GBA to SFC adaptor [with preview]

[L___E___T]

   [preview thoughts added later in the thread now that mine has arrived].  



Just seen these and ordered one before they're gone.  Anyone else got one or seen a review?

http://www.retrocollect.com/News/play-game-boy-advance-games-on-your-super-nintendo.html






Yes, I know it's really just a GBA clone that uses the SFC input and power, but the AV out looks pretty good from the screen shot and I think it could be a handy way to play GBA and GBC games, (which I'm really into at the moment) on the bigger screen with a better controller.  They're 30 bucks, which I think is worth taking a punt for.  

I'll post a review when it arrives in a week or so.  I have a new GBA flashcart that I'm having trouble with software-wise at the moment, but Rockman Zero, Ninja Cop and Mother 3 on the Super Famicom?  Yes please!




If anyone has one already or has seen one doing its thin, please let us know here!  Satoshi this seems like the kind of thing you may have already, or at least be interested in.
Post Merge: August 22, 2013, 03:17:11 pm
Here's a decent review - hardware looks solid!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao-GVdbLKdQ

[NintendoKing]

It'd be cool if you couldn't buy a GameCube with the Gameboy Player adapter at the same price point. But honestly it's just like that device for playing gameboy on NES.

[satoshi_matrix]

Well that sure came out of left field. I don't have any official afflication with Tototek, so I don't have one to review myself.

But it seems to be based on, or exactly the same as the Super Retro Adapter RetroBit is going to sell/bundle with their upcoming Super Retro Trio (NES/SNES/Genesis) clone.

I'm very interested to try this myself and to answer all sorts of questions I have about it.

[L___E___T]

Do you have official affiliation with Hyperkin?

They're available now, I bought one at least so it'll be with me soon.

Apparently they're based on that GBA replica, I forget the name, but it's not emulated hardware, or NOAC style from what I've read.

I think I'd rather have this than the GC player, I've heard that's not so awesome, but I've never had one myself.
I have something even better than this, but it won't let me play hooked up to a Super Famicom or anything.

[nerdynebraskan]

That... might just get me to take GBC/GBA seriously.

[UglyJoe]

Now we can play GBA ports of SNES games on an SNES

[JessicaWolf]

Now we can play GBA ports of SNES games on an SNES

Actually, this could be quite useful for games like Tales of Phantasia, which never got an English SFC/SNES release, but did get an English GBA release.

[wholesalewatch648]

that looks awesome wish i had the money to get one

[satoshi_matrix]

Now we can play GBA ports of SNES games on an SNES

Actually, this could be quite useful for games like Tales of Phantasia, which never got an English SFC/SNES release, but did get an English GBA release.

That's true, but the GBA version of Tales of Phantasia is a terrible port. The battle system plays like the PS1 version in slow motion, and considering how important the battle system is in Tales games, it's an unforgivable flaw.

That, and the English translation is also pretty awful. Not only is it not faithful to the original script, it has some facepalmingly bad translation errors. Famous among them is that they translated Ragnarök as "Kangaroo".

Seriously.

If you want to experience Tales of Phantasia, you're best bet is one of the two fan-translations of the PS1 version. CD audio, simple 3D world map, awesome battle system that would influence all the others to follow it, skits, and higher resolution than the original.

If you insist on playing it on a cartridge however, go with the DeJap SFC fan translation. It's a little bit loose with it's translation, but it's almost always to the benefit of the game, and besides, it's the only version that translates the sexual playfulness of the original script.

[DigitalxxxFr34k]

This thing kinda reminds me of the adapter that let's you play sega genesis games on your snes or sfc, I'm not big into collecting for sega stuff but there is a few titles that have not been released on the muilti game discs that sega has released like castlevania blood just to name one. But I have not herd if it will work with that adapter, the only down fall is it has its own video/ audio output on the cart and would suck if u had to have both snes and the cart plugged into your a/v port or switch box

[L___E___T]

Interesting, I don't think they had 93 when I ordered mine - more like 60.
Well mine arrived and I've been playing with it.  
I've written a brief review outlining pros and cons.  So far happy though.

Post Merge: September 01, 2013, 12:00:54 pm
 - GBA to SFC - AD Adaptor Preview -  

This is a chunky piece of text and images, plus I can digress a little as my mind wanders, so if you do read, bear that in mind.

There's a to the point summary at the end, if you prefer!



- Part 1, the unit:
First of all, here are some pictures of the actual unit.  No unboxing pics.

Front:


Back:


Pins:


Games running: - ignore the moiré effect, colours are very fluid on screen, it's just the camera.







- Part 2a - the picture quality:
Here is a closeup to show how this 4:3 CRT TV treats the pixels:


Here is a comparison shot, to show how this 4:3 CRT TV treats Wii VC games:


As you can see, the unit renders out pixels quite well, even through a composite jack.  The aspect ratio is automatically determined, so I'm not sure if this is 1:1 to GBA screen size or how is is upscaled, but I'm more than happy with it compared to what SFC games look like on this TV, it's at least as good as that if not better.  

It's not quite as good as Wii Virtual Console games, which are extremely sharp and crisp.  This was expected and should not be taken as a negative.  Wii Virtual Console games are converted extremely well and the pictures always look better than emulated games via the Homebrew Channel.  



Part 2b- more testing.

The AD Adaptor works really well with the NES Classics series as well.
I tested Castlevania as I'm familiar with the different versions.


