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When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

arstechnica.com

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Re: When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

#51

Post by Jach »

byuu wrote: post #23

Bandai did the same with the Wonderswan devices, which competed against the Game Boy Color and Advance. The device was only released in Japan around '98 - '01. And so now, if you want to use headphones with it (and you do; as not only do you get stereo instead of monaural sound; you get an extra channel of audio so you'll be missing certain sound effects in some games without them!), you get to buy one of these price…

The fun doubles for modders. See e.g. https://github.com/ikorb/gcvideo ; plus the FPGA and parts is cheaper than a set of cables... (And for the GBA SP it's been done more nicely than the pic in the article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0iihTSqPKo)

Re: When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

#52

Post by chris_wot »

jsmeaton wrote: post #50
chris_wot wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but I didn't just mention phone calls. On the browser you'd be getting video feeds, needing sons. Facebook is full on video these days, also needing sound. However, if you look at the money and the plans that Telcos are providing, it's pretty evident that phone calls are still very much an important part of having a phone. Viber, Facebook calling, Whatsapp phone calls, Skype and FaceTime are all extremely popula…

You might have meant sound in other apps, but the original comment that spawned this thread was "phone calls wouldn't even be top 5". I don't do any voice in fb or whatsapp. Hangouts would be about it and that's mostly from my laptop. I'm not defending the 3.5mm port removal or anything, I think it sucks. But voice chat in any form is not top 5 and probably isn't top 10 for me either. I suspect many others are simila…

I'm sure others use the iPhone for things other than voice calls, but with 1 billion iPhones sold even a million people who don't make voice calls is still a tiny fraction of the market.

Most people are still using their phone to make phone calls, even if you and others are not.

Re: When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

#54

Post by djhworld »

byuu wrote: post #23

Bandai did the same with the Wonderswan devices, which competed against the Game Boy Color and Advance. The device was only released in Japan around '98 - '01. And so now, if you want to use headphones with it (and you do; as not only do you get stereo instead of monaural sound; you get an extra channel of audio so you'll be missing certain sound effects in some games without them!), you get to buy one of these price…

The Gamecube example is interesting.

From the Wikipedia page:

> The only cables that can output a 480p signal from the GameCube are the official Nintendo-brand YPBPR component cables, available in both RCA[note 1] and D-Terminal[note 2] variations. These cables are equipped with a unique digital-to-analog converter developed by Nintendo which has not been reproduced by any third party company.

So the adapter is proprietary and I'd imagine wasn't exactly manufactured in huge numbers back then, which attracts such a high price.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_GameCube_games_with_al...

Re: When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

#55

Post by gambiting »

shasheene wrote: post #12

This reminds me of the "feature phone" era in the early 2000s, where every phone had a proprietary charging port, proprietary headphone jack and the removable memory interface was not yet standardized on MicroSD. Thankfully European Union pushed for MicroUSB standardization. While vendors (like Apple) can still get around it by bundling an adapter in European markets, it was enough to push the entire industry to stan…

>>While vendors (like Apple) can still get around it by bundling an adapter in European markets

Apple most definitely does not bundle an adapter in European markets.

Re: When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

#56

Post by Kiro »

chris_wot wrote: post #52
jsmeaton wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might have meant sound in other apps, but the original comment that spawned this thread was "phone calls wouldn't even be top 5". I don't do any voice in fb or whatsapp. Hangouts would be about it and that's mostly from my laptop. I'm not defending the 3.5mm port removal or anything, I think it sucks. But voice chat in any form is not top 5 and probably isn't top 10 for me either. I suspect many others are simila…

I'm sure others use the iPhone for things other than voice calls, but with 1 billion iPhones sold even a million people who don't make voice calls is still a tiny fraction of the market. Most people are still using their phone to make phone calls, even if you and others are not.

Yes, people are using their phones to make phone calls but I still don't think it's in the top 5. That's what this discussion is about.

Re: When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

#57

Post by p0ppe »

jfoster wrote: post #4

If you wanted to replace the headphone jack with your "new thing" the most effective way to do that would have to involve as many audio hardware companies as possible also producing headphones that work with your "new thing". You would want to pre-announce it along with specs and make it an open standard that other companies can utilise without paying royalties. The GBA still wouldn't have had anywhere near enough ma…

Bluetooth Capable Headphone Sales Surpass Non-Bluetooth Sales (in dollars, not in units) - https://www.npd.com/wps/portal/npd/us/news/press-releases/20...

Re: When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

#58

Post by rangibaby »

chris_wot wrote: post #41
jsmeaton wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd doubt that. Browser, text, whatsapp, fb, messenger. They'd be my top 5. Feedly and casual snapchat would still come before speaking on the phone.

Yes, but I didn't just mention phone calls. On the browser you'd be getting video feeds, needing sons. Facebook is full on video these days, also needing sound. However, if you look at the money and the plans that Telcos are providing, it's pretty evident that phone calls are still very much an important part of having a phone. Viber, Facebook calling, Whatsapp phone calls, Skype and FaceTime are all extremely popula…

> phone calls are still very much an important part of having a phone

According to the telephone company. SoftBank in Japan kept lowering data caps without lowering the price. (Unlimited > 7GB > 5GB). They made voice calling "free" in exchange. How generous.

Re: When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

#59

Post by eriknstr »

arm wrote: post #11

I remember this as well (I still have mine in fact!). However, I didn’t really care that much considering how much better the Game Boy Advance SP was than all the previous Game Boys. It was the first Game Boy to have a backlit screen, which meant I could finally easily sneak and play on it in the night without alerting my parents (instead of trying to do the same with the much less effective wormlight accessory I had…

>It was the first Game Boy to have a backlit screen, which meant I could finally easily sneak and play on it in the night without alerting my parents

Actually, there was another Game Boy with backlit screen released much earlier -- just a few months before the Game Boy Color, though only in Japan. I remember said Game Boy because a friend of mine whose father traveled to Japan had brought one such Game Boy back with him for his son. It was called the Game Boy Light.

The screen was monochrome with green backlight. Pretty badass.

http://nintendo.wikia.com/wiki/Game_Boy_Light

http://www.computercloset.org/NintendoGameBoy.htm

http://retro-treasures.blogspot.com/2012/04/silver-nintendo-...

Re: When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

#60

Post by JusticeJuice »

The gameboy advanced SP was the first gaming device, and in fact the first piece of technology I owned. I still remember my excitement of going to the mall with my dad on my birthday to get it + pokemon leaf green. In my eyes, it was perfect.

I never felt like it needed a headphone jack, and my friends at school who had the previous generation which had a headphone jack never used it either.

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