The first wave of Majesco's GBA Video Paks is in stores, kicking off with a collection of Nickelodeon cartoon properties. It's a fair idea, the kind of thing that gadget freaks have been wanting for years. But since the concept is materializing on a Game Boy Advance using Nicktoons characters, it's not going to get a lot of play.
What you have here is a portable video player that doesn't totally suck, doesn't require some kind of crazy new imaginary hardware, and is available right now. We iPodders have been hearing rumors that some far-flung FuturePod will play video. Until then, there's quite a bit to be said for just plugging a cartridge into your GBA SP and watching 45 minutes of decently fluid and passably detailed cartoons.
The quality is far from perfect. There's heavy compression, which results in lots of lousy rastery blocking... almost like you're watching a QuickTime 2.0 file in 1994. The audio tends to include a lot of background static hum, even while using headphones. Still, it's watchable, smooth, and in color. And it will never skip or dropout.
There's an attempt at DVDesque controls (pause, FF/R, brightness)... even teeny-tiny DVDesque menus with chapter select screens! In a bizarre design choice, the SpongeBob menu screen will play the entire cartoon inside each little display window. So if you think the GBA screen just isn't small enough, you have the option to watch the cartoon in a box as big as your pinky nail.
I imagine that 10 minute Nicktoons aren't the greatest example of something to divide up into chapters, but they did an especially terrible job at it. It looks like they just split each cartoon into exact sixths, because the "chapters" often begin in the middle of a scene... or even a sentence.
Rhonda bought me the first volume of SpongeBob SquarePants. Every website out there - even the official site and the box packaging - lists the four episodes on Vol 1 as Hall Monitor, Jellyfish Jam, Jellyfishing and Plankton. However, my cartridge contains Bubblestand and Ripped Pants instead of the first two. Bubblestand and Ripped Pants are supposed to be on Volume 2. So either every single source of information is wrong on this (way to go, guys), or I have a magically screwed up cartridge. Not that I care much, the Ripped Pants episode is easily the funniest one of the bunch.
The bad news is that the cartridges go for $20. That's kind of a lot considering you can get a full-on DVD for less than that. But, you know, this one is portable and will keep the kids quiet in the car. Majesco has vowed to smush even more minutes of video inside these things, so we could eventually get entire 90 minute (or more) movies. Obviously this just isn't the right venue for serious film fans, but it would be great to have a favorite movie always on hand. Much like the iPod has turned my entire collection of CDs into a single tiny white box that is always nearby, I'm sure we'll do the same for movies one day. Legally. GBA Video is an amusing stopgap.
The PSP is just over the horizon anyway.
Here's a cute annoyance: you can't play these cartridges on the GameCube Game Boy Player. I haven't tried it myself, but on bootup you get a splash screen warning telling you as much. And I always trust pre-game splash screens. I would guess it has something to do with keeping these GBA Paks from directly competing with actual SpongeBob television DVDs. Absurd, I know.
Actually, the screen first says simply "Game Boy Player," just like any GBP-compatible Pak. But then it fades in the words "NOT COMPATIBLE WITH," which I think is a nice touch.
