Looking at the title, you may be wondering why anyone would want to watch video on the Gameboy Advance, but this is actually a unique way to watch anime on a video game console, when streaming anime online was not as accessible as it is now, and when handheld systems did not have the ability to access the internet. Apparently this topic is so unique, that even Wikipedia does not have an article on this topic. Also coming back and editing this article with further details, the version that was released that was designed to just play the anime cards is officially called 'Advance Video' [7].
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| Image from: link |
Gameboy Advance Video Advertisement (source: YouTube)
AM3 created a system in 2003 [1] with an adapter that allowed users to insert special Smart Media Cards which contained videos, and that could play these videos. The cartridge contains special software and has a slot on the side allowing the user to insert a standard sized Smart Media card. A wide range of anime titles would be made available for purchase on prerecorded Smart Media cards, or blank anime-themed cards could be purchased.
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The Only Video of the Smart Media Player I Can Find (source: YouTube)
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| Image from Amazon: link |
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| Image from: link |
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| Image from: link |
The cards can hold up to 24 minutes of animated content on a standard 32 Megabyte card, or 192 minutes on a 256 Megabyte Smart Media Card [6]. The videos uses a proprietary video compression technology by both Act Image of France as well as IMAGICA Corporation, which is also known for HDCAM video compression [2][2(archived)]. These cards were partially transparent [6]. 4 titles were available at launch in May 2003 and the adapter was available for 3200 yen [7]. Additional titles could be written to blank cards for a price of between 100 yen and 500 yen, and blank cards were available for purchase at a price of 1800 yen. Kiosks were also set up that allowed customers to purchase videos and have them copied onto blank Smart Media cards or write over cards that already have videos on them. There were also dedicated kiosks for one particular program known as 'Advance Gacha' and were planned to be placed in convenience stores and toy stores [7]. This is similar to the way that the Family Computer Disk System in Japan had kiosks set up that allowed users to purchase Famicom Disk System games and have them written onto disks. AM3 planned to have over 10,000 of these machines to copy onto blank cards by the summer of 2005 [4]. The cards were distributed in conjunction with Happinet Co [6].
A pricing table has been added below:
According to the website lik-sang, a former importer of Japanese products, content for AM3's smart media player was planned to be released in stores on CDs with content on them, and which could be transferred to cards [2][2(archived)][7]. It is not known whether these CDs were ever released. This is however contradicted by ASCII corp. which claims that the content would utilise DRM that tied data to hardware in order to prevent unauthorised copying. The system adopted a special ROM-specific ID system recorded for each file, so even if it was copied onto a commercially available Smart Media card, it could not be played. This would be encrypted with DES encryption and use a 128-bit encryption key which would be recorded in the media ROM, and would need to be verified before a video could be played back. Despite this, data from computers and cameras could still be recorded to the memory cards [6].
Unlike Gameboy Advance Video which would not allow users to play the cartridges on the Gamecube Gameboy adapter, the AM3 Smart Media Player could be used on the Gamecube [5]. The adapter is 55 mm long and extends 20 mm out of the GBA [6].
The player has several functions that can be used whilst playing back video. These are play and pause using the 'A' button, fast forwards and backwards, using the right and left buttons on the d-pad respectively, and pressing and holding for forwards and backwards at 1x speed, 2x speed, 3x speed, and 4x speed. Some material would also support chapter menus, although earlier content such as the Detective Conan Roller Coaster Murder Case did not [6]. Titles such as the Pokemon titles would support basic interactive menus which allowed the selection of either the main movie, or short commercials for other Pokemon movies to watch [u/karulg on Reddit].
The player contains no decoding chip, but instead uses the ARM7 CPU of the GBA in conjunction with the specially developed FastVideo codec to allow video playback. This allowed the player to be built at a low price-point as it did not have to contain any custom chips. Video can be played back at 30 fps and at a resolution of 240 x 160 pixels, the full resolution of the GBA screen [6].
Lik-sang, a international distributor expected a wide range of content to be released for the system including [2][2(archived)]:
Looking at listings for the Smart Media Player on Amazon.co.jp (which can be found by searching for 'AM3' under the category 'TV games'), it can be seen that cards were released for many anime series including, but not limited to:
These releases could have either television series episodes or movies on them. During the time of the Nintendo DS, smart media cards continued to be released with Nintendo DS branding on the packaging, although they were still the same GBA cartridge design. AM3 would go on to release DSVision, which was a similar concept to the Smart Media Player except it took Micro SD/TF cards and was housed in a special DS cartridge that looked similar to a DS flash cart.
The ActImage codec was announced by Shinji Hashimoto, the executive officer of Square Enix to also be planned for use in the GBA game 'Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories', which did feature rendered cut-scenes. Although from research I cannot find whether it was in fact this codec used to compress the video used in cut-scenes, it likely was due to this announcement [7].
