Gameking – Best Handheld Evaar

On the 10th November 2004, I ordered a Gameking handheld, and 13 games, from www.gbax.com. A couple of days later, the whole lot arrived. And what a truly fantastic bit of kit it is.

As you can see from the picture, the Gameking is very similar to a standard Game Boy Advance. Very similar. In fact, aside from the words and start/select button locations, almost identical. Don’t be fooled, however, as there are some quite major differences. Firstly, there’s a reset button on the front of the Gameking, and secondly, the screen is much smaller and much lower resolution: something like 64×48 monocolour pixels. If that.

Also unlike the GBA, the Gameking has three built-in games, accessible from a menu which appears if you turn the unit on sans jeu – Miner, 2003, and Drifter. Naturally, all are fantastic titles.

Miner is a Bomberman clone. Due to the ultra-low-res graphics, this isn’t instantly obvious, but soon you can see that that blob of pixels is a baddie, and that blob is a bomb, and so on. Ace.

2003 is a 1941 clone. The things that look like crosses are actually planes, and the giant melons are bullets. You can even loop-the-loop like you can in the 194X games too. Ace.

Drifter is a Wonderboy clone. Although there is a nice Wonderboy-alike picture on the Gameking box (see below), the one on the unit doesn’t seem to be the same game, as again, blobs represent fruit, baddies and axes. Ace.

Game win play happy fun! Now great warrior!

The Gameking comes from China. The company that make it (the snappily named Guangzhou Daidaixing Tec. Electronics Co. Ltd., or “Time Top”) have a website at www.timetopcn.com. Consequently, as any fan of the internet knows, the manual and blurb translations have become a little, erm, creative.

Example:

Miner Story Brief

In one accident, Nanny enter into the evil spirit world. After experiencing all sorts of difficulties, Nanny found the time channel to get back to the modern society at last. However,there are 25 toll-gates in the channel and there are variousevil who aredefending in each toll-gate. In order to comeback, Nanny used the modern weapon to defeat the various kinds of evil…

Of course, all spelling, grammatical and spacing errors are sic. And recall that Miner is a Bomberman clone. Ace, yes? I expect you’d like to read the other two blurbs as well, so…

Drifter Story Brief

According to the recording of history, there is an island named ” Gold Island” on the Pacific Ocean, storing the enormous treasures. So the tramp drives the ship to seek the island alone. After long-term vagrancy, the trampfound theisland eventually. But they are facing various monsters and obstacles on the island.

2003 Story Brief

Some day in 21st century, our marginal sea were suffered the attack of enemy’s plane suddenly. For safeguarding our motherland and territorial integrity, our one-five-two air force team receive the order and launched a soul-stirring air battle with the enemy

Inspired. The fun doesn’t stop there, however, since the Gameking manual (entitled “Series Game Instruction”) provides even more insight into the magical world of translation. For starters, the cartridge slot on the unit is intriguingly labelled “Faucet” in the “Consoler Configuration Instuctoin” section of the manual. We are also informed that the Gameking uses 2xAAA batteries, with “the function of saving power and strong sound effect”. The Gameking also “adopts one transferable, four-step-grey level LCD display screen”. I have tried to transfer it, but I can’t figure out how.