Sega Nomad vs. Nintendo Gameboy Advance

eaglesfan · Jun 30, 2002

Aside from the NGPC, I am looking to get a Sega Nomad handheld. From what I have seen of Gameboy Advance graphics and knowing what the Sega Genesis can do, how do these two handhelds compare graphics wise? I know that Nomad doesnt have an active screen, but does this become a factor in many Genesis games?
Would one notice a huge difference in graphics going from a Nomad to a Gameboy Advance?
Thanks for any comments.

Metal-Geo · Jun 30, 2002

The screen of the GBA is so dark, a lamp wont help. The NOMAD's screen is little, but has great graphics

Huxley · Jun 30, 2002

The GBA wins hands-down. The SNES was superior to the Genesis (or Megadrive as we called it in the UK), and the GBA is superior to the SNES. The screen may be built from some kind of plastic from which light cannot escape, but if you do manage to shine it directly at the sun, you might just be able to see some pretty sweet graphics...plus, the full potential of this machine has yet to be realised. If it can produce better graphics than the Genesis ever could from the word go, then things are only going to get better...

10 in 2010 · Jun 30, 2002

basically, buy the sega nomad if you are going to use it mainly in the home. it eats 6xaa batteries in about 2 hours. however, you get an instant back catalogue of over 500+ great games that can be picked up for hardly anything. you can buy 10 classic mega drive/ genesis games for the same price as 1 top game boy advance cart. also, the screen is well lit, and control and sound is excellent (6 buttons for fighting games).also you can plug it into your TV straight off without buying a £100 accesory.

However if the sole purpose is to be used outdoors then obviously go with the GBA simply because it's far more 'portable' and you'll save a fortune on batteries.

Dark · Jun 30, 2002

There are some games that worth buying for Sega Genesis.
Stuff like all Sonic series, pulseman, shining force .. etc.
Having a nomad to play this is really nice.
It sure does eat some batteries and GBA games are more advanced than the Genesis ones but Genesis is old.
I am going to get a nomad as soon as I can. I think its a great system.

GBA is nice too, the games are pretty cool.
And if the problem is the screen then spend extra 20 bucks to get an afterburner baclight .. just open the GBA and install it .. no more problems .. GBA rules.

Nintendo is the god of all games.

AOJ · Jun 30, 2002

Originally posted by Huxley:
The GBA wins hands-down. The SNES was superior to the Genesis (or Megadrive as we called it in the UK), and the GBA is superior to the SNES. The screen may be built from some kind of plastic from which light cannot escape, but if you do manage to shine it directly at the sun, you might just be able to see some pretty sweet graphics...plus, the full potential of this machine has yet to be realised. If it can produce better graphics than the Genesis ever could from the word go, then things are only going to get better...<hr></blockquote>

We will enter in a great discussion about wich system was better: Genesys/Megadrive or SNES.
I have arguments to say that this two systems had moreless the same power. Diferent specs and hard, but same quality games .

Man, my high school final project was called "Videogames History". I have searched a lot to have a non objective point of view.

<edit>: You say that GBA is better than SNES but ... GBA has less pixel size screen than SNES. The NOMAD cand handle real Megadrive games, so I have to suppose that NOMAD has more resolution than GBA (correct me If I'm wrong, this is only a last minute idea about it).

[ June 30, 2002: Message edited by: AOJ ]

Nesagwa · Jun 30, 2002

Hmmmm, how bout making a portable SNES.
Kinda like the NESp but better.
(and gba doesnt count)

Tehcno · Jun 30, 2002

Well you know how the games on the Gen are. Out dated bad sound and old looking. But there were many classics on the system. The Nomad it self if bluky and not very stable (the game gets bumped and it may freeze) and the screen blures a lot.On the plus side there are many cheap games for it.

GBA a bit more pricey when it comes to the games. But its full of bright colors. The screen is not as bad as people say. yes you need a source of light but its the best hand held on the market today.today.

KS09 · Jul 1, 2002

I'd say if you find the Nomad cheap, get it. It's not that easy to find one nowadays.

Originally posted by Dark:

Nintendo is the god of all games.<hr></blockquote>

Now, not to go off-topic, but what does your sig say, Dark? "sonetekuu teoka"?

TheBigBB · Jul 1, 2002

I don't think you should look at the games graphics-wise. I think you should just consider how good the games are and how good the portables are with regards to battery life and ease of play. I'd probably say go with the GBA just because you can play Genesis games on a TV at home, wheras the GBA games are all original and exclusive to the GBA. Can't really go wrong with either, though.

[ July 01, 2002: Message edited by: dmhawkmoon ]

10 in 2010 · Jul 1, 2002

i've never had any problems with my nomad crashing. also, the nomad has a controller port on the bottom so you can play 2-player games without link up. and as it's back lit you dont have to worry about scratches on the screen. it's impossible to pick a clear winenr because they both have lots of good and bad points.

