I’m only briefly touching on it because it’s a novelty, and not something you should be picking up the K101+ for. I’ll briefly touch on another feature of the K-Card: emulation. It’s also worth noting that it’s the K-Card you need to use to have any of your screen settings save, so even if you’re in a similar boat to me, it’s something worth keeping around. Fortunately, the device has no issues handling both legitimate cartridges and other flashcards, the EverDrive-GBA X5 Mini being my card of choice. It feels like a clone console, and I just can’t bring myself to be fond of that. Functionally it’s hard to fault, but using it just doesn’t feel like using a GBA. Really, my faults with the card are skin-deep. Being able to change these settings on the fly makes things like berry growing in the Hoenn Pokemon games trivial, and it’s a really nice inclusion. The K-Cart also supports RTC, which can again be toggled on and off, with the option to set the current date and time. It reminds me more of DS flashcards and how they’d operate. The most interesting of these improvements come in the form of cheat support, including a handy menu that can be loaded in-game to toggle cheats on and off. You can naturally play GBA backups too, and there are a great deal of features improve the experience when compared to a standard console, or even standard cartridges on the K101+. Not quite a flashcard in itself and not functioning on official hardware, it serves more like a micro SD adapter for the system, allowing you to access the firmware settings. Moving on from the unit itself, I find the K-Card particularly interesting. Other minor things of note on the unit include a volume rocker on the right of the console, a power button on the left, and on the bottom next to the cartridge slot, a 3.5mm headphone jack. It would’ve been great to try the unit out with these, but I just couldn’t bring myself to dismember my peripherals on such a whim. It’s just a shame the port is set in the system without the holes for the wireless adapter or GameCube link cable to clip into. I did manage to test this briefly with a third party cable I had lying around, and had no issues trading between an official system and the K101+. Of the two ports, one is a mini USB for charging the system, and the other supports link cables for connecting with other K101+ and GBA owners. I’ve kept it to the more traditional 3:2 myself, but for people who perhaps didn’t grow up with these games, the 4:3 aspect ratio generally doesn’t look too bad, and being able to fill the screen is nice. The button lets you configure the screen brightness and, if held while pressing another button, will let you switch the screen display between 4:3, 3:2 with bars along the top and bottom, and pixel-perfect. While it’s possible to push it inwards from the centre and hit several inputs together, in practice I found it worked fine.Īlong the top of the K101+, you have two ports and a button. The point of usual contention is the D-Pad, and while I wasn’t all too fond of it out of the gate, it’s definitely not bad. The buttons are a joy to press, and the L and R buttons have some of the most satisfying clicks I’ve found in a while. It’s bright with decent viewing angles, and I’ve had no issues playing it in a variety of differently lit environments. The screen clocks in at a reasonable three inches, but doesn’t match the GBA’s aspect ratio, going with the more common 4:3. The DS Lite comparison goes a bit further with the inclusion of the X and Y buttons, but we’ll go into more detail on those later. Recreating the Famicom design of the limited edition Gameboy Micro, it feels like a weird blend of that, and the bottom half of a DS Lite. Having said that, I’m in love with this particular design. With clone consoles and emulation devices, I’ve come to expect something cheap with a horrid screen and poor software think back to the early BittBoys and you’ll understand my general apprehension. Starting with the console itself, I was shocked by the quality. That’s all, and that’s all you really need to get going out of the gate. A screwdriver (for the battery compartment).Getting straight into the box, we have a delightfully clean design, sporting everything you’ll need to get started: And this is exactly what I’m checking out today with the Revo K101 Plus. Roll on 2021 and people wanting to re-experience this joy find themselves with a dilemma–how exactly do you play? Do you cramp your hands for the square clamshell that is the SP? Do you put a backlight in your original console? Or do you just throw authenticity to the wind and resort to emulation? There is another way: the clone console. Serving as my go-to console for the vast majority of my childhood, it’s blessed me with fond memories across many years. The GBA is a beloved console not only for myself, but for our forum itself.
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