Dreamworks goes GBA

I read on Game Informer that Disney was to release some Pixar films on the Nintendo DS and would be using the touch screen as the Play/Pause/Rewind/Fast Foward fuctions. There hasn't been an update since, but I really haven't really looked into it.
 
This is really Majesco's product. Dreamworks is just licensing some IP at no risk to themselves. Unless they've mad a contractual obligation to Majesco they could license these properties out for UMD as well.

Gotta wonder about the cost equation on these. Most of the GBA Videos are from shows using low quality animation that compresses really well and only runs to about 45 minutes per cart. Shrek runs 90 minutes and its sequell couple minutes longer. It'll be very interesting to see how these come out.
 
[quote name='epobirs']Most of the GBA Videos are from shows using low quality animation that compresses really well and only runs to about 45 minutes per cart. Shrek runs 90 minutes and its sequell couple minutes longer.[/QUOTE]Last I heard, they'd pushed compression (or the cart's storage) up to twice the two-episode limit when they first came out. If that's 88 minutes (at the very minimum), then fitting animated movies on a single cart shouldn't be that farfetched. Greater advances in the GBA video technology (or simply sticking more memory in there) could probably push things further, depending on the manufacturing economies of scale (that is, the cost to the publisher).
 
All of the title shown on Majesco's site are in the the 45 minute range, including upcoming releases. These are using 32 MB, which is the original upper limit for GBA carts but there is no real limit with bank switching. The issue is simply the cost.

The complexity of the material is a major issue as well. Any time you have large areas of the same color, as found in that quality of animation, it lends itself very well to compression. A very highly detailed item like Shrek poses a big challenge to producing comparable compression without greatly compromising the image quality.

This press release mentions the capability to handle 90 minute lengths coming up but has nothing to say about the quality issue. A cartoonish movie like Shrek is less of a problem than most live action films but still requires a lot more detail than a Kim Possible.
 
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