# Goomba and the new "Retro Mini" GBA knock-off



## romanaOne (Feb 11, 2018)

https://www.retzone.com/products/retromini-gba-handheld-player

I got one of these used on eBay and I found it can run GB and GBC games if you link them with goomba_save32.gba or goomba_mb.gba using goombafront.exe.  I'm not sure what is different about these goombas compared to goomba.gba. 

Anyhow, I can get goomba-linked GB(C) games to work but there is no way to pop up the goomba menu: holding L and R on the "Retro Mini" does nothing.  I checked the roms on an emulator on my PC and holding L and R works there, so it must be some quirk of the "Retro Mini." I used,uh, some random youtube guy's goomba found under "SHOW MORE" here.

Speed is tolerable but not full for most GB games I've tried. Pokemon games work ok, except for Prism (patch 226) which is very slow.

For some reason, a bunch of goomba GBAs I had made for my easy flash will not work on the "Retro Mini."  I used the "exit_patched_8-29-16" version of goomba available on gbatemp. Maybe something to do with "exit patching." (Does "exit patched" mean it is patched to cause a reboot (and copying of SRAM to SD card file) when certain keys are pressed (L+Up+B+A)?) Not really sure what is different about this goomba vs. youtube guy's goomba.


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## ron!n (Feb 12, 2018)

romanaOne said:


> https://www.retzone.com/products/retromini-gba-handheld-player
> 
> I got one of these used on eBay and I found it can run GB and GBC games if you link them with goomba_save32.gba or goomba_mb.gba using goombafront.exe.  I'm not sure what is different about these goombas compared to goomba.gba.
> 
> ...


Now are you using the version that has "retro mini" written on it, or the blank version?

Apparently the blank version has frigged up software and can barely run GBA games, let alone anything else, whereas the "Retro Mini" version seems to run everything much much better. Oddly the difference is solely in the software, not the hardware.


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## romanaOne (Feb 12, 2018)

It has a dark see-through case and "RETROMINI" is below the screen. It looks just like the one on the top link.

There are 40 games on the "U disk" starting with Pokemon Emerald. The 40 games are decent: Advance Wars, Mario, Zelda, Klonoa...even the crap games are crap I have heard of.

There's a demo movie of some wierdass DJ monster playing Popcorn. (The early synth song by Gershon Kingsley.)
Is that video from something? Kinda like it.

I think if you switch games, esp. after a game crashes the system can get unstable. The screen goes black with colored bars often when I start another game after quitting one that crashed.  Powering off between games keeps it from crashing, I think: I went several hours in Leaf Green but  I need to test more...I might send it back for a refund.

I really was hoping to be able to get to the goomba menu so I can exit and write the goomba save file; snapshots work ok, but it is way too easy to accidentally overwrite (instead of restore) your snapshot when you first start the game. Also, a battery SAV file is portable to a Revo K101, Everdrive, EZ Flash when the novelty of this hunk of rubbish wears off or it breaks.

GBA games also write SAV files to the card if you save in-game instead of taking a snapshot.  It is possible to import a SAV file from say EZ Flash IV and continue playing. I was able to import my post-elite 4 Emerald save game. (I'm not using the built-in Emerald, but one that is patched for easy time setting in the pokecenters.)

Is there something in the menus to determine if I have the good software version?


EDIT: Did a whole lot more,uh, testing and I think the GBA emulator just gets crashy if you switch games too much without rebooting.  All is good as long as you switch off the system before playing another game. For 30-40USD price range, this thing isn't too bad even considering the quirks.


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## ron!n (Feb 17, 2018)

romanaOne said:


> It has a dark see-through case and "RETROMINI" is below the screen. It looks just like the one on the top link.
> 
> There are 40 games on the "U disk" starting with Pokemon Emerald. The 40 games are decent: Advance Wars, Mario, Zelda, Klonoa...even the crap games are crap I have heard of.
> 
> ...


