Gameboy Advance: Version 2.0
Finally, a chance to play portable games in the dark
February 24, 2002: 6:00 a.m. ET
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NEW YORK (CNNmoney) - You don't have to look too far to realize what a monster hit Nintendo has with the Gameboy Advance. Glance around any airport terminal or waiting room and you'll see kids, teens and more than a few adults fiddling with the portable gaming devices.
Turn out the lights, though, and you'll hear a collective groan from everyone who owns one. The GBA is one of the hottest video game systems on the market (Nintendo sold more than 4.8 million units in the last half of 2001), but if you want to use one in a dark room (or a dimmed airplane cabin), it's an exercise in frustration.
Nintendo intentionally left a backlight out of the GBA design, determining that the feature would drive the cost above $100 and would significantly decrease battery life. And while you could buy a "worm light" or "glow guard" from a third-party, you're not doing yourself a big of favor. Both products shine an "itty-bitty booklight"-like light on the screen, resulting in a glare that makes games almost as unplayable as the darkness.
Iowa State senior Adam Curtis might have the answer, though. The student and entrepreneur is in the final stages of polishing "portable monopoly", a tool that adds an internal light to the GBA, letting users continue with the button mashing no matter what environment they're in.
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Let there be light! Portable Monopoly at work in a dark room. | |
Sounds handy right? Unfortunately, it comes with two strings attached.
1) You're going to need a fair bit of technical know-how to get it done.
2) Installing the backlight will void the warranty on your GameBoy.
Portable monopoly started with Curtis' petition Web site trying to convince Nintendo to add a backlight. After the engineering major gathered thousands of electronic signatures, he decided to try to find a solution himself. Once he posted pictures of his prototype model, the buzz began to build. Now portable monopoly is roughly two to three months away from going to market.
"My first goal was to show it could be done," said Curtis. "Now the goal is to get them in the hands of people who want them - and not lose my shirt in the process."
It's a valid fear. The business wasteland is littered with start-ups who had good ideas, but found those weren't enough. And the gaming world is far from immune. Several high-profile hardware proposals, such as the Indrema L600 - an upgradeable, Linux-powered console gaming system - saw initial enthusiasm fade before the product could ever be released.
Curtis is a little closer to release than many of those products, though. Online pre-orders should start within the next month or so. (The portable monopoly will cost $35 - about $25 more than a worm light.) He said he's also talking with several smaller online retailers about carrying the product. And the battery drain, he said, is no worse than a worm light.
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The doomed Indrema L600 console | |
Nintendo's not paying much attention to Curtis' enterprise. The company declined to comment on the add-on, since it is an after-market product that's out of its control. It did, however, reiterate that opening the back of the GBA voids all warranties.
The biggest hurdle for the portable monopoly, though, is installation is not included in the price.
"It's definitely going to be a learning experience," he said. "I'm not going to be pitching this as something that's easy to do. ... It's about on par with installing a MOD chip in a PC."
That's not something most folks know how to do, though. Curtis said he has received inquiries from several individuals and a few smaller computer shops about setting up installation services. Plus, he added, "just about every high school has a kid who knows how to do this. If people want it bad enough, they can find someone to do it."
The buzz around portable monopoly is born strictly from optimism. Aside from screenshots, no one but Curtis has seen it in action, much less tried to install it themselves.
Still, speaking as someone who spends a lot of time in airplanes, I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Given the choice of watching a reheated sitcom on the tiny video screen in the middle of the aisle or working my way through a few levels of "Castlevania," it's no contest.
Morris is director of content development for CNN/Money
Click here to send email to Chris Morris 
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