Gaming The Official K-team GBA Solution thread

Dexterp

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Okay so I have been in almost constant contact with K-team regarding their amazing GBA clone. I have been beta testing their device for a couple of months now, and they have asked me to create and keep an eye an an official announcement and news thread here at gbatemp.net. So without further adieu let's get to an informative FAQ

Does the K1 support multiplayer?

Yes and it works perfectly. Games can be shared on titles that support it, using either the K machine or an official GBA as host.

Does the K1 support the RTC (real time clock) for games such as Pokemon?

K-team originally implemented this in their design but Maxzhou chose not to go with it in the first model. However, in the next model the RTC will be implemented and working. keep checking this thread for more information on that.

Will the K-card work on an official GBA?

No the K-card is not made as a flash card that interfaces with the original GBA hardware. A K-card will only work with a K-device

What about the TV out?

It's coming and can be seen working in a few of maxzhou's videos.

Is the K-team GBA 100% compatible with every GBA game?

No, but it's damn close and can run all the really hard to emulate GBA games such as Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, Kingdom Hearts and Payback. There are no games that are broken or dont boot. The biggest issues are graphical issues that can be fixed 99.9% of the time.

Where can I order the K-Team GBA solution?

At the moment you will have to use a Taobao shipping agent such as Buyfromtaoboa or Taobaoseek. The latter was faster for me.

If you wish to see the K-team solution on Dealextreme. fill out dealextreme's product form. The more we shout, the more they will listen.

Keep your eyes peeled for news and anouncements.

Kteam will be posting in this topic regularly with news and updates
 

K-Team

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K-Team checks in. Post your questions and I will try to answer most of them (if not all). We are a small international team dedicated to bring back the classic game consoles. We love them as you do. We don't do emulation but emulation is part of the road that leads us here.
 
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Wiisel

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Whilst waiting for my order to arrive I have a few Q's

1. Does it share the SP's Ext.2 pinouts? and is it possible based on maxzhou88's TV out post to bridge pins 1-6 (headphone detect) and possibly with all pins wired get 5v in with stereo and Tv out (Consolized GBA ;)).
GBASP-EXT2PINS-1.png


2. Is there any PC interface or compatibility with existing linkers for cart dumping?

3. What are the interface options for development and tinkering with the hardware is there any USB, Serial or other connection possibilities or is the hardware as restricted for development projects as a actual gba ?
4. Are all original carts supported ie those that use funky hardware like WarioWare Twisted! or the Nintendo eReader?
5. I assume the emulators are not 1:1 versions from the hb scene and have been tweaked or modified by the k-team is this correct? and is there any clock adjustment to improve more demanding emulators like PCE?
6.Does the power bar in Megaman (Rockman world 1) flicker in this version of the GB/GBC emu?
7. Is it possible to utilise the larger screen for a better GB/GBC experience or is it still restricted to the tiny unscaled box with Goomba?
Many thanks for your time
Wiisel
 

Toni Plutonij

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Hey K-Team, thanks for checking in, this is really great!

So far I have one question, this clone is still somewhat worked on, right? There will actually be more revisions later, or am I mistaken?
 

Mooninator

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I know the current model you are working on is a GBA SP but i was wondering if you could remake the GBA in its original form at some pint in the future, like the first one you did and also increase its memory size. As well as that fix the problems your first GBA had like link cables or some roms being unable to play or being unable to save to cartridges. Also GB/GBC support would be amazing as well.

Thanks
 

Todderbert

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K-Team checks in. Post your questions and I will try to answer most of them (if not all). We are a small international team dedicated to bring back the classic game consoles. We love them as you do. We don't do emulation but emulation is part of the road that leads us here.
I noticed you used the words "dedicated to bring back the classic game consoles(plural)", I've always wanted an original gameboy with all the modern bells and whistles. A good backlit screen and the ability to play Gameboy and Gameboy color roms natively. One can dream.
 

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Whilst waiting for my order to arrive I have a few Q's

1. Does it share the SP's Ext.2 pinouts? and is it possible based on maxzhou88's TV out post to bridge pins 1-6 (headphone detect) and possibly with all pins wired get 5v in with stereo and Tv out (Consolized GBA ;)).
GBASP-EXT2PINS-1.png


2. Is there any PC interface or compatibility with existing linkers for cart dumping?

3. What are the interface options for development and tinkering with the hardware is there any USB, Serial or other connection possibilities or is the hardware as restricted for development projects as a actual gba ?
4. Are all original carts supported ie those that use funky hardware like WarioWare Twisted! or the Nintendo eReader?
5. I assume the emulators are not 1:1 versions from the hb scene and have been tweaked or modified by the k-team is this correct? and is there any clock adjustment to improve more demanding emulators like PCE?
6.Does the power bar in Megaman (Rockman world 1) flicker in this version of the GB/GBC emu?
7. Is it possible to utilise the larger screen for a better GB/GBC experience or is it still restricted to the tiny unscaled box with Goomba?
Many thanks for your time
Wiisel

