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Nintendo Announces Wireless GBA Adapter
Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to the Yahoo press release announcing Nintendo is using Motorola technology to produce a wireless adapter for the GameBoy Advance. According to the release, "The 2.4GHz radio frequency (RF) chipset enables up to five players to play each other wirelessly, allowing for flexible, mobile game playing", and it "...will be launched in Japan first half of 2004." Motorola is also hosting a picture of the device, showing how it connects to the GBA.
technology offers robust performance with a high-speed data rate
I thought that the GBAs data port was limited to an extremely slow transfer rate. (2kb/s?) Is it faster on the sp? Does anyone have info on this?
"Come on, let's go drink till we can't feel feelings anymore."
Until I can start doing Gameboy Warchalking?
How long do you think it will be before GBA emulators use Wi-Fi cards to do the same thing?
So when can i play tetris against someone else simultaneously?
We played dungeons and dragons for 3 hours.....then i was slain by an elf
Great. now I have to worry about some students gameboy interfering with our campus' wireless network.
Like microwaves, and portable phones werent enough.
Motorola and Nintendo Join Forces to Define Wireless Portable Gaming
/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Motorola Inc.'s (NYSE: MOT - News) Semiconductor Products Sector is supplying high-speed, low-power chipsets to enable an advanced wireless adapter accessory for use with Nintendo's Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Advance SP. This fusion of Nintendo's leadership in the portable gaming market and Motorola's own wireless communication technology together create wireless gaming history; enabling a revolutionary portable gaming experience for users. The 2.4GHz radio frequency (RF) chipset enables up to five players to play each other wirelessly, allowing for flexible, mobile game playing. The wireless adapter with the new Game Boy Advance software "Pokemon FireRed" and "Pokemon LeafGreen" will be launched in Japan first half of 2004 (see Note 1).
Friday September 26, 12:01 am ET
Wireless Accessory for Game Boy(R) Advance and Game Boy Advance SP Unleashes the Game Playing Experience
TOKYO, Sept. 26
The Motorola chipset contains a 32-bit RISC architecture baseband processor and a power-saving RF transceiver in the globally available 2.4GHz Industrial, Scientific and Medical Band spectrum. This technology offers robust performance with a high-speed data rate, utilizing a TDMA (time division multiple access) communication protocol to provide game users a fast receive-and-respond capability similar to a wired experience.
Motorola's chipset also features radio signal interference prevention and low power consumption ensuring users a long battery life for extended game play. In addition, advanced technology and packaging techniques of the solution allow for integration, reducing the size of the Nintendo wireless adapter accessory for convenient mobility.
Satoru Okada, general manager, research and engineering department of Nintendo Co., Ltd. stated, "Motorola's wireless chipset realizes high-speed and low-power consumption. This is one of the most important solutions for portable gaming. Furthermore, Motorola's wireless experience, such as, their antenna technology enabled us to develop a new wireless game system. Motorola also provided extensive contribution not only in IC development, but considerable system engineering support. This accomplished a high quality wireless gaming system. Game Boy Advance users will experience a new style of gaming and comfort."
Scott Anderson, president and chief executive of Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector commented, "Collaboration with Nintendo, a leader in the consumer entertainment market, allows us to further demonstrate our embedded wireless leadership. We have provided Nintendo a full wireless system solution focused on the end-user. I am confident this will significantly improve the game-playing experience and as a result, attract many veteran and novice game enthusiasts to Nintendo's offerings."
This is the latest product in Motorola's portfolio for the gaming market and builds on the company's wireless expertise. Motorola provides game device manufacturers hardware, software and accessories that enable the entertainment and gaming market to take products to market quickly and intelligently.
