I am really think of buying a DS, especially ever since I saw an original fat ds of $80 at gamestop. Plus i have been looking at DS games since i am buy a gift for someone (and if you are reading this I'm not telling what i got) and have been intriged by several titles, so I have a couple questions.

1. Is the brightness on the DS fat bad, I know it's backlit on the DS, but I had bought an original GBA and hated it purely for it's dark display which in my eyes made it uplayable inside, that hurt Nintendo in my eyes for awhile (in terms of handhelds) and I wanna know if it's screen would bug me (BTW the green screen GB original didn't so I'm hardly picky)

2. Have any of you had problems with the battery supply on the DS original? Or any other relibilty issues?

3. How well do GBA games play on it.

Yes without a doubt you should.

The brightness isn't exactly bad, but the Lite is much, much better.  I highly recommend picking up the Lite instead.

Battery life is fantastic, GBA games play perfectly.  If you drop the Lite a lot, the hinge casing may crack or the shoulder buttons may work improperly.  So try to avoid that.

1.- The DSL is better on the brigtness.
2.- No, I have that model and it still working great after 2 years 4 months
3.- The sound is better on DS than on GBA

Yes, I also recommend the DS Lite. It's a bit too small for my hands but I still prefer it as I love the way brighter and more colourful screens.

I tend on the big hands side and thats why i was prefering the fat, and the brightness would only bother me if it was worse that a GBA SP.

My DS phat Survived me and my friends throwing it against A tree about 10 times >_> The reason was that I just got the Light and my friends all had one so I wanted to see how much it could take....

I was a huge GBA fan. It supplemented my Gamecube nicely with so many great RPGs.

I didn't pick up a DS until Friday before last. I always knew I would get one, but I just don't really have a lot of spare time to play a handheld this gen. With two long flights coming up though, I do all of a sudden! I bought NSMB and Zelda:PH and I'll pick up some more games once I finish those two.

So if the size is more of a concern for you than the brightness, go with the fat.

Here are some comparison pictures: http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/dslite.ars/3

DS has loads of games, which will take your hours to beat (RPGs for final fantasy, dragon quest, pokemon all could be 50+ hour games easy).

Just go for DS lite and find a DS lite bundle, never had to worry about any lighting and has a long battery life too.