So I just got a second retro-mini, this one is the "unlabeled" version, but it seems that it cannot read my sd card....

is there a specific format that you formatted your micro SD to? Or a specific file system? Game folders, subfolders, all in the root.

Not sure what is going on, it is fully possible it is just broken, but I would like to think I am just formatting wrong or putting the games in a mislabeled folder.

Any advice would be great.


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## Skyhigh_ (Feb 18, 2018)

this seems like a neat little console

i think the only appeal to this as opposed to everything else roaming around the physical size factor and that it looks like a gameboy, otherwise you can get things like a ''pvp

'' pvp gameta'' and other systems that are 64 bit players for $30 or less.

While looking into the retromini gba player i came across something called a ''pocket sprite'' which is still being crowd funded  and around $60 as well
The pocket sprite is even smaller  TINY actually


I think these type of game players as more orso novelty items maybe not the best thing to consider for 100% reliablity or even close to it. Even though i hope i can get the most out of these type of handhelds i learned to not expect something high end, still i like to buy them every now and then for collection purposes.


I still think if you buy one and don't like it and decide to keep it most of these things hold their value or fetch higher when they don't make them anymore or they have limited runs.
I bought a revo k101 well over a year ago for around $70 and at the time i thought i was paying a bit more than i should... now i see these things selling for $120.


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## romanaOne (Feb 19, 2018)

Skyhigh_ said:


> this seems like a neat little console
> 
> I think these type of game players as more orso novelty items maybe not the best thing to consider for 100% reliablity or even close to it. Even though i hope i can get the most out of these type of handhelds i learned to not expect something high end, still i like to buy them every now and then for collection purposes.
> 
> ...



I did the same thing! And people are paying even more money for now-scarce rubbish like Dingoo A 330.
I guess people do not read carefully and just pay attention to hype. These SoC + emulators systems are never very robust and they always get abandoned when something shinier comes along. Then they become "collectible," least in the eyes of junk tycoons like myself. 

Revo K101+ is pretty good probably because it is a GBA hardware clone, not a shitty SoC running emus ripped off from opendingux. But you can buy a GBA Micro and an EZ Flash Reform for about the current price of one Revo. (btw, beware the fake "bastard" Revo RS-97 which IS another shitty SoC with borken emulators. Not a bargain at fifty bucks. People will probably buy them thinking they're getting a cheap K101+.)

ron!n: I didn't do anything special to my SD card.  It sounds like you have a different device.  Anyway, the only problem I had was the RETROMINI does not see folders, you have to throw all your games in the root. The file manager is not great either: it seems to cause crashes.  It also seems to get crashy when the battery is getting down to what appears to be 50 percent. Maybe there is something wrong with mine. On a full charge with the screen on the lowest setting and sound volume reasonable I get maybe 5 hours of play time before instability sets in. I'd love to replace the 1000mah battery with a super-sized 2000mah BL-5C battery, but they're probably all fakes.

There are just too many problems and let me just clear up one thing: NO GBA GAME PLAYS AT 100 PERCENT SPEED.  Most GBA games I've tried are VERY playable, but  even just walking around in Pokemon (Emerald/Ruby/LeafGreen) is not completely smooth. Jumping around in Mario and Klonoa feels a little off.  GB(C) games work using Goomba, but they're slower. Sound is so-so in GBA and completely terrible  GB(C) games. And AFAIK, there is still no way to get to the menu in Goomba, so you can never export your GBC saves; the only way to save your GBC game is snapshots. 

About all I can say is outstanding is the damn case.


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## kuwanger (Feb 19, 2018)

romanaOne said:


> (Does "exit patched" mean it is patched to cause a reboot (and copying of SRAM to SD card file) when certain keys are pressed (L+Up+B+A)?