Documentation
Wireless Communications Website:
http://www.motorola.com/wireless-semi
Adapter Accessory Photo:
http://www.motorola.com/mediacenter/graphics/detai l/0,,870,00.html
Game Boy(R) Advance SP and Adapter Accessory Photo:
http://www.motorola.com/mediacenter/graphics/detai l/0,,869,00.html
About Motorola, Inc.'s Semiconductor Products Sector
As the world's #1 producer of embedded processors, Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector creates DigitalDNA(TM) system-on-chip solutions for a connected world. Our strong focus on wireless communications and networking enables customers to develop smarter, simpler, safer and synchronized products for the person, work team, home and automobile. Mo
Great idea, but I'm wondering about the design. From the image, it looks like the edges will be either flush with or slightly overlapping the L and R buttons of the GBA SP. This might make playing some games slightly problematic.
Otherwise, I'm looking forward to it. Too bad it won't ship in time for the Return of the King premiere line-up.
The article only mentions this as usable for GBA/GBA connections. I hope that this will also work with GBA/GCN connections, allowing gamecube games which link with the gameboy to finally be free of cabling.
The wavebird took care of this on the controller end, and with upcoming games taking more advantage of the GBA as a supplemental or primary controller, a wireless adapter could really rock (FF: Crystal Chronicals, for example). Considering it's the same port, I don't see why they wouldn't offer it...
what the hell is a 'junk character', anyway?
Yeah, that's nice and all ... but can it run Linux?
topreacher@signature.slashdot.org 1% rm -rf sig
Now they just need GPS and Gameboy will rule the world, plus he'll know where he's at within 3 ft.
Is somebody going to finally get a clue and support weP? Or is nintendo going to go the route of M$ and put security behind last?
When you live in the sewer, it's considered rude to complain about the other rats.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
I am no expert at all on wireless networking. Hell, I only switched to twisted pair a few years ago when I finally got rid of all the 10base2 coaxial ethernet on my home LAN. But wouldn't this networking interfere with the 802.11 people? I can see roving gangs of kids with GameBoy Advances encroaching on wireless network users. I see a bandwidth conflict looming, in an area of spectrum where everyone is unlicensed and supposed to cooperate.
A Good Intro to NetBS
The real problem with WEP isn't the weak method it uses to generate RC4 keys. I've seen with my own eyes many networks that don't even have encryption enabled. The real problem is that encryption is: A. Optional. B. Difficult to set up. WEP isn't close to being "wire equivalent" because wires are, by default, pretty secure. You don't need to manually enable 'no-public-hub-ports-on-external-walls' mode with a wired Ethernet. A wire isn't just a way to get the bits from A to B - it also acts as a user interface for associating machines with networks. I bet you didn't think of the patch panel in the server room as a user interface, right? Actually, it's a pretty good user interface. It's much more intuitive than any GUI and very reliable (ok, so it's a little messy, but so is my desktop :-)
Here's an idea for how WEP could have been much closer to 'wired equivalent':
When you set up the device on your machine it scans for available networks and shows a list. You choose one. It then tells you to press a key at the same time as pressing a button on the access point.
If you have physical access to the access point you can do it yourself. Otherwise you call the admin on the phone and after checking your identity (usually it's just a matter of recognizing your voice) the admin tells you to press the key '...now!'. That's it. You're on the network, with securely configured strong encryption.
This can be much more secure that it appears - the key is exchanged using Diffie-Hellman key exchange so eavesdropping is not possible. Man-in-the-middle attacks are difficult in a shared medium such as wireless where everyone hears everyone else: if the two participants are careful they can detect such attacks. To prevent attempts to 'take a ride' and join the network at the same time as another machine the access point will verify that there are no other attempts to join the network within a certain period before or after the time window for 'simultaneous' button presses (actually within plus or minus a few hundred milliseconds).
Now, what are the chances of some company actually implementing this?
The linux hacker
Upgrade to a gig of pc2100 ddr and it's a deal.
"Orthodoxy means not thinking--not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness." --Eric Blair
No GBA emulator will perfectly duplicate the routines of the GBA, so there's very little chance that an emulator writer will be able to write the proper code to support linking between an emulator and a GBA. If it were that easy, you would probably already see setups available with a GBA->PC USB cable.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
Did you see the "...will be launched in Japan first half of 2004."
