Anime on Gameboy Advance - PLAY-YAN & PLAY-YAN micro
Continuing the series of unusual ways to watch Anime on the GBA is this look at the Japan exclusive GBA accessories, the PLAY-YAN and PLAY-YAN micro. The PLAY-YAN was also released in Europe under the name 'Nintendo MP3 Player', and 'MP4 Player for GBA' in China by the company iQue, which is well known for distributing Chinese Versions of Nintendo products [3].
The PLAY-YAN was a portable audio and video player developed and released by Nintendo for the Gameboy Advance SP that was capable of playing .ASF format movies and .mp3 format audio from standard SD cards of up to 2 GB in size [1] [2]. The adaptor was also compatible with the Gameboy Micro and the Nintendo DS [1]. The device was similar in concept to AM3's Smart Media Player in that it could play media files off of a media card, except for the fact that the PLAY-YAN used SD cards, could be used to play audio files in addition to videos and that the PLAY-YAN allows users to add their own files and play them. The PLAY-YAN retailed in Japan at a price of 5, 000 yen.
The PLAY-YAN could play .asf files recorded from TVS, PCs, and DVD recorders. The movie list is displayed with thumbnails to make it easier to find a particular video [1].
The .mp3 format audio files on the PLAY-YAN can be played with shuffle and song repeat. The file browser supports ID3 tags, as well as allows files to be nested within folders. You can also adjust the surround effect level and set the bass effect [1]. Pressing the 'A' button while listening to music can activate a secret minigame. More details can be found here.
The official Nintendo page for the PLAY-YAN also has a 'garage' section which offers 12 downloadable minigames, as well as a 13th hidden game at the bottom of the page which can be found here. As of September 11 2005, the PLAY-YAN was discontinued in favour of the PLAY-YAN micro.
Alongside the release of the Gameboy Micro in Japan, an updated version of the device known as the PLAY-YAN micro was released also for 5,000 yen. The PLAY-YAN micro, in addition to the .asf playback of the original now also supports .mp4 formatted videos as well as had improved audio quality through the inbuilt headphone jack. The PLAY-YAN micro removed support for the minigames. The PLAY-YAN micro was only available through Nintendo of Japan's online store, and could come with a computer program on a CD called 'MediaStage Ver. 4.4 for Nintendo', which allowed users to manage video and music files on a computer. This program would cost an additional 1,000 yen [3].
The sick-figure that appears in the music menu on the Japanese version of the hardware is also a character from the Japanese exclusive GBA game Rhythm Tengoku as well as the arcade game Night Walk ans was later used as a visualisation on the 3DS for its sound feature [3].
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