HigH ScholaR
Senior Member
there's this device in japan called the play - yan
Released in Japan in February 2005, the Nintendo Play-Yan is an add-on peripheral that allows the Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance portable systems to play ASF movies and MP3 files from an SD flash memory card. The Play-Yan has an SD slot for the memory card, and the entire unit slides into the GBA cartridge slot. It hasn't been released stateside yet, but we managed to smuggle one in for testing.
The video files play through the Play-Yan at 220x170 resolution and look impressive. A 512MB SD memory card can hold approximately two and a half hours of video and still have enough room for an album's worth of MP3 songs. Sound quality is above average, and users can use the built-in stereo plug on the unit to connect a set of headphones. Battery life averages about four and a half hours for video and 10 hours or more for MP3s. The L and R shoulder buttons control the screen brightness, while the D pad controls volume, fast-forward, and reverse. Despite the Japanese interface, the intuitive controls are easy to figure out.
The Play-Yan software menu is one of the most unusual we've ever seen. The initial menu gives you a hummingbird icon to move between movies or sound. The sound and files section is truly the crown jewel of weirdness. You move a little male character up or down a set of stairs, which has doors for folders and bathtubs to warp you from the start to the finish. A floating exit door with a propeller on top acts as the exit icon. Granted, Nintendo will likely overhaul the Play-Yan software if the peripheral ever makes it to the States.
The Play Yan takes SD memory cards.
The Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Advance SP, and Nintendo DS all offer similar picture quality. Due to the resolution difference, videos play in a letterbox on the DS, leaving a black band around the image. Compared to the SP, the normal GBA seemed to look better without the backlight, but the adjustable screens on the DS and the SP make it easier to create the best viewing angle for movie watching.
The Play-Yan can also run minigames, which Nintendo offers on its Japanese Web site. The games really are mini--they run at 62x42, which is the same resolution as the thumbnail previews of the video files, and they are extremely basic. The games available now would make the Intellivision proud, as they are simple one-button affairs, designed around the concept that simple, endless repetition can be fun. In one game called Fish, you move around a narrow path to avoid rocks. Another game has you control a little figure that dances on the steps in the Play-Yan file menu section. Here, the A button lets you duck and then jump to avoid an onslaught of helicopters and crabs infesting your file navigation menu.
While the minigames aren't very impressive, we can't forget that the Nintendo Play-Yan's primary function gives media player functionality to the GBA and DS systems. The unit plays music and videos fairly well, and we will keep an eye out for future developments.