Nintendo of Japan has made a move that has seemingly shocked everyone, including many of its own staff, in revealing a rather snazzy multimedia player designed for the market-leading Game Boy Advance.
The unit lives within a Game Boy Advance cartridge and houses generic Panasonic SD cards. From these, music - in standard MP3 format, and movies in MPEG-4 - can be played.
The SD housing cartridge also includes a headphone jack, with Panasonic over-ear phones to be bundled with the device, bottoming the key question of audio for the device.
As these pictures, courtesy of Impress Game Watch show, the whole package, co-developed with Panasonic, works out rather well, with the man in the shirt’s face belying the obvious joy he feels on the inside.
And as everyone knows, it’s what’s on the inside that counts. A rather sublime link to the news that a little browser, complete with all the usual options for manipulating your media, will be embedded in the host cart.
The unusually-named Play-Yan is still to receive concrete pricing and launch dates, though a February roll-out in Japan is expected.
Updates as we get them.
The unit lives within a Game Boy Advance cartridge and houses generic Panasonic SD cards. From these, music - in standard MP3 format, and movies in MPEG-4 - can be played.
The SD housing cartridge also includes a headphone jack, with Panasonic over-ear phones to be bundled with the device, bottoming the key question of audio for the device.
As these pictures, courtesy of Impress Game Watch show, the whole package, co-developed with Panasonic, works out rather well, with the man in the shirt’s face belying the obvious joy he feels on the inside.
And as everyone knows, it’s what’s on the inside that counts. A rather sublime link to the news that a little browser, complete with all the usual options for manipulating your media, will be embedded in the host cart.
The unusually-named Play-Yan is still to receive concrete pricing and launch dates, though a February roll-out in Japan is expected.
Updates as we get them.
Companies:
Nintendo
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Comments
Autobot 15 Dec 2004 13:13
1/7
That a pretty neat trick they made. The only problem is, will it be released outside of Japan? Remeber the Memory card adapter that used the same stick for the GC? it wasn't released outside of Japan. Also, this device is going against Nintendo's Games onlt stance. It doesn't matter anyways, Nintendo never really stays with thier promises.
Ditto 15 Dec 2004 13:29
2/7
Neat-o!
Please, please, please release this at a reasonable price outside Japan!
(Though since it's for GB it doesn't matter anyway... Importing is fun ;). )
Please, please, please release this at a reasonable price outside Japan!
(Though since it's for GB it doesn't matter anyway... Importing is fun ;). )
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kid_77 15 Dec 2004 13:46
3/7
LUPOS 15 Dec 2004 14:07
4/7
kid_77 wrote:
OH BURN!!
Sorry. you beat me to it so i just wanted to back you up : )
Beware the "Trojan Advaced DSP"!!! Eventually they will add XM support and it will replace your car stero and nintendo will tighten its strangle hold on your mobile entertainment options! the bastards!!
Joji 15 Dec 2004 15:04
5/7
You have to be more positive Autobot, all that negativity makes you sound like a Decepticon. LOL.
It's not really going against Nintendo's policy because it's a little known fact that Nintendo actually released their very own mp3 player with Kemco that connected to the GBA, and could also be used without it. gbax.com used to sell them at one point and it came with headphones and a 64MB compact flash card. This was only ever available in japan. You can read the review of that below.
http://www.gbax.com/gbamp3.html
And a heres another media player.
http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=246&products_id=3983&
The GBA Media players were done for GBA by AM3 and another third party besides, and it's clearly the runaway import success that has caused Nintendo to produce an official version that could then be sold globally under their name. If this new one uses SD cards that means you can hold a good amount of mp3s etc in your pocket. Very nice idea and it should quite cheap too. Buy a 1GB SD card and you are doing nicely.
It's not really going against Nintendo's policy because it's a little known fact that Nintendo actually released their very own mp3 player with Kemco that connected to the GBA, and could also be used without it. gbax.com used to sell them at one point and it came with headphones and a 64MB compact flash card. This was only ever available in japan. You can read the review of that below.
http://www.gbax.com/gbamp3.html
And a heres another media player.
http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=246&products_id=3983&
The GBA Media players were done for GBA by AM3 and another third party besides, and it's clearly the runaway import success that has caused Nintendo to produce an official version that could then be sold globally under their name. If this new one uses SD cards that means you can hold a good amount of mp3s etc in your pocket. Very nice idea and it should quite cheap too. Buy a 1GB SD card and you are doing nicely.
claudioalex 15 Dec 2004 21:26
6/7
Autobot, your are the kind of person who criticise Nintendo consoles for not Having MP3 functions, or DVD players, or a Hard Disc, what ever, but at the time that Nintendo comes with a gadget like this, then is BAD too, caus they dont do what they promise, you are a contradicition by yourself Autobot
I think its great news, i hope they bring that thing to the West side of the globe, it would be like an Ipod (with less capacity), cheaper, with a better interface, smaller, and hey ,you can play games on it,
I hope DS can do the same, you know DS can hold Game boy cartridge, but i dont know if it is specifically a Game boy advance Cartridge.
On the other hand Iam not interesting in watching movies on it, for that pourpose i have my big tv screen.
I think its great news, i hope they bring that thing to the West side of the globe, it would be like an Ipod (with less capacity), cheaper, with a better interface, smaller, and hey ,you can play games on it,
I hope DS can do the same, you know DS can hold Game boy cartridge, but i dont know if it is specifically a Game boy advance Cartridge.
On the other hand Iam not interesting in watching movies on it, for that pourpose i have my big tv screen.
LUPOS 16 Dec 2004 00:27
7/7
claudioalex wrote:
it would be like an Ipod (with less capacity), cheaper, with a better interface, smaller, and hey ,you can play games on it
im right there with ya, except on the interface thing, it would be an impressive feet indeed if they made a game boy sift through thousands of song files as smoothly and easily as the ipod touch circle does.
im no mac fan but credit where credit is due, its a fantastic design that someone should of though of years ago.