Best Nintendo Handheld to Run your old Gameboy Games

Why I don't like playing nowdays games ?

The main problem I find in nowdays games is the flood of games all around me, there are so many which make them not special and forgetful.

The other day I installed a Raspberry pie with several emulators then downloaded several gigas of games, then scanned all of them to find the graphics for each game as well as the other meta data, after the whole process, I played the machine several times then I forgot about it.
There were just too many games on several platforms that nothing stuck.

There is nothing like having my favorite cartridges with me, those nice plastic blocks which I pop into my machine and play the game till the batteries die.

When you have a flood of games you play the first one, then after a short time you go to a second one, then rush to the next, never fully enjoying or even remembering its name.

And so I find myself coming back to my old stock of gameboy games.

Which brings me to my next question, which nintendo handheld machine should I use to play those games ?

My options are all of the Nintendo handheld devices, from the original gameboy device to the Nintendo switch.

Which Nintendo Handheld Should I Use ?

Obviously, I tried the original one.
It has a great chip for music, has good controls and build and is the most nostalgic for me.

After using it for several hours, I understood why it won't do.
Not counting the obvious lack of colors, the biggest nogo from my perspective is the 4 battery power supply, it is heavy, battery consuming and the batteries can die in a middle of a game (actually, they almost always die in the middle of a game).

Which brought me to the next Nintendo devices which I ruled out on the spot due to the same reasons, although Nintendo did reduce the number of needed batteries from 4 to 2, still it is a very big disadvantage from my viewpoint.

Not only that, another big failure of these devices is the screen lighting which is really bad, so in dark places it is virtually not possible to play games on them.

This problem was attempted to be fixed in the gameboy light, but it was mainly sold in Japan, and was still used with regular batteries.

The above two main reasons (batteries, screen lighting) rule out the original game boy as well as the following: gameboy color, pocket, light and even the gameboy advance.

What about the more "Modern" gameboy devices?

So, I went to the top, looking at the gameboy switch, well that is a super great device, but is not for me, I am looking for a simple device to play my stock pile of cartridges and this one can't play them which is understandable as they won't support cartridges 30 years old, but is one of my main requirements, not only that, it is too complicated for my needs, I don't need internet access or complex configurations.

So I went backwards to the Gameboy DS/DS lite/DSi and was disappointed to find out that although it has a nice touch screen and double screens at that, it doesn't support the original gameboy cartridges, which dropped these devices from my perspective.

The winning Gameboy Device

That led me to Gameboy Advance SP, which magically fulfills all of my requirements, it plays all of the previous cartridges, has no complicated configurations or online mode and has nice back light.

For my needs this is the one and only device, no other Nintendo device fullfills my requirements but this one.

New Developments ?

The above being said, I found out about a new device which should satisfy all of my needs and more, which means it will look like an original gameboy, it will have back screen light and will play all cartridges. All of the above and also much better sound and graphics (The downside is the price tag which is 200$).

This is a new device not by Nintendo but by Analogue, which will be called Analogue Pocket and should be out sometime during 2020, I am holding my fingers and intend to order one as soon as it is available