The Biggest Game Project on this Planet

Prêt à Porter

Occasionally, I actually have some money to spend, in between the Telephone Bills, Medical Bills, Insurance Bills, Taxes and Transportation costs (I love being an adult), and after finally receiving some payment from my Boss, and with an imminent bonus from my Health Insurance (it's about bloody time they started paying ME for something), I decided I was allowed to spend a little bit of money on luxury items.

Now normally, I tend to say that I'm not much of a Portable gamer, because I don't spend nearly as much time on my Gameboy Advance as I do on my Home Consoles, but lately I've been kinda hooked on portable gaming again, when I found out it's actually a lot more fun than reading on the bus, and time literally FLIES by when you immerse yourself in a good Adventure.

I have to travel to my job by bus for about 40 minutes (one way) every day, and after playing Rockman EXE 1&2 as part of the project, I decided I wanted more.
Now there were 2 options available to me.
Well, actually, there were 3, but buying a PSP, is not REALLY an option, is it?
I mean, come on.

So the first option was to get a DS. I still DEFINITELY want one, and I know I'll be getting one, it's just that I've been postponing it, like, forever. There's definitely a bunch of games I'm dying to play, so I was on the verge of getting one, until the thought of the second option hit me.
Also, the fact that Nintendo recently announced they'll be releasing the DS Lite in Japan soon, and that, on the very same day actually, the new Seiken Densetsu, entitled Children of Mana, will also be released, made me hope for a nice bundle package, which I will be sure to pick up there, as soon as I get there, if any of that will ever happen.
I decided that getting a DS right now would be stupid, what with the new and improved version on the near horizon, so I chose otherwise. I still need to have something to do on the bus, and more importantly, on that goddamn 11 hour flight to Japan, on the inevitable transfer times at the airport and on the first couple of nights there when I will probably not have a TV yet.

So I bought this:


That's right, the Extreme Flash Advance Linker II.
The Wha?

Exactly.

The Extreme Flash Advance Linker II is one of the many available Flash Cards for the GBA, but one of the few ones to hold as much as 1Gb (that's GigaBIT, not BYTE, before you start freaking, so it's "only" 128 Megabyte or so).
And what it does is, it holds a very nice amount of GBA ROMs (the average game is between 8 and 16 MB, so it holds between 8 and 16 games, depending on size), making this a very nice cartridge to carry with you.
No more carring around dozens of games with you, just one small cartridge with all your favorite stuff. Now, of course you're legally obligated to use this cartridge only for back-up purposes of games you actually own, but just IMAGINE how much fun you could have if you just put a shitload of great games on that you simply don't want to buy, because you're a cheapskate. I mean, for argument's sake, just IMAGINE.
That would be cool, if it were legal.

Ahem.

But these trinkets are really cool, and easy as heck to operate.
This particular one came in a small handsome box, complete with two USB cables (a long one, and a short one), and...well...nothing else.
You plug one end of the USB cable into the cartridge (there's a very tiny slot in there), the other end into your PC, and Bob is your Mother's Brother. There's no Software included in the box, for the very simple reason that you don't actually NEED any. I downloaded the necessary Software from the site where I bought the thing itself (very good Dutch site actually), but it's needlessly complicated and filled with Chinglish anyway.
As soon as you link up the cartridge to your computer, your PC recognizes it as an External Drive, and you can simply Drag & Drop (or Cut & Paste, if that's your preference, God knows it's made MY life a whole lot easier) the ROMs to the cartridge directly. Quick, Safe & Simple.

Fortunately, I was aware in advance, that the 1Gb it says on the front, is 1 GigaBIT, not byte, otherwise that would've been a nasty shock (it's only 8 TIMES as much), but there was still one slight disappointment.
Although you can store 128 MB of ROMs on your cartridge, you can actually only USE 32 MB at one time.
See, it's like the cartridge has Active and Passive Memory. The passive Memory holds 128 MB of games, but only 32 of those can be put into the Active memory at one time, and those are the only ones you can play.
Still, Active and Passive Memory can be very easily exchanged, and Save files are stored separately, so you can play anything you want at anytime, from anywhere you last saved. Nice.

Also, if I am to believe the promotional blurb, this cartridge can be used on DS as well (not for DS games of course, but for playing GBA games on your DS), so I'll be able to use it until it EXPLODES, which I'm sure will happen some day.
It should also be able to handly Gameboy and GB Color games, although I haven't been able to get that to work yet.

If there's one thing that this positive experience has taught me, and it hasn't, it's that, and I reiterate my previous statement, the Megaman Battle Network/Rockman EXE series is totally goddamn cool. They're PERFECT for bus & train travelling.
Easy to pick up, and with a save system that allows you to save at practically ANY given time, easy to put down as well, for when you've reached your destination.
Pure fun, great longevity and just kick-ass gameplay all-round. These games motherf*cking RULE.

That's right.
I actually SAW one of them doing it to their mother.

So, in short, a fairly costly purchase, almost as expensive as a new DS would've been, but you get a great item in return, instead of a soon-to-be-improved portable with no game included.

I'm happy.

posted by Ingen! @ 10:49 PM