why do they hate backlights?

what is it nintendo has aginst backlighting? yes i know the GameboySP has a light but it is a side light. i still find it a bit tricky to use. it would be much better if it is a back light.

things to consider
the first ever such hand held system was no only color, it had a back light. it was released, i think, 2 years before the game boy.

the sega nomad and what ever it was called, was color and back lite.

honestly they finaly ad a light and its only a side light? come on nintendo.

thats the only reason i have no gotten a GBSP, maybe GBSP II will be back lite

Because backlight is expensive and drains batteries.

They should have backlights on a per-pixel basis for maximum contrast and energy efficiency.

The Game Gear got really hot if you played it for a half hour or more.

The Game Gear owned batteries like hotcakes. 6 AAs every couple hours if I remember correctly. You could use the AC adaptor, but that gets rid of the point of the portability.

I had a Sega Nomad. Six AA's got you 30 minutes to an hour. Pfft.
I'd rather spend 48 hours on a regular gameboy than just one with a Nomad.

Nomad? XD

What was the master system called then?

sega master system, i think. i dont know. never really liked sega. yea but still given current technology a backlight is a must have. at work we have a device for barcodes that will run 10 hours non stop with back light. it has a screen that is nearly twice the size of a GBA. it is also a portable 486 CPU and has a laser scanner. the batter pack is similar to that of a cordless phone, only like a gun clip. like i said 10 hours of battery life for that.

im sure your barcode machine isnt running coding and putting tons of sprites on it's screen is it

The sidelights for the GBA work perfect, from the expirience that I've had playing it anyway. I don't see much need for improvement that only backlights can only supposedly give.

Epyo said:

The Game Gear owned batteries like hotcakes. 6 AAs every couple hours if I remember correctly. You could use the AC adaptor, but that gets rid of the point of the portability.

OMG, how I hated that. I remember once I was playing MK2 on my friend's GG and the damn thing suddenly shut off during my fight with Shao Kahn, and the thing had only been on fifteen or so minutes :(
Later my friend told me what Epyo has already said, the GG sucks the life out of batteries.

True, but still it ruled...