.
These cards are used with the HCV-1000 reader, which I already had together with the game. The cards were the only thing missing.
Now I can “dress up my girls” — the game is split into two parts: choosing a fashionable outfit and then playing a rhythm game.
Now that I have the entire PS Vita lineup in hand, I can finally take a proper look at this interesting family — from the portable OLED model to the TV-oriented PS Vita TV.
“Thanks for 20 years”: legendary Tokyo arcade Nakano TRF closes
On May 18, 2025, the last machine at Tokyo arcade Nakano TRF was powered down. For anyone who grew up with Japanese arcade culture, it was a genuinely emotional moment: the venue had operated for more than 20 years, becoming a home for fighting-game and retro-game fans. Tournaments were held there, a gaming community formed around it, and legends were born.
The final Nakano TRF champion was a veteran of the Fist of the North Star scene — a player known as K.I.. He not only won the final tournament but also captured the farewell scene as staff shut the arcade machines down for the last time.
In a post after the closure, he wrote:
“I was the first and the last customer.”
For Japanese players, arcades are much like PC gaming clubs were for Russians in the 1990s: places where gaming culture took shape, where people spent hours, days, and weeks with their favorite games, and where lifelong friendships were formed. Today, just as in Russia, these spaces are fading into history as home consoles and online gaming take over. That said, Russia has recently seen news about new PC gaming clubs opening again. Maybe things are coming full circle?
The official reasons for the closure were falling revenue, the effects of the pandemic, and rising rent. The owners do not plan to sell the machines, however — all of the equipment will be moved to a new arcade opening in Tsuchiura, Ibaraki Prefecture.
The Nakano TRF YouTube channel will continue as well, and may document the new venue. So even if the physical space is gone, the culture and spirit of the community live on.
TRF's closure is the end of a major chapter in Japanese gaming history — and perhaps the prologue to the next one.
🕹️ Unique collection of 200+ Nintendo game prototypes could be lost forever
May 2025. A story recently broke that is still unresolved and has the entire gaming community worried.
At stake are more than 200 unique beta cartridges and development kits for Nintendo handhelds including the GBA, DS, DSi, and 3DS, many containing early or completely unreleased versions of well-known games. Their preservation is now under serious threat, and a fight is underway to keep this priceless archive from disappearing forever.
🔍 What's in the collection?
The prototypes include:
- Sonic Colors (DS beta)
- Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games
- Sonic Chronicles
- Sega All-Stars Racing
- and many others, including early builds, technical tests, and unannounced projects.
These cartridges have major historical value: they contain material that could help fill in the history of game development and studios in the 2000s.
🧩 Why is it at risk?
The collection was originally supposed to be purchased and digitized by the Video Game Preservation Museum (VGPM) — a nonprofit organization specializing in video-game preservation. They offered the seller more than £25,000 for the full lot.
But the deal fell apart at the last moment.
🗣️ “Someone went and told the seller that all of this was worth more than we had offered, specifically to derail the sale to us. Then they also convinced him that letting us dump the cartridges would reduce their value.”
The intervention of a third party effectively undermined the seller's trust and stopped the process of transferring the material into safe hands.
💰 Attempt to save it
VGPM together with Obscure Gamers announced an urgent fundraiser.
Important: the £5,000 deposit is not the full price of the collection. It is only the first step needed to temporarily take the cartridges off the market, buy time, and begin the main fundraising effort.
Their tweet states this directly:
🗣️ «To save confusion, the £5000 deposit is to take the carts off the market and not the full cost, this is just step 1. And to enable us to fund raise the rest, for release via @HiddenPalaceOrg.»
The final goal is to raise the full amount and release the data through @HiddenPalaceOrg — a respected organization that publishes game prototypes for public access.
🌍 Where is the seller?
The exact location has not been disclosed. The seller is believed to be somewhere in Europe, possibly the United Kingdom, since contact was handled through the UK side, but this has not been confirmed.
❓ How did it end?
As of May 18, 2025, the collection's fate remained uncertain. It was unclear whether the deposit had been paid or whether any of the cartridges had been secured.
The community hopes that at least some of the items can be purchased and digitized before they disappear into private collections.
Ultra-rare Nintendo GameCube SpaceWorld 2000 prototype goes to auction
A genuinely unique lot has appeared at Heritage Auctions: the Nintendo GameCube SpaceWorld 2000 Prototype Console, a prototype of the legendary console first shown to the public at SpaceWorld 2000 in Japan.
🟣 It could not run games; there was no CPU or graphics chip inside, only wiring and a glowing LED. But it looked impressive. Other color variants were shown alongside it: black, gold, silver, and even pink — each one promising a new era for Nintendo.
Compared with the final retail GameCube, the prototype differs in several noticeable ways:
- different internal disc-tray layout;
- slightly larger shell;
- transparent lid showing the disc compartment;
- flat Reset button;
- additional ventilation holes.
Although the unit is non-functional, it has enormous value to collectors. This particular example has a working lid, some minor wear and staining, and one front foot is missing, so it rocks slightly. It is being sold without cables or controllers, untested, with no returns.
💵 The auction price has already reached $875, and will likely climb further.
📅 The auction is already underway and ends on May 23–24, 2025.
🔗 More details and bidding:
News: Sega opens its first permanent store in Shanghai
Nintendo stores and Pokémon Centers have long been a familiar sight in major cities. But a permanent Sega store came as a genuine surprise — especially given where it opened.
May 1, 2025 became a real celebration for video-game and retro-culture fans: Sega opened the first permanent store in the company's history in the heart of Shanghai.
It is also the brand's first official store not just in China but anywhere in the world — even Sega's home country of Japan does not yet have anything comparable.
The opening marked an important step in Sega's strategy to expand in Asian markets. Sega president Shuji Utsumi attended in person and said, “We want to bring the appeal of Sega to a broad audience in Shanghai, where gaming culture is already firmly established.”
The new flagship store is located in the Bailian ZX shopping center, one of the busiest spots in the city and a familiar destination for anime and video-game fans. The space is built around nostalgia and spectacle: visitors can buy unique products designed with local culture in mind, take part in interactive exhibits, take commemorative photos, and play both classic and modern Sega games.
The merchandise includes branded Sonic the Hedgehog items as well as exclusive collectibles available only in this store. It has already become a destination for devoted fans and people just discovering Sega's universe.
The opening was staged on a large scale, with costumed characters, live performances, previews of upcoming releases, and a festival-like atmosphere that visitors are unlikely to forget.
Sega is betting on more than retail. The idea is to create a cultural space where people can connect with the company's legacy and rediscover the magic of games that several generations grew up with.
It is remarkable that after losing the console race to Nintendo, Sega could simply have faded away. Instead, the company reinvented itself around its cultural legacy, nostalgia, and the strength of its most recognizable character, Sonic. The success of new games and the film franchise has allowed the brand not merely to survive but to move back into the spotlight and expand confidently into areas such as retail and dedicated fan spaces around the world.