Several peripherals for the Game Boy Advance were shown during the presentation on Thursday. First up to bat is the Game Boy Advance Communication Cable. This cable is an enhanced Game Link cable that enables four Game Boy Advance systems to plug in and play multiplayer games.
There will also be a Game Boy Advance to Nintendo Gamecube cable that will let the two systems interact with each other, using the GBA as an external controller and screen. We asked Shigeru Miyamoto if EAD (Nintendo's internal development studio) had anything in the works for the system, and he told us no ¿ it's just an option that developers can utilize.
Also shown was the Game Boy Advance battery pack. The set will come with a charger and battery, which yields 10 hours of play on 2 hours of recharging. No price was announced.
The Game Boy Mobile Phone Adapter was originally designed for the Game Boy and Game Boy Color systems through the use of the Game Link port, but since the GBA system uses the same port as the previous Game Boys, this device will move to the next-generation handheld. This adapter will enable the handheld to plug into Japanese cell-phones and allow for multiplayer link games through the device, as well as game downloads and data trades through the network. While this sounds like a dream for Game Boy users, keep in mind that this device is tailored specifically for the Japanese audience ¿ the cell-phone standard is more universal in Japan than it is in the US, not to mention cheaper. There were five games announced for this device, but they are all for the Game Boy Color ¿ no GBA games have been announced for the device.
Coming soon will be the GBA Infrared Communication Adapter, which will allow systems to trade data much like the Game Boy Color systems already do. Since the port isn't included on the Game Boy Advance system, Nintendo is making a separate peripheral for it.
-- Craig Harris, back from Spaceworld