Exit patched is for EZ4 flash carts (primarily) and like Visoly based (F2A and the like) before it use a special set of writes to ROM space and a reset to go back to the menu.  It should be accessible through the "Exit" option in the L+R menu.  Odds are good it won't work on your system, though.



romanaOne said:


> These SoC + emulators systems are never very robust and they always get abandoned when something shinier comes along.



I'd say one exception to this is the GCW Zero which actually has decent emulation support for multiple systems and had/has some decently long on-going development.  Not to say it's perfect (it never got the stated TV out working properly and the built-in d-pad is rather crap).  It also has stopped production.  Still, I'd say it's a lot better than the Dingoo A330 (based on videos and comments from other people).  Then again, I could be biased because i actually own a GCW Zero and did some third-party work with it.



romanaOne said:


> There are just too many problems and let me just clear up one thing: NO GBA GAME PLAYS AT 100 PERCENT SPEED.



I'd be curious what the results of running my demo_mb.gba on the Retro Mini.  You can compare against several other videos I made recently.  Taking a random guess, I'd imagine the hardware is similar to the Gamebox Advance?  Hard to tell from just a quick verbal description and a short video, though.



romanaOne said:


> Then they become "collectible," least in the eyes of junk tycoons like myself.



I feel that way too.  Mostly just to see how many systems get GBA wrong and to what degree.  If the game has a FPS counter, the first room in MZM is one of the better, unobvious stress tests.  Of course the more obvious ones are all the 3D games, but if a system can't even run MZM at ~59.73FPS... :/


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## romanaOne (Feb 22, 2018)

kuwanger said:


> Exit patched is for EZ4 flash carts (primarily) and like Visoly based (F2A and the like) before it use a special set of writes to ROM space and a reset to go back to the menu.  It should be accessible through the "Exit" option in the L+R menu.  Odds are good it won't work on your system, though.
> 
> I'd be curious what the results of running my demo_mb.gba on the Retro Mini.  You can compare against several other videos I made recently.  Taking a random guess, I'd imagine the hardware is similar to the Gamebox Advance?  Hard to tell from just a quick verbal description and a short video, though.
> 
> I feel that way too.  Mostly just to see how many systems get GBA wrong and to what degree.  If the game has a FPS counter, the first room in MZM is one of the better, unobvious stress tests.  Of course the more obvious ones are all the 3D games, but if a system can't even run MZM at ~59.73FPS... :/



I missed the GCW0. Didn't hear about it until it had already become scarce and expensive. Doh! I got a brand new A330 a few years ago and found it had a dead battery soldered to the motherboard.  Running it off external power before I mailed it back for a refund, the emulators didn't work too well.  A poor quality fake masquerading as an upgrade to the Dingoo A320, which is supposed to have been good.

The demo looks very different from the video of GBA SP. The diagonal lines are not visibile at all on the RETROMINI. There's just some stair-steps going up in the lower right quadrant of the screen. The scrolling color bars, smooth at first, get really jerky when you press Up/Down a few times.  Reminds me of playing with the V-hold, H-hold dials on an ancient NTSC TV set. I'll post a picture when I get home and can find a camera able to focus on it.

Got around to testing the first built-in game, Pokemon Emerald. I didn't bother at first, because it is my assumption that this game is always trouble thanks to the big save file and the RTC. Seems ok, but you get the "The game can be played." Hmmm. Probably not good Not going to find out if its no berries, no RTC events, or the post elite 4 save disaster. They should have put Leaf Green or Fire Red on there instead. Looks just as good and no problems.

Found yet another annoying little quirk in the game selection browser: it sorts games in ASCII-betical order so a game starting with any lowercase letter appears below Z. (And the game list is long because the browser doesn't see folders.)

Sudden, random crashes as the battery gets down to 50 percent is a bit like of the "GB Boy Colour" which gives you about 3-second flickery screen warning before rebooting on low battery. Maybe both devices have poor quality, super-cheap voltage regulators.

I think I read in the dingoonity forums that RETROMINI has  384MHz Ingenic JZ4725B processor.  One of these days I'll open the case and check.


