Mini review: GBA Movie Player 2.0

[Guest]

Archived from groups: uk.games.video.gameboy,alt.games.video.nintendo.gameboy.advance (More info?)

Mini review: GBA Movieplayer (version 2)

Being a gadgetlover I stumbled over this gizmo at the
LikSang-site. I decided to order it, just to see if it
would live up to its promise: "to make the GBA perfect".

What does this thing do?
Well.. it plays movies, MP3 and Famicom games on your GBA. You just
put a CompactFlash card (doesn't come with the player, so you need
to have one already!) with the files into the cartridge. Put the
cartridge into your GBA and off you go!

The cartridge is designed to look good with the Famicom SP and is
similar in size to an oldfashioned GB-Color cartridge.

Playing movies
This thing doesn't play standard moviefiles, so you need to convert
your movies into a proprietary movieformat first. Software to do this
is shipped with the cartridge. Be warned: conversion takes ages.
On my P4 (2GHz/1Gb Ram) it took 8 (!!!) hours to convert a 700Mb DivX
of Finding Nemo into a 250Mb .GBM file. The resulting quality is more
than adequate for the tiny GBA SP screen.

There's also a higher quality conversion method which is much faster,
but which resulted in a 1.2Gb movie file so it didn't fit on my 1GB CF
card. So that wasn't an option for me. All in all I don't really see
myself watching movies with this thing very often, I guess..

Playing MP3s
I haven't tried this yet, since I already have 2 MP3-players. But it
probably involves conversion (into .GBS) as well.

Playing Famicom games
This is my favorite feature! Simply put some .NES roms on your CF card
and the built-in emulator will turn your GBA into a NES! I had a useless
16Mb CompactFlash card left from an old digital camera. Now it is
stuffed with any NES game I can find. Yay! Being able to play Mario,
Zelda, Metroid, Kid Icarus, Castlevania, Metal Gear, Rush'n Attack etc.
on this thing makes it totally worth the $25!
Note: there's a size limit of 190Kb to the ROMs you can play, because
of the way GBA Memory works. But I won't complain about that..

Conclusion:
I bought this thing to see if I could enjoy watching movies on such a
small GBA SP screen. It is passable, and if you already have a large
CF card and a lot of patience it might work for you. But it turns out
that the added feature of playing NES-Roms with it makes this gadget
totally worth the money!

Bought from Lik-Sang for $25
http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=279&products_id=3983
Disclaimer: I am not affiliated to Lik Sang or whatever..

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: uk.games.video.gameboy,alt.games.video.nintendo.gameboy.advance (More info?)

On 9 Jan 2005 04:49:19 -0800, spamdustbin@yahoo.com (Bram) wrote:

>Playing Famicom games
>This is my favorite feature! Simply put some .NES roms on your CF card
>and the built-in emulator will turn your GBA into a NES! I had a useless
>16Mb CompactFlash card left from an old digital camera. Now it is
>stuffed with any NES game I can find. Yay! Being able to play Mario,
>Zelda, Metroid, Kid Icarus, Castlevania, Metal Gear, Rush'n Attack etc.
>on this thing makes it totally worth the $25!
>Note: there's a size limit of 190Kb to the ROMs you can play, because
>of the way GBA Memory works. But I won't complain about that..

This feature is missing from older movie player I don't know if
there's an upgrade or if you'd need to replace the old player
outright.

I'll probably end up buying the Time Machine. Slightly more expensive
but it plays real NES/Famicom cart and won't have the 190K limitation
so some larger games like Earthbound Zero will work.
--
To reply, replace digi.mon with phreaker.net

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: uk.games.video.gameboy,alt.games.video.nintendo.gameboy.advance (More info?)

On Sun, 09 Jan 2005 12:33:00 -0500, Impmon <impmon@digi.mon> wrote:

>This feature is missing from older movie player I don't know if
>there's an upgrade or if you'd need to replace the old player
>outright.