What happened to the US releasing one of our innovative ideas here...gosh heaven forbid we would build something here.
Lets get Crackin!
Hey moms and dads,
Time to start thinking about buying batteries in bulk!
-- Nate
I think (well, I'm not sure) that I was another device like this made by some guys from Norway about a year ago or so. They'd made their own to hook up to a GB, and they used mobile phones for connecting the two GB's.
Anyone got a link?
A proud member of the Onion-in-Hand alliance
While getting rid of the cable is a step in the right direction, my GameBoyAdvance still don't look like a proper PDA when I pull it up during booring meetings...
Everything in the world is controlled by a small, evil group to which, unfortunately, no one you know belongs.
Drop the diease-free bit and go have some fun. Everything but AIDS and syphilis won't kill you, and syphilis is curable. Don your rainjacket and go fishing. Always remember, though, to throw the dumb ones back.
but it looks like this is the deathknell for the N-Gage already. The only thing it had going for it as a gaming system was the much touted wireless multiplayer gaming. Now that Nintendo has added the feature to the Game Boy, the only thing that the N-Gage is relegated to is an overpriced cellphone.
Now the only advantage the N-Gage has is headache inducing effects. Even this could probably be accomplished using a cheap magnifying attachment from Gamester or someone.
Instead of buying batteries in bulk, just buy an SP...
- Otaku no naka no otaku, otaking da!!!
It looks like Nintendo isn't exactly ignoring the threat of N-Gage and Zodiac to its current market niche. Granted, this thing doesn't give the GBA the potential of N-Gage for multiplayer, since it doesn't tie in to GSM/GPRS, nor does it give the GBA any claim to serious business usability. But if they keep the price down, it should muddy the waters enough to ensure both appliances don't get much market share.
If Zodiac or N-Gage had some actual first-run games, especially a killer multiplayer game, they might still have a chance, but both platforms have been more interested in licensing tried and true games.. A pity, some competition might produce some better games; the GBA's software has been rife with movie tie-ins, console adaptations and sequels.
Weapons of Mass Analysis
Much as Nokia have just released info about some funky-looking products for next year, their foray into portable gaming is probably over before it's really begun. The "N-Gage" (*shudder*) was touting wireless multiplay as a big feature. Now it's no big thing. I have a GBAsp on my desk beside me, I'm not going to buy a whole new phone for a feature the GBA can gain with a small add-on.
Bluetooth uses frequency hopping TDMA, but it's a bit odd that the press release doesn't mention Bluetooth.
Perhaps the Bluetooth hype - the universal wireless link (which no one actually uses) - has become a liability instead of a selling point.
If this page is to believed, that is. Granted, this cartridge won't play GBA games over wifi but seems fairly innovative, turning your GBA into a wireless PDA.
Either Nintendo or some 3rd party hackers should implement a VNC client for this.
I can just see the sysadmins in the coffee room, feet on the table, busily tapping on their GBAs
Boss: What the hellare you doing ?!?!
Admin: Working, what does it look like?
Not confused enough? http://translate.google.com/translate?u=www.slashdot.jp&hl=en&ie=UTF8&sl=ja&tl=en
You had better get it off our 802.11b freqs! Damn gamers, what a waste of perfectly good bandwidth.
This is just a wireless replacement for gba-gba link cables. It won't do anything that a link cable couldn't be used to do. I would like to see a model for the gamecube to eliminate the gba-gcn link cable, or even just an adapter to let you use one of these with your gamecube.
Triton Labs (makers of the afterburner) announced a product very similar to this called the stealth link several months ago. Maybe they showed their hand a little early.
It's interesting that the press release says 5 players. I assume that's a typo. The link cables (and the current software) only support 4 players... unless nintendo has something up its sleeve.
I also don't see this as a reaction to the n-gage at all. Nintendo just sees a market for this add-on. The gameboy's dominance is not remotely threatened, and Nintendo has never been a reactive company.