Q1/A1:Hope I didn't get it wrong. The SoC itself supports stereo output and TV out independently. in Maxzhou's SP version, TV out function is hoocked to the charging connector. You can use official headphone adaptor to output sound from the same connector.
Q2,3/A2,3: The development interface is standard JTAG/ICE interface but the PINIS are not connected to the Shell. In some time, we may be able to find someone to provide the devlepment system. No promise, anyway.
The dumping function can be done through the development interface using standard ARM IDE on PC. You can almost do anything you want through the IDE and ICE. Current SP model PCB has the connection on it but need some jumper to turn it into development mode. That's too tricky so I will stop here.
Q4/A4: We followed the gamepack interface as possible as we can. All information we got is from Internet. We have tried to test as many carts as we can but we don't have everyone so it is possible K1 will not take it but, believe me, the chances are still very high. You can try and let us know if it works out.
Q5/A5: Current emulators in maxzhou's model is cokked by himself. We don't provide the emulator. We do hardware only. The emulators you saw is purely based on original GBA and thanks to the high compatibility K1 achieve, the emulators are almost untouched. Say, that is pocketNES for NES on Maxzhou's machine.
Q6/A6: Didn't test it. And actually we don't care the emulation compatibility. It's not our expertise. We kind of hated emulation, actually. Our belief is hardward reverse engineering is the king. Emulation can not achieve same level of HW. Emulation is only an extra bonus when the HW is already there.
Q7/A7: So far, yes. that's the only way by Goomba. GB and GBC were left out intentionaly because of cost and time issue. May we will add it back in future project. One reason is most of the good games in GBC and GB have a remake version in GBA. There's no need to do GB and GBC then. I know some of you do like the original GB/GBC games. Sorry about that.
 

K-Team

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Hey K-Team, thanks for checking in, this is really great!
So far I have one question, this clone is still somewhat worked on, right? There will actually be more revisions later, or am I mistaken?

Yes. There will be many models coming out. But you will not see most of them because they are for some places that dont even have internet. :-)
There will be a much better form factor soon. Like some of you already posted.
 
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K-Team

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I know the current model you are working on is a GBA SP but i was wondering if you could remake the GBA in its original form at some pint in the future, like the first one you did and also increase its memory size. As well as that fix the problems your first GBA had like link cables or some roms being unable to play or being unable to save to cartridges. Also GB/GBC support would be amazing as well.
Thanks
There're no manufacturors that are willing to invest on developing the very original form factor. That is a sad fact we don't want to admit too. But that's thw way it is.
Maybe some day, some one will make it. We don't know. We just provide the K1 SoC, not the end product. makers can do whatever they want.
This is just like Infineon provides the same mobile phone baseband chip. Apple take it and make iPhone while Chinese makers take the same SoC to make a
fake/bad/funny iphone-like mobile phones.

Memory size ? For what ? The biggest GBA game is 32MB.

The solution will get better when we got enough bug report. Some bug can be fixed in SW level by firmware update but some are restricted to HW bugs that can not be fixded.
If we got enough funding, we will enhance it in next SoC, K2 or K3.. whatever. ;-)
 

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Thank you so much for your answer, I figured this is the deal. I'll fallow updates closely!
This is very interesting!

ood luck with everything and I'll ask if something comes to mind!
 

K-Team

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The one thing I want to know is, does the gba to gamecube link work? I really want to play 4 swords adventures.
We don't hve GC at hand so we don't know exactly.. Maybe somebody will test it and report.
We did follow the protocol of GBA link but there're always hidden or undiscovered features that were not digged out by any emulators and our HW.
We really don't know.. We will try to get a GC and the games from ebay.
Sorry for the uncertainty.
 

duffmmann

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The one thing I want to know is, does the gba to gamecube link work? I really want to play 4 swords adventures.
We don't hve GC at hand so we don't know exactly.. Maybe somebody will test it and report.
We did follow the protocol of GBA link but there're always hidden or undiscovered features that were not digged out by any emulators and our HW.
We really don't know.. We will try to get a GC and the games from ebay.
Sorry for the uncertainty.

Well I'm sure you know this, but the older wiis with the Gamecube controller Ports can play these games with the link cable. So if you have a Wii on site you can test if you can find one of the gamecube games that used it. (just thought I'd let you know so you don't necessarily have to spend extra money if you already have a Wii.)
 

Wiisel

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I can test the gba link on a Wii with a wode once my unit arrives if you can wait a couple of weeks or whatever its gonna take zarmark to process and ship my order.
I also plan on testing the multiboot from a PC and possibly some other devices, no$gba supports xboo cables afaik not sure if its implemented into dolphin tho and I believe there's a version of VBA that also supports PC to GBA linking.
I can give an old Flash2advance with parrallel linker a shot too and there's probably a heap load of other apps floating round that will work with the GBA serial.

If can find the old Ericcson chatpad I'll check keyboard support also just for kicks.
 

K-Team

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Do you know when the next model may come out not the current SP.

Not sure. But soon. Maybe in June, no later than July, I guess.
I know they are still looking for some websites that they can work with to carry the products. But that's something we don't get involved.
 
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