TurboExpress vs GBA

[Spector]

It took more than 10 years for the TurboExpress to be beaten on tech specs by another handheld, which was the Gameboy Advance. But how much of a gap is there between the two? Could the turboexpress have competed with the Gameboy Advance had a slimmer model with two AA batteries been released in 2000? After all, that PC Engine Street Fighter II game was 20 Megabits, which compares favourably in size to the GBA's Final Fight One, for example. Or is the gulf too wide for the TE to exist today?

[pixeljunkie]

good question. Obviously, NOBODY can compete with Gameboy....never gonna happen. But it would be interesting to see. I would give my left nut for a slick little bright-ass screen handheld to play HuCards on. And don't say GPX2, cuz its not working full-on. Plus, emulation sucks.

[esteban]

It took more than 10 years for the TurboExpress to be beaten on tech specs by another handheld, which was the Gameboy Advance. But how much of a gap is there between the two? Could the turboexpress have competed with the Gameboy Advance had a slimmer model with two AA batteries been released in 2000? After all, that PC Engine Street Fighter II game was 20 Megabits, which compares favourably in size to the GBA's Final Fight One, for example. Or is the gulf too wide for the TE to exist today?

. As always, I think it would come down to the library of games. If we sideline that discussion, however, and just consider the tech specs of the handhelds.... well, I think an "upgraded" TE would definitely hold its own (for standard 2D games). Of course, when we see the success of GBA & DS vs. PSP, we see that other factors are more important in determining the success of a handheld in today's market.

I think the market is big enough today to support 2-3 handhelds (call me crazy). By this, I mean that even third place can be profitable for a company (they'd have to turn a profit on the hardware, though, and not suffer a loss as Sony must have taken with the PSP). I've brought up this sort of  argument in the past when we were discussing Gamecube (and how it actually was profitable for Nintendo, unlike Xbox for MS).

[guyjin]

Strap a supergrafx-on-a-chip (or three) to a discman-style CD player. Give the thing a nice screen and controller (six buttons pls k thanks) and you've got yourself a killer handheld.

Too bad NEC will never do it  

[Keranu]

I'm afraid Gameboy's rich history of fame and defeating the other handhelds would make the Turbo Express loose in competition .

[MotherGunner]

Strap a supergrafx-on-a-chip (or three) to a discman-style CD player. Give the thing a nice screen and controller (six buttons pls k thanks) and you've got yourself a killer handheld.

Too bad NEC will never do it  

NEC wont...but what about Messiah...the guys that did the Generation NEX?

[FM-77]

Strap a supergrafx-on-a-chip (or three) to a discman-style CD player. Give the thing a nice screen and controller (six buttons pls k thanks) and you've got yourself a killer handheld.

Too bad NEC will never do it  

A killer handheld? Anything weaker than a DS would be a complete failure.

[cavein2000]

I just picked up a DS recently and totally missed the gameboy advance era, although I did own one.  Truth is I'm not much into handhelds.  However, I picked up Castlevania Circle of the Moon, and it's almost like a Symphony of the night 2.  Back to the topic - there seem to be a ton of games for the advance and DS already has a ton too.  After I picked up the DS I started browsing the DS and Advance sections of my local video game stores and realized that the games available far exceeded what I believed to be out there.  How many people would actually purchase a better turbo express?