HARDWARE REVIEW
Everyone knows what a  Game Boy is. After  all, Nintendo  have sold   over 110 million  of the things  worldwide, and  who  among  us hasn't had the pleasure of sitting  next to some  kid who insists on playing his Game Boy with the volume  racked up to it's most tinnitus-inducing setting?  Over  the past  10  years,  Nintendo  have  exerted  an  iron  grip on the world of handheld  gaming (click  here for  our look  back at  the history   of the Game Boy), and that  grip  looks set to get  stronger with the release of their next generation handheld, the Game Boy Advance. But what is it? How is it different from a Game Boy Colour? And just how powerful is it? Many people are unhappy that Nintendo opted  not to include a backlit-screen, as it makes  it much harder to see  the onscreen action.   With the reflective screen, a good, stationary light source is vital for clear vision, whereas a backlit screen could be played in the dark. Obviously, backlighting comes with it's own set of problems  for a start, it would add £40-50 to the machine's RRP, and the life of a pair of batteries would drop from 15 hours to a measly 2. Nonetheless, we'd like to see a  version in the shops as well as the reflective LCD. The game cartridges are tiny smaller than  a matchbox, and  much  smaller than the existing Game Boy Colour carts. The carts can hold a maximum of 32  megabytes  of  code, and  the  GBA  can  also  play  all  your  old  Game Boy Colour games, which provides an enormous back-catalogue of  compatible  games, many  of  which  can be picked up for next-to-nothing second hand. (They do look a bit unsightly, thanks to the fact that they're twice as big as GBA carts, and therefore  stick out  of  the  back  of the GBA like the proverbial sore thumb). There  are  other things you  can  plug  into  your  GBA,  the  most  important  of  which  is  the  Link  Cable,  that  will allow up to four  GBA- equipped players to indulge in multiplayer heaven, and most games support a software download facility, meaning  you  only need one copy of the  game between you to enjoy the delight of  4  player  Mario  Kart (for instance). For  some rampant  speculation  about  other  you might be attaching your GBA to, don't miss our crystal-ball-tastic glimpse into the GBA's future.