Recently I travelled to Niagara Falls, on the border of the United States and Canada. This post shows some images from my journey and some information about Niagara Falls.
I arrived on the Canadian side of Niagara falls. From there I could see both Canadian Horseshoe Falls and American Falls. One of the first things I did was visit Skylon Tower. I went up on the elevator and I took some pictures.
(Canadian Horseshoe Falls)
(American Falls)
Later on, I travelled up towards Canadian Horseshoe Falls. There I took some more pictures.
I travelled behind the falls and took some more pictures.
The next day, I went over to the American side of the falls. Here I took some of my best photos.
Anime Link Revista is expanding its range of content to include new content and non-anime related content. All articles from the underlined YouTube channel's site will be moving over to this blog, with an archived version staying on that site (sites.google.com/view/underlined-games/home). All world downloads will stay on that site for the time being. The snowmanearth blog-style articles will also be published on the Anime Link page. It may seem weird to have this content on this blog as it is not anime related, but this is to compile high quality and interesting content, and to not keep posting this content on sites that do not get any other content or views.
4399.com can be an interesting place to explore. It is a Chinese games site that allows users to play online browser games as well as flash games and also has a large collection of android games and apps. It even has side projects including 4399dmw.com/donghua which is an anime encyclopedia similar in some ways to myanimelist.net. China is well known for being the origin of many bootlegs and unlicensed content. This is the case for 世纪末的魔术师, also known as The Last Wizard of the Century.
This game is a flash-based visual novel in Chinese using the entirety of the movie and soundtrack for content. While the game does feature still frames taken from the movie as backgrounds, other parts of the game use whole sections of animation taken from the movie. This game is certainly unlicensed, and is a very interesting example of what someone can create.
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].
Information sourced from Wikipedia: [x]
In Japan in 2003, the AM3 Smart Media Player was released which allowed users to watch anime from special Smart Media Cards. This would never become popular internationally due to the release of Gameboy Advance Video.
A YouTube Video About GBA Video
GBA Video consisted of a series of standard sized GBA carts each with a compressed video on them. The cartridges were developed by 4Kids Technology [1]. The cartridges had a uniquely coloured light-grey/white shell in contrast to the dark grey shell of regular GBA carts. Videos on the carts were in 240x160 resolution, the regular resolution of GBA games, except for the Shrek and Shark Tales pack which was at 112p [2].
GBA Video was released in North America in May 2004 [x]. In November 2005, Majesco started to sell full-length animated films [x]. Due to license agreements with the owners of the television series, GBA Video Paks will not work on the GameCube Gameboy Player, using a the same logo authentication check used by games that support controller rumble, and will instead freeze on a screen "Not compatible with Game Boy Player" [x].
"Brobot"
"The Big Pinch"
"Granny Baby"
"Time is Money"
All Grown Up! vol. 1
"Susie Sings the Blues"
"Coup de Ville"
Cartoon Network Collection vol. 1
Ed, Edd 'n Eddy: "Stop, Look and Ed"
Courage the Cowardly Dog: "Magic Tree of Nowhere"
Johnny Bravo: "The Perfect Gift"
The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy: "Crawling Niceness"
Cartoon Network Collection vol. 2
Codename: Kids Next Door: "Operation T.U.R.N.I.P."
Courage the Cowardly Dog: "Courage the Fly"
Johnny Bravo: "Balloon Platoon"
The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy: "Mandy the Merciless"
Cartoon Network Collection Limited Edition
Ed, Edd 'n Eddy: "Key to My Ed"
Courage the Cowardly Dog: "The Queen of the Black Puddle"
Codename: Kids Next Door: "Operation M.I.N.I.G.O.L.F."
Dexter's Laboratory: "Big Sister"
Cartoon Network Collection Platinum Edition
Codename: Kids Next Door: "Operation T.O.M.M.Y."
The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy: "A Grim Surprise"
Courage the Cowardly Dog: "Cowboy Courage"
Ed, Edd 'n Eddy: "The Luck of the Ed"
Cartoon Network Collection Premium Edition
Dexter's Laboratory: "Double Trouble"
Courage the Cowardly Dog: "The Shadow of Courage"
Johnny Bravo: "Cookie Crisis"
Ed, Edd 'n Eddy: "A Glass of Warm Ed"
Cartoon Network Collection Special Edition
Ed, Edd 'n Eddy: "Oath to an Ed"
Johnny Bravo: "Beach Blanket Bravo"
The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy: "Billy and the Bully"
Dexter's Laboratory: "Dexter's Rival"
