Game Boy Advance Video is a discontinued format for putting full color, full-motion videos onto Game Boy Advance (GBA) ROM cartridges. These videos are playable using the Game Boy Advance system's screen and sound hardware. Each cartridge contained up to 45 minutes of animated series episodes or, in select cases, a 90-minute film. A total of 35 Game Boy Advance Video Paks were published between 2004 and 2006.
The Game Boy Advance Video Paks were primarily published by Majesco, with the exception of those based on Pokémon, which were published by Nintendo. Majesco's releases used compression technology developed by DC Studios, Inc., while Pokémon and "Movie Pak" cartridges used the Mobiclip codec developed by Actimagine.
History The line was originally announced in 2003 under the name "GBA-TV", and was to be produced by 4Kids Entertainment, with plans for a Q4 2003 launch. Game Boy Advance Video Paks first became available in North America in May 2004 with five Nickelodeon animated series, and initially retailed for a MSRP of . By the end of that month, Majesco had announced licensing deals with 4Kids, Cartoon Network, and Funimation to further expand the library of available shows. To help promote the line, Majesco manufactured headphones that could connect to the Game Boy Advance through its extension port.
By October 2004, 20 different GBA Video paks had been released. At that time, Majesco reported an increase in revenue of nearly over their previous year, with 79% of all sales attributed to GBA Video. In November 2004, Majesco announced a licensing deal to release several Disney animated series for the platform. In July 2005, Majesco announced that three animated films from DreamWorks Animation would receive GBA Movie Pak releases. The final GBA Video release was a compilation cartridge containing the films Shrek and Shark Tale.
Features
Game Boy Advance Video Paks offer the same 240×160 resolution as standard Game Boy Advance games. While playing a video, players can pause, fast forward, rewind, skip between different chapters, or adjust the brightness of the footage.
Most GBA Video Paks have a storage capacity of 32MB (megabytes); Movie Paks use a special chipset to allow 64MB of memory, larger than any other commercially-released GBA game. Due to this small capacity and the length of the video content, GBA Video Paks are heavily compressed, with significant video artifacting. The Shrek & Shark Tale Movie Pak also had to reduce the screen resolution to 240×112 to fit both films on one cartridge.
As an anti-piracy measure, Game Boy Advance Video Paks cannot be played using the GameCube's Game Boy Player accessory, displaying an error message if the player attempts to do so.
List of published titles A total of 35 Game Boy Advance Video Paks were released. Most contain 2–4 episodes of an animated series, totalling about 40-45 minutes, while some contain full 90 minute films. The following titles and episodes were released on Game Boy Advance Video.
+ Game Boy Advance Video Paks Title Release date Episodes Ref All Grown Up!: Volume 1 Cartoon Network Collection: Volume 1 Cartoon Network Collection: Volume 2 Cartoon Network Collection: Premium Edition Cartoon Network Collection: Special Edition Cartoon Network Collection: Limited Edition Cartoon Network Collection: Platinum Edition Codename: Kids Next Door: Volume 1 Disney Channel Collection: Volume 1 Disney Channel Collection: Volume 2 Dora the Explorer: Volume 1 Dragon Ball GT: Volume 1 Nicktoons Collection: Volume 1 Nicktoons Collection: Volume 2 Nicktoons Collection: Volume 3 Pokémon: Volume 1 Pokémon: Volume 2 Pokémon: Volume 3 Pokémon: Volume 4 Shark Tale Feature film Shrek Feature film Shrek 2 Feature film Shrek & Shark Tale Sonic X: A Super Sonic Hero SpongeBob SquarePants: Volume 1 SpongeBob SquarePants: Volume 2 SpongeBob SquarePants: Volume 3 Strawberry Shortcake: Volume 1 Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!: Volume 1 "Depths of Fear" "Planetoid Q"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Things ChangeYu-Gi-Oh!: Yugi vs. Joey "Friends 'Til the End, Part 3" "Friends 'Til the End, Part 4"
Cancelled titles Four additional Game Boy Advance Video Paks were advertised, but never saw release:
+ Cancelled Game Boy Advance Video Paks Title Episodes RefDragon Ball GT: Volume 2UnknownSonic X: Chaos Emerald ChaosTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Shredder StrikesYu-Gi-Oh!: Noah's Final Threat Other unreleased series mentioned in marketing material include Kirby: Right Back at Ya! and The Powerpuff Girls.
See also Nintendo Video Juice Box Universal Media Disc VideoNow
Notes
References