Game Boy Advance Movie Player updated

by Joshua Fruhlinger { Sep 28th 2004 at 1:34AM }

We couldn't be more psyched (in a somewhat embarrassing way) about this recent update to an already-cool little accessory for the Gameboy Advance. The newer version of the GBA Movie Player is smaller, cooler, and badder than ever. This little cartridge plugs into your Gameboy Advance and uses Compact Flash cards to play movies, audio files, e-books, and game emulation ROMs (legal, legal!). The included PC software will even rip DVDs into GBA Movie Player format. So check it: for $25, you can play MP3s, watch movies, play SNES ROMs, and come up with anything else you and your 31337 friends figure out (the unit promises to work with "homebrew" applications). And if you haven't ordered one yet, wait! There's more! You can also multi-task, meaning it will let you read an e-book while listening to music. It also comes with a CD that's chock-full of movies and all necessary software. Compact Flash cards are not included. So go forth and geek out. Because, after all, it is a "good and cool device for your GBA."

[Via PortaGame]

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Bryan @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

Does anyone know how easy/difficult it would be to play GBA ROMs from this device?

Kamalot @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

It is fairly easy. The installed software gives you an emu to copy onto the root of your Compact Flash card. Add any NES ROMs you want to the root as well and play. The menu on your GBA allows you to select the ROM. A few things to keep in mind though, you can only play NES ROMs up to 200k and there is no save state. You have to hope your game had password saves. On top of that, all of the legal stuff applies about having to own the original game.

I play movies and TV episodes on mine while taking the train to work. I used to encode my movies for the Treo, but the quality on the GBA is MUCH better!

chris @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

I am confused by this devices ROM playing capabilities. Can anyone clarify this? Does it play GBA ROMs, NES ROMs, SNES ROMs, or all three. Please help. This will greatly impact my decision to buy or not.

Roy @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

I own one. It only plays homebrew and commercial NES roms that do not exceed 200kb. It does not support game saves of any kind. It does not support SNES or GBA roms.

The best feature of the unit is it's movie playing ability.

If your looking for something that will play GBA roms check out the Extreme Flash Advance at www.efa.cc. It's the cheapest flash unit I could find. Make sure you own the roms your using because it's illegal to use roms you don't own. And laws must always be followed, right?

Dale @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

How good is the audio/video quality? I'm thinking of picking these up for my kids for Christmas.

Also, what format are the movies? Some proprietary format? I'm using Mac OS X, and I'm wondering whether I can use QuickTime instead of the included (windows only) software. If it's just a generic AVI, I could do it.

In fact, if someone could send me a small sample movie in their GBA format to gba at infinityltd dot org so I can examine it, I'd be truly thankful.

Ralph @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

Hey Dale,

The format is a proprietary one. And as of yet, there is no software for Mac OS X.

However, if you have an able windows machine nearby then your all set. Infact you can download the software and play with it before you invest, at:

http://movieadvance.com/

Jane @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

Update e14 of GBA Movie Player comes out. It enables you to read E-book with your own language. It is confirmed that GBA Movie Player works well with NDS. Go to www.movieadvance.com to view now!

Anthony @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

Best thing I've ever bought for my GBA SP. I bought a 1GB CF card from ebuyer.com for $62.00, and I have the entire movie of Airplane, about 8 Simpsons episodes, some music, and 4 NES games on it. This little thing works great! The video and sound is great! I do recommend headphones though, the GBA SP's speaker doesn't do justice in crowds or noisy places. Go buy it NOW!

NiNTENDO i DS @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

At http://www.Gameboy-Advance.net they are running a competition where you can win 5 of these Movie Players. "describe NINTENDO DS Accessory or Software or new features that you could dream of."

Russel @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

What is movie compression like? What can a 128MB card hold (How many movies)?

srkelley @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

is it true that player comes with all the necessary attachments, so that the pc and gba can link, or do you have to buy it yourself? If you have to buy it yourself, then where do you buy it from?

adam @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

I was wondering is there a website that has a screen shot of what the quality of the video looks like?

Anonymous @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

Does this thing work in the Nintendo DS? Will it work just like a regular MP3 player? How long will the battery life last, if you just play mp3s for hours on end? What I really want to know, though is if it works on the Nintendo DS. Does it? I will buy one right away if it does.

Ameer @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

It doesn't play anything unless attached to the console, yes it does work with nintendo ds. The length of video you can put on a certain size card is listed on the website, http://www.movieadvance.com/ztt.htm

Paul @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

How large (file size) is a 2 hour movie compressed to fit on the GBA movie player?

Ahsan @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

Can you play any movie on this? Or just selected ones?

GamerX @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

For anyone with a question like 'How many MB CF card do i need to play movie xxx?' You can download the Windows coverter program for free and convert your favorite movies ( .AVI, .MPG, .MOV ) into their format and see how big a flash card you need. The quality of the final converted movie is surprisingly good. The only thing I wish this had was an emulater/loader for .GBA ROMS

http://www.movieadvance.com/

No1Cares @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

Will the player fill up both screens on a DS?

nathan @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

hi i just ordered my GBA movie playe from ebay and i wondering if this is going to be a very long and hard process to get movies or game onto it. I dont know to much about computers so if someone could please help me out in a step by step format it would be greatly appreaciated.