The picture quality on these conversions as just as good as on regular GBA games.  If the AD Adaptor is pretending to be a GBA, in addition to the NES Classics games pretending to be a NES game, there's a chance this mean that there are some undesired differences.  In other words, with each step of emulation, just like making a copy of a copy, quality can suffer, details can be lost in translation.

Having said that, the games look great!

Vivid colours:


Sharp edges:


Clear detail:


Full frame:


Although, you may notice here the picture doesn't quite match up to my TV.  It needs a touch of a shift to the right and a little down, you can see the space on the right and particulary the bottom.  
I can probably correct this on my TV, as other systems don't match up 100% either, just better than this.  Either way it's a minor niggle.


- So here are some more comparisons:

GBA [genuine cart] Akumajou Dracula:


Famicom [genuine cart] Akumajou Dracula:


Super Eight [via Super Famicom] Akumajou Dracula:


The colours on a lot of GBA games were adjusted to suit the non-backlit GBA, so that you could see it easier when playing outside.  This is really obvious on SNES conversions to GBA, but also on Famicom Mini or NES Classics series conversions.  

So, looking at the above pictures, you'll see that the colours on the GBA cart are much more saturated than the original, particularly the reds of level 2.  There could be some slight colour bleed, but the GBA is lower resolution than the Famicom or Super Famicom, so it's hard to tell.  It's certainly not noticeable or a problem.

As you can see, the freaking Super Eight won't even play one of the best games on the system, dammit.  Managed to get to level 2 with garbled graphics at least to show the colour saturation.  Everdrive won't work either, despite all other carts seeming to work with absolutely no issues.



- Part 3 - thoughts:

- AD Adaptor PROS:
 - good compatibility - all GBA carts tested worked well.
 - non-SOC board, based on real hardware, no slowdown whatsoever.
 - good video quality - picture and sound good (and I'm fussy)
 - good controls - SFC controller mapping bang on.
 - games boot instantly, skipping the Gameboy Advance intro.  
   Not really a pro but let's even out the pros and cons list

Top here is a flashcart with SNES games on and PocketNes, everything worked brilliantly on that.
Second row are knock-off pirated games GBA from Volumerates, third row are genuine PAL carts.




- AD Adaptor CONS:
 - picture scales automatically to TV ratio
 - video and sound via composite jack
 - no native GB / GBC backwards compatibility.
[NB, trying to test GBC and GB games through flashcart, but currently cannot get my 64-bit Windows 7 Mac to recognise the 32-bit drivers for the flashlinker.  Need to get a Windows XP virtual window running and haven't been able to do that as yet, but will update later as I have hopes the cart will work, if PocketNES does.
 - some games have very minor graphics differences at screen fades etc. (Yoshi's Island did).

- note on quality:
Being shipped out of Hong Kong, there's always a chance the items you get will be 'like new' as mine was.  I found the box had been resealed and there was a scratch on the cart itself.  Not necessarily what I expected, but given this is to be used and used well, it's not a sticking point, it just annoyed me when I opened it.



I did wonder if it was from a returned stock or something like that, it doesn't seem like a faulty unit at all, just resold or inspected before it got to me.  However, this could be customs for all I know, though they tend to cause delays, when this actually arrived with me very quickly.



- VERDICT - SHOULD YOU BUY IT?

Yes, I'd definitely recommend it, if the price is right for you.

In my opinion the best way to play GBA games is on the DS Lite, you'll have crystal clear graphics and the buttons are all well placed and ergonomic.  I've heard a GBA first model with an AGS 101 screen is even better, but those are much more expensive than picking up a DS Lite and the screens can be easily scratched.  With an NDS Lite you have a great screen, perfect compatibility with GBA games and it's more affordable and portable.

This AD Adaptor is for those who want to play GBA games on TV in good quality without breaking the bank.  There is the Gamecube, but I don't like the controller for GBA games.  I also think it would cost you more than this.  Even then there are other pieces of kit that will play NDS Lite games on a TV, but those are not freely obtainable nor relatively affordable.



- TLDR SUMMARY:
The short answer is yes buy it, if you have 30 bucks to spare and want to play GBA games using your SNES or Super Famicom as if they were real SNES games.  For 30 bucks, it's a great piece of kit that I certainly will get a lot of use from and am already enjoying.  Definitely recommended.
I'm going to buy the Famicom and NES equivalents as well, now that I have the SMD and GBA equivalents.

[Pikkon]

That is one awesome review,I might get one now.

Also this device reminds of the Wide Boy 64-AGB.

[satoshi_matrix]

L_E_T, what are the exact control mappings?

GBA A = SFC ?
GBA B = SFC ?
GBA L = SFC ?
GBA R = SFC ?

I assume D-pad, Start and Select are as they should be, but what about the others? 

Is it

GBA A = SFC A
GBA B = SFC B
GBA L = SFC L
GBA R = SFC R

just like that? I'm guessing it is, but I'm hoping the Y and B are used instead of A and B.

[L___E___T]

Oh, I left that important detail out - dangit! 

Everything corresponds to the original controller apart from X and Y, which are not used. 

So, Start, Select, L, R, A and B and the d-pad all match exactly.  So, your bottom mapping is correct:

GBA A = SFC A
GBA B = SFC B
GBA L = SFC L
GBA R = SFC R

I guess if you really wanted to - you could mod a controller to get X and Y to register instead of, or in addition to A and B.

I'll check these again tonight, just in case my memory betrays me.

[satoshi_matrix]

Yeah, that's what I thought. Bummer.

So no GB or GBC compatibility at all? What happens when you try a GB or GBC game in this thing?