need help identifying this GBA

[barrydeeking]

hi there!

the story is,
i was at the swap meet in las vegas last month and found an odd looking game boy advance SP.

it is a glossy black in color with a front lit screen i think it's a AGS-001 model, but there are no stickers on the bottom of the system :shrug:

the REALLY odd thing is the large brass/gold colored medallion imbedded in the top lid, it reads "hour of power" and "golden member" of the outer portion of the medal and the date 2004 in the center.

i've had it looked at by a few people and nobody knows where it came from.....

i have e-mailed nintendo of america and said they never made anything like that, and that it might be from club nintendo in japan?

if anyone has any kind of info on this i would REALLY be grateful

[CRTGAMER]

hi there!

the story is,
i was at the swap meet in las vegas last month and found an odd looking game boy advance SP.

it is a glossy black in color with a front lit screen i think it's a AGS-001 model, but there are no stickers on the bottom of the system :shrug:

the REALLY odd thing is the large brass/gold colored medallion imbedded in the top lid, it reads "hour of power" and "golden member" of the outer portion of the medal and the date 2004 in the center.

i've had it looked at by a few people and nobody knows where it came from.....

i have e-mailed nintendo of america and said they never made anything like that, and that it might be from club nintendo in japan?

if anyone has any kind of info on this i would REALLY be grateful

You can compare the brightness to a regular GBA 101 to confirm which one you have. As far as the front medallion, not sure. Can you post a pic of the front and back?

[ASSEMbler]

Picture would be good, or did you not buy it lol

[HEX1GON]

If there was no sticker at the bottom, then it's easy to say it was a replacement housing, with a custom logo painted on it. If Nintendo themselves say they haven't made anything like it, then they most likely haven't. There are a lot of replacement housing on the web.

[ASSEMbler]

It's the date that makes me interested.

[Chi-kitory]

i think he owns it "i've had it looked at by a few people and nobody knows where it came from...."
It will be interesting to see what it looks like with photos.

[Importaku]

Definately not club nintendo Japan thats for sure, i know every item club n of Japan released & thats not one of them.

[barrydeeking]

sorry about taking so long getting pics.....

here are the best ones i could get.


this is the best pic i could get of the medal.



screen compared to an AGS-101 pink sp



this is a comparison with a AGS-001 onyx system.. notice how it's a little blacker and glossy?



top of case compared to onyx 001 system



and the back with the missing stickers......


hope these help, let me know if you'd like any other type of photos

[ASSEMbler]

I'll be honest the bottom, the sticker removal looks too fresh to me, notice the change in color.

There's a mega church nearby in California that does something called the "hour of power" , you get
prizes in raffles. Could be from one of the fundraisers.

[barrydeeking]

the crystal cathedral?
that's what i thought too...
they have a golden eagles club i found on the internet, i called them on the phone and they said they never offered a game boy to their members.

[n64coder]

How do the embossed letters that identify the connector ports compare to the real AGS-101? From the picture, it doesn't seem that the letters are as crisp which imply a knockoff casing.

[barrydeeking]

the lettering on the back is the same as the ags-101,

i appologize for the clarity of the pics, the camera is pretty old.


i took it down to a game store here in vegas today and the fella that runs the store is a bit of a collector/historian. he looked at the system under magnification and he said that the screwholes on the bottom of the case and the triwing screws inside had absolutely no scratches or signs of the screws being removed....

and he looked at the lid and the medal on the top isn't applied to the lid, and it looks to be part of the top case, and the medal is beveled just slightly, same as the top case.
and we measured the placement of the medal, and it is absolutely dead center in the lid......

it is a 110V system, with a nintendo battery inside made in japan.
all the other SP's i own have nintendo brand batteries made in china....

so i've narrowed down a few possibilities,

it's not european or australian.... there 220V
it's not american as far as i can find out, NoA said they never made anything like that

if it just had it's #$@#%ing serial number it would be ALOT easier......

[ASSEMbler]

The phrase "golden member" is very asian english sounding to me.

We would just say "gold member"

[xdaniel]

110V/220V doesn't really matter here, seeing how you can just buy a domestic power supply and use it with an import SP. Also, do American SP's have that imprinted "GAME BOY" logo underneath that "Warning: Read the instruction booklet [...]" sticker as well? European ones don't have a sticker there but said logo, just like this unknown SP.

[ASSEMbler]

Open it up and look at the battery, if it's a bootleg battery probably 50% chance it's been retouched.

[barrydeeking]

ok, opened up the mystery SP and the onyx ags-001 i have.

and snapped a couple of pics let me know what ya think?

that's the inside battery compartment of the mystery sp..

there's the mystery sp next to the onyx ags-001(on right)


and here's the batteries, the mystery sp's is on the left...


and i really want to thank you all for help so far.
nothing like a good brainstorming session.

[ASSEMbler]

Can you please set the camera to macro mode and get a profile pic of the medallion?

[barrydeeking]

not sure what you meant by macro mode, couldn't find anything like that on my old camera i did turn the picture resolution all the way up...




that bit of greenish tinge in the 2nd pic looks to me like patina like on a penny..
maybe it's copper/brass?

[CRTGAMER]

@ barrydeeking

Did you compare the screen brightness to both a 001 and 101?
That will at least confirm which model you have. Since the sticker is 2004, probably a 001 model unless that was an old sticker placed on a newer SP. The sticker medallion looks like an add on from the previous owner. Hour of Power 2004 Golden Member is a strange logo to go on a gaming device, doesn't sound like an official game related sticker.

Which store did you go to in Vegas? There is a Retro store right next to the Pinball Musem called Gamer's paradise, great stuff there!

[barrydeeking]

yes, it's frontlit so i'm pretty sure it's an ags-001.

the place i took it down to was the gamer's paradise down on nellis blvd.
(that used to be the original game repair)

and i know it looks like weird thing to stick onto a game boy,
but why would some go out of their way to put a metal coin into a gba lid and place it absolutely dead perfect center?
that's what bothers me about it, the more i look at it the more ambiguous it gets..