Remember the Revo K101 Plus? We took a look at this smart little Game Boy Advance clone way back in 2015, and passed the following verdict:
If you're looking for a decent GBA system but don't like the tiny form factor of the Game Boy Micro -–and can't afford the revised GBA SP AGS-101 with its superior screen – then this is a solid choice. It allows you to keep your beloved GBA library alive and offers some neat extras – although we'll let you decide for yourself if the included emulation and ROM support put this particular platform on morally shaky ground.
That stance hasn't really changed in 2020, despite the fact that we've seen many other clone handhelds arrive on the market – the most exciting of which has to be the forthcoming Analogue Pocket (which also happens to be a little bit more expensive). The company behind the Revo K101 Plus has refreshed the line somewhat by giving the system a new case design which introduces two additional colours – one which apes the purple launch GBA and another that looks like the classic Famicom controller. The D-Pad has also been revised.
Other than that, however, this is pretty much the same deal as before. The unit plays GBA carts right out of the box and apparently doesn't use software emulation. Performance with GBA games is perfect, we have to say; we didn't notice any issues (outside of the fact that the screen, while bright and colourful, isn't quite the right aspect ratio so games do tend to look a bit stretched unless you opt to play at the original resolution, which then gives you a big black border around the image).
As before, you can use the bundled "K-Card" to load up GBA ROMs (tut tut) or games for other consoles. The K101 Plus supports Game Boy, NES, Master System and PC Engine via emulation, but performance sadly hasn't improved over the past half-decade; it struggles to run NES games at full speed. This is clearly something the team behind the machine is aware of, as the official listing states that "with some of those consoles that sound and speed of the games is a bit off," adding that "GB and GBC games emulate the picture and audio very well, NES games picture runs great, but the audio notes merge together and don't sound correct, SMS, GG and PCE games run too slowly." Don't go buying one of these expecting the same kind of performance the Analogue Pocket aims to provide, basically.
For $75, the Revo K101 Plus remains a good "replacement" GBA, but since 2015 we've seen a rise in the number of refurbished or modified Game Boy systems on the market, which will make it harder than ever for a product like this to get noticed, no matter what kind of colour scheme it ships with.
Comments (22)
Only if they enabled GBA games on Switch Online, wouldn't have to worry about all this.
Are GBA's/SP's that hard to come by that people are resorting to clones?
From what I saw I prefer the Retroid Pocket 2 which can emulate N64 games to decent levels. You can even connect it to the TV.
Hm I'd still rather play my legit ags-101...
But I'll look forward for a Game & Watch: Super Mario clone instead: maybe it will include an alarm mode as I heard the legit one lacks that
@San_D If only Nintendo wasn't so archaic with their views on running custom code on their systems, even xbox lets you get a dev mode where you can side load emulators legally now and still keep your legitimate xbox stuff.
BuT EmuLaTiOn iS BaD
@Jokerwolf Haha Nintendo will never do that I believe, although it would be super cool. Even a dual boot kind of option with Android as the other OS would be so good - that would not be entirely shady I guess. But the least that they can do is give these games over Switch online.
Having owned one for a few years now I can say its a fairly decent little handheld. But it just can't beat the feel of the original gba. Good option if you wanna have tv out though and don't have a gameboy player.
@San_D They could for sure, but they are probably waiting until the Switch 2 since the Switch was a mega rushed console and their online service was half assed big time.
🙋🏾♂️I have the 'Bittboy: Pocket-Go' which in turn was a replacement for my broken 'Dingoo: A330'.
I did look at the 'Revo: K-101' as I liked how it played GBA Cartridges but it didn't do ALL Retro Emulators.
@Jakiboy I know a local game store that does amazing mods on original GBA's. GBA SP-101's are kind of hard to come by. The folks I know mod the original gameboy to have a bright screen, USB C charging etc. They look great. I think it's more about functionality. The system in this article plays ROMs, so that's the unique factor here.
At least unlike the Analogue Pocket, this is IN stock.
@arekdougy those are insanely expensive online
There have been about a gazillion Chinese handhelds newer and more interesting than this dated tech you could report on. I get that this one reads official carts but it really is long it the tooth and has a terrible screen by today’s standards.
This thing plays actual cartridges right? That fact alone makes it strictly better than like 98% of all the Chinese Piracy boxes out there. Of which we get a "new" one like every 16 minutes or so.
That said, I'm still more interested in the Analogue Pocket.
Even more than that, I'd be interested in seeing more legacy support on Switch.
I'm one of the few people left who still prefers not to pirate games.
@Jokerwolf unfortunately that simply can't happen, seeing how much Nintendo loves to make money off of very old games for incredibly high prices or in change of a NSO subscription.
There is a mental block there, probably due to the Japanese mentality that doesn't see making money as negatively as the West generally does.
Also, I'm not sure Microsoft has titles with which they could do the same, but I doubt it.
Naa, i rather buy the rg351p than this. Still hoping that nintendo gives us gb/gba access on switch online though 😞
@Jokerwolf Nintendo will never do that as that will open exploit to piracy, something the Japanese culture will never embrace. Japanese are proud people and respect the work or property of others, they will never implement a feature that will allow people to steal, plagiarize, or pirate the work of others for any reason. What Microsoft does won't work the same for Nintendo, this may also be why Xbox doesn't sell as well in the Japanese market as they had feature such as this. Remember Nintendo is from a country where if you leave your laptop in the library and return to it tomorrow, it will still be there untouch, not like elsewhere.
Bring GBA games to Switch already!
@Guitario Here's a beauty that went up in the past month at a local games store in Victoria BC. I'm not living there right now, but it's my favourite games store ever. Pretty pricey still, but honestly not bad for the new screen, new charging port, and custom Famicom colours!
https://tinyurl.com/yxonyma8
@arekdougy that's incredible 😲
@Retro_Player_77 they are also from a highly xenophobic country too i mean if you wanna talk about japans culture.
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