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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

#131

Post by joemi »

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…

re: Gamecube... How big of a market do you think there will be for 15 year old iPhones? As expensive as they are, I think they will hold much less retro appeal than old game systems.

Re: When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

#132

Post by justinlardinois »

qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #74
justinlardinois wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He is right, no one used the Gameboy as a media player. If only because the Play-Yan was never released in the US. I imported the gimped European version, and hey, 10 years ago, being able to play MP3s off an SD card was pretty novel.

What about GBA video, which we did get?

I forgot about that.

Re: When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

#133

Post by justinlardinois »

shasheene wrote: post #77
justinlardinois wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the original GBA used a certain proprietary charging port I wouldn't call a AA battery compartment a "proprietary charging port" :)

Yep you're completely correct! Maybe I was thinking about the link cable changes (between GBA/GBA SP and the GBA Micro) :/

Didn't the Micro just eliminate the link cable entirely?

Re: When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

#134

Post by bfuller »

joemi wrote: post #130
byuu wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real irony is that component is an analog standard; yet Nintendo chose to output it over their digital port by using a custom DAC. And yet they never released any true digital cable (eg HDMI) for said port. Although the image quality is said to be slightly worse; at this point your best bet is to buy one of the older, backward-compatible Wiis to get component output. Much cheaper.

I might have my timelines confused a bit, but I could swear HDMI was not mass-adopted back when the Gamecube was out... I think DVI was the main digital video standard back then.

I believe you are correct. One of those awkward moments in history that look like blunders in hindsight.

Re: When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

#135

Post by eggy »

Roritharr wrote: post #31
eggy wrote: post #18

Nintendo really did some cool things. I had played with my daugther's GBA; my son wanted the Sony PSP. I inherited the PSP from my son. My daughter sold her GBA. They got a lot of use out of them. I wound up coding on the PSP. Simple stuff, but I almost got into some high-end things, but then PIC chips and 32 bit uCs, and FPGAs flooded the market. I am to this day amazed at how modern the PSP still looks and feels co…

"I inherited the PSP from my son." I'm going to become a father in roughly 6 weeks. Besides all the other emotions flying around, your post just made me look forward to it a little more. Thank you. :)

You're welcome, and all the best to you and yours!

I joke with my son that when I come home to visit him, I am going to take back the fancy telescope I bought him several years ago! He uses it a lot. There is a secret side of me that wants it, that and the microscope I bought my daugther ;)

Re: When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

#136

Post by shasheene »

justinlardinois wrote: post #133
shasheene wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep you're completely correct! Maybe I was thinking about the link cable changes (between GBA/GBA SP and the GBA Micro) :/

Didn't the Micro just eliminate the link cable entirely?

Nope! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Link_Cable#Fourth_generat...

Re: When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

#137

Post by chris_wot »

joemi wrote: post #129
chris_wot wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And downplayed by the following: On the other hand, the GBA SP existed before Bluetooth headphones were a relatively cheap and widespread alternative to the wired standard. And Apple includes both Lightning headphones and a Lightning-to-3.5mm adapter in the box with the iPhone, which ought to ease the transition for many.

That's not downplaying. That's putting it in context.

Which downplays it.

Re: When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

#138

Post by wingerlang »

cm2187 wrote: post #47
chucky_z wrote: post #10

I distinctly remember this at the time. I just played all my games with no sound, a mild frustration at best as it was the only real option as a kid if you wanted to play games at night without goofy adapters for your GBA! It's more akin to the iPhone 1 not including a jack then adding one later than the iPhone 7 removing it. Another note: Original Gameboy games stuck way out the back. The GBA SP sure made a lot of s…

> It's more akin to the iPhone 1 not including a jack then adding one later than the iPhone 7 removing it. And I came to the iphone from the ipod. To me the iphone was (and still is) an ipod with wifi and a crappy mobile connection. Hence me seeing the removal of the audio jack as killing one of the core features.

> To me the iphone was (and still is) an ipod with wifi and a crappy mobile connection.

What do you consider a phone/smartphone then?

Re: When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

#139

Post by bhhaskin »

gambiting wrote: post #53
bhhaskin wrote: post #28

Nintendo also ended up adding it back for the DS and has kept it since.

As a matter of fact, Nintendo added it back to GameBoy Micro, so before DS was released. It's mentioned in the article too.

The DS (2004-2014) was released almost a full year before the GameBoy Micro (2005-2006).

Re: When Nintendo got rid of the headphone jack

#140

Post by brazzledazzle »

joemi wrote: post #130
byuu wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real irony is that component is an analog standard; yet Nintendo chose to output it over their digital port by using a custom DAC. And yet they never released any true digital cable (eg HDMI) for said port. Although the image quality is said to be slightly worse; at this point your best bet is to buy one of the older, backward-compatible Wiis to get component output. Much cheaper.

I might have my timelines confused a bit, but I could swear HDMI was not mass-adopted back when the Gamecube was out... I think DVI was the main digital video standard back then.

Yeah but HDMI is compatible with DVI so if they had output it conversion would be a trivial dongle. I think the point they're making is that they had digital output but didn't take advantage of it. But the digital out they had at the time was probably a standard they thought was going to be the winner or long term so I don't know if I'd knock them for not knowing what is obvious with hindsight.
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