The Game Boy Advance is the fourth iteration of the Game Boy handhelds, and has a rich history dating back to the year 2000, when the Game Boy Advance was officially unveiled. However, many may not know, but the version of the GBA unveiled back in 2000 is not the same as the final product.
Along with the Nintendo GameCube, the Game Boy Advance was shown off at the Nintendo Spaceworld event in the year 2000, but it turns out the models that were shown during the event were in fact early prototypes that were not reflective of the final product, which makes sense considering Nintendo’s longstanding history of console and handheld revisions. The subsequent Game Boy models released after the GBA, as well as the various iterations of the Nintendo DS, are proof of this.
In any case, these prototype models were presumably lost to the public, considering how the handhelds never made it into mainstream circulation and not many were produced. These sorts of prototype consoles and handhelds are quite alluring to game collectors, with one prototype Nintendo PlayStation console being sold for $360,000.
However, amazingly, this prototype version of the GBA was found during an auction on a website called Yahoo Japan. It came included with a collection of various handhelds, such as Nintendo DS’s, other Game Boy iterations, PlayStation Portables, and other versions of the Game Boy Advance. The amount paid during the auction was a little under $700, but clearly, the seller was unaware of what they actually had.
There are numerous differences between the prototype GBAs and the mainstream GBAs. For one thing, the prototypes came in color variants that were dissimilar to any other GBA color variant. The one featured in the video above is solid silver with orange buttons, but there was another solid silver version that featured aqua blue buttons. There were also clear variants that featured aqua blue buttons and purple clear that featured the aforementioned orange buttons, all of which are able to play Game Boy Advanced games.
Other than these different color variants, the only other key differences are the boot-up sounds are different between the retail models and the prototypes, and not as much product information is included on the prototype unit. While not being as exciting as, say, a canceled game console, this is still an incredibly rare and impressive find. There’s no telling how much the prototype itself is actually worth, but surely plenty of gaming enthusiasts would love to have it in their collection.
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