I foresee a minor problem with this. As of right now the most players that a multi-player GBA game can support is 4, through the use of three link cables (or one, if you sprung for the 4-port one). The blurb mentions being able to have five players simultaneously. This raises the question: Will the wireless capability be compatible with pre-existing link games? Will future link games allow the use of wired cables if two wireless adapters are not present? Is it possible to mix wired and wireless play?
It seems like a good idea, but it would be nice to know all the facts before chucking my link cable in the garbage.
"Why Subscribe?" Good question...
Ok that would be rather useless.
SCII pRon! Bane and savior of humanity!
...port SETI@home to gameboy! Imagine that number-crunching power spread over billions of homes worldwide!
:)
I'm waiting for a decent Quake port to Gameboy too - with spare CPU power of 4 GBAs extra, it should be able to generate 3d gfx easily. On one of them only, true
And when will Nintendo release a TCP stack for GBA? I want to start a portable pocket webserver!
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
With specs like that in a machine i can see why your GF left you
It simply amazes me the longevity, dominance, inovation, and popularity of the Game Boy / GBA. This thing has been viable and fun for more than ten years. Just as amazing is the fact that after overcoming a wave of early competitors (Remember the Lynx?) it has stood alone, virtually unchallenged, and generally loved, for a decade. The addition of wireless capability brings a smile to my face, but isn't really that surprising considering its history. I can't imagine anyone other than the Game Boy leading the pack, and amazingly this has probably bought them another few years.
I'm really hoping that this is using Bluetooth or WiFi however that press release doesn't mention either.
If they've come up with something unique that's all we need. My DECT digital cordless phone has already died with the advent of a WiFi installation nearby. In fact we had to switch our WiFi to get ours usable again.
I recently came close to buying a video sender but at the last moment noticed the dreaded 2.4GHz frequency range again.
How much more stuff is going to sit on this frequency and not play nice.
[)amien
Have you tried to use an N-Gage? I played about a dozen or so games at ECTS and IT SUCKS!!!
I mean... I had high(ish) hopes for the thing and REALLY can't see them battling the Big N on their own territory but this is a terribly designed system and the press keep trying to put a good spin on it but as a games I flat out wouldn't buy one.
1 - The screen is tiny and vertically mounted - it just doesn't work for games. Sonic was damn annoying as the width of the play area is too wide for the screen. It's clear enough but WAY too small.
2 - The keypad SUCKS!! It's useless for gaming although it could be useful for strategy games. You hit just about every other button on the keypad before you hit the onw you want and the surface is so smooth you really have to concentrate on where your fingers are - and thus not the game. The D-Pad is said to be excellent but I found it too smooth and flat - too easy for a thumb to slip off - too hard to detect any response...
3 - There are no L and R buttons even though that's exactly where your fingers are.
4 - There are lots of other buttons on the keypad such as "phone/sms etc" if you accidently push on of these whilst playing a game your gaming experience seems to just stop....
5 - YOU HAVE TO TAKE THE DAMN THING APART TO CHANGE GAMES!!
6 - Nokia's marketing monkies are spewing BS everyday talking about the GBA being a "kiddies toy" (they're trying to make there product look "cool" in a PS sort of way. However most people I see playing GBA are 20/30/40 somethings on tubes and trains playing stuff like Advance Wars. IMNSHO Nokia's marketing line is BS.
7 - THERE ARE LOADING SCREENS!! WTF!! I played a coupla games (some pseudo 3D platformer and a motorbike racer) and there were HUGE (30seconds to a minute) loading screens. DAMN IT! I want to play this on a 10 minute tube journey!!
8 - WHY DO YOU HAVE TO TAKE IT APART TO CHANGE GAMES!!!
9 - The frame rates on a lot of the games are just NOT very good at all. Sonic plays at about 10 to 15 and seemed to have some SERIOUS slow down. As did a lot of the other games (esp. the pseudo 3D stuff)
10 - And this is the one that will kill the N-Gage. People upgrade phones like they change underwear. This thing is going to last 2 years MAX and at that point Nokia have to release an upgrade OR incorporate this functionality into all their phones.
