it arrived today and i've had a bit of a play with it.
i've never reviewed anything on tinternet before, so if i've missed something blindingly obvious or made some kind of horrendous faux pas then please let me know (and forgive me).
packaging -
the box is a reproduction of a usa gba box. its quite obviously not a real box as the cardboard is cheap, colours are washed out and there is no glossy finish. it does look quite nice though, and theyve even added some of their own info to it.
1. a new generation high definition screen, colourful and clear image
2. improve control system, smooth and durable
3. built in direct save technology
4. built in clock supported for the seam convergence of clock games
5. built in real time save system
6. built in real time game guide
7. built in soft reset
8. built in multi languages
9. built in 2gb - 8gb FLASH
10. built in multimedia playback system
the gba itself comes in a clothlike plastic sleeve, and has a thin plastic film covering the screen which i had to remove because it was all runkled up.
accessories -
aside from the gba, it comes with some instructions which seem to just be a photocopy of the original gba intructions. also a usa mains adaptor that plugs into the ext port, and a usb to ext cable for both adding/deleting roms and charging the unit. might be worth noting that the mains adaptor has 'nintendo' logo on it, and seems to be the same charger as that the gba sp uses (it says "for use with ags-101" on it). i couldnt get the battery cover completely off for whatever reason, but i managed to prise it open and can see that its the same battery from the gba sp, complete with nintendo branding. so with some force to get the cover off, it shouldnt be difficult to replace the battery if it goes tits up.
build quality -
amazing... it looks and feels exactly like a real gba. in fact, if it wasnt for what must be a modified battery compartment id be convinced it was a real gba case. maybe it is, who knows. the unit doesnt rattle or creak or bend under pressure and it has logos and branding in all the same places as a real gba. its not all good though. firstly, the screen: gba has a res of something like 240x160, but i think this device has a 320x240 screen in it, with slightly different shaped pixels. you cant notice until you turn it on that the screen is actually a tiny tiny bit too big for the window that it sits behind, thus 0.5mm of the picture is lost on some sides. also, if youve ever played on a dingoo or wiz you'll no doubt have noticed the slightly ugly scaling/filtering used to make the 240x160 image stretch to 320x240 - well its the same on this thing. the main menu is coded in 320x240 and the gba bios splash is displayed at its original res (hence why it looks slightly smaller than usual) but the games are all stretched to fit. i dont think its possible to display in the original resolution (no notes in the instructins to say what buttons do what in game, and aside from the shoulder buttons (date and time / language) no buttons seem to do anything in the main menu). secondly, the buttons are noticeably more stiff than the original gba buttons. its not a problem, but its noticeable. the d-pad, for me at least, is really nice to use. oh yes, the screen is back(?) lit and looks wonderful
gaming -
a speed comparison of gradius galaxies (the only cart i could find for the time being) shows that the real gba and the fake gba run at the same speed. however, i loaded tony hawks 3 onto the device with the usb/ext cable and it doesnt really run at all. it stutters and jolts and is basically unplayable (i found this in the dingoo emu too, as well as on some gba flash carts). the graphics and sound seem perfect in all the pre-loaded gba games that i have tested so far. i tested a save in lotr and in gradius and both worked fine after restarting the unit. you can access the .sav files when you plug it into a pc. it is not possible to play whilst the device is plugged in to the pc. holding select and pressing R opens an in game menu. from there you can real time save, soft reset or open a game guide (game guide doesnt appear to do anything, i assume you have to load the file manually before hand).
you can find a list of the games here: http://pastebin.com/fa20f4b8
098 is the last gba game, the rest are nes. i have added racing gears advance and f zero myself (not in the list) and they both work fine.
i have loaded a handful of games onto it now, including racing gears advance, f zero, mario kart, mother 3 translation, turok and all appear to run just as well as the preloaded games and at full speed. i have noticed the occasional millisecond "glitch" in some games, where the game appears to freeze for a miniscule amount of time. the good news is that it only really happens in the menus, and isnt really noticeable anyway. it wasnt until today that it even registered that it was happening at all, and ive been playing everyday since it arrived.
other bits -
there are ~490 preloaded games and 1 video. about 100 of the games are gba, the rest are nes games (with a gba file extension) that run under pocketnes. as such, quite a few of them dont run properly. the unit functions as a mass storage device when plugged into a pc, and you can add/remove/change the roms and artwork as you please. i did notice though that the roms appear to be sorted by "date modified" as the ones i added myself did not sit in line with the rest of them even when numbered in the same way (that could get tedious...). there is a file called games.bin, which i assumed was the o/s but actually i think it contains the database that links rom titles to imagess... the rest, i think, is explained in the video. the battery does seem to only last for around 3 hours. the original gba didnt last very much longer than that on 2x AA batteries, and that was without a backlight. it is a downside, but it's not the end of the world.
and in summary -
if you cant be arsed to read all that crap above, heres a summary.
pros -
excellent build quality
functions as mass storage device
can replace roms with ease
back lit screen unlike the original
seems to play the preloaded games at full speed (from what ive seen so far)
can charge via mains or usb
cons -
evidently some games are not going to work properly
the screen res makes games look slightly uglier than on a real gba
roms appear to be organised by 'date modified' rather than alphanumerically
no relevant documentation
here are some hi-res pics of it
or if you'd prefer,
here is a fancy slideshow of the same pics
i am trying to encode the video, but windows live movie maker crap keeps adding huge borders around the entire bloody thing. i think i'll have to live with it though. i'll post a link when its done.
edit: video is sorted now, it was my fault after all.
view in youtube for HD
