Game Boy Advance Video: Nintendo’s forgotten media format

Game Boy Advance Video was a video format released in 2004 that effectively transformed your GBA into a multimedia device. GBA Video cartridges contained cartoons from Nickelodeon, 4Kids, Cartoon Network, Disney Channel and more and also some movies like Shrek and Shark Tale were released for the format. In this small video documentary, we’ll take a look on the video technology used for the format and its history.

2:25 - I made a real goof and said "back light" instead of "front light", it was a typo in the script and it slipped by, sorry aaa

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Chapters:

00:00 Historical Context
2:56 Development
5:02 Technology
7:02 Movies
9:13 Cartoon cartridges overview

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Outro: Bee Line (YM2151 Cover) by John Tay

[fmicom]

Inv8erZlM made me notice that I made a mistake when talking about the GBA SP’s screen (2:25), the first GBA SP model (AGS-001) had a front-light, not a back light, and that’s what made it barely viewable  

It was a typo in the script and it slipped by when recording the audio, I’m sorry

[klg]

I remember seeing these in stores, but as a kid I thought "That's cool! Wait ... wouldn't you get bored of only having certain episodes and that's it?" so I never got one. I had no idea how the quality of the audio/video was until recently!

[austingomez]

Love gba videos.
when I was little we got into a bad car crash, everyone was kind of alright, no one died, but from that moment on I was terrified every time my dad would drive somewhere else. So it was help from GBA videos, while looking down at the Gameboy SP screen, that I wasn't having panic attacks in the new truck. So thank you GBA videos

[unlikelyvee]

imma start making bootlegs of your videos and distribute them on game boy video exclusively

[dominik.jokiel]

Cartoons are often animated on 2s or 3s, so they hold a drawing for 2 or 3 frames. When you say you removed duplicates and there are 10fps then the gba probely plays it at 20 or 30fps depending on how many duplicates your removed.

[trazwaggon]

"If you're playing the movie on a telephone, you will never in a trillion years experience the film. You'll think you have experienced it, but you'll be cheated. It's such a sadness, that you think you've seen a film, on your fucking telephone, get real. You should instead watch in on Game Boy Advance Video." 
~David Lynch

[MrPotatoes]

The entire shrek movie 9MB GIF is easier to watch than the GBA version. Incredible. Also my friend and I found your channel and definitely thinkin you'll blow up major soon. You're hitting recommendation pages, and the content is pretty nostalgic and really well made

[sirramslot]

I lived in Japan in the early 2000s and i remember there was some GBA peripheral i had that played MP3s and some video files off of CompactFlash. Now I'm tempted to go spelunking in my old game stuff to see if i can find it. Thanks, f4mi!

[mortimermouse]

So much detail in one video! Amazing channel

[thepwrtank]

The codec Sony used (Mobiclip) is used in the 3DS family too. I know this because I had to deal with Nintendo's buggy, leaked SDK for 5 hours trying to get The Lego Movie on my 3DS in 3D.

[guywiththetaco]

Watching gba video in the streets of italy... Oh how i yearn for that life

[seeblu]

I have fond memories of watching pokemon on my ds second slot as a kid

[nermalmovement]

I “completely legally” acquired the roms of the spongebob gba video cartridges and forwarded them to be playable on my modded 3ds because I thought it would be funny

[Blast.]

dude i've always been so curious about this. i'm so thankful you made this!!! Keep making vids you rock!!!

[copelandammann]

Something about me loves the clunkiness of those systems. I have fond memories of watching my UMD copy of National Treasure 2 on my PSP wearing a set of crappy GameStop™ earbuds that were so hard they hurt my ears a little bit, while sitting in the back of the family cat on road trips.

[Boaxiho]

Found you today on tiktok through my fyp. This is fantastic. Great work.

[RacingGameArchive]

Great video! I'll keep a lookout for these cartidges, would be fun to have some of em.

[nickwallette]

"🙀 Oh no, what if people can pirate it??" -- Every media company ever, who ever produced anything, ever. EVER.

(Spoiler: They can. Spoiler 2: You'll be fine * though.)
( * : Unless you're not, for other reasons.)

[suzuplaza]

your title say forgotten but i remember, IVE ALWAYS REMEMBERED

[ionpeen]

0:33 I had the same exact portable movie player as a kid, you just unlocked so many memories