11 - Don't ever believe the Big N is asleep. The games on the Nokia system just feel unfinished and unpolished - frame rate skipping - cheesey loading screens - by contrast when Nintendo launched the GBA a whole chunk of polished gaming came with it.
The wireless adapter isn't a bad plan from Nintendo but it is just a peripheral - not everyone will buy it (in fact few will) but it will give Nintendo a little bit more knowledge to prepare for the onslaught of PSP (which I reckon is going to get screwed because any graphically decent games will drain the battery in about 30 minutes.... but we'll see about that!)
Matthew.
"None of this shit works" -W.Shatner
There is already a TCP/IP-enabled operating system with a built-in web server for the GBA: Contiki!
If the car was a 1995 Civic Si hatchback, I'd say you're on..
oh well better luck next time.
I was another device like this made by some guys from Norway about a year ago or so. So you're saying you're some kind of robot? Could you connect my GBA please? Oh, and happy first birthday.
Karma: Excellent^(-t/Tau), Tau=Wittiness/Trollishness
That just the perfect gadget to be bundled with the next pokemon release...
and of course it's also a milestone on the road to a GBA SP2 with integrated wireless capabilites, some GP 32 way.
Well I think we can thank N-Gage for that, even if at Nintendo they will swear that they were in no way inspired by Nokia.
From a Nintendo Fansite:
"Iwata also mentioned that events or stores can have special base stations installed and connected to the Internet for players to transfer data from distant locations."
The world moves for love. It kneels before it in awe.
Great! So the SP's only real design flaw (the lack of a headphone socket) is going to get worse as it looks like you won't be able to plug the adapter in as well.
I am surprised no one has mentioned the obvious: the sony portable is going to have wireless lan built in. I have a GBA and love it, but I'm probably going to get the sony portable. It's not a replacement, you can't carry it in your pocket because it's about the size of a walkman, but I expect the technology will be a bit more advanced.
WWJD? JWRTFA!
Am I the only one to notice that it looks like you can't plug in headphones while using the wireless adapter? That's kind of bad. It would be nice if they added a headphone adapter to the device as well. Sure, gameboy music/sound effects are not that good, but that doesn't mean you should have to choose between wireless and sound.
I actually think the gameboy advanced SP is too small. It would be nice if they made it just a little bigger and integrated wireless and such into the unit.
If you're playing multiplayer, why would you use headphones?
To hear the other players' characters' footsteps so I can sneak up behind them. To avoid the din of several slightly-out-of-sync music engines.
What fun is multiplayer if you can't hear your friends whine when you beat them?
That's why I take one earpiece off at the end of a round.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Of course, X-Trafun's quite a small shop, so they haven't been able to market their product sufficiently to get much real attention. Unfortunately, although they were first, they're now going to be thoroughly stomped out of the market by the power of Motorola.
nuke the moon
Aww yeah, bathroom multiplayer!
Nothing like playing some mario kart with your "stallmates"
I patented screwing your mom. But it got revoked for "prior art."
false. but thanks for playing.
I've downloaded stuff to my GBA over a USB->GBA adapter, which uses this link, and it is more along the lines of 800kbit-1mbit/sec.
This is really just another attempt to keep control of the gba market. Triton Labs (of afterburner fame) announced a wireless link kit (stealth link) months ago, but i guess it was only a matter of time before nintendo followed suit. Remember Nintendo wasn't in a rush to release a frontlit gba until the afterburner was released and was successfull, just my 2 cents.
According to this article it's only compatible with games that support the attachment (last paragraph). So any multiplayer games you already have won't have wireless multiplayer. Seems like a big strike against itm especially since I believe there are other wireless adapters for the GBA that DO work with existing games.
