Game Boy Advance Video

Game Boy Advance Video was a format for putting full color, full-motion videos onto Game Boy Advance ROM cartridges. These videos were playable using the Game Boy Advance system's screen and sound hardware. The cartridges were manufactured by Majesco Entertainment and licensed exclusively to Nintendo, except for the "Pokémon" Game Boy Advance Video cartridges, which were published by Nintendo. Most cartridges were developed by DC Studios, Inc., except for the few labelled "Movie Pak" which were developed by 4Kids Entertainment's subsidiary 4Kids Technology, Inc. The video cartridges are colored white for easy identification and are sold as "Game Boy Advance Video Paks". The Game Boy Advance Video game paks offer the same 240×160 resolution as standard Game Boy Advance games, except for the Shrek and Shark Tale pack, which is at 112p.
History.
The product was originally announced as GBA-TV in 2003. Game Boy Advance Video Paks first became available in North America in May 2004. In June 2004, Majesco had expanded its Game Boy Advance Video licenses into other categories. They had also expanded the library to include shows from Nickelodeon, Nick Jr, Cartoon Network, and Funimation, in addition to the existing 4Kids cartridges. In November 2004, Majesco started to sell GBA Video Paks featuring several Disney Channel animated series, including "Brandy & Mr. Whiskers", "Kim Possible", "", and "The Proud Family". In November 2005, Majesco began to sell GBA Video Paks featuring full-length animated movies from Dreamworks Animation like "Shrek 2" and "Shark Tale". A special GBA Video Pak containing the movies "Shrek" and "Shark Tale" combined into one cartridge was released in 2006.
Copy protection.
Game Boy Advance Video Paks are viewable only on Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Advance SP, Game Boy Micro, Nintendo DS, and Nintendo DS Lite systems, as the owners of copyright in the television shows requested that Majesco prevent people from using the GameCube's Game Boy Player accessory to play and record the shows onto VHS tapes or DVDs. However, the low resolution and mono sound would result in a low-quality video output on a TV regardless. Unlike Sony's PlayStation 2 and Microsoft's Xbox video game consoles, the Nintendo GameCube cannot output Macrovision gain-control copy distortion signals. The GBA Video Paks perform a check when inserted into the Game Boy Player, using the same logo authentication method used by Game Boy Advance games that support controller rumble, and will freeze with the message "Not compatible with Game Boy Player" if they detect the Game Boy Player in use.
Disadvantages.
Because of the low capacity of Game Boy Advance cartridges (normally ranging from 4 to 32 MB, though the video cartridges can reach sizes of 64 MB) and the length of the video content (generally feature-length movies and episodes), GBA Video Paks are heavily compressed, with visual artifacts marring nearly every frame. The image quality has a similar appearance to early Cinepak compression, and the "quilting" and color bleeding effect found in other compressed video formats is also present. Also, in cases where certain videos are available both as a 45-minute two-part episodes or a 22-minute edited version, the 22-minute version is used. The proprietary codec created by DC Studios is described in detail in the Majesco patents.
Additional information.
Game Boy Advance Video Paks were the feature prize in Vol. 183 of "Nintendo Power" Magazine, as part of its players poll sweepstakes, in which five grand prize winners would receive a Game Boy Advance SP and twenty GBA Video Paks. Most GBA Video Paks cost US$9.95 and feature 40 to 45 minutes of video content. GBA Video Movie Paks cost US$19.99 and feature up to a 90-minute movie.
Some GBA Video Movie Paks came packaged with headphones.
List of published titles.
The following titles and episodes were released in the Game Boy Advance Video:
Cancelled titles.
The following Game Boy Advance Video titles were planned but never saw a public release