Official Nintendo Game Boy MPEG4/MP3 Player

[marwan]

Flash memory Game Boy cartridges are always welcome around here, so seeing this MPEG4/MP3 player with a built-in SD slot was notable enough—then I realized it was from Nintendo themselves, which is even more surprising. Obviously, it's not designed to play games, but the unit can play back movies for up to 4 hours at the Game Boy Advance SP's native resolution (352 by 288 pixels) as well as play back MP3s with the screen off for up to 15 hours on a charge. I have no idea if Nintendo plans to bring the unit out to the United States, but since it should work with the DS just fine, there's no reason they couldn't (like taking away from the DS's momentum, I'm saying).

For gamers I still think flash linkers that let you copy ROMs over are a lot more convenient (and you can get ones that use SD and MMC cards, I know), but since Nintendo has quietly been selling a ton of video content on GBA carts, I wonder if they're thinking about moving over to an SD-based content distribution system.

http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/do...5/nintendo.htm (more pics)

http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/home-...-player-027712

could this be Nintendo's counter-PSP announcement?

whatever it is, it's good for OFFICIAL emulation

[K3V]

Shouldn't it work on the DS as well? I don't see how releasing it here would take away from the DS's momentum.

[jarrod]

The GBA & DS screens are a bit worthless for video, especially compared to PSP's amazing high visibility screen. But for MP3, this thing would be great.... better than PSP even thanks to the SP's small size and SD being roughly half the cost MS Duo.

[Yoshi]

The GBA & DS screens are a bit worthless for video.

Eh? What is wrong with the DS for video?

[marwan]

The GBA & DS screens are a bit worthless for video, especially compared to PSP's amazing high visibility screen. But for MP3, this thing would be great.... better than PSP even thanks to the SP's small size and SD being roughly half the cost MS Duo.

well the DS screen is far better than the GBA, almost TV like quality. if marketed for both GBA and DS it would do great.

also the fact that it boosts 15 hours of MP3 playback is a big plus, and should change peoples mind on buying flash based MP3 players.

not to mention all the emulation stuff that flood this thing. I personally only buy official stuff, that's why i never bothered with 3rd party flash carts.

EDIT: when and if this thing comes out in the U.S, i really hope it has an option to increase the resolution of the videos when connected to the DS. I'd hate to watch movies or whatever on this thing with black borders all around the DS screen.

[jarrod]

Eh? What is wrong with the DS for video?

Resolution.

not to mention all the emulation stuff that flood this thing. I personally only buy official stuff, that's why i never bothered with 3rd party flash carts.

It's a first party Nintendo product... I doubt built in piracy abilities are going to be included. It might be hacked for ROM compatability, but I expect that'll take quite a bit of work. This thing looks to be MP3/MPEG4 playback only.

[marwan]

well you can pretty much dump anything on an SD card, but then again Nintendo might do something to restricting it to MP3/MPEG4 only like you said.

[Wildkat]

well you can pretty much dump anything on an SD card, but then again Nintendo might do something to restricting it to MP3/MPEG4 only like you said.

Doesnt matter. Without the mp3/vid player code embeded in this device it wouldnt do a thing when plugged into a GBA, so there is your protection right there.

You can be damn sure that this doesnt execute any type of code from the SD card at all.

[Josh]

I can only assume that the N is going to make this really suck somehow. Because right now it seems really cool, and they won't let that last.

[jarrod]

I think it's a great low cost MP3 solution. Video though seems a bit unnecessary given the limitations.