- In hell, treason is the work of angels.
oh my god, that would be so awesome to walk into a coffee shop, whip out a gameboyadvance and jump in a doom game with other random people.
and then buy them coffee.
According to GameSpot
The Fire Red and Leaf Green Pokemon games are the only two that are currently known to support Nintendo's new wireless GBA multiplayer adapter, but Nintendo has stated that it will announce more compatible titles in the future.
So this will *only* work with new games... which sorta stinks. The game has to support it. Which I imagine new ones will... but don't jump on the bandwagon yet.
Hey, it seemed to help the PS2 and 90% of PS1 games sucked.
3 - The price of the PSP is going to be set far higher than the GBA. -- Only about 100 more and when people can have PS2 level graphics in a small form factor at that price, they will buy. Also don't forget, the PSP will be able to play movies, have wireless networking built in, etc... Right now gamecubes are cheaper than GBAs and people aren't lining up for them
Pathetic, you're buying into the hype already. The prez says it will deliver PS2 level graphics and you're kissing his ass already. Lest you forget that they overpromised with the PS2 specs too. GC sales on Amazon went way up as soon as the price cut occurred.
4 - Battery life - a full 3D game running off mechanical optical media is going to eat batteries. Nintendo have always pushed battery life as a key feature and indeed it is. -- Except for not, the GBASP was a cheap ploy to get people to shell out $100 for a backlit color screen. Battery life was an excuse for them to justify the original GBA. Beside, battery life is stupid argument. If people need to buy new batteries, they will, the success of the afterburner kit demonstrated this. The PSPs battery life will be equally to the GBASP at the very least. Also, while the PSP will have a moveable media, it will also have solid state media.
The PSP battery life will be equal to the SP? Did you not remember Sony hyping it up to be 3-6 hours? Or realistically half of what they promise.
However Sony have time and money on their side. The Big N aren't going to release anything in a hurry. -- Actually the big N doesn't have time on their side. They need to get something out as fast as possible, as GBA sales are what is keeping their company afloat. If Sony can threaten this revenue stream, Nintendo will enter into a Sega like hardware death spiral.
Nintendo isn't bleeding money like Sega was and has BILLIONS in cash reserves.
Can I use this on an airplane?
The picture shows that the adapter is designed to fit the port connections on the GBA SP. That is pretty frustrating for us GBA "early adopters" that didn't feel like buying the same console twice. Maybe the port connections are the same, but I don't think so.
Hopefully there will be a model for the many GBA "classic" owners.
...it is unregulated bandwidth. Microwaves, cordless phones, etc. all generated singal in this area long before Bluetooth.
Its easy to generate a signal at reasonable powerlevels. Its easy to build antena/reflectors/repeaters because the wavelengths are long enough (or short depending on how you look). It really is the general all purpose low power transmition frequency of choice.
Not when they're playing Tetris for Game Boy, one of the original green-screen system's launch titles. I know; I've tried it. The music starts about 100ms out of sync and then falls further out of sync as the music runs faster for a player who is about to die.
Will I retire or break 10K?
I am by no means a fan of the "construction work" needed to change games on the N-Gage.
;)
But the N-Gage has several huge advantages over the GBA.
One that hasn't gotten much attention:
It is a full SymbianOS system which means lots of free content (including a Gameboy/GameboyColor and a MAME emulator! -> with thousands of ROMs available on the internet). You can even write your own programs and games.
In my oppinion that is the reason why the N-Gage will have quite a lot of true fans. If it will be a financial sucess for Nokia will be a different matter all together
rice boy
Ok, give me the keys, computer, and the ring... turn around... and count to 30... then it will all be over.
No peaking!
"Come on, let's go drink till we can't feel feelings anymore."
Anyone ever heard of the GP-32? It's slightly more pricey open-source console with better graphics than the GBA- and it ALREADY HAS an RF addon. try www.lik-sang.com and www.gp32x.com
this is a test, it is only a test of the emergency comment system. If this were not a test then then actual comments would appear here.
My cat can eat a whole watermelon