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## Skyhigh_ (Feb 24, 2018)

romanaOne said:


> Sudden, random crashes as the battery gets down to 50 percent is a bit like of the "GB Boy Colour" which gives you about 3-second flickery screen warning before rebooting on low battery. Maybe both devices have poor quality, super-cheap voltage regulators.



i wish you had posted this earlier  as i could deal with  some of the other issues but the crashes when battery is lower seems like an annoyance.

Still i only paid about 33 for mine and should get it next week, if anything i could use the case etc..
I believe the retromini uses the exact screen from a gba micro , exact to the point where its old stock of gba micro displays probably sitting in a warehouse for years.

Never tried a gameboy system with the L and R buttons like this one  but since a little inconvenient.
This system is actually very popular in parts of asia, maybe someone will come out with some sort of firmware flash to fix some issues.

i was looking forward to the ''retroboy'' from retrobit but with their current plans put on hold due to nintendo trademark renewals it seems this is not going to come to light anymore

Its always amusing for Chinese manufacturers to clone or make almost whatever they wish. Even if they stop a couple from doing any of these projects 100 other mini jobs or warehouses pop up . This reminds me of ninebot and segway, not same thing but funny scenario.

Segway was the ''original'' product  and ninebot was a ''chinese clone''
I think at the time segway was trying to sue ninebot , but ninebot made so much money out of their clone product that they bought out the orignal company for those electric scooters.. so the clone company became the owner of the original product ha!


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## TriForceX (Mar 6, 2018)

ron!n said:


> So I just got a second retro-mini, this one is the "unlabeled" version, but it seems that it cannot read my sd card....
> 
> is there a specific format that you formatted your micro SD to? Or a specific file system? Game folders, subfolders, all in the root.
> 
> ...


ive got the same unlabeled version, the SD format needs to be FAT32 and to get games working you need to place the roms in a folder called GAME inside your SD card


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## Skyhigh_ (Mar 19, 2018)

Well i just got mine and i have to say i am fairly impressed by the semi decent build quality

Screen looks above average for these type of devices  and the buttons don't feel as cheap as these other clones.
I got mine off eBay for $30  but mine was un labeled as well 

All the 36 games on mine are in Chinese i was hoping to be able to change the language but it seems i can't. I thought i could plug the device into my PC and that i could read it as a usb stick to transfer and change data on it but i can only charge it with my pc.

I already encountered  the battery problem like someone else , mine does not fully charge... 
Not sure if has something to do with the actual battery or something else.

For those that like to tinker i think this shell and its button along with the LCD seem good enough to use and replace the board with a rasberry pi zero


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## SSG Vegeta (Mar 20, 2018)

Do they still sell the Game Box Advance sp I can't find it anywhere


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## Skyhigh_ (Mar 25, 2018)

SSG Vegeta said:


> Do they still sell the Game Box Advance sp I can't find it anywhere


you mean this one? https://www.ebay.com/itm/GB-PVP-Sta...477090?hash=item3f93e941a2:g:ttoAAOSwLnlaf63L


also anyone know how to run gbc/gb games on this unit? and how to take off the borders when  running nes, gba or gbc games. On the retzone website it shows pokemon  yellow without borders 

i used both goomba and the ''EZ goomba frontend'' and most of the games lag terribly ( for gbc, gb)


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## SSG Vegeta (Mar 26, 2018)

Skyhigh_ said:


> you mean this one? https://www.ebay.com/itm/GB-PVP-Sta...477090?hash=item3f93e941a2:g:ttoAAOSwLnlaf63L
> 
> 
> also anyone know how to run gbc/gb games on this unit? and how to take off the borders when  running nes, gba or gbc games. On the retzone website it shows pokemon  yellow without borders
> ...




No that thing is trash this is what I'm referring to http://www.11.xylimited.com/1120322...-multimedia-player-w-tv-outputtf-blue-2gb.jpg


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