Just a quick update: I went ahead with the firmware update for older
GBA Movie Player from here: http://www.movieadvance.com/Download.htm

It added Famicom support to the main menu. I have not tested it yet
as I don't have any NES ROM smaller than 256K as I prefered the real
NES games anyway.
--
To reply, replace digi.mon with phreaker.net

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: uk.games.video.gameboy,alt.games.video.nintendo.gameboy.advance (More info?)

"Bram" <spamdustbin@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:23bb153f.0501090449.595144a1@posting.google.com...
> Mini review: GBA Movieplayer (version 2)
>
> Being a gadgetlover I stumbled over this gizmo at the
> LikSang-site. I decided to order it, just to see if it
> would live up to its promise: "to make the GBA perfect".
>
> What does this thing do?
> Well.. it plays movies, MP3 and Famicom games on your GBA. You just
> put a CompactFlash card (doesn't come with the player, so you need
> to have one already!) with the files into the cartridge. Put the
> cartridge into your GBA and off you go!
>
> The cartridge is designed to look good with the Famicom SP and is
> similar in size to an oldfashioned GB-Color cartridge.
>
> Playing movies
> This thing doesn't play standard moviefiles, so you need to convert
> your movies into a proprietary movieformat first. Software to do this
> is shipped with the cartridge. Be warned: conversion takes ages.
> On my P4 (2GHz/1Gb Ram) it took 8 (!!!) hours to convert a 700Mb DivX
> of Finding Nemo into a 250Mb .GBM file. The resulting quality is more
> than adequate for the tiny GBA SP screen.
>
> There's also a higher quality conversion method which is much faster,
> but which resulted in a 1.2Gb movie file so it didn't fit on my 1GB CF
> card. So that wasn't an option for me. All in all I don't really see
> myself watching movies with this thing very often, I guess..
>
> Playing MP3s
> I haven't tried this yet, since I already have 2 MP3-players. But it
> probably involves conversion (into .GBS) as well.
>
> Playing Famicom games
> This is my favorite feature! Simply put some .NES roms on your CF card
> and the built-in emulator will turn your GBA into a NES! I had a useless
> 16Mb CompactFlash card left from an old digital camera. Now it is
> stuffed with any NES game I can find. Yay! Being able to play Mario,
> Zelda, Metroid, Kid Icarus, Castlevania, Metal Gear, Rush'n Attack etc.
> on this thing makes it totally worth the $25!
> Note: there's a size limit of 190Kb to the ROMs you can play, because
> of the way GBA Memory works. But I won't complain about that..
>
> Conclusion:
> I bought this thing to see if I could enjoy watching movies on such a
> small GBA SP screen. It is passable, and if you already have a large
> CF card and a lot of patience it might work for you. But it turns out
> that the added feature of playing NES-Roms with it makes this gadget
> totally worth the money!
>
> Bought from Lik-Sang for $25
> http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=279&products_id=3983
> Disclaimer: I am not affiliated to Lik Sang or whatever..

Think this would work with the DS ?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: uk.games.video.gameboy,alt.games.video.nintendo.gameboy.advance (More info?)

yes, it works on the DS.

>
> Think this would work with the DS ?
>

 

[Guest]

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"sardu" <robertaccomandonospam@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:gkgEd.2692$pZ4.2127@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net...
> yes, it works on the DS.
>
>>
Cheers.

 

[Leo]

Archived from groups: uk.games.video.gameboy,alt.games.video.nintendo.gameboy.advance (More info?)

You can play NES roms on the old version movie player.

Leo

--
Im looking for Commodore 64/Vic20 Cartridges! Got any? Check out my
tradelist & items for sale at http://www.commodore64.allhell.com


"Impmon" <impmon@digi.mon> wrote in message
newsfs2u0d4v4k628r6ongj4hqq8od7cbfuto@4ax.com...
> On Sun, 09 Jan 2005 12:33:00 -0500, Impmon <impmon@digi.mon> wrote:
>
> >This feature is missing from older movie player I don't know if
> >there's an upgrade or if you'd need to replace the old player
> >outright.
>
> Just a quick update: I went ahead with the firmware update for older
> GBA Movie Player from here: http://www.movieadvance.com/Download.htm
>
> It added Famicom support to the main menu. I have not tested it yet
> as I don't have any NES ROM smaller than 256K as I prefered the real
> NES games anyway.
> --
> To reply, replace digi.mon with phreaker.net

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: uk.games.video.gameboy,alt.games.video.nintendo.gameboy.advance (More info?)