Huxley · Jul 1, 2002

Originally posted by AOJ:
Man, my high school final project was called "Videogames History". I have searched a lot to have a non objective point of view.[ June 30, 2002: Message edited by: AOJ ]<hr></blockquote>

Then you should know that the SNES is the technically superior machine! The Megadrive might have had some great games, but no-one can deny that an un-expanded SNES was capable of producing nicer graphics than a regular Genesis...

SNES, more colours on-screen at once, better sound, more 'tricks' such as sprite scaling
Megadrive/Genesis, more sprites on-screen

Wolf · Jul 1, 2002

Just use a portable PSOne! I've got the official combo and a rechagable battery (3-3.5hrs).

less than joseph · Jul 1, 2002

muahahaha get a motherfucking gamepark32. They own all LISredTFcJhBguygf!!!!
-joseph

neobuyer · Jul 1, 2002

Here's the deal with the NOMAD-

IT'S A SEGA GENESIS!

It plays all the Genesis carts.

If you like old school Genesis games, then get the Nomad.

The GBA of course is more advanced, has way bigger games and better graphics. But if you want a massive lirary of games you can buy for CHEAP-

The Nomad rules.

The Nomad has Phantasy Star IV

You can't beat that

Magician · Jul 2, 2002

The Nomad ownz...the GBA just...blows <img src="graemlins/smirk.gif" border="0" alt="[Smirk]" />

AOJ · Jul 2, 2002

Originally posted by Huxley:


Then you should know that the SNES is the technically superior machine! The Megadrive might have had some great games, but no-one can deny that an un-expanded SNES was capable of producing nicer graphics than a regular Genesis...

SNES, more colours on-screen at once, better sound, more 'tricks' such as sprite scaling
Megadrive/Genesis, more sprites on-screen<hr></blockquote>

Superior in some ways only. For example, Megadrive has a very speedy processor (M68000 @ 7'67 Mhz) compared to the 6c5816 @ 3’85Mhz from the SNES. At first, SNES games suffered from tremendous slowdowns, so SEGA made a game to demostrate that their machine was the best: Sonic the Hedgehog, the fastest scrolling ever seen. No other game couldn't compare in terms of speed.

The SNES had way more colors (in palete and on screen), but newer Megadrive games incorpored some thechniques to dissimule this lack of color.
And on sound related, SNES incorpored the famous Sony music chip, producing really good music. That chip was very powerful, but very hard to program (like what happened to the Sega Saturn), so amateur companies had closed doors to start developing on that chip/system (nobody wants to start learning how to program again while knowing loads on other systems). This made lots of small companies move to Sega.

Ah yeah, belive it or not, this chip made break relationship between Sony and Nintendo and originated the famous Playstation system, and made soft dev companies abandon Nintendo (nowadays that confrontation is alive with some companies).

What else .. ah yes, the Sega's SVP versus Nintendo Super FX chip. SVP way better in all aspects; but this in not important because it's moreless an addon (an addons aren't always good; check all Megadrive addons).

Whew, I stop here from writting. If you want some more info and more detailed (it's only a brief sumary), you only have to kick my ass

Huxley · Jul 2, 2002

Originally posted by AOJ:


Superior in some ways only. For example, Megadrive has a very speedy processor (M68000 @ 7'67 Mhz) compared to the 6c5816 @ 3’85Mhz from the SNES. At first, SNES games suffered from tremendous slowdowns, so SEGA made a game to demostrate that their machine was the best: Sonic the Hedgehog, the fastest scrolling ever seen. No other game couldn't compare in terms of speed.

The SNES had way more colors (in palete and on screen), but newer Megadrive games incorpored some thechniques to dissimule this lack of color.
And on sound related, SNES incorpored the famous Sony music chip, producing really good music. That chip was very powerful, but very hard to program (like what happened to the Sega Saturn), so amateur companies had closed doors to start developing on that chip/system (nobody wants to start learning how to program again while knowing loads on other systems). This made lots of small companies move to Sega.

Ah yeah, belive it or not, this chip made break relationship between Sony and Nintendo and originated the famous Playstation system, and made soft dev companies abandon Nintendo (nowadays that confrontation is alive with some companies).

What else .. ah yes, the Sega's SVP versus Nintendo Super FX chip. SVP way better in all aspects; but this in not important because it's moreless an addon (an addons aren't always good; check all Megadrive addons).

Whew, I stop here from writting. If you want some more info and more detailed (it's only a brief sumary), you only have to kick my ass <hr></blockquote>

That is certainly well researched! BUT, this has still not changed my opinion...

Atro · Jul 2, 2002

Sega Nomad for the games and better screen and sound.

Game Boy Advance for the graphics and battery life! Are you looking to play only 30 minutes ( NOMAD ) ?!?!?