Jeremysr @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

It did play one .GBA game for me, which was a homebrew calculator from www.pdroms.de

All other games I downloaded didn't work because:

a) There are no actual GBA games that are less than 256k
b) Most homebrew games are incomplete and have glitches in them

But it's still a VERY "good and cool device for you GBA"!

Hypershell @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

Alright, I'm a little confused about the NES rom size limit, some said 200k, some said 256k. My favorite NES game is EXACTLY 256k, will it work?

m3 @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

There is a hacked version of PocketNES made specially for movie player that lets you play 256k roms. The one that comes with the package is limited to 200k.

Inquirer @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

I have the gba movie player update.e19, but even after I update to this version, the video is scrambled. Does anyone know what the problem may be? I have all the codecs on my pc when I convert, but all I hear is audio.

Bill Kilpatrick @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

I own a gba movie player, and thought it was a pretty sweet deal, so I went out and picked one up. The audio quality of the device is very bad, even on a high quality conversion from mp3 to the gba format, not making it a very good mp3 device. I bought a 512mb flash card for mine, thinking maybe I could fit a movie on it.
I burned half of Anchorman onto my unit, highest quality. The picture was surprisingly good, but the audio was terrible. Although Movies are not choice for this device, smaller files are excellent. I have "At the gay bar w/ Bush and Tony Blair" and "What berry says" on my current unit.

I don't believe this device is for non-Greek consumers, but hey, it has a place among gba accessories.

craig @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

aw! poor sound quality? damn! are you sure? does anyone disagree? i was really hoping to hear someone argue that.

also, does anyone know if this works with the new gamecube Micro?

haven't purchased one yet.. it was the audio capability that was intrigueing to me. is there something else like it that would make my gameboy a satisfactory mp3 player?

thanks a million

craig @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

Tims Bearcub @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

I just got mine yesterday and I am totally hooked! I bought it to play movies and music but when I got it and learned how to download NES Roms and play them, I was AMAZED!! I just wish I could play ROMS of more than 200KB. Anyone know how? Or if we will be able to play SNES or GBA Roms in the future?

Thymur @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

Where can I buy one?

Steve @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

Sound Quality is great. The new firmware allows the use of GB and GBC games. Which is awesome.

Anders @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

How do I buy this thing and update the firmware? The website is sort of lacking...?

Antgeth @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

I just updated mine to e.19 and am very happy to see that it can play GB, GBC roms. Unfortunately some of my favorite games for GB are more than 200k. Does anyone know if, like the hack for pocketNES, there is a hack that allows for larger GB roms? It doesn't need to be much; even up to 256k would work. Does anyone know?

slizekalfer @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

Ok all, I have owned one of these little things for quite some time. First of all, on playing big NES games, there is this thing called pocketnes-compy which compresses NES games to be small enough for the movie player. As for the goomba capabilities, I have never had a problem with not playing a game, I always run the games straight from Goomba not from the GBAMP's menu. As for GBA roms, don't know for sure if you can, but you might could make it work with Chishm's hacked firmware (This will take advantage of the full resolution of the DS as well ;)) Search Google for Chishm or goto Lik-sang.com (Don't talk about roms there though, thats a no-no!) Hope I helped you all out :D

C@M @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

yeah hi does this player work with any compact flash card and any size compact flash card??? B/c im thinking of buying 1gb Viking compact flash card from amazon for 65...????

Mynoraxis @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

Hi, I own a DS, with the movieplayer v2, a 512MB CF1 card. I currently have stored 1 full movie which I encoded at good quality which came to a total of 285MB, and one complete episode of The Office which is only about 100MB, 1 funny tv commercial, a couple pics, 2 extra GUI/skins, 4 songs in stereo (about 7MB each), 1 wav file at 44khz uncompressed (30MB) and 4 NES roms. Still have space left. Think that's all you really need. btw all my movies are encoded to fit full screen on DS.

Binhh @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

So can this thing play on the Gameboy Micro or not?

nick @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

yes it can play on the micro. i need everyone here to gimme every inch of information about the gba movie. i also want to no where you get the tv shows to download before i get the gba movie player. my email is gamenerd93@yahoo.com
thanks

nick, i am the same guy above and it seems like no one read it!!!!! @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

WOOOO WOOOOOOOO WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
GUESS WHAT I FOUND??!!!! (what!!) I FOUND A SITE WITH EVERY SINGLE NES GAME THAT YOU CAN THINK OF. THATS RIGHT. AND GUESS WHAT ELSE (what!!) THAY'RE ALL LESS THAN 200kb OF SPACE.YEP THATS RIGHT AND HERE ISSSSS THE SITE: http://www.iwn.fi/~timod/games_nesroms.htm
TADAAAAA THERE YOU GOOO!!!!

my email is gamenerd93@yahoo.com

nick, i am the same guy above and it seems like no one read it!!!!! @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

http://www.iwn.fi/~timod/games_nesroms.htm
cool site fo nes games just right for you gba player

nick @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

wo wo wo... that one up there realy really really sucks. honest to god this one actuall y GIVES you the game. they are all nes games and just a few a llitle over 200kb (like 205kb) enjoy...

http://www.theoldcomputer.com/Libarary's/Emulation/NES/ROMs/NES_roms_summary.htm