Remember That? Game Boy Advance Video

These little beauties first hit North America in May 2004 thanks to Majesco. The Game Boy Advance Video cartridges featured episodes from several popular Disney Channel animated series, including Brandy & Mr. Whiskers, Kim Possible, Lilo & Stitch: The Series, and The Proud Family. The lineup eventually expanded to include Pokémon and a variety of Nickelodeon favorites as well.

Most Game Boy Advance Video cartridges retailed for $9.95 and packed roughly 40–45 minutes of content. The Movie Paks cost $19.99 and featured up to 90 minutes of video.

MEMORY UNLOCKED

I remember constantly draining my Game Boy Advance batteries rewatching cartoons, then raiding every remote in the house for replacements. Sorry, Dad. if the TV remote stopped working regularly in 2004, there’s a good chance it was my fault.

The video quality, however, was nothing like what the commercials promised. With Game Boy Advance cartridges limited to just 32 MB of storage, fitting full episodes onto a cartridge required some serious compression. The result was grainy visuals, muddy audio, and plenty of pixelation. But as a kid, none of that mattered. You were watching Pokémon on your freakin’ Game Boy Advance.

 

ORIGINAL COMMERCIAL

Even though the picture quality may have looked like it was being broadcast from another planet, but that didn’t stop kids from showing these things off at school. If you had cartoons playing on your Game Boy Advance in 2004, you were basically carrying the coolest entertainment system on the playground. Blurry video, dying batteries, and all.