NSX-T · Jul 2, 2002

Nomad

MVSteve · Jul 2, 2002

So WHAT if the SNES had a 3Mhz CPU.
Many games like Kirby's Superstar had special memory chips that could expand memory up to 10Mhz!
Also, that game HAS fast moving graphics too!

The only advantage that Genesis had was its wider screen res (320x224) as opposed to 256x224 (Although some Genesis games used this res also! (SFII).

Then again... the Snes had a 512x224 screen emulation that game a fake high res mode (the menu in Secret of Mana).

Don't get me started on the Genesis' sound chip! very lousy Yamaha sound chip with the SN6969 chip from the Master System. Only 2 of the 6 sound channels could play sampled PCM (crap quality too).

The SNES's SPC700 sound chip had 8 channels that could ALL play sample sounds! (and had higher sampling quality!).

GBA is really a SNES, but with a MUCH FASTER 13 MHZ clock, and a smaller screen size (not too much though). Add to this the 64Mbit cart sizes (GP32 has lower cart sizes!) and GBA WINS HANDS DOWN!

But be sure to get an Afterburner kit!

AOJ · Jul 3, 2002

Originally posted by MVSteve:
So WHAT if the SNES had a 3Mhz CPU.
Many games like Kirby's Superstar had special memory chips that could expand memory up to 10Mhz!
Also, that game HAS fast moving graphics too!

The only advantage that Genesis had was its wider screen res (320x224) as opposed to 256x224 (Although some Genesis games used this res also! (SFII).

Then again... the Snes had a 512x224 screen emulation that game a fake high res mode (the menu in Secret of Mana).

Don't get me started on the Genesis' sound chip! very lousy Yamaha sound chip with the SN6969 chip from the Master System. Only 2 of the 6 sound channels could play sampled PCM (crap quality too).

The SNES's SPC700 sound chip had 8 channels that could ALL play sample sounds! (and had higher sampling quality!).

GBA is really a SNES, but with a MUCH FASTER 13 MHZ clock, and a smaller screen size (not too much though). Add to this the 64Mbit cart sizes (GP32 has lower cart sizes!) and GBA WINS HANDS DOWN!

But be sure to get an Afterburner kit!<hr></blockquote>
Reading from bottom-top.

Uh-oh, GP32 uses Smart Media carts from 8MB-128 MB (Megabytes, not Megabits. So games will be absolutely bigger than any GBA game. Max estimated game can be 8 x 128 = 1024MegaBit game! And maybe can be bigger if you can buy a bigger SMC).

OK, better sound chip in SNES, but hard to program. Only master games from bigger companies for the system, no amateur permitted. Same companies for life? Don't you want to try developing your own game? Not for this console (and some others).

Well, I have not centered my opinion in one game that have special cart specs. I have argued in generally. So in terms of speed, Nintendo programmers started to depurate source codes to free up the main processor and eliminated loads of slowdowns in games. But never were faster than Megadrive ones (except fewer games).

And talking about resolutions, It wasn't very important, because you can't apreciate the difference. If you got a bad TV out and a shitty TV ... nothing can be differenced. Now if you pick your TV (assuming it's not an HDTV nor anything high tech) and put some images in 640x480 or 800x600, you won't see the diference. Ah yeah and about fake high res, in NG Last Blade 2 ending, while staff roll is showing in japanese kanjis ... doesn't it seem that are in high res? It's not in high res, but it does this effect because chars are fake-antialiased. Nothing more but it's curious

So this is it. I will ever try to "defend" the more criticized system. I love to do it, hehe.
And again, in the 16 bit era battle, there was no winner. In their last years, one system where more sold, and the other sold more games. Moreless it was a draw game.

Well well, more tech articles coming soon!

By AOJ, for sure!

<edited>
Yeah, I'm only defending the Megadrive in this topic, not the Nomad vs. GBA. I don't know lots of things about Nomad, but I have read that it's an Apache eating batteries. Sega Nomad it's a collector item, GBA is for masses.
This is maybe a kind of versus of: Wich is better, NeoGeo or PSOne?
Nah, I don't want to say anything about it

[ July 03, 2002: Message edited by: AOJ ]

10 in 2010 · Jul 4, 2002

the sega nomad ownz simply becuase of the software choice. i had a GBA, but sold because. tehre were no side scrolling beat em ups (bar final fight, but i alreaady finished that 7 years ago on the mega cd) no side scrolling shoot em ups (still no contra or metal slug, gunstar), these are my favourite types of game.also the 2-button set up is stupid. when nintendo knew they were gonna port snes games, the snes had 6 buttons, why didnt the game boy advance follow suit? that was such a dimb move by nintendo.

Alkanan · Jul 4, 2002

Nomads = Own

Sega Nomad vs. Nintendo Gameboy Advance

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