The time machine doesn't play roms though. You'll need the actual cart.


"Impmon" <impmon@digi.mon> wrote in message
news:26q2u0tt196lfekm4l6i2as0fuk3b0q9jq@4ax.com...
> On 9 Jan 2005 04:49:19 -0800, spamdustbin@yahoo.com (Bram) wrote:
>
>>Playing Famicom games
>>This is my favorite feature! Simply put some .NES roms on your CF card
>>and the built-in emulator will turn your GBA into a NES! I had a useless
>>16Mb CompactFlash card left from an old digital camera. Now it is
>>stuffed with any NES game I can find. Yay! Being able to play Mario,
>>Zelda, Metroid, Kid Icarus, Castlevania, Metal Gear, Rush'n Attack etc.
>>on this thing makes it totally worth the $25!
>>Note: there's a size limit of 190Kb to the ROMs you can play, because
>>of the way GBA Memory works. But I won't complain about that..
>
> This feature is missing from older movie player I don't know if
> there's an upgrade or if you'd need to replace the old player
> outright.
>
> I'll probably end up buying the Time Machine. Slightly more expensive
> but it plays real NES/Famicom cart and won't have the 190K limitation
> so some larger games like Earthbound Zero will work.
> --
> To reply, replace digi.mon with phreaker.net

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: uk.games.video.gameboy,alt.games.video.nintendo.gameboy.advance (More info?)

On Sun, 09 Jan 2005 22:45:34 GMT, "sardu"
<robertaccomandonospam@earthlink.net> wrote:

>The time machine doesn't play roms though. You'll need the actual cart.

But the Time Machine can play any cart while emulator is limited to
supported mappers, which often excludes some famicom and pirates as
well as less common NES titles.
--
To reply, replace digi.mon with phreaker.net

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: uk.games.video.gameboy,alt.games.video.nintendo.gameboy.advance (More info?)

could you explain why the faq in "lik sang" say that you need a game in the
movie player for it to work. my movie player does not have a slot to put a
game in and when i turn the gba on with the movie player in the nintendo
logo is blacked out.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: uk.games.video.gameboy,alt.games.video.nintendo.gameboy.advance (More info?)

"mewthree" <paul@mewthree.plus.com> wrote in message
news:AYrEd.97979$Z7.6661@fe2.news.blueyonder.co.uk...
> could you explain why the faq in "lik sang" say that you need a game in
> the movie player for it to work. my movie player does not have a slot to
> put a game in and when i turn the gba on with the movie player in the
> nintendo logo is blacked out.
> ie it does not work.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: uk.games.video.gameboy,alt.games.video.nintendo.gameboy.advance (More info?)

Bram <spamdustbin@yahoo.com> spewed:
> Bought from Lik-Sang for $25
> http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=279&products_id=3983
> Disclaimer: I am not affiliated to Lik Sang or whatever..

Looking around the site, can't find an easy link to shipping info. You
happen to remember the $$ damage for delivery to the US? (assuming, that
is, you are in the US, which I'm not sure of, now that I see you posted to
the UK group as well... hmm..)

--
The Toe Pages: http://www.rubbertoe.com
Freshly Redesigned! New Low-Tech Appeal!

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: uk.games.video.gameboy,alt.games.video.nintendo.gameboy.advance (More info?)

On Mon, 10 Jan 2005 09:32:16 GMT, "mewthree" <paul@mewthree.plus.com>
wrote:

>could you explain why the faq in "lik sang" say that you need a game in the
>movie player for it to work. my movie player does not have a slot to put a
>game in and when i turn the gba on with the movie player in the nintendo
>logo is blacked out.

Older Movie Player required GBA cart or GBA won't play at all. I don't
know anything about the newer version that doesn't have a slot.
--
To reply, replace digi.mon with phreaker.net

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: uk.games.video.gameboy,alt.games.video.nintendo.gameboy.advance (More info?)

