# looking for specific handheld (powered by AA batteries)



## go-vegan (Jul 27, 2013)

hi guys,
i like to play old console games with emulator on my pc with gamepad.
and recently i got idea of having one handheld on which i could play popular gba games, and since im new to that i did a little research.
so i googled this open source handhelds and as far as i understood they emulate.
which is fine if they emulate good
but then i decided i want to have original gba (not sp)
main reason i want original is it is powered by AA batteries.
users say that with 2 energizer rechargeables gba can run up to 14 hours, and then when battery depletes, you just put 2 fresh ones.
portability 100%
plus system like that can live forever if you dont broke it, unlike systems whose built in battery will lose charge after some time.
and i decided to go for original gba and mod its screen into backlight one, then i encountered problem.
flashcart
there are 2 good flashcarts: ez flash IV and m3 perfect. (m3 is better because it has RTC)
both are as rare as fair politician and expensive as bottle of old brandy
and thats where gba story ends, shame it would be a perfect handheld.
next i found GamePark Holding's GP2X, a handheld powered by AA's althogh i am not sure can it run gba games without problems?
GP2X is also rare since it is not produced since 2008. i found one on ebay but it was too expensive.
so guys any suggestion about good handheld that can run gba games and it is powered by AA or AAA batteries?


----------



## reprep (Jul 27, 2013)

RTC is not much used in gba games. only some pokemon and a few others. not big deal i guess.

you can try to find an ez flash iv. yes it will be hard, but not impossible yet.

no emulation is perfect, also there will always be some solution for gba battery. even if no company sells them in the future, you can mod a battery with a compatible voltage to fit in the slot.


----------



## FAST6191 (Jul 27, 2013)

I should also mention you can charge the SP with a USB charger (they use the same one on the original DS for what it is worth/if you need to go looking). There are all sorts of things that provide a bit of USB power these days (in car chargers, things like the mintyboost, many places will have a USB port to allow you to charge things....).

On the matter of the original GBA it does not have a backlight and that is pretty killer for a lot of people. There are mods (the semi popular one back in the day was the afterburner) and recent years have seen people attempt to make their own (quite successfully I might add) but a stock GBA is not great for all conditions.


----------



## Jerret Douglass (Jul 28, 2013)

Ez Flash IV are really hard to find and the only place that has them sells for $100. i recently bought a Revo K101 and I am loving it. I have not had a problem with any game yet and it has RTC.


----------



## go-vegan (Jul 28, 2013)

i just looked up this revo k101, it is reverse engineered GBA (clone)
looks good, can you tell me does it have cartridge slot or how do u load games?
can it play GBA ROMS on its own or does it use emulator?


----------



## FAST6191 (Jul 28, 2013)

It has a cartridge slot which loads normal games and GBA flash carts, it should also have a cart that only works with it and not other GBA playing devices to load ROM images.

Do note it lacks GB/GBC compatibility unlike the other GBA devices but goomba color (which it has an enhanced version of onboard) does OK there.

Another world did a review/breakdown of it all for us here
http://gbatemp.net/threads/k101-revo-official-gbatemp-review.339019/


----------



## The Real Jdbye (Jul 28, 2013)

I have a GP2X but I never really ran GBA games on it. I don't see why they wouldn't work fine though.
However the battery life is shit and you get like 2 hours out of it.
I definitely recommend the Revo though I think it has a rechargeable battery. AAs aren't very popular for consoles, might be because non-rechargeable ones have shit battery life.


----------



## go-vegan (Jul 28, 2013)

The Real Jdbye said:


> I have a GP2X but I never really ran GBA games on it. I don't see why they wouldn't work fine though.
> However the battery life is shit and you get like 2 hours out of it.
> I definitely recommend the Revo though I think it has a rechargeable battery. AAs aren't very popular for consoles, might be because non-rechargeable ones have shit battery life.


 
 i dont know how power hungry GP2X is but i know if u use good rechargeable batteries like sanyo eneloop or energizer rechargeable (2500 mAh each) IMO you could get 8-10 hours of play.
best non rechargeable batteries are energizer ultimate lithium and varta professional lithium.
but i would recommend rechargeables since they can be recharged so many times. and if you have good charger like maha, they will last for years for sure.


