Game Boy Advance

Type: Handheld
Publisher: Nintendo
Firstly released in: Japan
First release: 21 Mar 2001
Release and compatibility details: Released in Japan on March 21st 2001 and was released simultaneously in the US and Europe on June 11th 2001.

Success and unsuccess:

Most popular years: 2001-now
Most popular countries: Japan, USA, Europe
Amount of games in database: 1150 (list)
Amount of music records in database: 22 (list)
Amount of downloadable MOD tunes: 3 (list)
Amount of downloadable MIDI tunes: 12 (list)
Importance on the market in the most popular years: High

Characteristics:

Long awaited sequel to the GameBoy/GameBoy Color has really strong hardware never seen in other handhelds before - 32bit RISC CPU, sound quality is somewhere in the N64 or PS1 area, and it is completely designed to run 2D games at great speed. Therefore it has not any 3D-chip, so 3D games can run only in some better or worse software environments, but for 2D games on the travel this is the best handheld released!

LCD: reflection (non-backlit) TFT Color liquid crystal
Screen: 40.8mm x 61.2mm
Resolution: 240x160, 32000 colors
CPU: 16mhz 32bit RISC-CPU + 8bit CISC-CPU
Memory: 32KB WRAM+96KB VRAM 256KB WRAM (with built-in CPU)(outside of CPU)
Audio: 16-bit MIDI, 20 channels
Dimensions: 80mm x 135mm x 25mm
Link Play: up to 4 players (GBA), or 2 players (GB/GBC).
Baterries: two AA batteries
Battery lifetime: 15 hours
Size: 82mm x 144.5mm x 24.5mm
Weight: 140g
Cartridge: 34.5mm x 60mm x 9.5mm, maximum 256 Megabit (32 megabyte)

More info: http://www.gamerland.com/systems/cgi-bin/showsystem.cgi?id=135

Games and music info:

Most common media for storing games: Cartridge
Average packed game size: 3 MB
Music formats: GSF

Emulation info:

Though it is "only" handheld, it's very new handheld, so you can't expect 100% emulation yet. But I think most of games will work ok, only, as in every handheld, you have to expect very low resolution of games on normal "big" monitor screens.

VisualBoy Advance - I think the best emulator now, focuses on compatibility and is still in updating progress.

This emulation info was written on 17.January 2003. (This time is very important, because emulation info very depends on the time it was written - emulators can improve a lot after this time..).