"Robert J Batina" <rbatina@columbus.rr.com> wrote in message
news:F1wEd.79816$mA3.2621@fe2.columbus.rr.com...
>
> Bram <spamdustbin@yahoo.com> spewed:
>> Bought from Lik-Sang for $25
>> http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=279&products_id=3983
>> Disclaimer: I am not affiliated to Lik Sang or whatever..
>
> Looking around the site, can't find an easy link to shipping info. You
> happen to remember the $$ damage for delivery to the US? (assuming, that
> is, you are in the US, which I'm not sure of, now that I see you posted to
> the UK group as well... hmm..)
>
> --
> The Toe Pages: http://www.rubbertoe.com
> Freshly Redesigned! New Low-Tech Appeal!
>
>

sory to whom are you refering to? if it is me i am in the uk

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: uk.games.video.gameboy,alt.games.video.nintendo.gameboy.advance (More info?)

"Impmon" <impmon@digi.mon> wrote in message
news:bhl5u0h8ek7kdb05n2o5tpn3mspp9d96he@4ax.com...
> On Mon, 10 Jan 2005 09:32:16 GMT, "mewthree" <paul@mewthree.plus.com>
> wrote:
>
>>could you explain why the faq in "lik sang" say that you need a game in
>>the
>>movie player for it to work. my movie player does not have a slot to put a
>>game in and when i turn the gba on with the movie player in the nintendo
>>logo is blacked out.
>
> Older Movie Player required GBA cart or GBA won't play at all. I don't
> know anything about the newer version that doesn't have a slot.
> --
> To reply, replace digi.mon with phreaker.net

thanks for trying.

does any body know the answer?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: uk.games.video.gameboy,alt.games.video.nintendo.gameboy.advance (More info?)

> >>could you explain why the faq in "lik sang" say that you need a
game in
> >>the
> >>movie player for it to work. my movie player does not have a slot
to put a
> >>game in and when i turn the gba on with the movie player in the
nintendo
> >>logo is blacked out.
> >
> > Older Movie Player required GBA cart or GBA won't play at all. I
don't
> > know anything about the newer version that doesn't have a slot.

> thanks for trying.
>
> does any body know the answer?

Well, that basically is the answer: the review was about the latest
version, which doesn't require a second cart. The first version did.
A quick google-action confirms this.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: uk.games.video.gameboy,alt.games.video.nintendo.gameboy.advance (More info?)

"Bram" <spamdustbin@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1105518277.633077.68040@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
>
>> >>could you explain why the faq in "lik sang" say that you need a
> game in
>> >>the
>> >>movie player for it to work. my movie player does not have a slot
> to put a
>> >>game in and when i turn the gba on with the movie player in the
> nintendo
>> >>logo is blacked out.
>> >
>> > Older Movie Player required GBA cart or GBA won't play at all. I
> don't
>> > know anything about the newer version that doesn't have a slot.
>
>> thanks for trying.
>>
>> does any body know the answer?
>
> Well, that basically is the answer: the review was about the latest
> version, which doesn't require a second cart. The first version did.
> A quick google-action confirms this.
>

it would seem that mine is broken then.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: uk.games.video.gameboy,alt.games.video.nintendo.gameboy.advance (More info?)

Don't worry about the 190k limitation - there's a new version of
pocketnes.gba at forum.lik-sang.com which comes with a packing utility,
apparently allowing virtually all 256k NES roms to play.

 

[Eric]

Archived from groups: uk.games.video.gameboy,alt.games.video.nintendo.gameboy.advance (More info?)