In 2005, am3 would also provide 'Poke Park Advanced Navi' at PokePark, the world's first Pokemon theme park, which was a video utilising the Advance Video technology and could be written free of charge onto a card using an 'Advance Gachapon' system. They also operated a lending system there, where a guest could pay 2100 yen to rent a system with the card and movie, 2000 yen being given back to the guest on the system's return [8].
Currently, there does not appear to be much information on the internet about the AM3 Smart Media Player, or at least it is not easily accessible. Many sites that contain information about the product such as 'lik-sang.com' are no longer available, and many western sites did not cover this product as it did not have an international release, unlike Gameboy Advance Video. It is likely that the Smart Media Player was not released internationally, due to the success of Gameboy Advance Video, and it's much simpler nature only requiring a cartridge for each video, and not a bulky adapter with fancy media cards. Some information can be found through listings on sites such as Amazon.co.jp, which is not normally used by people outside of Japan, which makes it hard for people to discover the AM3 Smart Media Player.
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| A mock of an 'Advance Gacha' system Image from: link |
A pricing table has been added below:
| Release date | Content | Price |
| Adapter | ||
| November 20 | Advanced Movie Adapter | 3,200 yen |
| Adapter + Movie Card Set | ||
| November 20 | Advanced Movie Adapter Detective Conan 'Roller Coaster Murder' | 3,800 yen |
| Movie Card | ||
| November 20 | Detective Conan 'President Daughter Kidnapping Case' | 2,380 yen |
| Detective Conan 'Idol Closed Room Murder Case' | ||
| Detective Conan 'Big City Crypto Map Case' | ||
| December 18 | Detective Conan 'Shinkansen Large Blast Case' | |
| Detective Conan 'Valentine Murder Case' | ||
| Detective Conan 'Monthly Present Threatening Case' | ||
| Time Bokan 'Start! Time Bokan is Petcha' | ||
| Time Bokan 'Petcha is the Greek Zukkoke War' | ||
| Time Bokan 'Petcha, a Witch Hunt for Fear' | ||
| Time Bokan 'Hentoko Saiyuki Da Petcha' | ||
| Undecided | Blank movie card | 1,800 yen |
Table Sourced From: [7].
You might think that the prices listed for a single low quality copy of an episode are expensive at about 25 USD per episode given how cheap it is to buy a digital movie or TV series online, but with this technology, you were really paying for the novelty of it, and at this time, there was really no way to watch videos on the go or in a portable manner, except for perhaps Hasbro's VideoNow which offered content at a lower price point, but only in black and white for the original version and which may not have been released in Japan.
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| Image Used With Permission, Credit: u/karulg on Reddit |
Unlike Gameboy Advance Video which would not allow users to play the cartridges on the Gamecube Gameboy adapter, the AM3 Smart Media Player could be used on the Gamecube [5]. The adapter is 55 mm long and extends 20 mm out of the GBA [6].
The player has several functions that can be used whilst playing back video. These are play and pause using the 'A' button, fast forwards and backwards, using the right and left buttons on the d-pad respectively, and pressing and holding for forwards and backwards at 1x speed, 2x speed, 3x speed, and 4x speed. Some material would also support chapter menus, although earlier content such as the Detective Conan Roller Coaster Murder Case did not [6]. Titles such as the Pokemon titles would support basic interactive menus which allowed the selection of either the main movie, or short commercials for other Pokemon movies to watch [u/karulg on Reddit].
The player contains no decoding chip, but instead uses the ARM7 CPU of the GBA in conjunction with the specially developed FastVideo codec to allow video playback. This allowed the player to be built at a low price-point as it did not have to contain any custom chips. Video can be played back at 30 fps and at a resolution of 240 x 160 pixels, the full resolution of the GBA screen [6].
Lik-sang, a international distributor expected a wide range of content to be released for the system including [2][2(archived)]:
- Animated content
- Game and movie previews and trailers
- Pictures
- Music
- Educational software titles
- E-books
- Karaoke
- Advance Picture for still images
- Advance Music for music
- Advance Comic for manga
- Advance Navi for maps
Looking at listings for the Smart Media Player on Amazon.co.jp (which can be found by searching for 'AM3' under the category 'TV games'), it can be seen that cards were released for many anime series including, but not limited to:
- Meitantei Conan/Detective Conan (Case Closed)
- Pokemon
- Lelere's Genius Bakabon
- Crayon Shin-chan
- Time Bokan [7]
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| Image From Amazon: link |
The ActImage codec was announced by Shinji Hashimoto, the executive officer of Square Enix to also be planned for use in the GBA game 'Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories', which did feature rendered cut-scenes. Although from research I cannot find whether it was in fact this codec used to compress the video used in cut-scenes, it likely was due to this announcement [7].
In 2005, am3 would also provide 'Poke Park Advanced Navi' at PokePark, the world's first Pokemon theme park, which was a video utilising the Advance Video technology and could be written free of charge onto a card using an 'Advance Gachapon' system. They also operated a lending system there, where a guest could pay 2100 yen to rent a system with the card and movie, 2000 yen being given back to the guest on the system's return [8].
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