The drive to catch all 493 beasts in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl is causing a surge in demand for old Pokémon games. JJGames' used video games price tracker shows the average price for used, classic Pokémon games rising over 20 percent since early Feburary. Used game prices in general went down nearly 20 percent during the same period.

As the above graph shows, the Pokémon prices largely track with the market through the end of February, when they surged ahead of the DS games' April 22 release. The prices take a downward turn for the month after Diamond and Pearl's release, then shoot up again after Memorial Day, the traditional start of summer.

While this meteoric rise might encourage you to invest all your savings into used Pokémon games, we encourage caution. A well-diversified portfolio of used games is the only way to avoid fiascos like this one.

Hands On Mobile, Inc. announced today that they have entered into an agreement with Activision to produce a Guitar Hero mobile game for handhelds. While we aren't sure if that means cell phones, PlayStation Portables, Nintendo DSs, Game Boy Advances, HP calculators or all of the above, it's further proof of the massive juggernaut that is the Guitar Hero franchise. Although this franchise was announced before, then canceled, it's now apparently been reborn.

Plus with the announcement earlier today of Harmonix' Rock Band, Ubisoft's Jam Sessions for the DS, and even the Mother 3 soundtrack being made available on iTunes -- it's clear that games and music are currently making waves. It's like the horror genre in movie theaters right now. Soon you'll be seeing things like Hammered Dulcimer Champion and Harmonica Savior hitting store shelves.

We here at Joystiq are really holding out for Kazoo Knights. Wake us when the announcement is on the way.

At first glance that panel title sounds like a very special episode of Dateline NBC's "To Catch a Predator," but the subtitle makes it a bit clearer ... for some: "A Robot, a DS, and a dot-matrix printer menage a trois." This panel was all about hacking and homebrewing, and we saw some pretty cool stuff.

• Bob Sabiston's Nintendo DS animation project -- this is a homebrew kit that Bob began developing after sending Nintendo a letter explaining that he was a fairly decent programmer and engineer (he is - he wrote the rotoscoping software used for the animation in Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly) and they sent him a software development kit for the DS. His animation and painting program is one of the best apps we've ever seen on the DS, and even the artwork he's produced on it is very impressive.
• Rich LeGrand got into game robotics with the Game Boy Advance, because there is a fairly limitless supply of hardware available on eBay at around $20 a pop. He reverse-engineered a robotics tool for the GBA called the Xport, which he sells through his company Charmed Labs, that lets you program and build a robot around your handheld (most people use Lego for the robot exoskeleton). He has also very successfully not been sued by Nintendo.
  
• Paul Slocum took an old Epson LQ500 dot-matrix printer and reversed engineered a box that lets him program and play music through it by changing the speeds and strengths that the pins strike the paper. It really has to be heard to be believed (it's part of the song - former dot-matrix users will hear it right away). He also uses an Atari 2600 with a modified cartridge to generate drums and "bleep" sounds. Pretty impressive stuff.

We lovingly retitled this panel "How to hack up your precious hardware," but now we're thinking about cracking something open and giving it a whirl. We just wish we'd kept those old dot-matrix printers.

While Nintendo is quick to tout the Wii's extensive backward-compatibility with all GameCube software, the sleek white system is a pretty bad fit for the Cube's Game Boy Player hardware add-on. Rather than leaving that clunky old Cube out in the entertainment center, Wii News recommends the Datel Advance Game Port, a sleek-looking accessory that plugs into the GameCube/Wii memory card slot and lets you play Game Boy Advance games on the big screen.

What Wii News doesn't tell you is that the Datel Advance Game Port is a buggy mess. In our reviews of the discontinued hardware, games ran with inconsistent slowdown, laggy controls and audio problems. What's more, the port only plays Game Boy Advance games, unlike the official Game Boy Player, which works with games dating all the way back to the black-and-white classic portable.

