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MP3 for Gameboy

Posted by timothy on from the sewing-and-music-what's-next dept.

sluggo140 writes: "Cnet has an article regarding a new startup called SongPro that is devloping an add-on for Gameboy and Gameboy Advance. The add-on will play various music formats including MP3."

8 of 163 comments (clear)

  1. DRM: Permission denied by qwerpoiu · · Score: 5, Funny

    To play this MP3, you must complete Bonza Land level 3 or get 350 gold coins.

  2. Not the first time by boa13 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ... such announces are made. I remember such an product being announced for the Neogeo Pocket Color. Does anybody know if the maker of this one has a significant financial backing? Do they have a chance of making a well-distributed product, or will this just be offered on some catalogs and bought by geeks?

  3. Interesting, but... by Nogami_Saeko · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's going to do the same thing as MP3 players for Palm units I'd imagine. All the processing and hardware will be offboard and the only thing the gameboy will provide is the interface.

    I can't see that it's any great advantage over a standalone MP3 player - the majority of the price point of portable players seems to be the amount of memory included which is hard to work around, no matter which platform you're on.

    Small standalone players like the Samsung YEPP are tiny, can run for hours on one AAA battery, and are slowly decreasing in price.

    --
    "Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence." - Charles de Gaulle
  4. MP3 under GameBoy emulator by rickthewizkid · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hmm...

    Run this under GameBoy Advance - then run the Gameboy Advance Emulator under Windows - then run Windows under VMWare - hmmm......

    It's a hall of mirrors!! :)

    -Rick

  5. Yuck. by CaffeineAddict2001 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    First you convert music to digital information that is an approximation of the original sound and you say "No, it's still good!" Then compress and stream the music and it's like "No, it's still good!" Now you are playing Digital Compressed Music through Gameboy speakers? What's the point? This is like taking a painting and then running a guassian blur filter on it.

    1. Re:Yuck. by T3kno · · Score: 5, Funny

      First you take five guys who can't sing, and have them sing a song by someone who cant write. Then you pass it through thousands of digital filters, mixers and other doohickey whatsits and arive at something that someone with a gameboy would call music. It really doesn't matter that it's being played out of a speaker the size of a quarter with a range of about 12Hz, it's not music in the first place. Your anology should read "This is like taking a polaroid of a painting, photocopying it onto thermal fax paper , and then running a guassian blur filter on it." You can't call velveeta food.

      --
      (B) + (D) + (B) + (D) = (K) + (&)
  6. Processing power by gpinzone · · Score: 5, Informative
    There's no way a GameBoy has the processing power to decode MP3s natively. This thing has got to be an Rio with a GameBoy program to display the status on the GameBoy rather than have it's own LCD.

    Whoopdie dooo.

    Here's a better option:

    Amazon has the SP90 player at $85 - $5 coupon CHNKBKAMZNLT - $20 rebate = $60 shipped. There's a simple way to hack it and upgrade the firmware.

    • Plays standard audio CDs as well as MP3 + WMA
    • Electronic shock protection up to 120 seconds
    • Supports ID3 tags and audio CD title display (CD Text)
  7. GB Karaoke? by gatekeep · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This seems to me to have the potential to be HUGE in Japan. From what they're saying it'll allow the ability to display lyrics on screen, presumably in synch with the music. From what I've read, the Japanese are nuts about Karaoke, and also about Gameboys. There could be a huge market for this thing over there, probably less so in the US.

    That said, how does one go about loading the songs on the unit, and what will it's capacity be? Those are the key things I consider in a portable MP3 player. So far, I've found nothing rivaling the iPod (pause for Nomad and Rio users to chime in). At the $99 price point I'm guessing there's not much storage there.