Video on the GBA, eh?

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GameBoy Advance Video:

The Little Screen that Could

gba video

More than a year ago, Majesco had on display at E3 2003 cartoons and video that could be played on a GameBoy Advance with no extra hardware. To be honest, I wrote off the concept as a novelty. But now, having actually spent some time looking into the technology my mind runs rampant with the possibilities.

Majesco was nice enough to send a copy of SpongeBob SquarePants Volume 1, which features four episodes. Although it is funny at time, the content of SpongBob SquarePants isn’t at issue here -- the technology and quality of the playback is.

Currently, each cartridge (that looks exactly like the regular game cartridges) has a 256MB capacity, which translates to approximately 45 minutes of “full-screen, full-color, full-sound, full-motion” commercial-grade video. Majesco is working on increasing capacity to open up the possibilities of full-length movies. All the GBA Video titles available now are currently episodes from animated and kid-centered series, like Dora the Explorer and The Fairly OddParents. These titles merely serve to demonstrate the possibilities of the technology, because there’s really no reason why older cartoons couldn’t be included. The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron are great for the younger crowd of today, but to appeal to a wider (i.e. older) audience there has to be adult-oriented material , like Family Guy, The Critic, or Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Barring that, past cartoon series (from the ‘80s and ‘90s) could be

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mined for gold. I won’t pretend to know how the licensing scheme works (although I'm pretty sure that Majesco could license their proprietary technology to anyone that wants to produce their own animated features for the GBA), but why couldn’t we see collections of Gummi Bears, Darkwing Duck, Batman: The Animated Series, Spike & Mike’s Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation, Ducktales, Transformers, GI Joe, MASK, Conan: The Adventurer, The Tick (please, please, please!), Spider-Man, Astro Boy, or Gargoyles?

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I was surprised by the quality of the video. I was worried that it would be a pixilated mess, but that proves not to be the case. There is some pixelization during panorama shots, but in close, there’s nothing about the picture to distract you and it’s not likely to cause any headaches due to squinting. The audio doesn’t fair quite as well through the tinny speaker, but having headphones really helps on the audio side. Overall, Majesco’s claims are on the money -- color me impressed!

(And when Majesco increases the cartridge capacity it could be very interesting to see how the GBA Video technology is implemented in games.)

Navigating the episodes is similar to playing a DVD. Most of the buttons have a use (e.g. the A and B buttons control the picture brightness, the shoulder buttons skip chapters, etc.) but possibly the most useful option is the ability to lock out the controls! (Very nice!) Obviously, this is a feature clearly aimed at kids that like to press buttons. Also nodding to the DVD format is the animated chapter selection but unlike DVDs, a GBA Video will never skip! This makes it an attractive alternative to those expensive portable video and DVD players for long car trips. If Majesco can deliver on full-length features, it’s a safe bet that every family will have a GBA to keep the kids entertained as they hit the highway.

The price of the cartridges now is a suggested $20US, which is in-line with buying a kid’s video or DVD. As the technology improves and the GBA Video cartridges increase in memory capacity, this price is sure to come down. I can also see GBA Videos offered as merchandising tie-ins quite easily and with an installed base of millions and millions of GBA users it seems inevitable. (Classic GI Joe figures packed with GBA Video cartridges? I’m in!)

- Omni

(June 16, 2004)


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