Game Park launched GP32 BLU in Europe during 2004 as a backlit revision of its GP32 handheld. BLU stands for Back Light Unit and replaced the earlier unlit or front-lit solutions with a screen illuminated from behind, improving visibility. It retained the ARM9 processor, 8 MB of RAM and SmartMedia-card storage of the original platform. The BLU version received official distribution in Spain, Portugal and Italy through Virgin Play. In late 2004 a variant known by the community as BLU+ also appeared, using a different LCD panel that caused visual incompatibilities with some existing software.