----------



## go-vegan (Jul 28, 2013)

i just bought revo k101 lol
waiting for delivery now.
hopefully i will be able to mod it to use AA batteries as power source.


----------



## Jerret Douglass (Jul 28, 2013)

go-vegan said:


> i just bought revo k101 lol
> waiting for delivery now.
> hopefully i will be able to mod it to use AA batteries as power source.


 

It does not use AA batteries. It uses a USB cable to charge. The system can read normal GBA Carts but it comes with a Cart that only works with the K101 that you can load roms on. It is a awesome system and if you want to run GBA games and nothing else it is really the way to go and it is cheap.


----------



## The Real Jdbye (Jul 28, 2013)

go-vegan said:


> i dont know how power hungry GP2X is but i know if u use good rechargeable batteries like sanyo eneloop or energizer rechargeable (2500 mAh each) IMO you could get 8-10 hours of play.
> best non rechargeable batteries are energizer ultimate lithium and varta professional lithium.
> but i would recommend rechargeables since they can be recharged so many times. and if you have good charger like maha, they will last for years for sure.


I was talking about quality rechargeables. I think mine were 2800mAh and I only got a couple hours. Maybe with the energizer lithium batteries you can get more.



Jerret Douglass said:


> It does not use AA batteries. It uses a USB cable to charge. The system can read normal GBA Carts but it comes with a Cart that only works with the K101 that you can load roms on. It is a awesome system and if you want to run GBA games and nothing else it is really the way to go and it is cheap.


You forgot to mention it can also run emulators though it's probably limited to 8-bit consoles and older.


----------



## go-vegan (Jul 28, 2013)

The Real Jdbye said:


> I was talking about quality rechargeables. I think mine were 2800mAh and I only got a couple hours. Maybe with the energizer lithium batteries you can get more.


 
it is hella power hungry then


----------



## The Real Jdbye (Jul 28, 2013)

go-vegan said:


> it is hella power hungry then


Yup. I guess that's why consoles nowadays don't use AAs... Lithium is just better.


----------



## Jerret Douglass (Jul 29, 2013)

The Real Jdbye said:


> I was talking about quality rechargeables. I think mine were 2800mAh and I only got a couple hours. Maybe with the energizer lithium batteries you can get more.
> 
> 
> You forgot to mention it can also run emulators though it's probably limited to 8-bit consoles and older.


 

It can run GB/GBC games fine and the NES emulator is decent.


----------



## Jerret Douglass (Jul 29, 2013)

The Real Jdbye said:


> I was talking about quality rechargeables. I think mine were 2800mAh and I only got a couple hours. Maybe with the energizer lithium batteries you can get more.
> 
> 
> You forgot to mention it can also run emulators though it's probably limited to 8-bit consoles and older.


 

It can run GB/GBC games fine and the NES emulator is decent.


----------



## DanTheManMS (Jul 29, 2013)

Yeah, I've got my original GBA from launch time, and even a modded frontlit one via an Afterburner kit, and I just can't enjoy them properly anymore.  I love the way they feel in my hand, but I just can't play GBA games on a non-backlit screen anymore.  If I must have that form factor, I'll use my DS. 

A backlit SP or a Nintendo DS may be closer to what you're looking for.

That said, the emulators on the GBA are really nice for the most part.  PocketNES, Goomba Color, all that fun stuff.  Just remember that the GBA's screen is only 240x160 so a lot of emulators must use scaling or cropping.  PocketNES for instance uses both methods to create a screen that's just a tiny bit squished but still enjoyable -- see http://pocketnes.org/res.html for info on that.


----------



## Count Duckula (Jul 29, 2013)

A backlit modded AGB-001 (original GBA) from Zerey or wiggy of rosecoloredgaming would have to be the best IMO. Official hardware apart from the screen, with an ez-flash IV its a great combination.
I have a modded unit from Zerey and it's excellent, I use it more than my AGS-101.
http://gbatemp.net/threads/gba-backlight-agb-001.328487/

With the amount of people still having intermittent save issues on the Revo, its hard to recommend.
http://gbatemp.net/threads/revo-k101-problems-with-loading-saved-games.338485/


----------



## The Real Jdbye (Jul 29, 2013)

Jerret Douglass said:


> It can run GB/GBC games fine and the NES emulator is decent.