If you're really desperate for Game Boy games on your TV, spring for the Nintendo-approved solution and not this third-party knock-off. Or just sit around and wait for the oft-rumored addition of Game Boy support for the Virtual Console.

Okay, before y'all fall over yourselves telling us that he's using a special cartridge allowing him to pipe in a video signal to his Game Boy Advance, let us beat you to the punch -- we know that. It still looks pretty cool playing the Wii on a GBA screen. Though why you would even want to do this is an entirely different matter. Also, just forget about that sucker being portable. For now, it's just a nifty little "Gee whiz!" feature that'll make you pine for a Wii Boy Portable one day. We can dream.

Peep the vid after the jump and imagine everything else you can play on that tiny screen, thus destroying your eyesight and/or going blind. You've been warned.

Nintendo of Europe has offered its condolences to the family of Connor O'Keefe, the seven-year-old UK boy who was electrocuted and tragically killed last Saturday when unplugging his Game Boy power supply. Connor was vacationing with his family in Thailand when the fatal accident occurred. The UK (230V/50Hz) and Thailand (220V/50Hz) use similar voltage standards.

Nintendo did not issue any further comments, claiming that details of the incident were still unclear. Police have declared the tragedy an accident. "No blame has been attached," said Lt. Colonel Sopol Borirok.

What ever happened to the ol' lump of coal punishment? A South Carolina woman decided her son was so out of line when he stole the Game Boy Advance she had purchased as his Christmas present that she had the 12 year-old arrested. He was charged, as a juvenile, with petty larceny.

The GBA theft follows an alleged string of offenses carried out by the boy, including shoplifting, stealing from mom's wallet, and punching a cop. At his court appearance, the mother will seek to turn her son over to the state Department of Juvenile Justice.

DSmeet.com reports that Camelot Software, best known for the Golden Sun series on GBA, has announced plans to stop developing titles for Nintendo. Joining forces with Eleven-Up Inc., Camelot will now work exclusively on the PC platform.

Besides both Golden Sun titles, Camelot is responsible for Mario Tennis: Power Tour (GBA), as well as Mario Power Tennis and Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour on GameCube. Camelot's departure from the Nintendo scene officially puts to rest rumors that the studio will release a new Golden Sun installment for Wii.

Update: Looks like we jumped the gun. Most sources, including Camelot's official website, seem to indicate that the studio is merely branching out onto the PC platform with 'I LOVE GOLF!' A Wii RPG should still be in the works.

The good news: the website for Nintendo's retro, budget bit Generations (née Digistylish) series has gone live, featuring mini-pages for each of the three games contained in the series 1 package, Dotstream, Boundish, and Dialhex. The bad news: it's in Japanese. What we can extract from the site: the series 1 package, which includes the aforementioned three titles, will launch on July 13th in Japan for 2000 ¥ (about $17); the series 2 package, which includes Coloris, Digidrive, Orbital, and Soundvoyager, launches two weeks later for the same price.

More good news: we've embeddded a trailer after the break, so if you're unable (or unwilling) to navigate the Japanese page, keep reading to get a glimpse of some GBA-goodness.

[Via 4cr]

Atlus is bringing two Super Robot Taisen titles to North America for the GBA this year.

According to the official press release linked, "Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation is scheduled for release in the summer of 2006, followed by Original Generation 2 in the fall of 2006." The original Original Generation was released in Japan in 2002, while the Original follow-up arrived in early 2005.

While the super-deformed strategy RPGs will feature Banpresto's original pilots and mechs, the Original Generation titles unfortunately leave out SRT's traditional mash-up of Japanese anime robot warriors from Mazinger Z to Neon Genesis Evangelion. At least GBA and DS owners with a love for SRPGs will have something extra to look forward to later this year.

[Via GameSpot; image taken from AdvancedMN]

See also:

• More PS3 and Xbox 360 third-party titles confirmed
• GameSpot's preview of SRT titles back in 2004
• IGN's profile of Super Robot Wars: Original Generation 2