"Bram" <spamdustbin@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:23bb153f.0501090449.595144a1@posting.google.com...
> Mini review: GBA Movieplayer (version 2)
>
> Being a gadgetlover I stumbled over this gizmo at the
> LikSang-site. I decided to order it, just to see if it
> would live up to its promise: "to make the GBA perfect".
>
> What does this thing do?
> Well.. it plays movies, MP3 and Famicom games on your GBA. You just
> put a CompactFlash card (doesn't come with the player, so you need
> to have one already!) with the files into the cartridge. Put the
> cartridge into your GBA and off you go!
>
> The cartridge is designed to look good with the Famicom SP and is
> similar in size to an oldfashioned GB-Color cartridge.
>
> Playing movies
> This thing doesn't play standard moviefiles, so you need to convert
> your movies into a proprietary movieformat first. Software to do this
> is shipped with the cartridge. Be warned: conversion takes ages.
> On my P4 (2GHz/1Gb Ram) it took 8 (!!!) hours to convert a 700Mb DivX
> of Finding Nemo into a 250Mb .GBM file. The resulting quality is more
> than adequate for the tiny GBA SP screen.
>
> There's also a higher quality conversion method which is much faster,
> but which resulted in a 1.2Gb movie file so it didn't fit on my 1GB CF
> card. So that wasn't an option for me. All in all I don't really see
> myself watching movies with this thing very often, I guess..
>
> Playing MP3s
> I haven't tried this yet, since I already have 2 MP3-players. But it
> probably involves conversion (into .GBS) as well.
>
> Playing Famicom games
> This is my favorite feature! Simply put some .NES roms on your CF card
> and the built-in emulator will turn your GBA into a NES! I had a useless
> 16Mb CompactFlash card left from an old digital camera. Now it is
> stuffed with any NES game I can find. Yay! Being able to play Mario,
> Zelda, Metroid, Kid Icarus, Castlevania, Metal Gear, Rush'n Attack etc.
> on this thing makes it totally worth the $25!
> Note: there's a size limit of 190Kb to the ROMs you can play, because
> of the way GBA Memory works. But I won't complain about that..
>
> Conclusion:
> I bought this thing to see if I could enjoy watching movies on such a
> small GBA SP screen. It is passable, and if you already have a large
> CF card and a lot of patience it might work for you. But it turns out
> that the added feature of playing NES-Roms with it makes this gadget
> totally worth the money!
>
> Bought from Lik-Sang for $25
> http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=279&products_id=3983
> Disclaimer: I am not affiliated to Lik Sang or whatever..


Nice review. It answers the questions that I had about it just a short
while ago. Since I wanted to be able to do NES emulation on my GBA (and
DS), I was pondering between getting a Flashcart/linker or just one of these
things. Ended up going with a small (128Mbit) Flashcart, mainly because I
was unsure about the NES 'size limitation' with this CF "Movie Player".
Also, prefered the flashcart for it's size (standard GBA cart). The
flashcart (EZ2 Powerstar) has been working great -- using it for NES/SMS
emulation, plus have a few 'homebrew' stuff thrown on it for playing around.
Still thinking about picking up one of these "Movie Players" though, since
got a 512 MByte CF card that goes largely unused in my digital camera. If,
for anything else, just because this "Movie Player" is also pretty cool.
:^)

What would be awesome is if someone developed a CF card interface for the
GBA/DS that had the functionality of a flashcart, but used CF memory!
Imagine a "flashcart" that had 1 GigaBYTE of memory versus 1 GigaBIT. I
got my flashcart simply for NES and wasn't that interested in GBA "backups",
however with such an animal I would definetly download all of my GBA games
to it -- simply for the convienence of it. Without ever having to change
cartridges, you could have all your GBA games, NES/SMS roms, music, E-Books,
homebrew stuff, and perhaps even a few short little videos!

Cheers!
-Eric

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: uk.games.video.gameboy,alt.games.video.nintendo.gameboy.advance (More info?)

suswaze@hotmail.com wrote:
> Don't worry about the 190k limitation - there's a new version of
> pocketnes.gba at forum.lik-sang.com which comes with a packing utility,
> apparently allowing virtually all 256k NES roms to play.
>

Had the version 1 movie player for ages (not used much). Updated the
firmware and used the NES rom packing utility found above last night and
the MP played every rom I threw at it absolutely fine. Very impressed.

Still loads of hassle to get a movie onto the GBA IMO. Hardly worth the
effort. The MP will get some more use now with the NES emulation. Nice one!