Adverts are very different today than what they used to be as there are a lot more rules and marketing techniques, vintage tech adverts back in the day always had seperate meanings, my favourite of these was Apple’s spin on the term Apple using it within an Adam and Eve consept, which certainly shows how much advertising has changed today, check out some of my favourite vintage ads below andlet me know what you think.

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We are sort of on a roll with these Vintage Tech segments which we cannot get out of, this week we are going to talk about the next model in the Game Boy line the Game Boy Advance, the Game Boy Advance or GBA was the successor to thee already successful Game Boy Color and was first released in Europe back in 2001.

The whole series was nowhere near as successful as its original only selling 81.51 million units worldwide.

I remember the Advance being a bit on the larger and thinker side than the Color, but had amazing battery life compared to its predecessor, and featured a massive 15 hours gameplay from 2 AA batteries. The device was also fully backwards compatible with the older Game Boy’s and came in various colors, I had the clear one which I never liked as a kid as it always looked purple and no boy wants a purple gadget.

The Advance also came with various versions like its original from which Nintendo released its first new Advance SP back in 2003, this totally redesigned the Game Boy range as Nintendo revealed it to have a flip down screen and was half the size of the unit with a rechargeable battery.

The SP also featured its own LCD screen with a on/off switch for the backlight which was needed in the transition from daytime play to nighttime play, this version came with a variety of colors and designs, for which I had one of the blue ones and my sister had a tribal, which I was extremely envious over.

The last model of the advance released by Nintendo in 2005 was a much less known model called the Game Boy Advance Micro, this was in a similar design to the original Advance, but was much thinner and lighter, hence the name ‘Micro’.

This version of the Advance allowed you to change it’s covers over depending on the style you wanted at the time, which was extremely useful during the quick changing fashions, but unfortunately this became the last Game Boy that never caught on, which is always going to be a huge shame for the range.

The reason this never caught on was firstly because it didn’t have backwards capability which was a huge downside and also the fact it became overshadowed by Nintendo’s new kid on the block the Nintendo DS.

Be sure to check out our homepage in the near future to make sure you don’t miss the next vintage tech installment and leave a comment below.

Did you ever own a Game Boy Advance? Which version did you have? what did you think about it?

Last week we did a segment on the Game Boy Original and Pocket so naturally this week we are going to continue Vintage Tech with the Game Boy Color, for those who don’t remember or know the Game Boy Color was the successor to the old black and white Game Boy.

The Color was first released in the UK back in 1998, combined with the original Game Boy it sold 118.69 million units and came with a few more upgrades compared to the old Game Boy, the most obvious and useful one being the fact you could finally see those pesky Tetris blocks in a bit more color (Tetris was my favorite game apart from Pokemon of course).

The Color also can in a range of different colors and editions, from which the first colors available where berry, grape, kiwi, dandelion and teal, after this Nintendo decided to release various special editions of the console, my favorite of which and the one I still have is the Pokemon version with Pikachu on the side of the screen, which I am still extremely proud of.

Most of these special editions contained some sort of Pokemon character released for a Pokemon event and where highly sort after within the geek world, but did come in over designs which where not released in the UK.

Be sure to check out our homepage in the near future to make sure you don’t miss the next vintage tech installment and leave a comment below.

DId you have a Game Boy Color? Did you have one of the editions or just a normal one? What shall we do next?

Over the year Apple has changed their iPod dramatically and now have several models including the iPod Touch, Nano and Classic, but do you remember how it all started? If you remember the Orignal iPod you may remember it being revolutionary or spectacular, most people remember it being extremely fat and quite annoying to carry round.

The original iPod was first released in 2001 beginning a new era for Apple, it was first released with a tiny 5GB Hard Drive, FireWire only connectivity and 10 Hours of connectivity, but was a huge step forward compared to its competitors of the time, iPod could hold a huge 1000 songs, which was a lot back then.

Soon after Apple released this model they upgraded the hard drive to 10GB which is still tiny, but meant the iPod could hold 2000 songs which was much more than anything else released at the time, after a year Apple released this could be huge business and released another model, which was the first iPod to include touch sensitive wheel and Windows compatibility also upgradeable to a 20GB hard drive.

[smartads]

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3InQsoYMZE
Then in April 2003 Apple released a 3rd to their new iPod Line which had a total redesign it included 4 buttons along the top which where all touch sensitive and it’s hard drive was increased to a maximum 40GB, and finally was able to sync through Windows as iTunes was released onto WIndows, because of the new buttons the battery was also decreased to a very small 8 hours.

In the fourth generation model Apple decided to leave out the extra buttons and added click wheel which was taken from the earlier iPod Mini, this also was the first generation in the iPod Classic range to have full Windows charge and sync capabilities, and included both FireWire and USB connectivity through its dock connection.

Alongside the 4th Generation model they also released another classic along it which had a colour screen and could hold photos, which they called the iPod Photo, this was designed the same as the 4G, but was also upgradable to 60GB’s and lasted 15 hours whilst playing music.

The in 2005 Apple future changed the iPod line by giving the Classic Video capabilities, the iPod Video had a 80GB hard drive with 20 hours of audio playback, this was defiantly the model to have and was in fact the first iPod I bought which lasted me a few years till I got an iPhone.

The 5G came complete with a slimmer case, a larger screen and was produced in Black and White, FireWire had also been demoted, only available for charging the iPod, leaving USB to lead.

[smartads]

The  sixth generation of the iPod Classic is the one we all know and love, and I am sure a lot of you have one this was a complete upgrade since the first generation and had a alumium front plate and is available with up 160GB hard drive and a massive 40 hours of audio playback.

As you can see Apple’s iPod has come along way since 2001 even steve jobs has changed a bit apart from the classic turtle neck and jeans, here’s hoping the iPod can become even more amazing in the future.

The Game Boy Original, Brings Back A Lot Of Happy Memories

A lot of you will remember days of your childhood wasted using one of the Game Boy hand-held consoles, manufactured by Nintendo and released in Europe back in September 1990, the console become an instant success the Game Boy and Color combined sold 118.69 units worldwide and during release in the US the console sold a million units within weeks.

The main thing I remember from the Game Boy was it’s simple yet effective buttons, it featured only 5 buttons labeled A, B Start, Select and a D-Pad, it even included a volume and contrast control on the side, that did come in handy a lot for me.

There where a few versions of the console starting from the Original which was pretty basic, but then in 1995 Nintendo released a second version which was pretty much the same as the original except it was released with various colored cases, these new models came in 7 different styles which is a lot of variety compared to what Nintendo offer today, you could choose from red, green, black, yellow, blue, white or even transparent (which was pretty cool).

Game Boy Pocket, I Didn't Get This One

A year after Nintendo released another Game Boy called the Game Boy Pocket, this was much smaller, lighter and required a lot less battery’s than the earlier version, and took only two AAA battery’s allowing up to 10 hours of gameplay.

Nintendo also changed the Game Boy’s screen giving it a true black and white display and not the originals bleak monochromatic display, this version was even released with its own LED battery indicator, which was quite new for the time, but was defiantly needed for those late night Pokemon sessions.

Be sure to check out our homepage in the near future to make sure you don’t miss the next vintage tech installment and leave a comment below.

Did you have a Game Boy Original, the 1995 model or the pocket? What did you think about it? What vintage tech should we talk about next?