Yeah I was counting the GB/GBC too since it had similar capabilities but that's implied anyway. The GBA can already emulate the GB/GBC but the K101 has overclocking that improves emulation capabilities, I'm not sure if it can actually emulate anything that the GBA can't though.


----------



## Jerret Douglass (Jul 29, 2013)

Count Duckula said:


> A backlit modded AGB-001 (original GBA) from Zerey or wiggy of rosecoloredgaming would have to be the best IMO. Official hardware apart from the screen, with an ez-flash IV its a great combination.
> I have a modded unit from Zerey and it's excellent, I use it more than my AGS-101.
> http://gbatemp.net/threads/gba-backlight-agb-001.328487/
> 
> ...


 

Savings really a user problem not a hardware.


----------



## Count Duckula (Jul 30, 2013)

Jerret Douglass said:


> Savings really a user problem not a hardware.


 
You state that as fact despite the volume of people having the issue even after following all advice from the manufacturer, and that the issue is intermittent.

Another World, who wrote the GBAtemp review of the unit, has the problems himself. I dont know how that can just be dismissed.


----------



## ii-c-going (Jul 31, 2013)

Just a thought: if you get a handheld that only charges trough usb, can't you just use something like this?
http://dx.com/p/aa-battery-usb-emergency-backup-power-and-charger-pack-15048

Major plus is that is you notice a power shortage in time, you don't need to turn you're console off..


----------



## pasc (Jul 31, 2013)

I can agree:

A original GBA + Backlight screen = Owns all.
(dunno about  the micro... but I'd be intrigued to try it out.

So: Go for a Backlit Original GBA.


----------



## Count Duckula (Aug 1, 2013)

pasc said:


> I can agree:
> 
> A original GBA + Backlight screen = Owns all.
> (dunno about the micro... but I'd be intrigued to try it out.
> ...


 

Micro is OK (I had 2, recently sold one) but IMO the screen is just too small to enjoy playing on. Maybe if I was younger (now 30) and had better eyes, but I still think an AGS-101 or backlit modded AGB-001 is a far better console. More comfortable to hold and a much larger screen.


----------



## go-vegan (Aug 9, 2013)

My Revo just arrived and it is awesome, it came with 8GB SDHC card instead of 4 which is pleasant surprise. Im ordering another one 
There is so many excellent GBA and GBC games i never played.
Guys as far as i understood disappearing *savegame problem can be solved by pressing (*+START) and then press (*+L) to access ingame menu, and then select "return to the file list" and press (A) only after doing this you can shut down your Revo by long press power button without losing save games, do this every time before turning it off.* Im sure for majority of you this is old news, and please let me know if i am missing something. This is not big problem for me and i can live with that but it would be nice if they fixed this because if someone from my house played Revo if i'm not around and turned it off without above described procedure i could lose my precious savegame data.
In near future i am planning to mod it to use 3 AA batteries as power source.


----------



## Jerret Douglass (Aug 10, 2013)

go-vegan said:


> My Revo just arrived and it is awesome, it came with 8GB SDHC card instead of 4 which is pleasant surprise. Im ordering another one
> There is so many excellent GBA and GBC games i never played.
> Guys as far as i understood disappearing *savegame problem can be solved by pressing (*+START) and then press (*+L) to access ingame menu, and then select "return to the file list" and press (A) only after doing this you can shut down your Revo by long press power button without losing save games, do this every time before turning it off.* Im sure for majority of you this is old news, and please let me know if i am missing something. This is not big problem for me and i can live with that but it would be nice if they fixed this because if someone from my house played Revo if i'm not around and turned it off without above described procedure i could lose my precious savegame data.
> In near future i am planning to mod it to use 3 AA batteries as power source.


 

I have ran across a few problems, check my thread out about it. But I am enjoying mine as well. The built in GBC emulator doesn't save at all use goomba color which is nicer anyway. I also use PocketNES over the built in emulator. Just remember the Goomba Color is a .gba emu so remember to *+Star and *+L after saving the save state of the goomba.


----------

