Listen To Your Game Boy Advance

filmsmith writes "It looks like Nintendo may be interested in using the GBA to enter the PDA market and even considering itself competition for the Apple iPod. It smells of DMCA pandering, though. 'It looks like protection will be in place to ensure that even content recorded by users (through the use of a special adapter) will not be able to be shared with other users.' Planet Gamecube has the article here."

A Few Concerns

[GweeDo]

My concerns are with the quality. The first is with the Audio...the DSP that is built into the GBA isn't going to be playing my favorite bands in any form of high quality. My second concern with with video. 240x160x16bit color basically can't be done in full motion on the GBA (just can't make enough memory writes before VBLANK ends). 240x160x8bit is though...but who wants to watch 256 color vides?

Why doesn't /.

[jsse]

link to the original article [excite.co.jp] directly? Planet Gamecube's just point to that link with rubblish abstract.

Too bad...

[llamaluvr]

The Game Boy Advance SP won't even have a headphone jack.

Expansion Again

[grimsweep]

There was a company a looong while back that wanted to turn the *original* GameBoy into a PDA of sorts. They created a keyboard module that came with the cartridge.

Not a bad idea.

What would really get my attention is a 802.11 wireless pack for the GBA. It'd probably be a little nicer than what affordable web-enabled cell phones can offer, and far more bandwidth (even at low-power modes).

It'd be quite a challenge, but very rewarding. Not many people can afford to grab a PDA just for surfing the web wireless, but I certainly wouldn't mind a GBA solution if the price was right.

The only big inconvenience might be typing. Maybe a stand and a keyboard attachment?

Re:Too bad...

[Slashdot Insider]

Then I guess this [planetgamecube.com] and this [planetgamecube.com] must be a figment of my imagination then?

Here is a better Link with Pictures

[doctor_no]

It seems like more a portable video player than an Ipod.

Here is the link
http://mb.vgdirectory.com/game020403d.htm [vgdirectory.com]
[slashdot.org]
"AM3 announced they will release a Smart Media Adaptor for GameBoy Advance and GameBoy Advance SP in October, which allows you to download multimedia contents and play on the GameBoy Advance. The AM3 Smart Media Adaptor will retail for 2800 yen, and the AM3 32M Smart Media Cards will retail for 2000 yen each. Downloadable contents such as e-Books, animated cartoon will retail between 200 - 500 yen each. AM3 is also planning to install kiosk terminals in convenient stores for customers to purchase contents."

More information on the device

[doctor_no]

Is seems they plan on distrubuting content through kiosks [impress.co.jp] and the internet, as well as selling smartcards with content already on it.

They plan on selling music, videos, comics, e-books, and photographs.
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/game/docs/20030204/ am3_13.htm [impress.co.jp]

The product's price seems resonable at 2800yen ($28.46US) for the device. The 32MB Smartcard will be 2,000yen ($16.75), and individual content will cost 200yen ($1.68).

Another interesting thing is that since Palm uses Arm7 processors and SDs that content will probably be compatible with Palm devices at a later date.

Links: (In Japanese)
Gamspot Japan
http://www.zdnet.co.jp/gamespot/gsnews/0302/04/new s05.html [zdnet.co.jp]
Watch Impress
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/game/docs/20030204/ am3.htm [impress.co.jp]
Offical Page
http://www.am3.co.jp/ [am3.co.jp]

Re:A Few Concerns

[vandel405]

I've Actually done some gameboy advance development (http://www.neo-modus.com/GBAAtaxx.zip). And IIRC, the GBA is running at 60fps. I doubt any mpegs are gonna be 60fps, maybe 24fps? Anyway, that doubles your write time. Anyway, you're going to need to double buffer, which means you should use mode 5, which is 160x128. So now you almost have a factor of 4 increase in time, I think it can be done...

But then again, who cares about 160x128 mpegs, unless its pr0n.

They beat palm to it.

[fireboy1919]

Back in the early nineties there was a "game" called workboy for the original gameboy which was basically a PDA. It even came with a keyboard.

Of course, that was a flop at the time. But I think that one of the big problems with game consoles today (as opposed to before) is that you can get pretty enough throughput (which is the most important feature of graphical applications) with a general purpose CPU as you can with a gaming CPU.

So perhaps branching into the markets of their general use counterparts may allow them to be justified (well, I could get a PDA to use at work which plays games sometimes, or a gameboy...).

I know that I have pretty much decided that the age of the console is over. For me it's PC and PDA games from now on.

Re:Nooooo

[Goth Biker Babe]

Then there's 8 year olds with GBAs - they probably don't need/want a cell phone and PDA

Here in the UK cell phones amoung 8 year olds are now fairly common. It's all those parents who want to know where there kids are. Phones are common birthday and chrimble gifts. Many come with MP3 functionality built in or you can purchase clip on players for less than $50 which include memory card and reader

There will be a market for the game boy add on, just not much of one.

Re:Gameparks GP32 has it.

[umai]

I got my GP32 from a korean friend who visited home last year. She bought it at an internet shop there. But you can ask Kyoungmo Lee @ Gamepark directly ([e-mail]), he had an offer for a GP32 incl. 16MB game for 140$ for amateur developers. But I think that offer was valid only until 3/2002 :(. Because of that, I would recommend Entware now (~150Euro), http://www.entware.com/eng_shop/shop_game_sw_more. asp
With every purchase you get "mileage" with which you can download games or the movie player. You can find a comparison of different shops here:
http://pub61.ezboard.com/fgp32frm9.showMess age?top icID=24.topic